And
"have actually got into the interior mystery of the French
"Line of Battle, -- which is not a little astonished to see them
"there!
"have actually got into the interior mystery of the French
"Line of Battle, -- which is not a little astonished to see them
"there!
Thomas Carlyle
CBAP.
TO.
] FRIEDRICH IN SILESIA; UNUSUALLY BUSY.
119
<<h-27th May 1745. .
and in the end altogether, to the Pandour hordes; a
small matter they, compared to the grand Invasion
which is coming on. Here, with shiftings up the Neisse
Valley, he lies till the end of May; watching Argus-
like, and scanning with every faculty the Austrian-
Saxon motions and intentions, until at length they be-
come clear to him, and we shall see how he deals with
them.
His own lodging, or headquarter, most of this time
(4th May -- 27th May) is in the pleasant Abbey of
Camenz (mythic scene of that Baumgarten-Skirmish
business, in the First Silesian War). He has excellent
Tobias Stusche for company in leisure hours; and the
outlook of bright Spring all round him, flowering into
gorgeous Summer, as he hurries about on his many
occasions, not of an idyllic nature. * But his Army is
getting into excellent completeness of number, health,
equipment, and altogether such a spirit as he could
wish. May 22d, here is another snatch from some
Note to Podewils, from this balmy Locality, potential
with such explosions of another kind. "Camenz,
May 22d. * * "'The Enemies are making move-
"'ments; but nothing like enough as yet for our guess-
"'ing their designs. Till we see, therefore, the thunder
"'lies quiet in us (la foudre repose en mes mains). Ah,
'"could we but have a Day like that May Eleventh! "**
What "that May Eleventh" is or was? Readers
are curious to know; especially English readers, who
guess Fontenoy. And Historic Art, if she were strict,
would decline to inform them at any length; for really
the thing is no better than a "Victory on the Scamander,
* Oriioh, n. 189; Ranke, m, 242-249. ** Ranke, ra. 248 n.
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? 120 SECOND SILESIAN WAK. [book IV.
4th-7th May 1745.
and a Siege of Pekin" (as a certain observer did after-
wards define it), in reference to the matter now on
hand! Well, Pharsalia, Arbela, the Scamander,
Armageddon, and so many Battles and Victories being
luminous, by study, \ to cultivated Englishmen, and
one's own Fontenoy such a mystery and riddle, --
Art, after consideration, reluctantly consents to be in-
dulgent; will produce from her Paper Imbroglios a
slight Piece on the subject; and print instead of burn-
ing.
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? CHAP, vm. 1 BATTLE OF FONTENOY.
121
lltli May 1745.
CHAPTEE VIII.
THE MARTIAL BOY AND HIS ENGLISH VERSUS THE LAWS
OF NATURE.
"Glorious Campaign in the Netherlands, Siege of
Tournay, final ruin of the Dutch Barrier! " this is the
French program for Season 1745, -- no Belleisle to
contradict it; Belleisle secure at Windsor, who might
have leant more towards German enterprises. And to
this his Britannic Majesty (small gain to him from that
adroitness in the Harz, last winter! ) has to make front.
And is strenuously doing so, by all methods; especially
by heroic expenditure of money, and ditto exposure of
his Martial Boy. Poor old Wade, last year, -- per-
haps Wade did suffer, as he alleged, from "want of
sufficient authority in that mixed Army"? Well, here
is a Prince of the Blood, Royal Highness of Cumber-
land, to command in chief. With a Konigseck to dry-
nurse him, may not Royal Highness, luck favouring,
do very well? Luck did not favour; Britannic Majesty,
neither in the Netherlands over seas, nor at home
(strange new domestic wool, of a tarry Highland nature,
being thrown him to card, on the sudden! ), made a
good Campaign, but a bad. And again a bad (1746),
and again (1747), ever again, till he pleased to cease
altogether. Of which distressing objects we propose
that the following one glimpse be our last.
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? 122
SECOND SILEStAN WAR. [bOOKXV.
11th May 1745.
Battle of Fontenoy (11th May 1745).
* * "In the end of April, Marshal de Saxe, nowbe-
"come very famous for his sieges in the Netherlands, opened
"trenches before Tournay; King Louis, with his Dauphin,
"not to speak of mistresses, playactors and cookery apparatus
"(in wagons innumerable) hastens to be there. A fighting
''Army, say of 70,000, besides the garrisons; and great things,
"it is expected, will be done; Tournay, in spite of strong
"works and Dutch garrison of 9,000, to be taken in the first
"place.
"Of the Siege, which was difficult and ardent, we will re-
"member nothing, except the mischance thatbefel a certain
"'Marquis de Talleyrand' and his men, in the trenches, one
"night. Night of 8th-9th May, by carelessness of somebody,
"a spark got into the Marquis's powder, two powder-barrels
"that there were; and, with horrible crash, sent eighty men,
"Marquis Talleyrand and Engineer Du Mazis among them,
"aloft into the other world; raining down their limbs into the
"covered-way, where the Dutch were very inhuman to them,
"and provoked us to retaliate. * Du Mazis I do not know;
"but Marquis de Talleyrand turns out, on study of the French
"Peerages, to be Uncle of a lame little Boy, who became
"Right Reverend Talleyrand under singular conditions, and
"has made the name very current in after times! --
"Hearing of this Siege, the Duke of Cumberland hastened
"over from England, with intent to raise the same. Mustered
"his'Allied Army' (once called 'Pragmatic'), -- self at the
"head of it; old Count Konigseck, who was not burnt at
"Chotusitz, commandingthe small Austrian quota" (Austrians
mainly are gone laggarding withD'Ahrembergup theRhine);
"and a Prince of Waldeck the Dutch, -- on the plain of ''Anderlecht near Brussels, May 4th,** and found all things
"tolerably complete. Upon which, straightway, his Royal
"Highness, 60,000 strong let us say, set forth; by slowish
"marches, and a route somewhat leftward of the great Tour-
"nayRoad" (no place on it, except perhaps Steenkerke, ever
* Espagnac, n. 27.
? * Anonymous Life of Cumberland. p. 190; Espagnac, n. 26.
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? OHAP. Vtn. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 123
11th May 1745.
"heard of by an English reader); "and on Sunday 9th May,*
"precisely on the morrow after poor Talleyrand had gone
"aloft, reached certain final Villages: Vezon, Maubray,
"where he encamps, Briffoeil to rear; Camp looking towards
"Tournay and the setting sun, -- withFontenoy short way
"ahead, andAntoine to left of it, and Barry with its Woods
"to right: -- small peaceable Villages, which become famous
"in the Newspapers shortly after. ** Royal Highness, resting
"here at Vezon, is but some six or seven miles from Tournay;
"in low undulating Country, woody here and there, not with- "out threads of running water, and with frequent Villages
"and their adjuncts: the part of it now interesting to us lies "all between the Brussels-Tournay Road and the Scheld
"River, -- all in immediate front of his Royal Highness, --
"to south-eastward from beleaguered Tournay, where said
"Road and River intersect. How shall he make some im-
"pression on the Siege of Tournay? That is now the ques-
"tion; and his Royal Highness struggles to manoeuvre accord-
"ingly.
"Mare'chal de Saxe, whose habit is much that of vigilance,
"forethought, sagacious precaution, singular in so dissolute
"a man, has neglected nothing on this occasion. He knows
"every foot of the ground, having sieged here, in his boy-
"hood, once before. Leaving the siege-trenches at Tournay,
"under charge of a ten or fifteen thousand, he has taken
"camp here; still with superior force (56,000 as they count,
"RoyalHighness being only 50,000 ranked), barring Royal
"Highness s way. Tournay, or at least the Mardchal's "trenches there, are on the right bank of the Scheld; which
"flows from south-east, securing all on that hand. The
"broad Brussels Highway comes in to him from the east; --
"north of that, he has nothing to fear, the ground being cut
"with bogs; no getting through upon him, that way, to
"Tournay and what he calls the 'UnderScheld. ' The 'Upper
"'Scheld' too, eastward of the Enemy, can, for reasons which
"he sees, avail them nothing. There is only that triangle to
"the south-east, between Road and River, where the Enemy
"is now manoeuvering in front of him, from which damage
"can well come; and he has done his best to be secure there.
