During these preparations there was active diplomatic correspondence between the two Courts.  Mirepoix demanded why British troops were sent to America.  Sir Thomas Robinson answered that there was no intention to disturb the peace or offend any Power whatever; yet the secret orders to Braddock were the reverse of pacific.  Robinson asked on his part the purpose of the French armament at Brest and Rochefort; and the answer, like his own, was a protestation that no hostility was meant.  At the same time Mirepoix in the name of the King proposed that orders should be given to the American governors on both sides to refrain from all acts of aggression.  But while making this proposal the French Court secretly sent orders to Duquesne to attack and destroy Fort Halifax, one of the two forts lately built by Shirley on the Kennebec,—­a river which, by the admission of the French themselves, belonged to the English.  But, in making this attack, the French Governor was expressly enjoined to pretend that he acted without orders.[185] He was also told that, if necessary, he might make use of the Indians to harass the English.[186] Thus there was good faith on neither part; but it is clear through all the correspondence that the English expected to gain by precipitating an open rupture, and the French by postponing it.  Projects of convention were proposed on both sides, but there was no agreement.  The English insisted as a preliminary condition that the French should evacuate all the western country as far as the Wabash.  Then ensued a long discussion of their respective claims, as futile as the former discussion at Paris on Acadian boundaries.[187]

[Footnote 185:  Machault a Duquesne, 17 Fev. 1755.  The letter of Mirepoix proposing mutual abstinence from aggression, is dated on the 6th of the same month.  The French dreaded Fort Halifax, because they thought it prepared the way for an advance on Quebec by way of the Chaudiere.]

[Footnote 186:  Ibid.]

[Footnote 187:  This correspondence is printed among the Pieces justificatives of the Precis des Faits.]

The British Court knew perfectly the naval and military preparations of the French.  Lord Albemarle had died at Paris in December; but the secretary of the embassy, De Cosne, sent to London full information concerning the fleet at Brest and Rochefort.[188] On this, Admiral Boscawen, with eleven ships of the line and one frigate, was ordered to intercept it; and as his force was plainly too small, Admiral Melbourne, with seven more ships, was sent, nearly three weeks after, to join him if he could.  Their orders were similar,—­to capture or destroy any French vessels bound to North America.[189] Boscawen, who got to sea before La Motte, stationed himself near the southern coast of Newfoundland to cut him off; but most of the French squadron eluded him, and safely made their way, some to Louisbourg, and the others to Quebec.  Thus the English expedition