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1708.

rounded with ditches. The English endeavoured to diflodge them from thence, and charged the French with great bravery but the duke of Vendofme caused all his grenadiers, and the piquet of fix brigades, which were incamped in the front of his army near Pont-a-Marque, to fupport his troops in the castle. Whereupon the two battalions were obliged to retire, after a very ftout refiftance, and retreated in good order, with the lofs of about fix or feven officers, and near two hundred men killed or wounded. The next morning the French troops began to be in motion; and, about two in the afternoon, the allies faw the head of their army, confifting of several battalions and squadrons, with their workmen, who levelled the ground between them and the allies intrenchments. The confederate generals now thought the enemy were refolved upon an attack, so that the troops were immediately ordered to their arms, and the regiments commanded to their respective posts, behind the intrenchments. Prince Eugene likewife joined the army; and, at the fame time, orders were fent to the earl of Albemarle (who was then between Oudenard and Menin, with thirty fquadrons, to guard a convoy from Bruffels) to return to the camp with the utmost expedition; and accordingly the earl, on the 12th, by break of day, arrived with his detachment. About four in the afternoon, the enemy began to cannonade the confederate camp, directing their fire chiefly against the village of Entiers (where the brigadiers Evans and Wertmuller were pofted with two brigades of foot) and were answered by the artillery, planted on the intrenchments, which continued till it was dark. The confederate troops, which lay upon their arms all night, were the next day formed in order of battle; and early in the morning, the enemy renewed their cannonading with between thirty and forty pieces, moft twenty-four pounders, and the allies did the like with almost equal execution on both fides. At length the enemy withdrew their heavy cannon; and the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene perceiving that they had no other design than by frequent alarms to delay the ftorming the out-works of Lifle, the troops were ordered to encamp in fuch a manner, as to be immediately ready to receive the French, provided they should make any farther attempts; and the works about the village of Entiers were repaired, and enlarged for the greater fecurity of that poft. Prince Eugene being fatisfied that the confederate camp was fufficiently fecured, he returned, on the 13th of September, with his troops, to the fiege.

1708.

Bold attempt of a French

officer.

In the mean while the French generals were contriving means to diftrefs the confederate army in such a manner, as to oblige prince Eugene to raise the fiege; and, in order to this, they at laft found an opportunity of engaging some of the inhabitants at Aeth in a confpiracy to deliver up that town; while, on the other hand, they were indefatigable in concerting measures for cutting off the convoys, of which the camp before Lifle ftcod in need. The former scheme failed; for, before the confpiracy at Aeth was ripe for execution, it was difcovered: but, in the latter part of their defign, they fucceeded. For, after various motions of both armies, they began to throw up lines for fecuring the paffes of the Scheld, and worked at them fo hard, that they appeared rather like the fortifications of a town, than intrenchments thrown up in hafte, notwithstanding they were feventy miles in length. On these they laid cannon, and pofted the greatest part of their army upon them, fo that they did effectually ftop all communication by the Scheld. Upon which the states ordered all that was neceffary, both for the army and for the fiege, to be fent to Oftend. And if the French had begun their defigns, with the intercepting this way of conveyance, the fiege muft have been raised, for want of ammunition to carry it on.

The duke of Burgundy was very uneafy for want of intelligence from Lifle; which put Dubois, a captain in his army, on one of the boldest enterprizes, which perhaps was Mill. Hift. ever undertaken by a fingle man. He determined to attempt getting into the city, notwithstanding the ftrict guards kept by the befiegers. He undreffed himself, and, having hid his cloaths, fwam over feven canals and ditches, and fo got into the town. Marshal Boufflers having provided him with cloaths, conducted him to both the attacks, fhewed him the condition all things were in, and, having written a letter to the duke of Burgundy, he rolled it up in wax, which the captain put in his mouth. He then returned the fame way he came, with the intelligence the duke of Burgundy wanted; by which it was faid, marfhal Boufflers acquainted him, that if one of the allies convoys could be intercepted, the fiege would be raised; and that he would undertake the place fhould hold out till the 6th or 10th of October.

On the 12th of September, about nine in the morning, the befieged came out of the town in great numbers, with four colours, and attacked the trenches on the left in fix different places, having, at the fame time, another body of troops in the covered way, ready to fuftain them. But be

fore

fore they could do any other damage than the overturning a few gabions, they were engaged by the next battalions in the trenches, and obliged to retreat in great diforder, having had above fixty men killed, and among them feveral officers; and, of the confederates, fourteen men were killed, and near thirty wounded. Lieutenant-general Arnam continued that night in the trenches, which were relieved, the night between the 13th and 14th, by the prince of Holstein-Beck; but the works were not advanced very much, because the troops, which had joined the grand army with prince Eugene, were not returned to their refpective pofts. However, they arrived the 14th, a little before break of day. The fame night the trenches were relieved by lieutenant-general Spaar, with ten battalions, as ufual; and the befiegers began to work upon some mines, in order to fill up the ditch of the tenaille, and they placed a great many gabions on the palifadoes. On the 15th, prince Eugene thought fit to alter the former difpofitions for relieving the trenches, and ordered, that all the lieutenant-generals of his army fhould roll according to their turns; that one of them fhould mount the trenches every day with a major-general; that the former fhould take his poft at the attack on the left, and the latter on the right; and that twelve battalions, instead of ten, fhould mount the trenches, five Imperialifts, Palatines, and Heffians, and feven detached from the troops of the prince of Naffau. Accordingly, on the 17th in the evening, lieutenant-general Wilks relieved the trenches with twelve battalions; and the fame night, director du Mey attacked, with fifty grenadiers, and the like number of fufileers, a traverse in the covered way, from which he beat the enemy with confiderable lofs. From the 17th to the 20th, the befiegers made their advances with all poffible diligence. The affault was intended to be made on the 20th in the evening; but the enemy having burnt the galleries and bridges, which were to be made ufe of therein, it was for this reason put off to the 21ft in the evening. About half an hour after fix, the trenches were relieved by lieutenant-general Wilks, major-general Saiken, and Sir Richard Temple, with the ufual number of battalions; the fignal being given by a gcneral discharge from the batteries, and the mines on the right and left sprung with good fuccefs. The grenadiers marched out with great intrepidity, mounted the breach of the tenaille on the right, obliged the enemy to retire into the retrenchment of that work, and made there a good lodgment. On the left, they had ftill greater fuccefs, for they poffeffed