* Espagnac, n. 27.
** Patch of Map at p. 130.
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? 124 SECOND SILBSIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Four villages or hamlets, close to the Scheld and onwards to
"the Great Road, -- Antoine, Fontenoy, Barry, Ramecroix,
"with their lanes and boscages, -- make a kind of circular
"base to his triangle; base of some six or eight miles; with
hollows in it, brooks, and northward a considerable Wood"
(Bois de Barry, enveloping Barry and Ramecroix, which do
not prove of much interest to us, though the Bois does of a
good deal). "In and before each of those villages are posts
"and defences; in Antoine and Fontenoy elaborate redoubts,
"batteries, redans connecting: in the Wood (Bois de Barry),
"an abattis, or wall of felled trees, as well as cannon; and at
"the point of the Wood, well within double-range ofFonte-
"noy, is a Redoubt, called ofEu (Redoute <TEu, from the re-
giment occupying it), which will much concern his Royal
"Highness and us. Saxe has a hundred pieces of cannon"
(say the English, which is correct), "consummately disposed
"along this space; no ingress possible anywhere, except
"through the cannon's throat, torrents of fire and cross-fire
"playing on you. He is armed to the teeth, as they say; and
"has his 56,000 arranged according to the best rules of tac-
"tics, behind this murderous line of works. If his Royal
"Highness think of breaking in, he maycount on a very warm
"reception indeed.
"Saxe is only afraid his Royal Highness will not. Out-
"side of these lines, with a 50,000 dashing fiercely round us,
"under any kind of leading; pouncing on our convoys;
"harassing and sieging us, -- our siege of Tournay were a
"sad outlook. And this is old Austrian Konigseck's opinion,
"too; though, they say, Waldeck and the Dutch (impetuous
"in theory at least) opined otherwise, and strengthened
"Royal Highness's view. Two young men against one old:
"'Be it so, then! ' His Royal Highness, resolute forgetting in,
"manoeuvres and investigates, all Monday 10th; his cannon
"is not to arrive completely till night; otherwise he would be
"for breaking in at once: a fearless young man, fearless as
"ever his poor Father was; certainly a man sans peur, this
"one too; whether of much avis, we shall see anon.
"Tuesday morning early, 11th May 1745, cannon being
"up, and dispositions made, his Royal Highness sallies out;
"sees his men taking their ground: Dutch and Austrians to
"the left, chiefly opposite Antoine; English, with some
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? CHAF. vni. ] BATTLE OF FONTENO*. 125
11th May 1745.
"Hanoverians, in the centre and to the right; infantry in
"front, facingFontenoy, cavalry to rear flanking the Wood
"of Barry, -- Konigseck, Ligonier, and others able, assisting
"to plant them advantageously; cannon going, on both sides,
"the while; radiant enthusiasm, sans peuret sans avis, look-
"ing from his Royal Highness's face. He has been on horse-
"back since two in the morning; cannon started thundering
"between five and six, -- has killed chivalrous Grammont
"over yonder (the Grammont of Dettingen), almost at the
"first volley. And now, about the time when ploughers
"breakfast (eight a. m. , no ploughing hereabouts today! ),
"begins the attack, simultaneously or in swift succession, on
"the various batteries which it will be necessary to attack
"and storm.
"The attacks took place; but none of them succeeded.
"Dutch and Austrians, on the extreme left, were to have
"stormed Antoine by the edge of the River; that was their
"main task; right skirt of them to help us meanwhile with
"Fontenoy. And they advanced, accordingly; but found
"the shot from Antoine too fierce: especially when a sub-
sidiary battery opened from across the River, and took them
"in flank, the Dutch and Austrians felt astonished; and
"hastily drew aside, under some sheltering mound orearth-
"work they had found for themselves, or prudently thrown
"up the night before. There, under their earthwork, stood
"the Dutch and Austrians; patiently expecting a fitter time,
"which indeed never occurred; for always, the instant they
"drewout, the batteries from Antoine, and from across the
"River, instantly opened upon them, and they had to draw in
"again. So that they stood there, in a manner, all day; and
"so to speak did nothing but patiently expect when it should
"be time to run. For which they were loudly censured, and
"deservedly. Antoine is and remains a total failure on the
"part of the Dutch and Austrians.
"Royal Highness in person, with his English, was to attack
"Fontenoy; -- and is doing so, by battery and storm, at
"variouspoints; with emphasis, though without result. As
"preliminary, at an early stage he had sent forward on the
"right, by the Wood of Barry, a Brigadier Ingoldsby 'with
'"Semple's Highlanders' and other force, to silence 'that
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? 126 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"'redoubt yonder at the point of the Wood,' -- redoubt, fort,
"or whatever it be (famous Redoute d'Eu, as it turned out! ),
"--which guards Fontenoy to north, and will take us in
"flank, nay in rear, as we storm the cannon of the Village.
"Ingoldsby, speed imperative on him, pushed into the Wood;
"foundFrench light-troops ('God knows how many of them! ')
"prowling about there; found the Redoubt a terribly strong
"thing, with ditch, drawbridge, whatnot; spent thirty or
"forty of his Highlanders, in some frantic attempt on it by
"rule of thumb; -- and found 'He would need artillery' and
"otherthings. In short, Ingoldsby, hasten what he might,
"could not perfect the preparations to his mind, had to wait
"for this and for that; and did not storm the Redoubt d'Eu at
"all; but hung fire, in an unaccountable manner. For which
"he had to answer (to Court-Martial, still more to the News-
papers) afterwards; and prove that it was misfortune
"merely, or misfortune and stupidity combined. Too evident,
"the Redoute d'Eu was not taken, then or thenceforth; which
"might have proved the saving of the whole affair, could In-
"goldsby have managed it. Royal Highness attacked Fonte-
"noy, and re-attacked, furiously, thrice over; and had to
"desist, and find Fontenoy impossible on those terms.
"Here is a piece of work. Repulsed at all those points;
"and on the left and on the right, no spirit visible but what
"deserves repulse! His Royal Highness blazes into resplen-
"dent Platt-Deutsch rage, what we may call spiritual white-
"heat, a man sanspeur at any rate, and pretty much sans avis;
"decides that he must and will be through those lines, if it
"please God; that he will not be repulsed at his part of the
"attack, not he for one; but will plunge through, by what
"gap there is" (900 yards Voltaire measures it*) "between
"Fontenoy and that Redoubt with its laggard Ingoldsby;
"and see what the French interior is like! He rallies rapidly,
"re-arranges; forms himself in thin column or columns"
(three of them, I think, -- which gradually got crushed into
one, as they advanced, under cannon-shot on both hands), --
"wheeling his left round, to be rear, his right to be head of
"said column or columns. In column, the cannon-shot from
* (Euvres, xxvm. 150 (Siecle de Louis Qitinzc, c. xv. "Bataillg de Fonte-
noi," -- elaborately exact on all such points).
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? CHAP, vm. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 127
11th May 1745.
"Fontenoy on the left, and Redoubt d'Euon our right, will
"tell less on us; and between these two death-dealing locali-
"ties, by the hollowest, least shelterless way discoverable,
"we mean to penetrate: 'Forward, my men, steady and swift,
"'till we are through the shot-range, and find men to grapple
"'with, instead of case-shot and projectile iron! ' Marechal
"de Saxe owned afterwards, 'He should have put an ad-
"'ditional redoubt in that place, but he did not think any
"'Army would try such a thing' (cannon batteries playing on
"each hand at 400 yards distance); -- nor has any Army
"since or before!
"These columns advance, however; through bushy hollows,
"water-courses, through what defiles or hollowest grounds
"there are; endure the cannon-shot, while they must; trailing
"their own heavy-guns by hand, and occasionally blasting
"out of them where the ground favours; -- and do, with in-
dignant patience, wind themselves through, pretty much
"beyond direct shot-range of either d'Eu or Fontenoy.
