their presence. The provincial officers
were, without exception, civilians. British regular officers, good, bad,
or indifferent, were apt to put on airs of superiority which galled the
democratic susceptibilities of the natives, who, rather than endure a
standing military force imposed by the mother-country, preferred to
suffer if they must, and fight their own battles in their own crude way.
Even for irregular warfare they were at a disadvantage; Canadian
feudalism developed good partisan leaders, which was rarely the case
with New England democracy. Colonel John March was a tyro set over a
crowd of ploughboys, fishermen, and mechanics, officered by tradesmen,
farmers, blacksmiths, village magnates, and deacons of the church,--for
the characters of deacon and militia officer were often joined in one.
These improvised soldiers commonly did well in small numbers, and very
ill in large ones.

Early in June the expedition sailed into Port Royal Basin, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Appleton, with three hundred and fifty men, landed on
the north shore, four or five miles below the fort, marched up to the
mouth of the Annapolis, and was there met by an ambushed body of French,
who, being outnumbered, presently took to their boats and retreated to
the fort. Meanwhile, March, with seven hundred and fifty men, landed on
the south shore and pushed on to the meadows of Allen's River, which
they were crossing in battle array when a fire blazed out upon them from
a bushy hill on the farther bank, where about two hundred French lay in
ambush under Subercase, the governor. March and his men crossed the
stream, and after a skirmish that did little harm to either side, the
French gave way. The English then advanced to a hill known as the Lion
Rampant, within cannon-shot of the fort, and here began to intrench
themselves, stretching their lines right and left towards the Annapolis
on the one hand, and Allen's River on the other, so as to form a
semicircle before the fort, where all the inhabitants had by this time
taken refuge.

Soon all was confusion in the New England camp,--the consequence of
March's incapacity for a large command, and the greenness and ignorance
of both himself and his subordinates. There were conflicting opinions,
wranglings, and disputes. The men, losing all confidence in their
officers, became unmanageable. "The devil was at work among us," writes
one of those present. The engineer, Rednap, the only one of them who
kne