FONTENOY.

A. D. 1745. May 11, N. S.

GEORGE II. remained at home, intrusting the command of our troops on the Continent to his son, the Duke of Cumberland, who had manfully conducted himself at Dettingen, and who, shortly after the present affair, commanded at Culloden.

In the month of April, 1745, a French army of 76,000 men were collected in Flanders by Louis XV., who was intent on carrying out the conquest and aggrandizement schemes of his predecessor on the throne, and grandfather, Louis XIV., who had been, in good part, rescued from the effects of the Duke of Marlborough's glorious victories by English factions, court intrigue, and the dishonourable peace of Utrecht, concluded in 1714. The French army was under the command of Marshal Saxe, a natural son of Augustus, who had been Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. The marshal was an enthusiastic soldier, and, as a boy of fourteen, had joined the Duke of Marlborough, during that great man's wars in Flanders, and on the French frontiers: his morals were very questionable, but there was not the least doubt as to his bravery, activity, energy, and military genius. From this period, down to the time of the wars of the great French Revolution, there was no leader of a French army whose name now stands so high as that of Marshal Saxe. The little he wrote on military affairs proves him to have been a man of high military genius. To this distinction the Duke of Cumberland appears to have not the slightest claim. His royal highness, according to established rules of war, could bravely lead brave men; but there his qualifications as a general began and ended. Still, with such troops as he had, he would never have known defeat, even at the hands of

Marshal Saxe, if he had not been basely abandoned by some of his allies.

In the beginning of May, Saxe marched suddenly upon Tournay, and invested that place. England had furnished all the troops she had promised the confederates, and had about 28,000 brave men under arms, on the old battle-field of Europe. But the Dutch, instead of sending 50,000, and keeping 10,000 in garrison at Tournay, had scarcely sent 23,000; and the Austrians, who had promised great things, mustered no more than eight or nine squadrons of horse. If the Austrian Government, in keeping away troops, had only kept away their old marshal, Konigsegg, the campaign would have gone better. This pedantic, obstinate chief despised the comparative youth of Cumberland, and had always a will of his own, which was not the will of the commander-in-chief. Moreover, his royal highness was hampered and thwarted by the Dutch general, Prince Waldeck, and by the field deputies of the States General-those dead-weights in war, who had pressed like incubi on the Duke of Marlborough, and had repeatedly deranged the most skilful combinations of that great warrior.

At the earnest instances of Prince Waldeck and the States General, the Duke of Cumberland moved, with his inferior forces, to relieve Tournay, which, had the Dutch kept their engagements, ought to have been quite strong enough to defend itself. Having come to this resolution of relieving Tournay, the allied forces ought to have been quick and sudden in their movements; but they lost time, they went at parade pace, and, when they got near the destined point, they found that Saxe was before them, and well prepared for battle. That skilful general, leaving 5,000 of his infantry to block up the fortress, had moved with the rest of his army of 60,000 horse and foot to an excellent position between. Tournay and Fontenoy, and had had time to occupy and strengthen Fontenoy with various works. And while he had been lying there, Louis XV. and the Dauphin had arrived post from Paris, and joined him, to the great joy and encouragement of the French army.

When the allies came up, they found the French encamped on the gentle heights which rise from the right bank of the Scheld, with that river and the village of Antoine on their

right, Fontenoy and a narrow valley in their front, and a small wood on their left. As at Dettingen, the French had a free passage across the river by means of a bridge; and this bridge was defended by a tête de pont and by a strong body of reserve. Fontenoy and Antoine were fortified and well garrisoned; strong redoubts were thrown up between these two villages, and there were abbatis on the left, in front of the wood. This sight was formidable, but it did not deter Cumberland and the allied troops. Driving in the French picquets and outposts, they pressed on in gallant style. But night fell, operations were suspended, and the troops lay under their arms till the following morning, the 11th of May.

At about four o'clock in the morning a brisk cannonade began on both sides, the French batteries having triple our weight of metal. Before six the two armies were closely engaged.