And
"have actually got into the interior mystery of the French
"Line of Battle, -- which is not a little astonished to see them
"there! It is over a kind of blunt ridge, or rising ground,
"that they are coming: on the crown of this rising ground,
"the French regiment fronting it (Gardes Francoises as it
"chanced to be) notices, with surprise, field-cannon pointed
"the wrong way; actual British artillery unaccountably
"showing itself there. Regiment of Gardes rushes up to seize
"said fieldpieces: but, on the summit, perceives with amaze-
"ment that it cannot; that a heavy volley of musketry blazes
"into it (killing sixty men); that it will have to rush back
"again, and report progress: Huge British force, of unknown
"extent, is readjusting itself into column there, and will be
"upon us on the instant. Here is news!
"News true enough. The head of the English column
"comes to sight, over the rising ground, close by: their offi-
"cersdoff their hats, politely saluting ours, who return the
"civility: was ever such politeness seen before? It is a fact;
"and among the memorablest of this Battle. Nay a certain
"English Officer of mark, -- Lord Charles Hay the name of
"him, valued surely in the annals of the Hay and Tweeddale
"House, -- steps forward from the ranks, as if wishing some-
"thing. Towards whom" (says the accurate Espagnac)
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? 128 SECOKD SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Marquis d'Auteroche, grenadier-lieutenant, with air of polite
"interrogation, not knowing what he meant, made a step or
"two: 'Monsieur,' said Lord Charles (Lord Charles-hay),
"' bid your people fire (faites tirer vos gens )V 'Non, Monsieur,
"'nous ne tirons jamais les premiers (We never fire first). '*
"After you, Sirs! Is not this a bit of modern chivalry? A
"supreme politeness in that sniffing pococurante kind; pro-
bably the highest point (or lowest) it ever went to. Which I
"have often thought of. "
It is almost pity to disturb an elegant Historical Passage
of this kind, circulating round the world, in some glory, for
a century past: but there has a small irrefragable Document
come to me, which modifies it a good deal, and reduces
matters to the business form. Lord Charles Hay, "Lieutenant-
Colonel," practical Head, "of the First Regiment of Foot-
guards," wrote, about three weeks after (or dictated in sad
spelling, not himself able to write for wounds), a Letter to
his Brother, of which here is an Excerpt at first hand, with
only the spelling altered: * * "It was our Regiment that
"attacked the French Guards: and when we came within
"twenty or thirty paces of them, I advanced before our Regi-
"ment; drank to them" (to the French, from the pocket-
pistol one carries on such occasions), "and told them that
"we were the English Guards, and hoped that they would
"stand till we came quite up to them, and not swim the
"Scheld as they did the Mayn at Dettingen" (shameful
third-bridge, not of wood, though carpeted with blue cloth
there)! "Upon which I immediately turned about to our
"ownRegiment; speeched them, and made them huzzah,"
-- I hope with a will. "An Officer" (d'Auteroche) "came out
"of the ranks, and tried to make his men huzzah; however,
* Espagnac, n. 60 (of the Original, Toulouse, 1789); n. 48 of the Ger-
man Translation (Leipzig, 1774), our usual reference. Voltaire, endlessly
informed upon details this time, is equally express: "Milord Charles Hay,
"capitaine aux gardes anglaises, cria: 'Messieurs des gardes francaises,
"tireiP To which Count d'Auteroche with a loud voice answered" &c.
((Euvres, vol. xxvm. p. 1551. See also Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons
(edited by a Grand-Nephew, Paris, 1860), p. 151; -- a poor, considerably
noisy and unclean little Book; which proves unexpectedly worth looking
at, in regard to some of those poor Battles and personages and occurrences:
the Bohemian Belleisle-Broglio part, to my regret, if to no other person's,
has been omitted, as extinct, or undecipherable by the Grand-Nephew.
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? CBAP. m] BATTLE OP FONTENOY. 129
11th May 1745.
"there were not above three or four in their Brigade that
did. "f * *
Very poor counter-huzzah. And not the least whisper of
that sublime "After you, Sirs! " but rather, in confused
form, of quite the reverse; Hay having been himself fired
into ("fire had begun on my left;" Hay totally ignorant on
which side first), -- fired into, rather feebly, and wounded
by those dAuteroche people, while he was still advancing
with shouldered arms; -- upon which, and not till which, he
did give it them: in liberal dose; and quite blew them off
the ground, for that day. From all which, one has to infer,
That the mutual salutation by hat was probably a fact; that,
for certain, there was some slight preliminary talk and
gesticulation, but in the Homeric style, by no means in the
Espagnac-French, -- not chivalrous epigram at all, mere
rough banter, and what is called "chaffing;"-- and in short,
that the French Mess-rooms (with their eloquent talent that
way) had rounded off the thing into the current epigrammatic
redaction; the authentic business-form of it being ruggedly
what is now given. Let our Manuscript proceed.
"D'Auteroche declining the first fire," -- or accepting it,
if ever offered, nobody can say, -- "the three Guards Regi-
"ments, Lord Charles's on the right, give it him hot and
"heavy, 'tremendous rolling fire;' so that D'Auteroche,
"responding more or less, cannot stand it; but has at once
"to rustle into discontinuity, he and his, and roll rapidly
"out of the way. And the British Column advances, steadily,
"terribly, hurling back all opposition from it; deeper and
"deeper into the interior mysteries of the French Host;
"blasting its way with gunpowder; -- in a magnificent
"manner. A compact Column, slowly advancing, -- ap-
parently of some 16,000 foot. Pauses, readjusts itself a
"little, when not meddled with; when meddled with, has
"cannon, has rolling fire, ? --delivers from it, in fact, on both
"hands such a torrent of deadly continuous fire as was rarely
"seen before or since. 'Feu infernal,' the French call it.
"The French make vehement resistance. Battalions,
"squadrons, regiment after regiment, charge madly on this
t "Ath, May ye 20th, o. a. " (to John, Fourth Marquis of Tweeddale,
last 'Secretary of State for Scotland,' and a man of figure. in his day);
Letter is at Yester House, East Lothian; Excerpt penes me.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VIU. 9
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? 130 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"terrible Column; but rush only on destruction thereby.
"Regiment This storms in from the right, regiment That
"from the left; have their colonels shot, 'lose the half of
"' their people;' and hastily draw back again, in a wrecked
"condition. The cavalry-horses cannot stand such smoke
"and blazing; nor indeed, I think, can the cavaliers. Regi-
"ment du Roi rushing on, full gallop, to charge this Column,
"got one volley from it" (says Espagnac) "which brought to
"the ground 460 men. Natural enough that horses take the
"bit between their teeth; likewise that men take it, and
"career very madly in such circumstances!
"The terrible Column with slow inflexibility advances;
"cannon (now in reversed position) from that Redoubt d'Eu
"('Shame on you, Ingoldsby! ') and irregular musketry from
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? CHAP. VIII. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. . 131
11th May 1745.
"Fontenoy side, playing upon it; defeated regiments making
"barriers of their dead men and firing there; Column always
"closing its gapped ranks, and girdled with insupportable
"fire. It ought to have taken Fontenoy and Redoubt d'Eu,
"say military men; it ought to have done several things! It
"has now cut the French fairly in two; -- and Saxe, who is
"earnestly surveying it a hundred paces a-head, sends word,
"conjuring the King to retire instantly, -- across the Scheld,
"by Calonne Bridge and the strong rear-guard there, -- who,
"however, will not. King and Dauphin, on horseback both,
"have stood 'at the Justice (Gallows, in fact) of our Lady of
"'the Woods,' not stirring much, occasionally shifting to a
"windmill higher, -- ye Heaven, with what intrepidity, all
"day! -- 'a good many country-folk in trees close behind
"'them. ' Country-folk, I suppose, have by this time seen
"enough, and are copiously making off: but the King will not,
"though things do look dubious.
