[Footnote 489:  Ministerial Minute on the Military Force in Canada, 1757, in N.Y.  Col.  Docs., X. 523.]

The truth, had they known it, would have gladdened their hearts.  The English preparations were aimed at Louisbourg.  In the autumn before, Loudon, prejudiced against all plans of his predecessor, Shirley, proposed to the Ministry a scheme of his own, involving a possible attack on Quebec, but with the reduction of Louisbourg as its immediate object,—­an important object, no doubt, but one that had no direct bearing on the main question of controlling the interior of the continent.  Pitt, then for a brief space at the head of the Government, accepted the suggestion, and set himself to executing it; but he was hampered by opposition, and early in April was forced to resign.  Then, followed a contest of rival claimants to office; and the war against France was made subordinate to disputes of personal politics.  Meanwhile one Florence Hensey, a spy at London, had informed the French Court that a great armament was fitting out for America, though he could not tell its precise destination.  Without loss of time three French squadrons were sent across the Atlantic, with orders to rendezvous at Louisbourg, the conjectured point of attack.

The English were as tardy as their enemies were prompt.  Everything depended on speed; yet their fleet, under Admiral Holbourne, consisting of fifteen ships of the line and three frigates, with about five thousand troops on board, did not get to sea till the fifth of May, when it made sail for Halifax, where Loudon was to meet it with additional forces.

Loudon had drawn off the best part of the troops from the northern frontier, and they were now at New York waiting for embarkation.  That the design might be kept secret, he laid an embargo on colonial shipping,—­a measure which exasperated the colonists without answering its purpose.  Now ensued a long delay, during which the troops, the provincial levies, the transports destined to carry them, and the ships of war which were to serve as escort, all lay idle.  In the interval Loudon showed great activity in writing despatches and other avocations more or less proper to a commander, being always busy, without, according to Franklin, accomplishing anything.  One Innis, who had come with a message from the Governor of Pennsylvania, and had waited above a fortnight for the General’s reply, remarked of him that he was like St. George on a tavern sign, always on horseback, and never riding on.[490] Yet nobody longed more than he to reach the rendezvous at Halifax.  He was waiting for news of Holbourne, and he waited in vain.  He knew only that a French fleet had been seen off the coast strong enough to overpower his escort and sink all his transports.[491] But the season was growing late; he must act quickly if he was to act at all.  He and Sir Charles Hardy agreed between them that the risk must be run; and on the twentieth of June the whole force put to sea.