The action began near an hour after sunset with a clear moonshine, by some passing shots from some ten or twelve of the McLeods who advanced so far, some to the one Foord and some to the other, and fired on the enemy as they were passing and killed two or three men in the water, and immediately retired. The Body that crossed Ury moved up first to attack, but were received with two or three fires from the McLeods, which they returned indeed two for one, but both were at too great a distance to do great execution. But as the party from Don was by this time coming to attack them in flanks, and as the French were advancing with a close regular fire and like to bear very hard on them, the McLeods found themselves unable to stand this shock, and accordingly gave way; yet not so but that a party of them loaded their pieces retiring, and finding some of their men, especially the wounded, like to fall in the enemy’s hands, they wheeled about before they were half way up the town, and made another fire, but immediately ran off. On this the French advanced through the town with an incessant street fire, and the rest divided themselves and went firing up each side of it, being too by this time joined by most of their skulking companions. After this, as some of the McLeods were running off on the stubble ground on the North end of the town, some person gave a cry that McLeod was taken, on which they turned about again and made another fire but immediately marched off. The Rebels meanwhile being at a considerable distance and not observing them so exactly going off, but seeing a ridge with a few furrows in it, amidst a great deal of unploughed stubble ground, and taking it by the moonlight for a row of men, they fired once or twice into it very successfully. And thus in whole the firing continued for more than twenty minutes. The companies of McLeods and Monroes that were cantonn’d out of the town, had unluckily no Officers with them; these happened to be with McLeod in Inverury, and went out to engage along with the men that were there (which by the bye as there were thirty of them on guard, and many straggling through the country seeking provisions did not much exceed three hundred), these therefore having no body to draw them together, ran up different ways on hearing the firing till they met some of their friends flying, or were informed of the event, and then they ran off. But had their officers been with them to bring them together, and lead them up in a body to meet their friends at the north end of the town and support them, they very possibly might have turned the scale in their favours. _Loss on both sides_