"In fact, the Battle hangs now upon a hair; the Battle is
"as good as lost, thinks Marechal the Saxe. His battle-lines
"torn in two in that manner, hovering in ragged clouds over
"the field, what hope is there in the Battle? Fontenoy is firing
"blank, this some time; its cannon-balls done. Officers, in An-
"toine, are about withdrawing the artillery, -- then again (on
"new order) replacing it a while. All are looking towards the
"Scheld Bridge; earnestly entreating his Majesty to with-
"draw. Had the Dutch, at this point of time, broken heartily
"in, as Waldeck was urging them to do, upon the redoubts
"of Antoine; or had His Royal Highness the Duke, for his
"own behoof, possessed due cavalry or artillery to act upon
"these ragged clouds, which hang broken there, very fit for
"being swept, were there an artillery-and-horse besom to do
"it,-- in either of these cases, the Battle was the Duke's.
"And a right fiery victory it would have been; to make his
"name famous; and confirm the English in their mad method
"of figthing, like Baresarks or Janizaries rather than stra-
tegic human creatures. *
"But neither of these contingencies had befallen. The
* See, in BUschings Magazin, xvi. 169 ("Your illustrious 'Column/ at
Fontenoy? It was fortuitous, I say; done like janizariesand so forth), a Criticism worth reading by soldiers.
9*
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? 132 SECOND SILESIAN WAS. [bookXV.
11th May 1745.
"Dutch-Austrian wing did evince some wish to get possession
"of Antoine; and drew out a little; but the guns also awoke
"upon them; whereupon the Dutch-Austrians drew in again,
"thinking the time not come. As for the Duke, he had taken
"with him of cannon a good few; but of horse none at all (im-
"possible for horse, unless Fontenoy and the Redoubt d'Eu
"were ours! ) -- and his horse have been hanging about, in the
"Wood of Barry all this while, uncertain what to do; their
"old Commander being killed withal, and their new a dubi-
"tative person, and no orders left. The Duke had left no
"orders; having indeed broken in here, in what we called a
"spiritual white-heat, without asking himself much what he
"would do when in: 'Beat the French, knock them to
"'powder, if I can! ' -- Meanwhile the French clouds are re-
assembling a little: Royal Highness too is readjusting him-
"self, now got '300 yards ahead of Fontenoy,' -- pauses
"there about half an hour, not seeing his way farther.
"During which pause, Due de Richelieu, famous black-
"guard man, gallops up to the Mare'chal, gallops rapidly
"from Mare'chal to King; suggesting, 'Were cannon brought
"ahead of this close deep Column, might not they shear it
"into beautiful destruction; and then a general charge be
"made? " So counselled Richelieu: it is said, the Jacobite
"Irishman, Count Lally of the Irish Brigade, was prime
"author of this notion, -- a man of tragic notoriety in time
"coming. * Whoever was author of it, Mare'chal de Saxe
"adopts it eagerly, King Louis eagerly: swift it becomes a
"fact. Universal rally, universal simultaneous charge on
"both flanks of the terrible Column: this it might resist, as it
"has done these two hours past; but cannon ahead, shearing
"gaps through it from end to end, this is what no column can
"resist; -- and only perhaps one of Friedrich's columns (if
"even that) with Friedrich's eye upon it, could make its half-
"right-about (quart de conversion), turn its side to it, and ma-
"noeuvre out of it, in such circumstances. The wrathful Eng-
"lish Column, slit into ribbons, can do nothing at manoeuver-
* "Thomas Arthur Lally Comte de Tollendal," patronymical]y
"O'MuIaMi/ of Tullindally" (a place somewhere in Connaught, undiscover-
able where, not material where): see our dropsical friend (in one of his
whocziest states), King James's Irish Army-List (Dublin, 1855), pp. 594-600.
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? CHAP, viil. l BATTLE OP FONTENOY. 133
11th May 1745.
"ing; blazes and rages, -- more and more clearly in vain;
"collapses by degrees, rolls into ribbon coils, and winds it-
"self out of the field. Not much chased, -- its cavalry now
"seeing a job, and issuing from the Wood of Barry to cover
"the retreat. Not much chased; -- yet with a loss, they say
"in all, of 7,000 killed and wounded, and about 2,000 pn-
"soners; French loss being under 5,000.
"The Dutch and Austrians had found that the fit time was
"now come, or taken time by the forelock, -- their part of
"the loss, they said, was a thousand and odd hundreds. The
"Battle ended about two o'clock of the day; had begun about
"eight. Tuesday, 11th May 1745: one of the hottest half-
"day's works I have known. A thing much to be meditated
"by the English mind. -- King Louis stept down from the
"Gallows-Hill of Our Lady; and kissed Mare'chal de Saxe.
"Saxe was nearly dead of dropsy; could not sit on horseback,
"except for minutes; was carried about in a wicker bed; has
"had a lead bullet in his mouth, all day, to mitigate the in-
"tolerable thirst. Tournay was soon taken; the Dutch gar-
"rison, though strong, and in a strong place, making no due
"debate.
"Royal Highness retired upon Ath and Brussels; hovered
"about, nothing daunted, he or his: 'Dastard fellows, they
"' would not come out into the open ground, and try us fairly f'
"snort indignantly the Gazetteers and enlightened Public. *
"Nothing daunted; -- but, as it were, did not do anything
"farther, this Campaign; except loseGand, by negligence
"versus vigilance, and eat his victuals, -- till called home by
"the Rebellion Business, in an unexpected manner! Fonte-
"noy was the nearest approach he ever made to getting
"victory in a battle; but a miss too, as they all were. He was
"nothinglike so rash, on subsequent occasions; but had no
"betterTuck; and was beaten in all his battles, -- except the
"immortal Victory of Culloden alone. Which latter indeed,
"was it not itself (in the Gazetteer mind) a kind of apotheosis,
"or lifting of a man to the immortal gods, --by endless tar-
"barrels and beer, for the time being?
"Old Mare'chal de Noailles was in this Battle; busy about
"the redans, and proud to see his Saxe do well. Chivalrous
* Old Newspapers.
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? 134 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Grammont, too, as we saw, was there,--killed at the first
"discharge. Prince deSoubise too (not killed); acertain Lord
"George Sackville (hurt slightly, --perhaps hadieHer have
"been killed! ) -- and others known to us, or that will be
"known. Army-Surgeon La Mettrie, of busy brain, expert
"with his tourniquets and scalpels, but of wildly blusterous
"heterodox tongue and ways, is thrice busy in Hospital this
"night, -- 'English and French all one to you, nay if any-
"thing the English better! ' those are the Royal orders: --
"La Mettrie will turn up, in new capacity, still blusterous, at
"Berlin, by and by.
"The French made immense explosions of rejoicing over
"this Victory of Fontenoy; Voltaire (now a man well at
"Court) celebrating it in prose and verse, to an amazing de-
"gree (21,000 copies sold in one day); the whole Nation blaz-
ing out over it mto illuminations, arcs of triumph, anduni-
"versal three times three: -- in short, I think, nearly the
"heartiest National Huzzah, loud, deep, long-drawn, that
"the Nation ever gave in like case. Now rather curious to
"consider, at this distance of time. Miraculous Anecdotes,
"true and not true, are many. Not to mention again that
"surprising offer of the first fire to us, what shall we say of
"' the two camp-suttlers whom I noticed,' English females of
"the lowest degree; 'one of whom was busy slitting the gold-
"'lace from a dead Officer, when a cannon-ball came whist-
'"ling, and shore her head away. Upon which, without
"'sound uttered, her neighbour snatched the scissors, and de-
"'liberately proceeded. '* A deliberate gloomy People; --
"unconquerable except by French prowess, glory to that
"same! "
Britannic Majesty is not successful this season;
Highland Rebellions rising on him, and much going
awry. He is founding his National Debt, poor Majesty;
nothing else to speak of. His poor Army, fighting
never so well in foreign quarrels, -- and generally
* A French Officer'* Account (translated In Gentleman's Magazine, 1745; where, pp. 246, 250, 291, 313, &c. , are many confused details and specula-
tions on this subject).
