s in pursuance of this policy that the order to
raise the Voltigeur force was given by him.

While Hampton was at Four Corners, Sir George, thus now
Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in Canada, was at the camp which
had just been formed at La Fourche, and of which a description is
given by Mr. Sellar in his history of the district. Sir George was a
man quite devoid of the decisiveness necessary to a soldier, and
though, as we have seen, he was useful in reconciling the French, his
errors in military matters several times brought disgrace on the
British forces, and gave rise to storms of rage and disgust among
them.[16] De Salaberry was now ordered by him on the Quixotic errand
of attacking, with about 200 Voltigeurs and some Indians, the large
camp of Hampton at Four Corners. De Salaberry promptly obeyed these
impracticable orders, and it is probably at this juncture that a
little anecdote comes in which I have heard as told by one of his men.
De Salaberry was down the river dining at a tavern, when a despatch
was brought to him.

"D---- it!" he exclaimed, jumping up from his seat, "Hampton is at
Four Corners, and I must go and fight him!" and mounting his fine
white charger, he dashed away from the door.

On the 1st of October he crept up with his force to the edge of the
American camp. There they saw the assemblage spread out in all the
array of war, with its host of tents, stacked guns, flags, moving men
and sentries, and he prepared to strike it as ordered. One of his
Indians indiscreetly discharged his musket. The camp was in alarm in
an instant. De Salaberry, finding his approach discovered, immediately
collected about fifty of his Voltigeurs, with whom and the Indians he
pushed into the enemy's advanced camp, consisting of about 800 men,
and, catching them in their confusion, drove them for a considerable
distance, until, seeing the main body manoeuvring to cut off his
little handful, he fell back and took up his position at the skirt of
the woods. Once again he sallied out and charged, but with all the
army now thoroughly aroused it was useless, and the Indians having
retreated, most of his own men ran off, leaving him and Captains
Chevalier Duchesnay and Gaucher, officers much like himself in stamp,
with a few trusty Voltigeurs to skirmish with the enemy as long as
daylight permitted it.[17] He then withdrew to Chateauguay, taking the
precaution of breaking up the forest road in his rear, in pursuance of