WILLIAM AND MARY.

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above a quarter of an hour. Thanks be to God that preservedhim.” The enemy pressed on him so close that it was with dif-ficulty that he at length made his way over the Gette. A smallbody of brave men, who shared his peril to the last, couldhardly keep off the pursuers as he crossed the bridge. *

Never, perhaps, was the change which the progress ofcivilisation has produced in the art of war more strikinglyillustrated than on that day. Ajax beating down the Trojanleader with a rock which two ordinary men could scarcely lift,Horatius defending the bridge against an army, Richard theLionhearted spurring along the whole Saracen line withoutfinding an enemy to stand his assault, Robert Bruce crushingwith one blow the helmet and head of Sir Henry Bohun in sightof the whole array of England and Scotland, such are the heroesof a dark age. In such an age bodily vigour is the mostindispensable qualification of a warrior. At Landen two poorsickly beings, who, in a rude state of society, would have beenregarded as too puny to bear any part in combats, were the soulsof two great armies. In some heathen countries they wouldhave been exposed while infants. In Christendom they would,six hundred years earlier, have been sent to some quiet cloister.But their lot had fallen on a time when men had discovered

* Berwick; Saint Simon; Burnet, i. 112, 113.; Feuquibres; LondonGazette, July 27. 31., Aug. 3. 1693; French Official Relation; Relation sentby the King of Great Britain -to their High Mightinesses, Aug. 2. 1693;Extract of a Letter from the Adjutant of the King of England’s DragoonGuards, Aug. 1.; Dykvelt's Letter to the Slates General, dated July 30. atnoon. The last four papers will be found in the Monthly Mercuries of Julyand August 1693. Sec also the History of the Last Campaign in the SpanishNetherlands by Edward D’Auvergne, dedicated to tho Duke of Ormond,1693. The French did justice to William. u Le Prince d’Orange,” Racinewrote to Boileau, “pensa 6tre pris, aprfes avoir fait des merveillcs.'’ Seealso the glowing description of Sterne, who, no doubt, had many timesheard the battle fought over by old soldiers. It was on this occasion thatCorporal Trim was left wounded on the field, and was nursed by theBcguine.

chap.

xx.

"Teas.