At the beginning of June, 1758, the place wore another aspect.  Since the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle vast sums had been spent in repairing and strengthening it; and Louisbourg was the strongest fortress in French or British America.  Nevertheless it had its weaknesses.  The original plan of the works had not been fully carried out; and owing, it is said, to the bad quality of the mortar, the masonry of the ramparts was in so poor a condition that it had been replaced in some parts with fascines.  The circuit of the fortifications was more than a mile and a half, and the town contained about four thousand inhabitants.  The best buildings in it were the convent, the hospital, the King’s storehouses, and the chapel and governor’s quarters, which were under the same roof.  Of the private houses, only seven or eight were of stone, the rest being humble wooden structures, suited to a population of fishermen.  The garrison consisted of the battalions of Artois, Bourgogne, Cambis, and Volontaires Etrangers, with two companies of artillery and twenty-four of colony troops from Canada,—­in all three thousand and eighty regular troops, besides officers;[577] and to these were added a body of armed inhabitants and a band of Indians.  In the harbor were five ships of the line and seven frigates, carrying in all five hundred and forty-four guns and about three thousand men.[578] Two hundred and nineteen cannon and seventeen mortars were mounted on the walls and outworks.[579] Of these last the most important were the Grand Battery on the shore of the harbor opposite its mouth, and the Island Battery on the rocky islet at its entrance.

[Footnote 577:  Journal du Siege de Louisbourg.  Twenty-nine hundred regulars were able to bear arms when the siege began. Houlliere, Commandant des Troupes, au Ministre, 6 Aout, 1758.]

[Footnote 578:  Le Prudent, 74 guns; Entreprenant, 74; Capricieux, 64; Celebre, 64; Bienfaisant, 64; Apollon, 50; Chevre, 22; Biche, 18; Fidele, 22; Echo, 26; Arethuse, 36; Comete, 30.  The Bizarre, 64, sailed for France on the eighth of June, and was followed by the Comete.]

[Footnote 579:  Etat d’Artillerie, appended to the Journal of Drucour.  There were also forty-four cannon in reserve.]

The strongest front of the works was on the land side, along the base of the peninsular triangle on which the town stood.  This front, about twelve hundred yards in extent, reached from the sea on the left to the harbor on the right, and consisted of four bastions with then-connecting curtains, the Princess’s, the Queen’s, the King’s, and the Dauphin’s.  The King’s Bastion formed part of the citadel.  The glacis before it sloped down to an extensive marsh, which, with an adjacent pond, completely protected this part of the line.  On the right, however, towards the harbor, the ground was high enough to offer advantages to an enemy, as was also the case, to a less degree, on the left, towards the sea.  The best defence of Louisbourg was the craggy shore, that, for leagues on either hand, was accessible only at a few points, and even there with difficulty.  All these points were vigilantly watched.