[785]
He declares that the regulars were in such a fright that he
could not stop them; but that the Canadians listened to his
voice, and that it was he who rallied them at the Cote Ste.-Genevieve.
Of this the evidence is his own word. From other accounts it would
appear that the Canadians rallied themselves. Vaudreuil lost no time
in recrossing the bridge and joining the militia in the redoubt at
the farther end, where a crowd of fugitives soon poured in after him.
[Footnote 784: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 21 Sept. 1759_.]
[Footnote 785: _Ibid., 5 Oct. 1759_.]
The aide-de-camp Johnstone, mounted on horseback, had
stopped for a moment in what is now the suburb of St. John
to encourage some soldiers who were trying to save a cannon
that had stuck fast in a marshy hollow; when, on spurring
his horse to the higher ground, he saw within musket-shot
a long line of British troops, who immediately fired upon him.
The bullets whistled about his ears, tore his clothes, and
wounded his horse; which, however, carried him along the
edge of the declivity to a windmill, near which was a roadway
to a bakehouse on the meadow below. He descended, crossed the
meadow, reached the bridge, and rode over it to the great redoubt
or hornwork that guarded its head.
The place was full of troops and Canadians in a wild panic.
"It is impossible," says Johnstone, "to imagine the disorder
and confusion I found in the hornwork.
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