END OF THE CAMPAIGN IN FLANDERS. 291 of Orange left our army, as we afterwards found, to pass into England; where he married the Princess Mary, daughter of the Duke of York. And after his departure, that campaign ended without anything farther material. CHAPTER II. THE FAMOUS PEACE CONCLUDED- -DESPERATE BATTLE AT ST. DENNIS-RETURN TO ENGLAND -COMMISSION GIVEN BY KING JAMES-EARTHQUAKE AT DIXMUYD-SIEGE OF NAMUR-PRINCE VAUDEMONT'S GRAND RETREAT-DESTRUCTION OF BRUSSELS-VILLEROY'S GREAT ARMY. Now began the year 1678, famous for the peace, and no less remarkable for an action previous to it, which has not failed to employ the talents of men, variously, as they stood affected. Our army, under the Prince of Orange, lay encamped at Soignies, where it was whispered that the peace was concluded. Notwithstanding which, two days after, being Sunday the 17th day of August, the army was drawn out, as most others as well as myself apprehended, in order to a feux de joye; but in lieu of that, we found our march ordered towards St. Dennis, where the Duke of Luxemburg lay, as he imagined, safe in inaccessible intrenchments. About three o'clock our army arrived there, when we received orders to make the attack. It began with a most vigorous spirit, that promised no less than the success which ensued. The three English and three Scotch regiments, under the command of the ever renowned Earl of Ossory, together with the Prince of Orange's guards, made their attack at a place called the Château; where the French took their refuge among a parcel of hop-poles; but their resource was as weak as their defence, and they were soon beaten out with a very great slaughter. It was here that a French officer having his pistol directed at the breast of the prince, Monsieur D'Auverquerque interposed, and shot the officer dead upon the spot. The fight lasted from three in the afternoon till nine at night, when, growing dark, the Duke of Luxemburg forsook his intrenchments, into which we marched next morning. And to see the sudden change of things! that very spot of ground, where nothing but fire and fury appeared the day before, the next saw solaced with the proclamation of a peace. On About an hour before the attack began, the Duke of Monmouth arrived in the army, being kindly received by the Prince of Orange, bravely fighting by his side all that day. The woods, and the unevenness of the ground, rendered the cavalry almost useless; yet I saw a standard among some others, which was taken from the enemy, being richly embroidered with gold and silver, bearing the sun in the zodiac, with these haughty words, Nihil obstabit eunte. the news of this unexpected victory, the States of Holland sent to congratulate the prince; and to testify how much. they valued his preservation, they presented Monsieur D'Auverquerque, who had so bravely rescued him, with a sword, whose handle was of massy gold, set with diamonds. I forgot to mention that this gentleman received a shot on his head at the battle of Seneff; and truly, in all actions, which were many, he nobly distinguished himself by his bravery. He was father of this present Earl of Grantham. The names of the English officers which I knew to be killed in this action. Captain Fisher, Captain Pemfield, With several others, whose names I have forgot. Lieutenant-colonel Babington, who began the attack by beating the French out of the hop-garden, was taken prisoner. Colonel Hales, who was a long time governor of Chelsea College, being then a captain, received a shot on his leg, of which he went lame to his dying day. The war thus ended by the peace of Nimeguen, the regiment in which I served was appointed to lie in garrison at the Grave. We lay there near four years, our soldiers being mostly employed about the fortifications. It was here, and by that means, that I imbibed the rudiments of fortification, and the practical part of an engineer, which in my more advanced years was of no small service to me. MONMOUTH'S REBELLION IN ENGLAND. 293 Nevertheless, in the year 1684, our regiment received orders to march to Haren, near Brussels; where, with other forces, we encamped, till we heard that Luxemburg, invaded by the French, in a time of the profoundest peace, had surrendered to them. Then we decamped, and marched to Mechlin; where we lay in the field till near November. Not that there was any war proclaimed, but as not knowing whether those who had committed such acts of hostility in time of peace, might not take it in their heads to proceed yet farther. In November we marched into that town, where Count Nivelle was governor: the Marquis de Grana, at the same time, governing the Netherlands in the jurisdiction of Spain. Nothing of any moment happened after this, till the death of King Charles II. The summer after which, the three English and three Scotch regiments received orders to pass over into England, upon the occasion of Monmouth's rebellion; where, upon our arrival, we received orders to encamp on Hounslow Heath. But that rebellion being soon stifled, and King James having no farther need of us, those regiments were ordered to return again to Holland, into the proper service of those who paid them. Though I am no stiff adherer to the doctrine of predestination, yet to the full assurance of a providence I never could fail to adhere. Thence came it, that my natural desire to serve my own native country prevailed upon me to quit the service of another, though its neighbour