them

1708.

1708.

themselves of a place of arms on the counterscarp of the tenaille, and drove the enemy out of the counterscarp before the grand breach, fo that here they made two lodgments; but on a fudden, the enemy came down in fuch numbers, that the officer who commanded this party of the allies, with a confiderable number of his men, were presently killed, the lodgments ruined, and the reft of the grenadiers obliged to retire. Prince Eugene feeing this, and believing that his prefence would re-animate the grenadiers, came out of the trenches; and, as the French accounts fay, rallied them thrice, advancing at their head, till he received a wound by à mufket-fhot, which, grazing over his left eye, beat off his hat. The prince of Heffe-Caffel, who was near him, took his own hat, which was likewife fhot through, and put it upon prince Eugene's head, who was prevailed on to retire, in order to have his wound dressed. This action coft the allies near a thousand men, to fupply which, the duke of Marlborough fent the next day a reinforcement of four hundred British and Pruffian grenadiers from his army to the fiege. The fame morning the duke and king Auguftus went to make prince Eugene a vifit, and, finding him ready to mount on horfeback, they prevailed on him to continue a few days in his chamber, till he was perfectly recovered: during which time the duke fuftained the weight of the command, both of the fiege and his own army; for he imme、 diately went into the trenches, vifited the works, and performed all that prince Eugene would have done, had he not been prevented by his wounds.

On the 22d, major-general Cadogan fet out for Oftend, to view a confiderable number of troops, which were landed there from England, under the command of lieutenant-general Erle, and to concert the neceflary measures for fecuring a great convoy they expected from Oftend. These troops had been embarked on board the fleet for fome time, made a feint of landing in Boulogne bay, and afterwards alarmed the French coaft of Normandy, to the great terror and expence of the inhabitants; and at length returning to their own coaft, the duke of Marlborough defired they might be landed at Oftend; and they proved a very seasonable reinforcement to the grand army in that critical conjuncture. The fame day the four hundred grenadiers, who were detached from the duke's army, and five and fifty fufileers, were to poft themselves that evening in the tenaille on the left; but the grenadiers arriving too late, the attack was deferred till the next day; fo that, on the 23d, all things

being in readiness, the duke of Marlborough, who was in the trenches, caufed a fignal to be given for the storm to begin, which was carried on with all imaginable success. The troops drove the enemy quite from the tenaille on the left (that on the right being taken the 21ft at night) and made a great lodgment along the covered way, without any confiderable lofs, except fome engineers and officers, who were wounded. It was obferved on this occafion, that the enemy did not defend thefe pofts with the fame vigour, which they had formerly exerted; from whence it was conjectured, that either the garrison had been much weakened in the hot disputes which they had fuftained, or began to want ammunition, which afterwards proved very apparent. For the fiege having been protracted to an unusual length, and the garrifon having fuftained feveral affaults, and made all the while prodigious fire marshal Boufflers found means to acquaint the duke of Vendofme, that he had fcarce ammunition fufficient for four days; which preffing neceffity obliged the enemy to venture upon a bold attempt of fupplying the place. In order to that, the duke of Vendofme detached the chevalier de Luxemberg, and under him monfieur de Tournefort, with a body of horse and dragoons, to endeavour to fupply the befieged, each man having a bag of forty pound weight of powder behind him. They advanced, the 28th at night, along the caufey from Doway to Lifle, and were met by an out-guard of one hundred horfe, commanded by count Schlick, who had been incamped at Pont-a-Treffin, with thirty fquadrons. This out-guard challenged them; and they declared that they belonged to the allies grand army, and were conducting fome prifoners to the camp. But a fubaltern officer, having a miftruft, advanced to examine them, who, thinking it impoffible to conceal themselves any longer, rode full gallop along the caufey, and got into the line of circumvallation. The guard and centinels having fired at them, the camp in general took the alarm, and feveral Palatine dragoons, getting on horfeback with the utmost expedition, fell upon the enemy, and pursued them to the barrier of the town, which the befieged were at first cautious of opening, and left their men for fome time exposed; by which means a great many were killed, and several returned back into the confederate camp, and endeavoured to fave themselves by favour of the night. The infantry made feveral difcharges at them; and the powder they had in their bags taking fire, did great mischief. Those who made their escape, threw away their powder, which was fet on fire by

1708.

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