came near, were employed in begging and ordering the
men not to fire at too great a distance, but to keep
it till the enemy should come near us; but to little
purpose. The whole fired when they thought they could
reach them, which had like to have ruined us. However,
we soon rallied again, and attacked them with great
fury, which gained us a complete victory, and forced
the enemy to retire in great haste. We got the sad
news of the death of as good and brave a man as any
amongst us, General Clayton. His death gave us all
sorrow, so great was the opinion we had of him. He
had, 'tis said, orders for pursuing the enemy, and if
we had followed them, they would not have repassed
the Main with half their number. Their loss is computed
to be between six and seven thousand men, and ours
three thousand. His Majesty was in the midst of the
fight; and the duke behaved as bravely as a man could
do. I had several times the honour of speaking with
him just as the battle began and was often afraid of
his being dashed to pieces by the cannon-balls. He
gave his orders with a great deal of calmness and
seemed quite unconcerned. The soldiers were in high
delight to have him so near them. I sometimes thought
I had lost poor Ned when I saw arms, legs, and heads
beat off close by him. A horse I rid of the colonel's,
at the first attack, was shot in one of his hinder
legs and threw me; so I was obliged to do the duty of
an adjutant all that and the next day on foot, in a
pair of heavy boots. Three days after the battle I
got the horse again, and he is almost well.