and ally. Events are not always to direct the judgment; and therefore whether I did best in following these fondling dictates of nature, I shall neither question nor determine. However, it was not long after my arrival in England before I had a commission given me by King James, to be a lieutenant in a new-raised regiment under the command of Colonel Tufton, brother to the Earl of Thanet. Under this commission I sojourned out two peaceable campaigns on Hounslow Heath, where I was an eyewitness of one mock siege of Buda: after which our regiment was ordered to Berwick, where I remained till the Revolution. King James having abdicated the throne, and the Prince of Orange accepting the administration, all commissions were ordered to be renewed in his name. The officers of our regiment, as well as others, severally took out theirs accordingly; a very few excepted, of which number was our colonel, who refusing a compliance, his commission was given to Sir James Lesly. The Prince of Orange presently after was declared and proclaimed king, and his princess queen, with a conjunctive power. Upon which our regiment was ordered into Scotland, where affairs appeared under a face of disquietude. We had our quarters at Leith, till the time the Castle of Edin burgh, then under the command of the Duke of Gordon, had surrendered. After which, pursuant to fresh orders, we marched to Inverness, a place of no great strength, and as little beauty; though yet I think I may say, without the least danger of an hyperbole, that it is as pleasant as most places in that country. Here we lay two long winters, perpetually harassed upon parties, and hunting of somewhat wilder than their wildest game, namely, the Highlanders, who were, if not as nimble-footed, yet fully as hard to be found. But General Mackay having received orders to build a fort at Inverlochy, our regiment, among others, was commanded to that service. The two regiments appointed on the same duty, with some few dragoons, were already on their march, which having joined, we marched together through Louquebar. This sure is the wildest country in the Highlands, if not in the world. I did not see one house in all our march; and their economy, if I may call it such, is much the same with that of the Arabs or Tartars. Huts, or cabins of trees and trash, are their places of habitation, in which they dwell till their half-horned cattle have devoured the grass, and then remove, staying nowhere longer than that convenience invites them. In this march, or rather, if you please, most dismal peregrination, we could but very rarely go two on a breast, and oftener, like geese in a string, one after another. So that our very little army had sometimes, or rather most commonly, an extent of many miles; our enemy, the Highlanders, firing down upon us from their summits all the way. Nor was it possible for our men, or very rarely at least, to return their favours with any prospect of success; for as they popped upon us always on a sudden, they never stayed long enough to allow any of our soldiers a mark, or even time enough to fire. And for our men to march or climb up TWO COMMANDERS ESCAPE NAKED. 295 those mountains, which to them were natural champaign, would have been as dangerous as it seemed to us impracticable. Nevertheless, under all these disheartening disadvantages, we arrived at Inverlochy, and there performed the task appointed, building a fort on the same spot where Cromwell had raised one before. And, which was not a little remarkable, we had with us one Hill, a colonel, who had been governor in Oliver's time, and who was now again appointed governor by General Mackay. Thus the work on which we were sent being effected, we marched back again by the way of Gillycranky, where that memorable battle under Dundee had been fought the year before. Some time after, Sir Thomas Levingston, afterwards Earl of Tiviot, having received intelligence that the Highlanders intended to fall down into the lower countries in a considerable body, got together a party of about five hundred (the dragoons, called the Scotch Greys, inclusive), with which he resolved, if possible, to give them a meeting. We left Inverness the last day of April, and encamped near a little town called Forrest, the place where, as tradition still confidently avers, the witches met Macbeth, and greeted him with their diabolical auspices. But this story is so naturally displayed in a play of the immortal Shakespeare, that I need not descend here to any farther particulars. Here Sir Thomas received intelligence that the Highlanders designed to encamp upon the Spey, near the laird of Grant's Castle. Whereupon we began our march about noon; and the next day about the break thereof, we came to that river, where we soon discovered the Highlanders, by their fires. Sir Thomas, immediately on sight of it, issued his orders for our fording the river, and falling upon them as soon after as possible. Both were accordingly performed, and with so good order, secrecy, and success, that Cannon and Balfour, their commanders, were obliged to make their escape naked. They were about one thousand in number, of which were killed about three hundred; we pursued them till they got up Cromdale-hill, where we lost them in a fog. And indeed, so high is that hill, that they who perfectly knew it, assured me that it never is without a little dark fog hanging over it. And to me, at that instant of time, they seemed |