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? CHAP, vm. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY.
<<h-27th May 1745. .
and in the end altogether, to the Pandour hordes; a
small matter they, compared to the grand Invasion
which is coming on. Here, with shiftings up the Neisse
Valley, he lies till the end of May; watching Argus-
like, and scanning with every faculty the Austrian-
Saxon motions and intentions, until at length they be-
come clear to him, and we shall see how he deals with
them.
His own lodging, or headquarter, most of this time
(4th May -- 27th May) is in the pleasant Abbey of
Camenz (mythic scene of that Baumgarten-Skirmish
business, in the First Silesian War). He has excellent
Tobias Stusche for company in leisure hours; and the
outlook of bright Spring all round him, flowering into
gorgeous Summer, as he hurries about on his many
occasions, not of an idyllic nature. * But his Army is
getting into excellent completeness of number, health,
equipment, and altogether such a spirit as he could
wish. May 22d, here is another snatch from some
Note to Podewils, from this balmy Locality, potential
with such explosions of another kind. "Camenz,
May 22d. * * "'The Enemies are making move-
"'ments; but nothing like enough as yet for our guess-
"'ing their designs. Till we see, therefore, the thunder
"'lies quiet in us (la foudre repose en mes mains). Ah,
'"could we but have a Day like that May Eleventh! "**
What "that May Eleventh" is or was? Readers
are curious to know; especially English readers, who
guess Fontenoy. And Historic Art, if she were strict,
would decline to inform them at any length; for really
the thing is no better than a "Victory on the Scamander,
* Oriioh, n. 189; Ranke, m, 242-249. ** Ranke, ra. 248 n.
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? 120 SECOND SILESIAN WAK. [book IV.
4th-7th May 1745.
and a Siege of Pekin" (as a certain observer did after-
wards define it), in reference to the matter now on
hand! Well, Pharsalia, Arbela, the Scamander,
Armageddon, and so many Battles and Victories being
luminous, by study, \ to cultivated Englishmen, and
one's own Fontenoy such a mystery and riddle, --
Art, after consideration, reluctantly consents to be in-
dulgent; will produce from her Paper Imbroglios a
slight Piece on the subject; and print instead of burn-
ing.
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? CHAP, vm. 1 BATTLE OF FONTENOY.
121
lltli May 1745.
CHAPTEE VIII.
THE MARTIAL BOY AND HIS ENGLISH VERSUS THE LAWS
OF NATURE.
"Glorious Campaign in the Netherlands, Siege of
Tournay, final ruin of the Dutch Barrier! " this is the
French program for Season 1745, -- no Belleisle to
contradict it; Belleisle secure at Windsor, who might
have leant more towards German enterprises. And to
this his Britannic Majesty (small gain to him from that
adroitness in the Harz, last winter! ) has to make front.
And is strenuously doing so, by all methods; especially
by heroic expenditure of money, and ditto exposure of
his Martial Boy. Poor old Wade, last year, -- per-
haps Wade did suffer, as he alleged, from "want of
sufficient authority in that mixed Army"? Well, here
is a Prince of the Blood, Royal Highness of Cumber-
land, to command in chief. With a Konigseck to dry-
nurse him, may not Royal Highness, luck favouring,
do very well? Luck did not favour; Britannic Majesty,
neither in the Netherlands over seas, nor at home
(strange new domestic wool, of a tarry Highland nature,
being thrown him to card, on the sudden! ), made a
good Campaign, but a bad. And again a bad (1746),
and again (1747), ever again, till he pleased to cease
altogether. Of which distressing objects we propose
that the following one glimpse be our last.
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? 122
SECOND SILEStAN WAR. [bOOKXV.
11th May 1745.
Battle of Fontenoy (11th May 1745).
* * "In the end of April, Marshal de Saxe, nowbe-
"come very famous for his sieges in the Netherlands, opened
"trenches before Tournay; King Louis, with his Dauphin,
"not to speak of mistresses, playactors and cookery apparatus
"(in wagons innumerable) hastens to be there. A fighting
''Army, say of 70,000, besides the garrisons; and great things,
"it is expected, will be done; Tournay, in spite of strong
"works and Dutch garrison of 9,000, to be taken in the first
"place.
"Of the Siege, which was difficult and ardent, we will re-
"member nothing, except the mischance thatbefel a certain
"'Marquis de Talleyrand' and his men, in the trenches, one
"night. Night of 8th-9th May, by carelessness of somebody,
"a spark got into the Marquis's powder, two powder-barrels
"that there were; and, with horrible crash, sent eighty men,
"Marquis Talleyrand and Engineer Du Mazis among them,
"aloft into the other world; raining down their limbs into the
"covered-way, where the Dutch were very inhuman to them,
"and provoked us to retaliate. * Du Mazis I do not know;
"but Marquis de Talleyrand turns out, on study of the French
"Peerages, to be Uncle of a lame little Boy, who became
"Right Reverend Talleyrand under singular conditions, and
"has made the name very current in after times! --
"Hearing of this Siege, the Duke of Cumberland hastened
"over from England, with intent to raise the same. Mustered
"his'Allied Army' (once called 'Pragmatic'), -- self at the
"head of it; old Count Konigseck, who was not burnt at
"Chotusitz, commandingthe small Austrian quota" (Austrians
mainly are gone laggarding withD'Ahrembergup theRhine);
"and a Prince of Waldeck the Dutch, -- on the plain of ''Anderlecht near Brussels, May 4th,** and found all things
"tolerably complete. Upon which, straightway, his Royal
"Highness, 60,000 strong let us say, set forth; by slowish
"marches, and a route somewhat leftward of the great Tour-
"nayRoad" (no place on it, except perhaps Steenkerke, ever
* Espagnac, n. 27.
? * Anonymous Life of Cumberland. p. 190; Espagnac, n. 26.
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? OHAP. Vtn. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 123
11th May 1745.
"heard of by an English reader); "and on Sunday 9th May,*
"precisely on the morrow after poor Talleyrand had gone
"aloft, reached certain final Villages: Vezon, Maubray,
"where he encamps, Briffoeil to rear; Camp looking towards
"Tournay and the setting sun, -- withFontenoy short way
"ahead, andAntoine to left of it, and Barry with its Woods
"to right: -- small peaceable Villages, which become famous
"in the Newspapers shortly after. ** Royal Highness, resting
"here at Vezon, is but some six or seven miles from Tournay;
"in low undulating Country, woody here and there, not with- "out threads of running water, and with frequent Villages
"and their adjuncts: the part of it now interesting to us lies "all between the Brussels-Tournay Road and the Scheld
"River, -- all in immediate front of his Royal Highness, --
"to south-eastward from beleaguered Tournay, where said
"Road and River intersect. How shall he make some im-
"pression on the Siege of Tournay? That is now the ques-
"tion; and his Royal Highness struggles to manoeuvre accord-
"ingly.
"Mare'chal de Saxe, whose habit is much that of vigilance,
"forethought, sagacious precaution, singular in so dissolute
"a man, has neglected nothing on this occasion. He knows
"every foot of the ground, having sieged here, in his boy-
"hood, once before. Leaving the siege-trenches at Tournay,
"under charge of a ten or fifteen thousand, he has taken
"camp here; still with superior force (56,000 as they count,
"RoyalHighness being only 50,000 ranked), barring Royal
"Highness s way. Tournay, or at least the Mardchal's "trenches there, are on the right bank of the Scheld; which
"flows from south-east, securing all on that hand. The
"broad Brussels Highway comes in to him from the east; --
"north of that, he has nothing to fear, the ground being cut
"with bogs; no getting through upon him, that way, to
"Tournay and what he calls the 'UnderScheld. ' The 'Upper
"'Scheld' too, eastward of the Enemy, can, for reasons which
"he sees, avail them nothing. There is only that triangle to
"the south-east, between Road and River, where the Enemy
"is now manoeuvering in front of him, from which damage
"can well come; and he has done his best to be secure there.
