tter light to fight by, for in the clear September
air, the bright sun shining in our faces, they would have had us at
advantage.

In another hour the gates of St. John and St. Louis emptied out upon
this battlefield a warring flood of our foes. It was a handsome sight:
the white uniforms of the brave regiments, Roussillon, La Sarre,
Guienne, Languedoc, Bearn, mixed with the dark, excitable militia, the
sturdy burghers of the town, a band of coureurs de bois in their rough
hunter's costume, and whooping Indians, painted and furious, ready to
eat us. At last here was to be a test of fighting in open field, though
the French had in their whole army twice the number of our men, a walled
and provisioned city behind them, and field-pieces in great number to
bring against us.

But there was bungling with them. Vaudreuil hung back or came tardily
from Beauport; Bougainville had not yet arrived; and when they might
have pitted twice our number against us, they had not many more than we.
With Bougainville behind us and Montcalm in front, we might have been
checked, though there was no man in all our army but believed that we
should win the day. I could plainly see Montcalm, mounted on a dark
horse, riding along the lines as they formed against us, waving his
sword, a truly gallant figure. He was answered by a roar of applause and
greeting. On the left their Indians and burghers overlapped our second
line, where Townsend with Amherst's and the Light Infantry, and Colonel
Burton with the Royal Americans and Light Infantry, guarded our flank,
prepared to meet Bougainville. In vain our foes tried to get between our
right flank and the river; Otway's Regiment, thrown out, defeated that.

It was my hope that Doltaire was with Montcalm, and that we might meet
and end our quarrel. I came to know afterwards that it was he who had
induced Montcalm to send the battalion of Guienne to the heights above
the Anse du Foulon. The battalion had not been moved till twenty-four
hours after the order was given, or we should never have gained those
heights; stones rolled from the cliff would have destroyed an army.

We waited, Clark and I, with the Louisburg Grenadiers while they formed.
We made no noise, but stood steady and still, the bagpipes of the
Highlanders shrilly challenging. At eight o'clock sharpshooters began
firing on us from the left, and skirmishers were thrown out to hold them
in check, or dislodge them and drive them from the hou