field was cleared in an instant; but Prince Commercy went off with the rest of his party, and was pursued no farther.

There were sixteen or seventeen of our men released as I was, from being taken; but they had not the luck I had, to take the officer that had them in keeping; he had been so generous to me as not to ask what money I had about me, though I had not much if he had; but I lost by his civility, for then I could not have the assurance to ask him for his money, though I understood he had near a hundred pistoles about him; but he very handsomely at night, when we came to our tents, made me a present of twenty pistoles, and in return I obtained leave for him to go to Prince Eugene's camp upon his parole, which he did, and so got himself exchanged.

It was after this campaign that I was quartered at Cremona, when the action happened there, of which I have spoken already, and where our Irish regiment did such service that they saved the town from being really surprised, and indeed beat the Germans out again, after they had been masters of three quarters of the town six hours, and by which they gained a very great reputation.

CHAPTER XIV.

FARTHER OPERATIONS OF THE CAMPAIGN-I AM QUARTERED AT TRENT, AND MARRY MY LANDLORD'S DAUGHTER-I SELL MY COMPANY, AND EMBARK IN THE FRENCH FLEETPARTICULARS OF THEIR EXPEDITION-I RETURN UNEXPECTEDLY TO PARIS, AND MAKE A DISAGREEABLE DISCOVERY RELATING TO MY WIFE-I CHALLANGE AND WOUND HER GALLANT.

BUT I hasten on to my own history, for I am not writing a journal of the wars, in which I had no long share.

The summer after this, our two Irish regiments were drawn out into the field, and had many a sore brush with the Germans; for Prince Eugene, a vigilant general, gave us little rest, and gained many advantages by his continual moving up and down, harassing his own men and ours too; and whoever will do the French justice, and knew how they

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behaved, must acknowledge they never declined the Germans, but fought them upon all occasions, with the utmost resolution and courage; and though it cost the blood of an infinite number of fine gentlemen, as well as private soldiers, yet the Duke de Vendôme, who now commanded, though king Philip was himself in the army this campaign, made the prince of Savoy a full return in his own kind, and drove him from post to post, till he was just at the point of quitting the whole country of Italy; all that gallant army Prince Eugene brought with him into Italy, which was the best, without doubt, for the goodness of the troops,, that ever were there, laid their bones in that country, and many thousands more after them, till the affairs of France declining in other places, they were forced in their turn to give way to their fate, as may be seen in the histories of those times, as above; but it is none of my business.

The part that I bore in these affairs was but short and sharp: we took the field about the beginning of July, 1702, and the Duke de Vendôme ordered the whole army to draw the sooner together, in order to relieve the city of Mantua, which was blocked up by the imperialists.

Prince Eugene was a politic, and indeed a fortunate prince, and had the year before pushed our army upon many occasions; but his good fortune began to fail him a little this year, for our army was not only more numerous than his, but the duke was in the field before him; and as the prince had held Mantua closely blocked up all the winter, the duke resolved to relieve the town, cost what it would. As I said, the duke was first in the field; the prince was in no condition to prevent his raising the blockade by force; so he drew off his troops, and leaving several strong bodies of troops to protect Bersello, which the Duke de Vendôme threatened, and Borgo Fort, where his magazine lay, he drew all the rest of his forces together, to make head against us. By this time the king of Spain was come into the army, and the Duke de Vendôme lay with about thirty-five thousand men, near Luzara, which he had resolved to attack, to bring Prince Eugene to a battle: the prince of Vaudemont lay intrenched with twenty thousand more at Rivalto, behind Mantua, to cover the frontiers of Milan, and there were near twelve thousand in Mantua itself; and Monsieur Pracontal lay withi ten thousand men just under the cannon of one of the forts

which guard the causeway which leads into the city of Mantua: so that had all these joined, as they would have done in a few days more, the prince must have been put to his shifts, and would have had enough to do to have maintained himself in Italy; for he was master of no one place in the country, that could have held out a formal siege of fifteen days, and he knew all this very well; and therefore, it seems, while the duke of Vendôme resolved, if possible, to bring him to a battle, and to that end made dispositions to attack Luzara, we were surprised to find, the 15th of June, 1702, the whole imperial army appeared in battalia, and in full march to attack us.

