ulate
the service; but notwithstanding all their attention and authority,
some of the boats were otherwise employed than in conveying the unhappy
soldiers. Had all the cutters and small craft belonging to the fleet
been properly occupied in this service, the disgrace and disaster of
the day would scarce have happened. The British forces had skirmished
a little on the march, but no considerable body of the enemy appeared
until the embarkation was begun; then they took possession of an
eminence by a windmill, and forthwith opened a battery of ten cannon and
eight mortars, from whence they fired with considerable effect upon
the soldiers on the beach, and on the boats in their passage. They
afterwards began to march down the hill, partly covered by a hollow way
on their left, with a design to gain a wood, where they might form and
extend themselves along the front of the English, and advance against
them under shelter of the sand-hills: but in their descent they suffered
extremely from the cannon and mortars of the shipping, which made great
havock and threw them into confusion. Their line of march down the hill
was staggered, and for some time continued in suspense; then they turned
off to one side, extended themselves along a hill to their left, and
advanced in a hollow way, from whence they suddenly rushed out to the
attack. Though the greater part of the British troops were already
embarked, the rear-guard, consisting of all the grenadiers and half of
the first regiment of guards, remained on the shore, to the number of
fifteen hundred, under the command of major-general Dury. This
officer, seeing the French advance, ordered his troops to form in grand
divisions, and march from behind the bank that covered them, in order to
charge the enemy before they could be formed on the plain. Had this step
been taken when it was first suggested to Mr. Dury, before the French
were disengaged from the hollow way, perhaps it might have so far
succeeded as to disconcert and throw them into confusion; but by this
time they had extended themselves into a very formidable front, and no
hope remained of being able to withstand such a superior number. Instead
of attempting to fight against such odds in an open field of battle,
they might have retreated along the beach to a rock on the left,
in which progress their right flank would have been secured by the
in-trenchment; and the enemy could not have pursued them along the
shore, without bei