* Espagnac, n. 27.
** Patch of Map at p. 130.
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? 124 SECOND SILBSIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Four villages or hamlets, close to the Scheld and onwards to
"the Great Road, -- Antoine, Fontenoy, Barry, Ramecroix,
"with their lanes and boscages, -- make a kind of circular
"base to his triangle; base of some six or eight miles; with
hollows in it, brooks, and northward a considerable Wood"
(Bois de Barry, enveloping Barry and Ramecroix, which do
not prove of much interest to us, though the Bois does of a
good deal). "In and before each of those villages are posts
"and defences; in Antoine and Fontenoy elaborate redoubts,
"batteries, redans connecting: in the Wood (Bois de Barry),
"an abattis, or wall of felled trees, as well as cannon; and at
"the point of the Wood, well within double-range ofFonte-
"noy, is a Redoubt, called ofEu (Redoute <TEu, from the re-
giment occupying it), which will much concern his Royal
"Highness and us. Saxe has a hundred pieces of cannon"
(say the English, which is correct), "consummately disposed
"along this space; no ingress possible anywhere, except
"through the cannon's throat, torrents of fire and cross-fire
"playing on you. He is armed to the teeth, as they say; and
"has his 56,000 arranged according to the best rules of tac-
"tics, behind this murderous line of works. If his Royal
"Highness think of breaking in, he maycount on a very warm
"reception indeed.
"Saxe is only afraid his Royal Highness will not. Out-
"side of these lines, with a 50,000 dashing fiercely round us,
"under any kind of leading; pouncing on our convoys;
"harassing and sieging us, -- our siege of Tournay were a
"sad outlook. And this is old Austrian Konigseck's opinion,
"too; though, they say, Waldeck and the Dutch (impetuous
"in theory at least) opined otherwise, and strengthened
"Royal Highness's view. Two young men against one old:
"'Be it so, then! ' His Royal Highness, resolute forgetting in,
"manoeuvres and investigates, all Monday 10th; his cannon
"is not to arrive completely till night; otherwise he would be
"for breaking in at once: a fearless young man, fearless as
"ever his poor Father was; certainly a man sans peur, this
"one too; whether of much avis, we shall see anon.
"Tuesday morning early, 11th May 1745, cannon being
"up, and dispositions made, his Royal Highness sallies out;
"sees his men taking their ground: Dutch and Austrians to
"the left, chiefly opposite Antoine; English, with some
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? CHAF. vni. ] BATTLE OF FONTENO*. 125
11th May 1745.
"Hanoverians, in the centre and to the right; infantry in
"front, facingFontenoy, cavalry to rear flanking the Wood
"of Barry, -- Konigseck, Ligonier, and others able, assisting
"to plant them advantageously; cannon going, on both sides,
"the while; radiant enthusiasm, sans peuret sans avis, look-
"ing from his Royal Highness's face. He has been on horse-
"back since two in the morning; cannon started thundering
"between five and six, -- has killed chivalrous Grammont
"over yonder (the Grammont of Dettingen), almost at the
"first volley. And now, about the time when ploughers
"breakfast (eight a. m. , no ploughing hereabouts today! ),
"begins the attack, simultaneously or in swift succession, on
"the various batteries which it will be necessary to attack
"and storm.
"The attacks took place; but none of them succeeded.
"Dutch and Austrians, on the extreme left, were to have
"stormed Antoine by the edge of the River; that was their
"main task; right skirt of them to help us meanwhile with
"Fontenoy. And they advanced, accordingly; but found
"the shot from Antoine too fierce: especially when a sub-
sidiary battery opened from across the River, and took them
"in flank, the Dutch and Austrians felt astonished; and
"hastily drew aside, under some sheltering mound orearth-
"work they had found for themselves, or prudently thrown
"up the night before. There, under their earthwork, stood
"the Dutch and Austrians; patiently expecting a fitter time,
"which indeed never occurred; for always, the instant they
"drewout, the batteries from Antoine, and from across the
"River, instantly opened upon them, and they had to draw in
"again. So that they stood there, in a manner, all day; and
"so to speak did nothing but patiently expect when it should
"be time to run. For which they were loudly censured, and
"deservedly. Antoine is and remains a total failure on the
"part of the Dutch and Austrians.
"Royal Highness in person, with his English, was to attack
"Fontenoy; -- and is doing so, by battery and storm, at
"variouspoints; with emphasis, though without result. As
"preliminary, at an early stage he had sent forward on the
"right, by the Wood of Barry, a Brigadier Ingoldsby 'with
'"Semple's Highlanders' and other force, to silence 'that
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? 126 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"'redoubt yonder at the point of the Wood,' -- redoubt, fort,
"or whatever it be (famous Redoute d'Eu, as it turned out! ),
"--which guards Fontenoy to north, and will take us in
"flank, nay in rear, as we storm the cannon of the Village.
"Ingoldsby, speed imperative on him, pushed into the Wood;
"foundFrench light-troops ('God knows how many of them! ')
"prowling about there; found the Redoubt a terribly strong
"thing, with ditch, drawbridge, whatnot; spent thirty or
"forty of his Highlanders, in some frantic attempt on it by
"rule of thumb; -- and found 'He would need artillery' and
"otherthings. In short, Ingoldsby, hasten what he might,
"could not perfect the preparations to his mind, had to wait
"for this and for that; and did not storm the Redoubt d'Eu at
"all; but hung fire, in an unaccountable manner. For which
"he had to answer (to Court-Martial, still more to the News-
papers) afterwards; and prove that it was misfortune
"merely, or misfortune and stupidity combined. Too evident,
"the Redoute d'Eu was not taken, then or thenceforth; which
"might have proved the saving of the whole affair, could In-
"goldsby have managed it. Royal Highness attacked Fonte-
"noy, and re-attacked, furiously, thrice over; and had to
"desist, and find Fontenoy impossible on those terms.
"Here is a piece of work. Repulsed at all those points;
"and on the left and on the right, no spirit visible but what
"deserves repulse! His Royal Highness blazes into resplen-
"dent Platt-Deutsch rage, what we may call spiritual white-
"heat, a man sanspeur at any rate, and pretty much sans avis;
"decides that he must and will be through those lines, if it
"please God; that he will not be repulsed at his part of the
"attack, not he for one; but will plunge through, by what
"gap there is" (900 yards Voltaire measures it*) "between
"Fontenoy and that Redoubt with its laggard Ingoldsby;
"and see what the French interior is like! He rallies rapidly,
"re-arranges; forms himself in thin column or columns"
(three of them, I think, -- which gradually got crushed into
one, as they advanced, under cannon-shot on both hands), --
"wheeling his left round, to be rear, his right to be head of
"said column or columns. In column, the cannon-shot from
* (Euvres, xxvm. 150 (Siecle de Louis Qitinzc, c. xv. "Bataillg de Fonte-
noi," -- elaborately exact on all such points).
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? CHAP, vm. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 127
11th May 1745.
"Fontenoy on the left, and Redoubt d'Euon our right, will
"tell less on us; and between these two death-dealing locali-
"ties, by the hollowest, least shelterless way discoverable,
"we mean to penetrate: 'Forward, my men, steady and swift,
"'till we are through the shot-range, and find men to grapple
"'with, instead of case-shot and projectile iron! ' Marechal
"de Saxe owned afterwards, 'He should have put an ad-
"'ditional redoubt in that place, but he did not think any
"'Army would try such a thing' (cannon batteries playing on
"each hand at 400 yards distance); -- nor has any Army
"since or before!
"These columns advance, however; through bushy hollows,
"water-courses, through what defiles or hollowest grounds
"there are; endure the cannon-shot, while they must; trailing
"their own heavy-guns by hand, and occasionally blasting
"out of them where the ground favours; -- and do, with in-
dignant patience, wind themselves through, pretty much
"beyond direct shot-range of either d'Eu or Fontenoy.
