The whole fire of the enemy was now concentrated upon the _Confiance_, and still the latter fired broadside after broadside with much precision and so rapidly that every gun on board of the _Saratoga_ on one side was disabled and silenced, although she lay at such a distance that she could not be taken possession of. But Captain Downie had fallen. The _Confiance_ was now commanded by Lieutenant Robertson, who was entirely surrounded and raked by the brigs and gun-boats of the enemy, while the _Saratoga_, out of range, had cut her cable and wound round so as to bring a new broadside, as it were, to bear upon the _Confiance_. It was in vain that the _Confiance_ attempted to do as the _Saratoga_ had done. Three officers and thirty-eight of her men had been killed, and one officer and thirty-nine men had been wounded. Lieutenant Robertson was at last compelled to strike his colours, and Captain Pring, of the _Linnet_, was reluctantly obliged to follow the example. In all one hundred and twenty men had fallen, and the cheering of the enemy informed the British army that the fleet for the co-operation of which Sir George Prevost had so unnecessarily waited, was annihilated. "You owe it, Sir, to the shameful conduct of your gun-boats and cutters, said the magnanimous American Commodore, McDonough, to Lieutenant Robertson, when that officer was in the act of presenting his sword to him, that you arc performing this office to me; for, had they done their duty, you must have perceived from the situation of the _Saratoga_ that I could hold out no longer; and, indeed, nothing induced me to keep up her colours but my seeing, from the united fire of all the rest of my squadron on the _Confiance_, and her unsupported situation, that she must ultimately surrender." Sir George Prevost had by this time swallowed his breakfast. He had directed the guns of the batteries to open on the American squadron, but ineffectually, as they were too far off. Orders were at length given to attack the fort. General Robinson advanced with the view of fording the Saranac, and attacking the works in front, and General Brisbane had made a circuit for the purpose of attacking the enemy in the rear. Robinson's troops, led astray by the guides, were delayed, and had but reached the point of attack when the shouts from the American works intimated the surrender of the fleet. To have carried the fort would have been a work of easy accomplishment, but the signal for retreat was given; Robinson was ordered to return with his column; and Prevost soon afterwards commenced a retrograde movement, which admits barely of excuse and could not be justified. So indignant indeed was the gallant General Robinson that it is asserted he broke his sword, declaring that he could never serve again. The army indeed went leisurely away in mournful submission to the orders of a superior on whom they could but look with feelings akin to shame. Four