nd, writes Bouquet, "would probably have been cut to pieces
but for Captain Bullitt and his Virginians, who kept up the fight
against the whole French force till two thirds of them were killed."
They were offered quarter, but refused it; and the survivors were driven
at last into the Alleghany, where some were drowned, and others swam
over and escaped. Grant was surrounded and captured, and Lewis, who
presently came up, was also made prisoner, along with some of his men,
after a stiff resistance. Thus ended this mismanaged affair, which cost
the English two hundred and seventy three killed, wounded, and taken.
The rest got back safe to Loyalhannon.[660]

[Footnote 660: On Grant's defeat, _Grant to Forbes, no date_, a long and
minute report, written while a prisoner. _Bouquet a Forbes, 17 Sept.
1758. Forbes to Pitt, 20 Oct. 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Nov. 1758._
Letters from camp in _Boston Evening Post, Boston Weekly Advertiser,
Boston News Letter_, and other provincial newspapers of the time. _List
of Killed, Wounded, and Missing in the Action of Sept. 14. Gentleman's
Magazine_, XXIX. 173. _Hazard's Pennsylvania Register_, VIII. 141.
_Olden Time_, I. 179. Vaudreuil, with characteristic exaggeration,
represents all Grant's party as killed or taken, except a few who died
of starvation. The returns show that 540 came back safe, out of 813.]

The invalid General was deeply touched by this reverse, yet expressed
himself with a moderation that does him honor. He wrote to Bouquet from
Raystown: "Your letter of the seventeenth I read with no less surprise
than concern, as I could not believe that such an attempt would have
been made without my knowledge and concurrence. The breaking in upon our
fair and flattering hopes of success touches me most sensibly. There are
two wounded Highland officers just now arrived, who give so lame an
account of the matter that one can draw nothing from them, only that my
friend Grant most certainly lost his wits, and by his thirst of fame
brought on his own perdition, and ran great risk of ours."[661]

[Footnote 661: _Forbes to Bouquet, 23 Sept. 1758._]

The French pushed their advantage with spirit. Early in October a large
body of them hovered in the woods about the camp at Loyalhannon, drove
back a detachment sent against them, approached under cover of the
trees, and, though beaten off, withdrew deliberately, after burying
their dead and killing great numbers of horses and cattle.[662