The weather proved remarkably fine during the siege; the day after the surrender the rains began, and continued ten days incessantly, which would undoubtedly have proved fatal to the expedition, had not the capitulation prevented. It is not of material consequence for us to determine whether the land or sea force had the greatest share in the reduction of _Louisburg_. Neither would have succeeded alone. But there was certainly the strongest evidence of a generous, noble, public spirit, in the _New-Englanders_, which first inclined them to the undertaking, and of a firmness of mind in the prosecution of it; for the labour, fatigue, and other hardships of the siege were without parallel in all preceding American operations.[61] The paying of the charges of this expedition in 1748, lessens not the merit of the New-England attempt; for they began it when they had no promise, and very little prospect of being reimbursed. Had it not succeeded, they would not have been reimbursed, and must therefore have been involved in the greatest distress. This they foresaw, and yet cheerfully ran the risk for the public service. It would have cost the crown double the sum paid the New-England governments, to have sent an armament from Great-Britain for the reduction of the same place. The colonies met with a heavy loss, not easily repaired, in the destruction of the flower of their youth, by camp fevers, other sicknesses, the hardships and distresses of the siege. Of how much importance Louisburg was in the opinion of the French, appeared from their demanding two hostages of the first nobility in Britain as pledges for its restitution.