prince having secured the whole Milanese for king Philip, and no enemy appearing for some time, had nothing to do but to receive the auxiliary troops of France, and as they came, extend himself every way as he could, in order to keep the imperialists (who were preparing to fall into Italy with a great army) as much at a distance as possible, which he did, by taking possession of the city of Mantua, and of most of the towns on that side, as far as the lake De la Guarda, and the river Adige.

We lay in Mantua some time, but were afterwards drawn out by order of the Count de Tesse (afterwards marshal of France), to form the French army, till the arrival of the Duke de Vendôme, who was to command in chief. Here we had a severe campaign, anno 1701, having Prince Eugene of Savoy, and an army of forty thousand Germans, all old soldiers, to deal with; and though the French army was more numerous than the enemy by twenty-five thousand men, yet, being on the defensive, and having so many posts to cover, not knowing exactly where the prince of Savoy, who commanded the imperial army, would attack us, it obliged the French to keep their troops so divided, and so remote from one another, that the Germans pushed on their design with great success, as the histories of those times more fully relate.

I was at the action at Carpi, July, 1701, where we were worsted by the Germans indeed, were forced to quit our encampment, and give up to the prinee the whole river Adige, and where our regiment sustained some loss, but the enemies got little by us, and Monsieur Catinat, who commanded at that time, drew up in order of battle the next day in sight of the German army, and gave them a defiance, but they would not stir, though we offered them battle two days together; for, having gained the passage over the Adige by our quitting Rivoli, which was then useless to us, their business was done.

Finding they declined a decisive action, our generals pressed them in their quarters, and made them fight for every inch of ground they gained, and at length, in the September following, we attacked them in their intrenched posts of Chiar. Here we broke into the very heart of their camp, where we made a very terrible slaughter; but I know not by what mistake among our generals, or defect in the execution of their orders, the brigade of Normandy and our

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Irish brigade, who had so bravely entered the German intrenchments, were not supported as we should have been, so that we were obliged to sustain the shock of the whole German army, and at last to quit the advantage we had gained, and that not without loss; but, being timely reinforced by a great body of horse, the enemy were in their turn beaten off too, and driven back into their very camp. The Germans boasted of having a great victory here, and indeed, in repulsing us after we had gained their camp, they had the advantage; but had Monsieur de Tesse succoured us in time, as old Catinat said he ought to have done, with twelve thousand foot which he had with him, that day's action had put an end to the war, and Prince Eugene must have been glad to have gone back to Germany in more haste than he came, if, perhaps, we had not cut him short by the way.

But the fate of things went another way, and the Germans continued all that campaign to push forward and advance one post after another, till they beat us quite out of the Milanese.

The latter part of this campaign we made only a party war; the French, according to their volatile temper, being every day abroad, either foraging or surprising the enemy's forager's; plundering, or circumventing the plunders of the other side; but they very often came short home, for the Germans had the better of them on several occasions; and indeed so many lost their lives upon these petty encounters, that I think, including those who died of distempers gotten by hard service and bad quarters, lying in the field even till the middle of December, among rivers and bogs, in a country so full of canals and rivers as that part of Italy is known to be, I say, we lost more men, and so did the enemy also, than would have been lost in a general decisive battle.

The duke of Savoy, to give him his due. pressed earnestly to put it to a day, and come to a battle with Prince Eugene; but the Duke de Villeroy, Monsieur Catinat, and the Count de Tesse, were all against it, and the principal reason was, that they knew the weakness of the troops, who had suffered so much on so many occasions, that they were in no condition to give battle to the Germans; so after, as I say, about three months harrassing one another with parties, we went into winter-quarters.

Before we marched out of the field, our regiment, with a

detachment of dragoons of six hundred, and about two hundred and fifty horse, went out with a design to intercept Prince Commercy, a general of note, under Prince Eugene of Savoy; the detachment was intended to be only horse and dragoons; but because it was the imperialists' good luck to beat many of our parties, and, as was given out, many more than we beat of theirs; and because it was believed that the prince, who was an officer of good note among them, would not go abroad but in very little company, the Irish regiment of foot was ordered to be added, that, if possible, they might meet with their match.

I was commanded about two hours before, to pass about two hundred foot, and fifty dragoons, at a small wood, where our general had intelligence that prince would post some men to secure his passage, which accordingly I did; but Count Tesse not thinking our party strong enough, had marched himself with a thousand horse, and three hundred grenadiers, to support us, and it was very well he did so; for Prince Commercy having intelligence of the first party, came forward sooner than they expected, and fell upon them, and had entirely routed them, had not the count, hearing the firing, advanced with the thousand horse he had, with such expedition, as to support his men in the very heat of the action, by which means the Germans were defeated, and forced to retire; but the prince made a pretty good retreat, and, after the action, came on to the wood where I was posted, but the surprise of his defeat had prevented his sending a detachment to secure the pass at the wood, as he intended.

The Count de Tesse understanding that we were sent, as above, to the wood, followed them close at the heels, to prevent our being cut off, and, if it were possible that we should give them any check at the wood, to fall in, and have another brush with them; it was near night before they came to the wood, by which means they could not discern our number; but when they came up to the wood, fifty dragoons advanced to discover the pass, and see if all was clear; these we suffered to pass a great way into the defile, or lane, that went through the wood, and then clapping in between them and the entrance, cut off their retreat so effectually, that when they discovered us, and fired, they were instantly surrounded, and cut in pieces; the officers who commanded them, and eight dragoons only, being made prisoners.

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This made the prince halt, not knowing what the case was, or how strong we were; and, to get better intelligence, sent two hundred horse to surround or skirt the wood, and beat up our quarter, and in the interim, the Count de Tesse appeared in his rear. We found the strait he was in, by the noise of our own troops at a distance, so we resolved to engage the two hundred horse immediately; accordingly, our little troop of horse drew up in the entrance of the lane, and offered to skirmish, and our foot lying behind the hedge, which went round the wood, stood ready to act as occasion should offer; the horse being attacked, gave way, and retired into the lane; but the Germans were too old for us there; they contented themselves to push us to the entrance, but would not be drawn into a narrow pass without knowing whether the hedges were lined or no.

But the prince finding the French in his rear, and not being strong enough to engage again, resolved to force his way through, and commanded his dragoons to alight and enter the wood, to clear the hedges on either side the lane, that he might pass with his cavalry; this they did so vigorously, and were so much too strong for us, that though we made good our ground a long time, yet our men were almost half of them cut in pieces. However, we gave time to the French cavalry to come up, and to fall on the prince's troops, and cut them off, and take a great many prisoners, and then retreated in our turn, opening a gap for our own horse to break in; three hundred of the dragoons were killed, and two hundred of them taken prisoners.

In the first heat of this action, a German officer of dragoons, well followed, had knocked down three men that stood next me; and, offering me quarter, I was obliged to accept it, and gave him my sword, for our men were upon the point of quitting their post, and shifting every one as they could; but the scale was turned, for our cavalry breaking in, as above, the dragoons went to wreck, and the officer who had me prisoner, turning to me said, We are all lost; I asked him if I could serve him? Stand still a little, says he; for his men fought most desperately indeed, but about two hundred French horse appearing in his rear too, he said to me in French, I will be your prisoner; and returning me my sword, gave me also his own; a dragoon that stood near him was just going to do the like, when he was shot dead, and the horse coming up, the

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 FLEET— PARTICULARS 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