It might be about one o'clock in the morning,--the American force in our
front having fallen back, and we having been left, for a full half hour
to breathe, when suddenly the head of a small column showed itself in
full advance towards us. We were at this time amply supported by other
troops, as well in communication as in reserve; and willing to
annihilate the corps now approaching, we forbade the men to fire till it
should be mingled with us. We did even more than this. Opening a passage
for them through our centre, we permitted some hundred and twenty men to
march across our ditch, and then wheeling up, with a loud shout, we
completely enclosed them. Never have I witnessed a panic more perfect or
more sudden than that which seized them. They no sooner beheld the snare
into which they had fallen, than with one voice they cried aloud for
quarter; and they were to a man made prisoners on the spot. The reader
will smile when he is informed that the little corps thus captured
consisted entirely of members of the legal profession. The barristers,
attorneys, and notaries of New Orleans having formed themselves into a
volunteer corps, accompanied General Jackson in his operations this
night; and they were all, without a solitary exception, made prisoners.
It is probably needless to add, that the circumstance was productive of
no trifling degree of mirth amongst us; and to do them justice, the poor
lawyers, as soon as they recovered from their first alarm, joined
heartily in our laughter.

This was the last operation in which we were engaged to-night. The
enemy, repulsed on all sides, retreated with the utmost disorder, and
the whole of the advance, collecting at the sound of the bugle, drew up,
for the first time since the commencement of the affair, in a continuous
line. We took our ground in front of the bivouac, having our right
supported by the river, and our left covered by the chateau and village