And
"have actually got into the interior mystery of the French
"Line of Battle, -- which is not a little astonished to see them
"there! It is over a kind of blunt ridge, or rising ground,
"that they are coming: on the crown of this rising ground,
"the French regiment fronting it (Gardes Francoises as it
"chanced to be) notices, with surprise, field-cannon pointed
"the wrong way; actual British artillery unaccountably
"showing itself there. Regiment of Gardes rushes up to seize
"said fieldpieces: but, on the summit, perceives with amaze-
"ment that it cannot; that a heavy volley of musketry blazes
"into it (killing sixty men); that it will have to rush back
"again, and report progress: Huge British force, of unknown
"extent, is readjusting itself into column there, and will be
"upon us on the instant. Here is news!
"News true enough. The head of the English column
"comes to sight, over the rising ground, close by: their offi-
"cersdoff their hats, politely saluting ours, who return the
"civility: was ever such politeness seen before? It is a fact;
"and among the memorablest of this Battle. Nay a certain
"English Officer of mark, -- Lord Charles Hay the name of
"him, valued surely in the annals of the Hay and Tweeddale
"House, -- steps forward from the ranks, as if wishing some-
"thing. Towards whom" (says the accurate Espagnac)
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? 128 SECOKD SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Marquis d'Auteroche, grenadier-lieutenant, with air of polite
"interrogation, not knowing what he meant, made a step or
"two: 'Monsieur,' said Lord Charles (Lord Charles-hay),
"' bid your people fire (faites tirer vos gens )V 'Non, Monsieur,
"'nous ne tirons jamais les premiers (We never fire first). '*
"After you, Sirs! Is not this a bit of modern chivalry? A
"supreme politeness in that sniffing pococurante kind; pro-
bably the highest point (or lowest) it ever went to. Which I
"have often thought of. "
It is almost pity to disturb an elegant Historical Passage
of this kind, circulating round the world, in some glory, for
a century past: but there has a small irrefragable Document
come to me, which modifies it a good deal, and reduces
matters to the business form. Lord Charles Hay, "Lieutenant-
Colonel," practical Head, "of the First Regiment of Foot-
guards," wrote, about three weeks after (or dictated in sad
spelling, not himself able to write for wounds), a Letter to
his Brother, of which here is an Excerpt at first hand, with
only the spelling altered: * * "It was our Regiment that
"attacked the French Guards: and when we came within
"twenty or thirty paces of them, I advanced before our Regi-
"ment; drank to them" (to the French, from the pocket-
pistol one carries on such occasions), "and told them that
"we were the English Guards, and hoped that they would
"stand till we came quite up to them, and not swim the
"Scheld as they did the Mayn at Dettingen" (shameful
third-bridge, not of wood, though carpeted with blue cloth
there)! "Upon which I immediately turned about to our
"ownRegiment; speeched them, and made them huzzah,"
-- I hope with a will. "An Officer" (d'Auteroche) "came out
"of the ranks, and tried to make his men huzzah; however,
* Espagnac, n. 60 (of the Original, Toulouse, 1789); n. 48 of the Ger-
man Translation (Leipzig, 1774), our usual reference. Voltaire, endlessly
informed upon details this time, is equally express: "Milord Charles Hay,
"capitaine aux gardes anglaises, cria: 'Messieurs des gardes francaises,
"tireiP To which Count d'Auteroche with a loud voice answered" &c.
((Euvres, vol. xxvm. p. 1551. See also Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons
(edited by a Grand-Nephew, Paris, 1860), p. 151; -- a poor, considerably
noisy and unclean little Book; which proves unexpectedly worth looking
at, in regard to some of those poor Battles and personages and occurrences:
the Bohemian Belleisle-Broglio part, to my regret, if to no other person's,
has been omitted, as extinct, or undecipherable by the Grand-Nephew.
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? CBAP. m] BATTLE OP FONTENOY. 129
11th May 1745.
"there were not above three or four in their Brigade that
did. "f * *
Very poor counter-huzzah. And not the least whisper of
that sublime "After you, Sirs! " but rather, in confused
form, of quite the reverse; Hay having been himself fired
into ("fire had begun on my left;" Hay totally ignorant on
which side first), -- fired into, rather feebly, and wounded
by those dAuteroche people, while he was still advancing
with shouldered arms; -- upon which, and not till which, he
did give it them: in liberal dose; and quite blew them off
the ground, for that day. From all which, one has to infer,
That the mutual salutation by hat was probably a fact; that,
for certain, there was some slight preliminary talk and
gesticulation, but in the Homeric style, by no means in the
Espagnac-French, -- not chivalrous epigram at all, mere
rough banter, and what is called "chaffing;"-- and in short,
that the French Mess-rooms (with their eloquent talent that
way) had rounded off the thing into the current epigrammatic
redaction; the authentic business-form of it being ruggedly
what is now given. Let our Manuscript proceed.
"D'Auteroche declining the first fire," -- or accepting it,
if ever offered, nobody can say, -- "the three Guards Regi-
"ments, Lord Charles's on the right, give it him hot and
"heavy, 'tremendous rolling fire;' so that D'Auteroche,
"responding more or less, cannot stand it; but has at once
"to rustle into discontinuity, he and his, and roll rapidly
"out of the way. And the British Column advances, steadily,
"terribly, hurling back all opposition from it; deeper and
"deeper into the interior mysteries of the French Host;
"blasting its way with gunpowder; -- in a magnificent
"manner. A compact Column, slowly advancing, -- ap-
parently of some 16,000 foot. Pauses, readjusts itself a
"little, when not meddled with; when meddled with, has
"cannon, has rolling fire, ? --delivers from it, in fact, on both
"hands such a torrent of deadly continuous fire as was rarely
"seen before or since. 'Feu infernal,' the French call it.
"The French make vehement resistance. Battalions,
"squadrons, regiment after regiment, charge madly on this
t "Ath, May ye 20th, o. a. " (to John, Fourth Marquis of Tweeddale,
last 'Secretary of State for Scotland,' and a man of figure. in his day);
Letter is at Yester House, East Lothian; Excerpt penes me.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VIU. 9
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? 130 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"terrible Column; but rush only on destruction thereby.
"Regiment This storms in from the right, regiment That
"from the left; have their colonels shot, 'lose the half of
"' their people;' and hastily draw back again, in a wrecked
"condition. The cavalry-horses cannot stand such smoke
"and blazing; nor indeed, I think, can the cavaliers. Regi-
"ment du Roi rushing on, full gallop, to charge this Column,
"got one volley from it" (says Espagnac) "which brought to
"the ground 460 men. Natural enough that horses take the
"bit between their teeth; likewise that men take it, and
"career very madly in such circumstances!
"The terrible Column with slow inflexibility advances;
"cannon (now in reversed position) from that Redoubt d'Eu
"('Shame on you, Ingoldsby! ') and irregular musketry from
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? CHAP. VIII. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. . 131
11th May 1745.
"Fontenoy side, playing upon it; defeated regiments making
"barriers of their dead men and firing there; Column always
"closing its gapped ranks, and girdled with insupportable
"fire. It ought to have taken Fontenoy and Redoubt d'Eu,
"say military men; it ought to have done several things! It
"has now cut the French fairly in two; -- and Saxe, who is
"earnestly surveying it a hundred paces a-head, sends word,
"conjuring the King to retire instantly, -- across the Scheld,
"by Calonne Bridge and the strong rear-guard there, -- who,
"however, will not. King and Dauphin, on horseback both,
"have stood 'at the Justice (Gallows, in fact) of our Lady of
"'the Woods,' not stirring much, occasionally shifting to a
"windmill higher, -- ye Heaven, with what intrepidity, all
"day! -- 'a good many country-folk in trees close behind
"'them. ' Country-folk, I suppose, have by this time seen
"enough, and are copiously making off: but the King will not,
"though things do look dubious.
