"The attack on Louisburg was a scheme very favorable to the views and interests of France at this period, as it left M. de Montcalm entirely at liberty to prosecute his plans of conquest, and Louisburg was so strongly defended that little apprehension was entertained for its safety."--Belsham, vol. ii., p. 371.] [Footnote 92: "Upon our anchoring in Chebucto harbor, our commanding officer went ashore, and waited on his excellency the Earl of Loudon, who, with Major-general Abercromby, expressed great pleasure at our arrival, with the information they received of the fleet, and re-enforcements we had parted with at sea; and his lordship said, 'We had staid so long, he had almost despaired of us,' but being assured our delay proceeded principally from an obstinate set of contrary winds, that had retarded us in Ireland above two months after our arrival at the port of embarkation, his lordship seemed pleased. (As the fate of the expedition to Louisburg in this campaign depended, in a great measure, on the speedy sailing and junction of the fleet and forces from Europe with those of the Earl of Loudon, it was for this reason I judged it necessary to commence this work with the first orders to the troops in Ireland to march and embark for foreign service; and it will thereby appear that the earliest measures were taken at home to forward this enterprise, which, without doubt, would have succeeded, if the armament could have sailed when first intended)."--Knox's _Historical Journals of the Campaigns of North America_, vol. i., p. 14. The same cause--impossibility of exactly combining fleets and armies--had proved the ruin of every expedition, on a grand scale, undertaken by either French or English, in America, for years before.] [Footnote 93: "It was resolved, according to the custom of this war, to postpone the expedition to another opportunity."--Belsham, vol. ii., p. 372. "I do not augur very well of the ensuing summer; a detachment is going to America under a commander whom a child might outwit or terrify with a pop-gun."--Walpole's _Letters to Sir H. Mann_, Feb. 13, 1757.] [Footnote 94: "It being now universally known at Halifax that the expedition against Cape Breton is laid aside for this season, the clerk of the Church, to evince his sentiments upon the situation of affairs, gave out and sung the 1st, 2d, 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th, and 26th verses of Psalm xliv., of the New Version. A Jew merchant and another man were this morning committed to jail by the governor for circulating a false report of there being only five ships of war and three frigates at Louisburg; but the Earl of Loudon, being superior to such mean resentments, ordered them to be released in the evening."--Knox's _Historical Journal_, vol. i., p. 24.