As the two regiments marched
away from the crest of the defile the soldiers were in the highest
spirits. They had repulsed with heavy loss a French force of three times
their own strength, and they greeted Terence and Bull, as they rode
together along the column, with enthusiastic cheers.
The wounded, which in the first battalion numbered forty-three, were
despatched with a party a hundred strong to a village four miles away
among the mountains, and the regiment marched on until it reached the
point agreed upon.
Two men were sent forward to reconnoitre the village, and returned with
the report that it had already been occupied by a very strong force of
French cavalry. Half an hour later two wreaths of smoke rose on the
opposite hill. Sticks had been gathered in readiness, and the answering
signal was at once made. Two minutes later the smoke ceased to rise on
either side. Terence now received the reports of the captains of the six
companies, and found that fifteen men had been killed, and that his
strength was thus reduced by fifty-eight. The men were now told that they
could lie down, the companies keeping together so as to be ready for
instant action.
Trifling wounds, of which there were some two or three and twenty, were
then attended to and bandaged. Some of these were quite serious enough to
have warranted the men falling out, but the delight and pride they felt at
their success had been so great that they had refused to be taken off with
their disabled comrades.
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