[Footnote 698: Horace Walpole, _Letters_ III. 207 (ed. Cunningham,
1857).]
[Footnote 699: Ibid. _George II._, II. 345.]
On the sixth of June the last ship of the fleet sailed out of
Louisbourg harbor, the troops cheering and the officers drinking to the
toast, "British colors on every French fort, port, and garrison in
America." The ships that had gone before lay to till the whole fleet was
reunited, and then all steered together for the St. Lawrence. From the
headland of Cape Egmont, the Micmac hunter, gazing far out over the
shimmering sea, saw the horizon flecked with their canvas wings, as they
bore northward on their errand of havoc.
NOTE: For the material of the foregoing sketch of Wolfe I am indebted to
Wright's excellent Life of him and the numerous letters contained in it.
Several autograph letters which have escaped the notice of Mr. Wright
are preserved in the Public Record Office. The following is a
characteristic passage from one of these, written on board the
"Neptune," at sea, on the sixth of June, the day when the fleet sailed
from Louisbourg. It is directed to a nobleman of high rank in the army,
whose name does not appear, the address being lost (War Office Records:
_North America, various,_ 1756-1763): "I have had the honour to receive
two letters from your Lordship, one of an old date, concerning my stay
in this country [_after the capture of Louisbourg,_] in answer to which
I shall only say that the Marshal told me I was to return at the end of
the campaign; and as General Amherst had no other commands than to send
me to winter at Halifax under the orders of an officer _[Brigadier
Lawrence]_ who was but a few months before put over my head, I thought
it was much better to get into the way of service and out of the way of
being insulted; and as the style of your Lordship's letter is pretty
strong, I must take the liberty to inform you that .
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