le she was in the wrong, offered
to compound for her goods, and would have given him L300, and I think
seven or eight horses. The major would certainly have taken it, if he
had not been drunk; but he refused it, and gave threatening words to
her, blustering in language which he thought proper to fright a woman,
viz., that he would cut them all to pieces, and give no quarter, and
the like.

The lady, who had been more used to the smell of powder than he
imagined, called some of her servants to her, and, consulting with
them what to do, they all unanimously encouraged her to let them
fight; told her it was plain that the commander was drunk, and all
that were with him were rather worse than he, and hardly able to sit
their horses; and that therefore one bold charge would put them all
into confusion. In a word, she consented, and, as she was a woman,
they desired her to secure herself among the waggons; but she refused,
and told them bravely she would take her fate with them. In short, she
boldly bade my major defiance, and that he might do his worst, since
she had offered him fair, and he had refused it; her mind was altered
now, and she would give him nothing, and bade his officer that
parleyed longer with her be gone; so the parley ended. After this she
gave him fair leave to go back to his men; but before he could tell
his tale to them she was at his heels with all her men, and gave him
such a home charge as put his men into disorder, and, being too drunk
to rally, they were knocked down before they knew what to do with
themselves, and in a few minutes more they took to a plain flight.
But what was still worse, the men, being some of them very drunk, when
they came to run for their lives fell over one another, and tumbled
over their horses, and made such work that a troop of women might have
beaten them all. In this pickle, with the enemy at his heels, I
came in with him, hearing the noise. When I appeared the pursuers
retreated, and, seeing what a condition my people were in, and not
knowing the strength of the enemy, I contented myself with bringing
them off without pursuing the other; nor could I ever hear positively
who this female captain was. We lost seventeen or eighteen of our men,
and about thirty horses; but when the particulars of the story was
told us, our major was so laughed at by the whole army, and laughed
at everywhere, that he was ashamed to show himself for a week or a
fortnight after.

But to ret