During the march along the beach, and the frequent pauses we made, my mind had time for serious reflection; I was alive to a sense of present danger; and having no well grounded hope for eternity should death be the issue, was led to pray earnestly to God for mercy. While standing exposed to the fire of the enemy, and the balls whistling over us and amongst us, my former sins came into my mind, with all my broken vows and resolutions; my past ingratitude stared me in the face, and made me tremble, but a sense of present danger made me pray earnestly for mercy to pardon my sins, and to preserve my life; I confessed that I did not deserve what I sought, but I cast myself on the mercy of God, and with increasing fortitude, as I thought, resolved once more to forsake every sin, and live only to him.--The enemy having increased in numbers, the troops in the sand-hills next to the beach began to give way. Four companies detached from our regiment, with Sir John Moore at their head, went to reinforce them; but they were also soon overpowered; and Sir John was wounded in three parts of the body, and with difficulty escaped being taken prisoner; the remaining six companies were then ordered to form in three divisions, and march forward along the beach, and then to wheel to our left, and charge the enemy. I was in the front division. We marched forward, and passed a number of the enemy's troops, and came to a place where there was a more than ordinary opening, and the sand rose pretty high, in the form of a semicircle; into this opening we wheeled, and were instantly exposed to a fire upon both our flanks and front. This staggered us, and we began to fire upon the enemy, in place of pushing instantly forward to that part of the height that was on our right, driving the enemy from it, and taking up a position there, from which we could have done them more harm, and not have been so much exposed ourselves. We continued to stand still and fire for a few seconds, and then began to move forward, firing as we advanced; the other two divisions had wheeled into various openings in the sand-hills in our rear, at the same time that we did. They were strongly opposed by the enemy, who were very superior in number; but hearing the firing of our division in their rear, the enemy who opposed them began to retreat into the interior of the sand-hills; those who opposed us did the same, and we continued to pursue them; but the action soon became on both sides quite irregular; for the sand-hills separated us into parties, so that the one party frequently did not see what the other was doing, and, in some instances, parties of our troops came suddenly upon parties of the enemy. In one instance, one of our parties having climbed to the top of a sand ridge, found that a party of the enemy was just beneath, and instantly rushed down the ridge upon them; but the side of the ridge was so steep and soft, that the effort to keep themselves from falling