WILLIAM AND MANY.

95

tion by the British camp fires. The ground, where the conflicthad raged was piled with corpses; and those who buried the-slain remarked that almost all the wounds had been given inclose fighting by the sword or the bayonet.

It was said that William so far forgot his wonted stoicism asto utter a passionate exclamation at the way in which theEnglishregiments had been sacrificed. Soon, however, he recoveredhis equanimity, and determined to fall back. It was high time:for the French army was every moment becoming stronger, asthe regiments commanded by Boufflers came up in rapid suc-cession. The allied army returned to Lambeque unpursued andin unbroken order.*

The French owned that they had about seven thousand menkilled and wounded. The loss of the allies had been little, if

* London Gazette, Aug. 4. 8. 11. 1692; Gazette do Paris, Aug. 9. 16.;Voltaire, Sifecle de Louis XIV.; Burnet, ii. 97.; Mdmoires de Berwick;Dykvelt’s Letter to the States General dated August 4. 1692. See also thevery interesting debate which took place in the House of Commons onNov. 21. 1692. An English translation of Luxemburg’s very elaborate andartful despatch will be found in the Monthly Mercury for September 1692.The original has recently been printed in the new edition of Dangcau.Lewis pronounced it the best despatch that he had ever seen. The editorof the Monthly Mercury maintains that it was manufactured at Paris. “Tothink otherwise,” he says, “is mere folly; as if Luxemburg could be at somuch leisure to write such a long letter, more like a pedant than a general,or rather the monitor of a school, giving an account to his master how therest of the boys behaved themselves.” In the Monthly Mercury will bofound also the French official list of killed and wounded. Of all the ac-counts of the battle that which seems to me the best is in the Memoirs ofFeuquibres. It is illustrated by a map. Feuquifcres divides his praise andblame very fairly between the generals. The traditions of the English messtables have been preserved by Sterne, who was brought up at the knees ofold soldiers of William. “‘There was Cutis’s,’ continued the Corporal,clapping the forefinger of his right hand upon the thumb of his left, andcounting round his hand; ‘there was Cutts’s, Mackay’s, Angus’s, Graham'sand Levon’s, all cut to pieces; and so had the English Lifeguards too, hadit not been for some regiments on the right, who marched up boldly totheir relief, and received the enemy’s fire in their faces, before any one oftheir own platoons discharged a musket. They’ll go to heaven for it,’added Trim.”

CHAP

XIX.

1692.