Our Men Had Been All The Winter
In Bad Spirits From Coughs And Colds, And, Their Having Been Obliged
To
Retreat from the French, did'nt help much to mend the matter.
However, when they heard that an English man-o-
War was come, it was
astonishing how soon they became stout-hearted; faith, they were like
lions, and just as bold! The man-o-war prov'd to be the "Lowestoffe,"
which had been detached from the main fleet below, with orders to make
the best of time through the ice, and take up the earliest
intelligence of the approach of the fleet. Her sides were very much
torn by the floating ice. Our having hoisted colours for the first
time since the conquest, and a ship of war having made her appearance,
led the French to imagine that there was something strange going on.
Indeed they expected a fleet as well as ourselves, and this arrival
brought them out of their trenches, as thick as midges; they appeared
to us like so many pigeons upon a roost! whilst they were gaping at us
in such an exposed position, they received a salute from the whole
line of our guns, extending from Cape Diamond down to the Barrack
Bastion, and yet they went off almost like a single volley. It was
fearful enough to see how they tumbled down in their intrenchments,
like so many sacks of wool! Their seeing soldiers passing ashore from
our frigate, they thought that we were about to receive powerful
reinforcements, and they scamper'd away, their killed and wounded men
along with them.
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