"In fact, the Battle hangs now upon a hair; the Battle is
"as good as lost, thinks Marechal the Saxe. His battle-lines
"torn in two in that manner, hovering in ragged clouds over
"the field, what hope is there in the Battle? Fontenoy is firing
"blank, this some time; its cannon-balls done. Officers, in An-
"toine, are about withdrawing the artillery, -- then again (on
"new order) replacing it a while. All are looking towards the
"Scheld Bridge; earnestly entreating his Majesty to with-
"draw. Had the Dutch, at this point of time, broken heartily
"in, as Waldeck was urging them to do, upon the redoubts
"of Antoine; or had His Royal Highness the Duke, for his
"own behoof, possessed due cavalry or artillery to act upon
"these ragged clouds, which hang broken there, very fit for
"being swept, were there an artillery-and-horse besom to do
"it,-- in either of these cases, the Battle was the Duke's.
"And a right fiery victory it would have been; to make his
"name famous; and confirm the English in their mad method
"of figthing, like Baresarks or Janizaries rather than stra-
tegic human creatures. *
"But neither of these contingencies had befallen. The
* See, in BUschings Magazin, xvi. 169 ("Your illustrious 'Column/ at
Fontenoy? It was fortuitous, I say; done like janizariesand so forth), a Criticism worth reading by soldiers.
9*
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? 132 SECOND SILESIAN WAS. [bookXV.
11th May 1745.
"Dutch-Austrian wing did evince some wish to get possession
"of Antoine; and drew out a little; but the guns also awoke
"upon them; whereupon the Dutch-Austrians drew in again,
"thinking the time not come. As for the Duke, he had taken
"with him of cannon a good few; but of horse none at all (im-
"possible for horse, unless Fontenoy and the Redoubt d'Eu
"were ours! ) -- and his horse have been hanging about, in the
"Wood of Barry all this while, uncertain what to do; their
"old Commander being killed withal, and their new a dubi-
"tative person, and no orders left. The Duke had left no
"orders; having indeed broken in here, in what we called a
"spiritual white-heat, without asking himself much what he
"would do when in: 'Beat the French, knock them to
"'powder, if I can! ' -- Meanwhile the French clouds are re-
assembling a little: Royal Highness too is readjusting him-
"self, now got '300 yards ahead of Fontenoy,' -- pauses
"there about half an hour, not seeing his way farther.
"During which pause, Due de Richelieu, famous black-
"guard man, gallops up to the Mare'chal, gallops rapidly
"from Mare'chal to King; suggesting, 'Were cannon brought
"ahead of this close deep Column, might not they shear it
"into beautiful destruction; and then a general charge be
"made? " So counselled Richelieu: it is said, the Jacobite
"Irishman, Count Lally of the Irish Brigade, was prime
"author of this notion, -- a man of tragic notoriety in time
"coming. * Whoever was author of it, Mare'chal de Saxe
"adopts it eagerly, King Louis eagerly: swift it becomes a
"fact. Universal rally, universal simultaneous charge on
"both flanks of the terrible Column: this it might resist, as it
"has done these two hours past; but cannon ahead, shearing
"gaps through it from end to end, this is what no column can
"resist; -- and only perhaps one of Friedrich's columns (if
"even that) with Friedrich's eye upon it, could make its half-
"right-about (quart de conversion), turn its side to it, and ma-
"noeuvre out of it, in such circumstances. The wrathful Eng-
"lish Column, slit into ribbons, can do nothing at manoeuver-
* "Thomas Arthur Lally Comte de Tollendal," patronymical]y
"O'MuIaMi/ of Tullindally" (a place somewhere in Connaught, undiscover-
able where, not material where): see our dropsical friend (in one of his
whocziest states), King James's Irish Army-List (Dublin, 1855), pp. 594-600.
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? CHAP, viil. l BATTLE OP FONTENOY. 133
11th May 1745.
"ing; blazes and rages, -- more and more clearly in vain;
"collapses by degrees, rolls into ribbon coils, and winds it-
"self out of the field. Not much chased, -- its cavalry now
"seeing a job, and issuing from the Wood of Barry to cover
"the retreat. Not much chased; -- yet with a loss, they say
"in all, of 7,000 killed and wounded, and about 2,000 pn-
"soners; French loss being under 5,000.
"The Dutch and Austrians had found that the fit time was
"now come, or taken time by the forelock, -- their part of
"the loss, they said, was a thousand and odd hundreds. The
"Battle ended about two o'clock of the day; had begun about
"eight. Tuesday, 11th May 1745: one of the hottest half-
"day's works I have known. A thing much to be meditated
"by the English mind. -- King Louis stept down from the
"Gallows-Hill of Our Lady; and kissed Mare'chal de Saxe.
"Saxe was nearly dead of dropsy; could not sit on horseback,
"except for minutes; was carried about in a wicker bed; has
"had a lead bullet in his mouth, all day, to mitigate the in-
"tolerable thirst. Tournay was soon taken; the Dutch gar-
"rison, though strong, and in a strong place, making no due
"debate.
"Royal Highness retired upon Ath and Brussels; hovered
"about, nothing daunted, he or his: 'Dastard fellows, they
"' would not come out into the open ground, and try us fairly f'
"snort indignantly the Gazetteers and enlightened Public. *
"Nothing daunted; -- but, as it were, did not do anything
"farther, this Campaign; except loseGand, by negligence
"versus vigilance, and eat his victuals, -- till called home by
"the Rebellion Business, in an unexpected manner! Fonte-
"noy was the nearest approach he ever made to getting
"victory in a battle; but a miss too, as they all were. He was
"nothinglike so rash, on subsequent occasions; but had no
"betterTuck; and was beaten in all his battles, -- except the
"immortal Victory of Culloden alone. Which latter indeed,
"was it not itself (in the Gazetteer mind) a kind of apotheosis,
"or lifting of a man to the immortal gods, --by endless tar-
"barrels and beer, for the time being?
"Old Mare'chal de Noailles was in this Battle; busy about
"the redans, and proud to see his Saxe do well. Chivalrous
* Old Newspapers.
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? 134 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Grammont, too, as we saw, was there,--killed at the first
"discharge. Prince deSoubise too (not killed); acertain Lord
"George Sackville (hurt slightly, --perhaps hadieHer have
"been killed! ) -- and others known to us, or that will be
"known. Army-Surgeon La Mettrie, of busy brain, expert
"with his tourniquets and scalpels, but of wildly blusterous
"heterodox tongue and ways, is thrice busy in Hospital this
"night, -- 'English and French all one to you, nay if any-
"thing the English better! ' those are the Royal orders: --
"La Mettrie will turn up, in new capacity, still blusterous, at
"Berlin, by and by.
"The French made immense explosions of rejoicing over
"this Victory of Fontenoy; Voltaire (now a man well at
"Court) celebrating it in prose and verse, to an amazing de-
"gree (21,000 copies sold in one day); the whole Nation blaz-
ing out over it mto illuminations, arcs of triumph, anduni-
"versal three times three: -- in short, I think, nearly the
"heartiest National Huzzah, loud, deep, long-drawn, that
"the Nation ever gave in like case. Now rather curious to
"consider, at this distance of time. Miraculous Anecdotes,
"true and not true, are many. Not to mention again that
"surprising offer of the first fire to us, what shall we say of
"' the two camp-suttlers whom I noticed,' English females of
"the lowest degree; 'one of whom was busy slitting the gold-
"'lace from a dead Officer, when a cannon-ball came whist-
'"ling, and shore her head away. Upon which, without
"'sound uttered, her neighbour snatched the scissors, and de-
"'liberately proceeded. '* A deliberate gloomy People; --
"unconquerable except by French prowess, glory to that
"same! "
Britannic Majesty is not successful this season;
Highland Rebellions rising on him, and much going
awry. He is founding his National Debt, poor Majesty;
nothing else to speak of. His poor Army, fighting
never so well in foreign quarrels, -- and generally
* A French Officer'* Account (translated In Gentleman's Magazine, 1745; where, pp. 246, 250, 291, 313, &c. , are many confused details and specula-
tions on this subject).
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? CHAP, vm. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY.
