Imagine such a glorious chance for a fight going begging! Then arrived a belated letter from Newcastle in England, telling him to "concert measures with Shirley for the annoyance of the enemy." Warren was so afraid that some future orders would be less vague, and give him less freedom, that he set sail for Boston with a haste that was feverish.

He had with him three ships,--the _Mermaid_ and _Launceston_ of forty guns each, and the _Superbe_ of sixty.

But those two wretched days of delay! He fell in with a schooner from which he learned that Shirley's expedition had started without him! I daresay, being a sailor and Irish, our Captain expressed himself exhaustively just then; but he recovered speedily and told the schooner to send him every British ship she met in her voyage; then he changed his course and beat straight for Canseau, determined to be in that expedition after all.

He certainly was in it, and a brisk time he had of it, too.
At Canseau they were all tied up three weeks, drilling and waiting for the ice to break, but they were thankful to get there at all.

The storms were severe, as may be gathered by this account of their efforts to get into Canseau, written by one of the men: "A very Fierce Storm of Snow, som Rain and very Dangerous weather to be so nigh ye Shore as we was; but we escaped the Rocks and that was all." Pepperrill was thankful enough to see the Captain and his squadron,--it was four ships now, as the schooner had picked up another frigate for him,--but the two commanders were destined to rub each other very much the wrong way before they were through.
Pepperrill was a man who took risks only very solemnly and with deliberation, and who was blessed with endless patience.