( 90 )
if they would not condescend to surrender at discretion. How they suffered themselves to be pent up in this manner it is not my province to relate. But it seems, at this time, the British general was overruled, and only acted in an inferior character. Our miscarriage opened a passage for the foe to Hanau, whither they immediately marched leaving their sick and wounded to the care of the French who next day took possession of the field of battle. This was a great consolation to us, who thence took occasion to claim the victory. Every man by his own account performed feats that would have shamed all the heroes of antiquity. One compared himself to a lion retiring at leisure from his cowardly pursuers. Another to a bear that retreats with his face to the enemy, who dare not assail him. There was not a private soldier engaged, who had not by the powers of his single arm, demolished a whole platoon; and, among others, the meagre Gascon extolled his exploits.—And still retained my resentment towards him, I magnified the valour of the English with all the hyperboles I could imagine, and decried the pusillanimity of the French in the same stile, comparing them to hares flying before grey-hounds, or mice pur-