With the English and Hanoverians the Duke of Cumberland advanced against the left of the French, detaching General Ingoldsby to clear the wood there and carry a redoubt a little beyond the wood. Ingoldsby did his duty ill; coming up to the wood he found it partially occupied by some detachments of sharp-shooters, whom he mistook for an entire French division; and, after hesitating and losing precious time, he rode back to his royal highness to ask for fresh instructions. This was a very sad blunder; but on the other side Prince Waldeck and the Dutch, who had moved against the French right to attack Fontenoy and Antoine, gave unequivocal proofs of cowardice; for, after failing in their first assault, and suffering a little from the enemy's batteries, they gave ground, and remained little more than spectators of the rest of the fight. A regiment of brave Highlanders was sent at the beginning of the movement to support the Dutch; and we have the account of what followed from the pen of two officers of that gallant corps. One of these officers says "We were to support the Dutch, who, in their usual way, were very dilatory. We, the Highlanders got within musket-shot of the batteries at Fontenoy, where we received three full fires from batteries and small arms, which killed us forty men and one ensign. Here we were obliged to skulk behind houses and hedges

for about an hour and a half, waiting for the Dutch, who, when they came up, behaved but so so. Our regiment being in some disorder, I wanted to draw them up in the rear of the Dutch, which their general would scarce allow of; but at last I did it, and soon marched them again to the front. In half an hour after this the Dutch quite gave way, and Sir Robert Munro thought proper we should retire; for we had then the whole of the batteries from the enemy's ground playing upon us, and 5,000 foot ready to fall upon us. We retired; but before we had marched fifty yards we had orders to return to the attack; which we did; and, ia about ten minutes after, had orders to march directly with all expedition, to assist the Hanoverians, who had got by this time well advanced upon the batteries on the left."

The other Highland officer says that the Dutch very confidently undertook to make themselves masters of Fontenoy early in the morning; but, not having rightly reconnoitered it, found, to their surprise, a fosse round it, and that the French, by cutting the roofs of the houses and letting them fall in, had raised so many cannon upon the rubbish as made the place impregnable."

To increase the shame, Appius, the colonel of a regiment of Hesse-Homburghers in the pay of the States General, galloped away with most of his men to the town of Ath, and thence wrote a letter to the Dutch government to inform them that the allied army had been cut to pieces. In more than one quarter there was a strong suspicion of treachery as well as of cowardice.

Still, however, Cumberland, with his brave British and Hanoverian troops, persevered in his attack on the left. Leaving the cavalry in the rear, and dragging some pieces of artillery with the strength of their own muscular arms, the foot crossed a ravine, and advanced full in front of the wood, the batteries, and the abbatis, and of the best part of the enemy's army, for Saxe had been allowed time and opportunity to gather strength from his right wing. The combat soon became close, and was terrific: our men were

* Culloden Papers. Letter from Colonel John Munro to the Lord President Forbes.

+ Culloden Papers. Letter from Lieutenant John Forbes to Captain Hugh Forbes.

killed in heaps by the enemy's artillery; but still they went closer, sweeping away the French foot and the sturdy Swiss guard, and giving back death for death. The Duke de Grammont, who had lost the day at Dettingen, was killed early in the day, and many French officers better than he bit the dust.

When the British and Hanoverians finally carried the French position on the left, and looked with the eyes of conquerors to the right, they could see nothing of their allies the Dutch; and they were soon charged where they stood by masses of the French cavalry. But charge after charge was wasted upon them, and, instead of retreating, they passed on in the view of cutting the enemy off from their bridge across the Scheldt. "If," says Voltaire, "the Dutch had moved at this moment, and joined the British, there would have been no resource, nay, no retreat for the French army, nor, in all probability, for the king and his son." Louis, in fact, had been advised to seek safety in flight; but either because he thought flying more dangerous than staying where he was, or from some nobler motive, he refused to quit the field, though repeatedly urged to it by Marshal Saxe, who, it is said, was actually preparing to retreat himself.

Old Konigsegg congratulated the Duke of Cumberland as a conqueror-but his compliments were premature. Marshal Saxe, who could not at first credit the fact, or the evidence of his own senses, now clearly saw that Waldeck and the Dutch were determined to keep aloof, and leave the English and the Hanoverians to their fate: and thus, calling away all the French troops that had held Fontenoy and Antoine, laying bare the right of his position (which ought to have been instantly occupied by our scandalous allies, but was not), bringing up the household troops, and the entire body of his reserve, he tried to crush Cumberland by a last desperate effort. The Irish brigade in the service of France were the foremost and most furious of all that fell upon the English. From the necessity of the ground they now occupied, which was hollow and narrow, the British and Hanoverian foot were huddled together in compact masses. Saxe, by the advice of the Duke de Richelieu, brought four pieces of heavy artillery to play upon them in this condition; and while the cannon roared and inflicted death in the front,

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