His uncomfortable sensations
lasted till he began to fire, after which he felt no more of them. It
was in the dusk of the morning, or a little before sunrise, when the
assault was made; and the fight lasted about two hours and a half, during
which R------ fired twenty-four times; and said he, "I saw my object
distinctly each time, and I was a good rifle-shot." He was raising his
rifle to fire the twenty-fifth time, when an American officer, General
Carroll, pressed it down, and bade him fire no more. "Enough is enough,"
quoth the General. For there needed no more slaughter, the British being
in utter rout and confusion. In this retreat many of the enemy would
drop down among the dead, then rise, run a considerable distance, and
drop again, thus confusing the riflemen's aim. One fellow had thus got
about four hundred and fifty yards from the American line, and, thinking
himself secure, he made a derisive gesture. "I'll have a shot at him
anyhow," cried a rifleman; so he fired, and the poor devil dropped.
R------ himself, with one of his twenty-four shots, hit a British
officer, who fell forward on his face, about thirty paces from our line,
and as the enemy were then retreating (they advanced and were repelled
two or three times) he ran out, and turned him over on his back. The
officer was a man about thirty-eight, tall and fine-looking; his eyes
were wide open, clear and bright, and were fixed full on R------ with a
somewhat stern glance, but there was the sweetest and happiest smile over
his face that could be conceived.
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