The fight lasted about two hours, and did credit to both sides.  The Canadians not only showed their usual address and courage when under cover of woods, but they also fought well in the open field; and the conduct of the whole French force proved how completely they had recovered from the panic of the last autumn.  From the first they were greatly superior in number, and at the middle and end of the affair, when they had all reached the field, they were more than two against one.[831] The English, on the other hand, besides the opportunity of attacking before their enemies had completely formed, had a vastly superior artillery and a favorable position, both which advantages they lost after their second advance.

[Footnote 831:  See Appendix K.]

Some curious anecdotes are told of the retreat.  Colonel Fraser, of the Highlanders, received a bullet which was no doubt half spent, and which, with excellent precision, hit the base of his queue, so deadening the shock that it gave him no other inconvenience than a stiff neck.  Captain Hazen, of the rangers, badly wounded, was making his way towards the gate, supported by his servant, when he saw at a great distance a French officer leading a file of men across a rising ground; whereupon he stopped and told the servant to give him his gun.  A volunteer named Thompson, who was near by and who tells the story, thought that he was out of his senses; but Hazen persisted, seated himself on the ground, took a long aim, fired, and brought down his man.  Thompson congratulated him.  “A chance shot may kill the devil,” replied Hazen; and resigning himself again to the arms of his attendant, he reached the town, recovered from his wound, and lived to be a general of the Revolution.[832]

[Footnote 832:  Thompson, deceived by Hazen’s baptismal name, Moses, thought that he was a Jew. (Revue Canadienne, IV, 865.) He was, however, of an old New England Puritan family.  See the Hazen genealogy in Historic-Genealogical Register, XXXIII.]

The English lost above a thousand, or more than a third of their whole number, killed, wounded, and missing.[833] They carried off some of their wounded, but left others behind; and the greater part of these were murdered, scalped, and mangled by the Indians, all of whom were converts from the mission villages.  English writers put the French loss at two thousand and upwards, which is no doubt a gross exaggeration.  Levis declares that the number did not exceed six or eight hundred; but afterwards gives a list which makes it eight hundred and thirty-three.

[Footnote 833:  Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing, signed J. Murray.]