stricken that not an
English soldier could be rallied by their officers, several of whom
were taken prisoners. The French troops who had retired advanced
immediately, and all the French army pursued so hotly the English,
that if the cry had not been raised to halt, it is very doubtful if
they would not have got into Quebec pell-mell with the fugitives,
being near the town-gates when this cry began. Thus Quebec would have
been retaken in a most singular manner,[C] unforeseen and
unpremeditated. I know nothing worse than ill-disciplined troops;
certainly a brave militia, with its simple, ancient way of fighting,
even not drilled, is preferable to a force having a crude notion of
discipline--a science entirely neglected in Canada amongst French
regular troops; so that the French regiments there might be looked
upon as differing very little from the Canadian militia. The method of
managing militia and well-disciplined regular troops appears to be
quite as different as they differ in nature. A cool, phlegmatic,
undaunted bravery is the fruit of an excellent discipline, rendering
the soldiers capable, when repulsed, to return several times to the
assault, and rally of their own accord. But the strength and merit of
the militia resembles a hot, ardent, raging fire, that must be
suffered to blaze until it dies out of itself: it is a flash, an
explosion, that often works prodigies, and which, when stifled, there
is no possibility of preventing the immediate disorder that must
ensue, nor any means of bringing it back a second time to face the
enemy.

NOTE.--The preceding winter had been employed in skirmishing
around Quebec.--(J.M.L.)

[Footnote B: Dumont's Mill.]

[Footnote C: "On the night of the eighteenth of March, two hundred
light infantry were detached from the Garrison of Quebec, with three
days' provisions, and a company of Grenadiers, marched the next day to
Lorette Church, being the place of rendezvous. The whole proceeded to
Calvaire, accompanied by a French deserter in a British uniform. In
this route they surprised an advanced post of the French, and made the
party prisoners, consisting of a corporal and nine privates; having
secured these, they pushed forward with the greatest speed, fearing
that a straggling peasant, whom they met, should mar their further
views by alarming the country. The light infantry having reached the
wished for object, which was a strong camp or entrenchment of logs and
timber, with a