On the 4th June, the King's birthday, a tremendous fire was kept up from all the batteries, and additional ammunition having arrived from England, the Brigadier gave permission for thirty rounds per gun, instead of twenty-four, being fired from the ordinary batteries—no limit being placed on the number to be fired from the breaching batteries. The mortar batteries were now kept silent, the powder being more profitably employed for the guns firing against the breaches.

On the morning of the 7th June, no less than ninety-three pieces of ordnance were in use against the Citadel, and on this day the long-expected white flag was seen, and an officer came out to make the best terms he could for the garrison.

These were, briefly, that the Citadel with all its stores should be handed over to the British troops: that the French garrison should be provided with transport to the nearest French port; that the sick and wounded left behind should be treated in the same manner as the British soldiers; and that the inhabitants of the island should be allowed full permission to worship according to the rites of the Roman Catholic religion. Further, in consideration of the gallant defence made by the Chevalier de St. Croix and his troops, they were permitted to march out of the Citadel with the honours of war, drums beating, colours flying, lighted matches, and three pieces of cannon with twelve rounds each; and each soldier carrying fifteen rounds of ammunition in his cartouche box.

An inventory of the Ordnance and stores was at once taken by Brigadier Desaguliers; and on a garrison for the island being decided on, the following Artillery officers were selected to remain behind, and form part of it:—Captain Hind, Captain-Lieutenant Martin, Lieutenant Rogers, and Lieutenant-Fireworkers Rosat, Skottowe, and Mayne. The remainder of the Artillery embarked on Christmas Day, 1761, for England.

Among the orders issued during the siege, which enable one to form an idea of the weather which prevailed, is one directing the hides of all animals killed for the troops to be taken to the trenches for the use of the Artillery in making their expense-magazines water-tight.

From an old order-book in the Royal Artillery Library the discipline of the troops after the siege, and the means taken to enforce it, may be ascertained. Three men of the 75th Regiment having been found guilty of drunkenness and absence from the King's works, received 300 lashes each, and were debarred from employment on the works again. Two men of Colonel Morgan's Regiment having been convicted of disorderly behaviour were sentenced to receive 200 lashes each "on their bare backs;" and another, in the 19th Regiment, received 100 lashes for drunkenness and disobedience. A man in Crawford's Regiment, who had been convicted of prevarication on a court-martial by which one of his officers was tried, was sentenced to receive 500 lashes; but as it appeared by the evidence that he had been under pressure and undue influence by the prisoner at the time, the sentence was remitted.

There seems to have been a want of zeal on the part of the chaplains, if one may judge from the following order:—"Palais, 26 November, 1761. Whenever any patient dies in any of the Grand Hospitals, the principal surgeon attached to the Hospital where the patient dies is immediately to send a written report of his death, and the time he would have him interred, to the visiting chaplain then in waiting, who is, conformable to a former order of Major-General Hodgson, to attend the corpse at the grave, and read the burial-service over it. General Hodgson is extremely concerned that he has occasion to repeat the latter part of this order, and expects for the future that he shall not hear any complaints on this subject."

It may be mentioned, in concluding this chapter, that at the Peace of 1763 Belleisle was returned to the French in exchange for Minorca, which England had lost at the commencement of the Seven Years' War.

CHAPTER XXII.
Peace.

At the conclusion of the war in 1763, the reductions in the Regiment were carried out on a different system from that which had hitherto prevailed. At the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, entire companies had been reduced, and the establishment of the remaining companies was left unchanged. Now, the cadres of the three Battalions with their companies remained, but the establishment of the latter was materially reduced. Besides the Cadet company, there were now thirty others; and the total in each company of all ranks was—as it had been twenty years before—107. But the following reduction was now ordered—one Lieutenant-Fireworker, one Sergeant, one Corporal, four bombardiers, twelve gunners, and thirty-two matrosses per company, reducing the total from 107 to 57, a fifer having been added to each. The supernumerary fireworkers were put on half-pay, and brought in as vacancies occurred,—the last being absorbed in 1767.