As it happened, our army was all marching in columns towards them, as we had done for two days before; and I should have told you, that three days before, the duke having notice that General Visconti, with three imperial regiments of horse, and one of dragoons, was posted at San-Victoria, on the Tessona, he resolved to attack them; and this design was carried so secretly, that while Monsieur Visconti, though our army was three leagues another way, was passing towards the Modenese, he found himself unexpectedly attacked by six thousand horse and dragoons of the French army. He defended himself very bravely for near an hour; when being overpowered, and finding he should be forced into disorder, he sounded a retreat; but the squadrons had not faced about to make their retreat scarce a quarter of an hour, when they found themselves surrounded with a great body of infantry, who had entirely cut off their retreat, except over the bridge of Tassona, which being thronged with their baggage, they could neither get backward or forward; so they thrust and tumbled over one another in such a manner, that they could preserve no kind of order; but abundance fell into the river, and were drowned, many were killed, and more taken prisoners; so that in a word, the whole three regiments of horse, and one of dragoons, were entirely defeated.

This was a great blow to the prince, because they were some of the choicest troops of his whole army. We took about four hundred prisoners, and all their baggage, which was a very considerable booty, and about eight hundred horses; and no doubt these troops were very much wanted in the battle that ensued on the 15th, as I have said. Our army being in full march, as above, to attack Luzara, a party

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of Germans appeared, being about six hundred horse, and in less than an hour more, their whole army, in order of battle.

Our army formed immediately, and the duke posted the regiments as they came up, so much to their advantage, that Prince Eugene was obliged to alter his dispositions, and had this particular inconvenience upon his hands, viz., to attack an army superior to his own, in all their most advantageous posts; whereas, had he thought fit to have waited but one day, we should have met him half way: but this was owing to the pride of the German generals, and their being so opinionated of the goodness of their troops. The royal army was posted with the left to the great river Po, on the other side of which the prince of Vaudemont's army lay cannonading the intrenchments which the imperialists had made at Borgo Fort; and hearing that there was like to be a general battle, he detached twelve battalions and about a thousand horse, to reinforce the royal army; all which, to our great encouragement, had time to join the army; while Prince Eugene was making his new dispositions for the attack; and yet it was the coming of these troops which caused Prince Eugene to resolve to begin the fight, expecting to have come to an action before they could come up; but he was disappointed in the reason of fighting, and yet was obliged to fight too, which was an error in the prince that it was too late to retrieve.

It was five o'clock in the evening before he could bring up his whole line to engage; and then, after having cannonaded us to no great purpose for half an hour, his right, commanded by the Prince de Commercy, attacked our left wing with great fury. Our men received them so well, and seconded one another so punctually, that they were repulsed with a very great slaughter, and the Prince de Commercy being, unhappily for them, killed in the first onset, the regiments, for want of orders, and surprised with the fall of so great a man, were pushed into disorder, and one whole brigade was entirely broke.

But their second line: dvancing, under General Herbeville, restored things in the first; the battalions rallied, and they came boldly on to charge a second time, and being seconded with new reinforcements from their main body, our men had their turn, and were pushed to a canal, which lay on their left flank, between them and the Po, behind which they rallied,

and being supported by new troops, as well horse as foot, they fought on both sides with the utmost obstinacy, and with such courage and skill, that it was not possible to judge who should have had the better, could they have been able to have fought it out.

On the right of the royal army, was posted the flower of the French cavalry; namely, the gendarmes, the royal carabineers, and the queen's horse-guards, with four hundred horse more, and next them the infantry, among which were our brigade; the horse advanced first to charge, and they carried all before them sword in hand, receiving the fire of two imperial regiments of cuirassiers, without firing a shot, and falling in among them, bore them down by the strength of their horses, putting them into confusion, and left so clear a field for us to follow, that the first line of our infantry stood drawn up upon the ground which the enemy at first possessed.

In this first attack the Marquis de Crequi, who commanded the whole right wing, was killed; a loss which fully balanced the death of the Prince de Commercy, on the side of the Germans. After we had thus pushed the enemy's cavalry, as above, their troops, being rallied by the dexterity of their generals, and supported by three imperial regiments of foot, came on again to the charge with such fury, that nothing could withstand them; and here two battalions of our Irish regiments were put into disorder, and abundance of our men killed; and here also I had the misfortune to receive a musket shot, which broke my left arm; and that was not all, for I was knocked down by a giant-like German soldier, who, when he thought he had killed me, set his foot upon me, but was immediately shot dead by one of my men, and fell just upon me, which, my arm being broken, was a very great mischief to me; for the very weight of the fellow, who was almost as big as a horse, was such, that I was not able to stir.

Our men were beaten back after this, from the place where they stood; and so I was left in possession of the enemy, but was not their prisoner, that is to say, was not found, till next morning, when a party being sent, as usual, with surgeons to look after the wounded men, among the dead, found me almost smothered with the dead Germans, and others that lay near me: however, to do them justice, they used me with hu manity, and the surgeons set my arm very skilfully and well;