their drivers, made their way painfully among the trees and thickets;
since, had they been allowed to follow the road, the line of march would
have been too long for mutual support. A body of regulars and
provincials brought up the rear.

Gage, with his advance-column, had just passed a wide and bushy ravine
that crossed their path, and the van of the main column was on the point
of entering it, when the guides and light horsemen in the front suddenly
fell back; and the engineer, Gordon, then engaged in marking out the
road, saw a man, dressed like an Indian, but wearing the gorget of an
officer, bounding forward along the path.[223] He stopped when he
discovered the head of the column, turned, and waved his hat. The forest
behind was swarming with French and savages. At the signal of the
officer, who was probably Beaujeu, they yelled the war-whoop, spread
themselves to right and left, and opened a sharp fire under cover of the
trees. Gage's column wheeled deliberately into line, and fired several
volleys with great steadiness against the now invisible assailants. Few
of them were hurt; the trees caught the shot, but the noise was
deafening under the dense arches of the forest. The greater part of the
Canadians, to borrow the words of Dumas, "fled shamefully, crying 'Sauve
qui peut!'"[224] Volley followed volley, and at the third Beaujeu
dropped dead. Gage's two cannon were now brought to bear, on which the
Indians, like the Canadians, gave way in confusion, but did not, like
them, abandon the field. The close scarlet ranks of the English were
plainly to be seen through the trees and the smoke; they were moving
forward, cheering lustily, and shouting "God save the King." Dumas, now
chief in command, thought that all was lost. "I advanced," he says,
"with the assurance that comes from despair, exciting by voice and
gesture the few soldiers that remained. The fire of my platoon was so
sharp that the enemy seemed astonished." The Indians, encouraged, began
to rally. The French officers who commanded them showed admirable
courage and address; and while Dumas and Ligneris, with the regulars and
what was left of the Canadians, held the ground in front, the savage
warriors, screeching their war-cries, swarmed through the forest along
both flanks of the English, hid behind trees, bushes, and fallen trunks,
or crouched in gullies and ravines, and opened a deadly fire on the
helpless soldiery, who, themselves completely visible, c