'Twas Funny Enough To See, Every
Morning, The Whole Surface Of The Blankets Covered With Ice, From
The Heat Of My Breath And Body.
We wore our kilts the whole of
this time, but there was no accident, as we were sheltered by the
woods.
I bought myself a pair of leather breeches, but I could not
walk in them, so I laid them aside.
When the spring came round, the French again made their appearance
on high ground between the town and Abraham's Plains, and General
Murray must needs march us out to fight them. At this time
scarcely a man in the garrison but was afflicted with colds or
coughs. The day fixed on orders was the 28th April, 1760, at seven
in the morning, and cold and raw enough it was! Before the sortie
I took a biscuit and, spread a bit of butter over it, and I set
about 'cranching' it, and said to Hector Munro, for whom I had a
great attachment: "You had better do as I am doing, for you cannot
know when you may be able to get your next meal." Hector answered,
"I will not touch anything; I have already taken my last meal, for
something tells me that I shall never require another meal in this
world." "Hout! man," said I, "you are talking nonsense; take a
biscuit, I tell you." But no, Hector would have none! Well, the
hour came for parading, and we were soon afterwards marched out of
the garrison. It was my lot to act as covering sergeant to
Lieutenant Fraser of our Grenadiers, who had already been wounded
at the affair of the Falls, through the belly and out at his back,
without his scarcely having felt it. (This Lieutenant Fraser was
nephew to my friend Captain Baillie, who was the first man killed
at the landing at Louisbourg, and who, had he lived, would have
been the means of securing to me my commission, as had been the
understanding between him and Colonel Fraser, when I volunteered
in Scotland for service in America). Early in the action with the
French, Lieut. Fraser received a shot in the temple, which felled
him to the very spot on which he then stood, and as not an inch of
ground was to be lost, I had to move up into line, which I could
not have done without my resting one foot upon his body! The
affair went altogether against us, and we had to retreat back into
the town. When I got back to my quarters, I there found poor
Hector Munro, who not being able to walk, had been carried in,
owning to a wound he had received in the lower part of the belly,
through which his bowels were coming out! He had his senses about
him, and reminded me of our conversation just before the battle.
He was taken to the Hotel Dieu, where he died the next morning, in
great agony. When I first saw the French soldiers I thought them a
dirty, ragged set - their clothing was originally white.
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