I now lay down on the ground to take some rest. I reflected seriously on the events of the past day, and thanked God for having heard my prayers, and for having spared and protected me. I remembered the promises I had made, and my conscience accused me of having broken them almost as soon as made. Even during the time of the action, when many were falling around me, and my danger was greatest, I had made use of improper expressions: expressions which I was not guilty of using at other times, and which, on such an occasion, above all others, I ought to have avoided. This threw me into dejection of spirits, and into a train of very serious reflections for several days; reflections which were deepened by my being led to see more minutely the danger I had escaped. Having occasion to shift my clothes, I observed that the ball which had struck me on the side, had passed through my coat and cut my waistcoat between the second and third button from the bottom; it had then grazed my side, and had been obstructed in its passage outwards by a small volume of poems, containing Pope's Essay on Man, Blair's Grave, and Gray's Elegy, which I had in my side pocket. The corner of the binding next to my side was shattered, and the greater part of the leaves much bruised. I now discerned, that it had been the force with which the ball struck the book that had wheeled me round. I was impressed with the conviction, that if I had been standing square to my front, the ball would have lodged in my left side; and that even in the oblique position in which I stood, had it been one inch nearer the right, it would have lodged in the body and proved mortal. There were few of my comrades that had not their clothes cut in several places; and many had received contusions that would have proved mortal wounds, if the French had properly loaded their pieces. It was said that they did not use the ramrod in loading, which enabled them to fire with greater rapidity; but the charge being loose in their pieces, the shot did not fly so true to its direction, and was in many cases weak; making only a contusion, in place of perforating the body. This partly accounts for such a long continued and tremendously superior fire, not being so destructive as might have been apprehended. The regiment lost 125 killed and wounded; but our wonder was how so many had escaped. The loss sustained by the army, was 156 killed, 1082 wounded; and of seamen and marines there were 29 killed and 55 wounded, making a total of 1322. Four pieces of cannon and some ammunition were taken from the enemy.