The Litchfield County post., 1828-04-10

liuyOcasion which such . naturo at such a moment might be supposed lo use. Mel dashed forward; and, at last, penetrating within ten paces of the officer, he drew pistol, fired, and the Frenchman fell from his mule. He raised himself, however, in moment, upon his feet; and taking with his f1see deliberate aim at Cameron, fued at him as he advanced. The shot told. Mel jumped from the ground near ly his own heigth, and was dead before he reached it again !! I was so close to him when he fell, that, in hurrying forward, l stumbled over his body, and well for me was it that did SO, for as l staggered, a ball grazed my head { bear the marks to this day,) which if l had been upright, must have killed me on the spot.
 When their officer fell, the French ral- lied. now found further resistance use- less. There were not above twenty-five of us and of those, several were wounded. ! therefore ordered one more charge, just to disentangle us from the thick of the en- my, and desired every man after to shift for himself, and to rendezvous at the fur ther end of the wood. The charge was made: but of how l got into the wood l have no recollection. The next thing l recollect is, about the middle of it, find- ing myself with about fourteen others, rum ming at double quick time, with a few drop- ping shots occasionally falling near us, from the French, who came in pursuit. They did not however follow us far and we mustered ou the out skirt of the wood. Only twelve answered to their names; & such spectacle as these presented, nev- CT beheld All were pale, covered with dust and sweat. Some were wounded and were bedabbled with blood, and faint from weakness. The men scarcely spoke; & they looked at each other with expression of fierce melancholy, that seemed to say, that, bitterly as the revenge had cost them, it had been wrecked!
 We remained some time on the spot, to reload, and recruit our strength; and were about sadly to recommence our march back to our camp, when, to our infinite joy, we beheld patroling party of our cavalry approach us. l explained to the commanding officer as briefly as possible, what had happened. In minute, we were mounted behind the dragons, and retraced our steps to the ravine where the skirmish had taken place.
 All now was still. The French troops had proceeded on their march, and noth- ing now was heard, but at intervals the moans uf the wounded and the dying. In the ravine itself lay about fifty French, where there were not above six or eight of our men; but, as we advanced upon the heath, the proportion became tearfully changed. Altogether, they had lost up- wards of an hundred and fifty men; and we, about eighty. We first sought for the body of Mel Cameron. We soon found it. for well knew the spot. It was al- most cold; but the expression of the face was but little changed. A little further on lay the French officer, who had been the original cause of the conflict; and, to my great surprise, across his body was that of Velasquez He had fallen above twenty yards distant; but the desire of revenge had given him strength and forttude to crawl, in despite of his wounds, to where his enemy lay Upon him he had inflict- ed five or six desperate gashes with his knife. and had died in the act of striking a blow, which he had not streng' h to com plete; for the point of the knife had pen etrated the skin, and then had been driven no further, the hand having become pow erless in death. We had no means of ascertaining accurately whether the officer was still alive at the time Velasquez reach ed him. But, incline to think that he was not, for there were no appearance of a struggle having taken place between them, Velasquez lay across his body, and had ex- pired in the act of still striking his enemy. Truly this was the ruling passion strong in death !''-[Friendship's Oflering.]