[362] I have failed, in spite of much search, to identify the British regiments present, excepting one battalion of the 1st Royals. Marlborough, as Thackeray has reminded us by a famous scene in Esmond, attributed the credit of the action in his first despatch to Cadogan. Another letter, however, which appeared in the Gazette three days later (23rd September), does full justice to Webb, as does also a letter from the Duke to Lord Sunderland of 18th-29th September (Despatches, vol. iv. p. 243). Webb's own version of the affair appeared in the Gazette of 9th October, but does not mention the regiments engaged. Webb became a celebrated bore with his stories of Wynendale, but the story of his grievance against Marlborough would have been forgotten but for Thackeray, who either ignored or was unaware of the second despatch.

[363] Notably Prendergast's. Gazette, 25th November.

[364] The British troops employed were the 6th Foot, 600 marines, and a battalion of seamen.

[365] There are still some remains of the old walls of Tournay on the south side of the town, and the ruins of Vauban's citadel close by, from which the extent of the works may be judged.

[366] The British regiments employed in the siege were the 1st Royals (2 battalions), 3rd Buffs, 37th, Temple's, Evans's and Prendergast's Foot.

[367] The following description written from the trenches gives some idea of the work: "Now as to our fighting underground, blowing up like kites in the air, not being sure of a foot of ground we stand on while in the trenches. Our miners and the enemy very often meet each other, when they have sharp combats till one side gives way. We have got into three or four of the enemy's great galleries, which are thirty or forty feet underground and lead to several of their chambers; and in these we fight in armour by lanthorn and candle, they disputing every inch of the gallery with us to hinder our finding out their great mines. Yesternight we found one which was placed just under our bomb batteries, in which were eighteen hundredweight of powder besides many bombs: and if we had not been so lucky as to find it, in a very few hours our batteries and some hundreds of men had taken a flight into the air." Daily Courant, 20th August.

[368] 8th, 10th, 15th, 16th.

[369] Parker.

[370] A nominal list in the Postboy of 1st October gives 36 officers killed and 46 wounded. An earlier list of 17th September gives 40 officers and 511 men killed, 66 officers and 1020 men wounded; but this is admittedly imperfect.

[372] Hotham's regiment and artillery.

[373] 5th, 13th, 20th, 39th, Paston's, Stanwix's.

[374] 2nd Dragoon Guards, Royal Dragoons, 8th Hussars, Nassau's and Rochford's Dragoons. Scots Guards, 6th, 33rd, Bowles's, Dormer's, Munden's, Dalzell's, Gore's. Together 4200 men, under General Stanhope.

[375] 2 brigadiers, 5 other officers and 73 men killed. 2 lieutenant-generals, 12 other officers and 113 men wounded.

[376] Having failed to ascertain the share of the British in this action, I omit it altogether. All that is sure is that they did their duty and that the cavalry suffered severely.

[377] Desbordes's, Gually's, Sarlandes's, Magny's, Assa's dragoons, all composed of Huguenots but borne on the English establishment; Dalzell's and Wittewrong's foot.

[378] 11th, 37th, Kane's, Clayton's, and one foreign battalion of foot. The losses of the expedition were 29 officers and 676 men drowned.

[379] Strangely enough it was in these very weeks (13th July) that Richard Cromwell, the ex-protector, died, at the age of eighty-seven; one of the very few men who had seen the rise of the New Model, the culmination of Oliver Cromwell's military work in the hands of Marlborough, and the fall of Marlborough himself.

[380] Nominally 30,000, but 4000 are deducted for Huguenot regiments.

[381] Including Huguenot regiments the numbers would be 22 regiments of dragoons and 81 of foot. The three regiments of Guards, though varying greatly in strength, may be reckoned practically at two battalions apiece; the Royal Scots had also two battalions, both on active service.

[382] These figures are based principally on the estimates submitted to the House of Commons, which are printed in the journals, but can only be approximately accurate. The confusion in the statement is worthy of the War Office. First, there is the establishment for England (after 1707 for Great Britain), including colonial garrisons. Next, establishment for Flanders and augmentation for Flanders; establishment for Portugal and augmentation for Portugal; establishment for Catalonia and augmentation for Catalonia, making, with Ireland, eight different establishments, involving transfers and changes and explanations without end. The House of Commons (see Journals, January 1708) was puzzled and dissatisfied, but obtained small satisfaction. Probably the Treasury was partly to blame as well as the War Office.

The estimates for 1709 provide for 69,000 men, exclusive of the Irish establishment and of Artillery. Commons Journals.

[383] Commons Journals, 3rd and 18th February 1708.

[384] Despatches, vol. ii. p. 460.

[385] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 26th May 1709. S. P., Dom., vol. xvii. p. 85.

[386] Thus in August 1710 the garrison of Portsmouth was reduced by drafts to 360 men. S. P., Dom., vol. xvii. p. 19.

[387] The men, as is plain from the pages of Parker, Kane, and Millner, looked forward to a wealth of spoil as soon as they should penetrate into the heart of France.

[388] Commons Journals, 18th February 1708.

[389] Cal. Treas. Papers, 18th November 1710.

[390] S. P., Dom., vol. xviii. p. 116.

[391] Deane.

[392] There is nothing more remarkable than the mortality among the British troops, in what town soever quartered, in the Peninsula. The complaints against the Portuguese will be found very bitter in the letters of Colonel Albert Borgard of the Artillery. S. P. Spain.

[393] Cal. Treas. Papers, 18th June and 18th November 1706.

[394] The regiment being in the Irish establishment the clothing was ordered in Ireland. When, after long delay, the clothing arrived at Bristol, it was discovered that, being of Irish manufacture, it could not be discharged without the Treasurer's warrant; which, of course, entailed the delay, appreciable enough in those days, of a journey to London and back.

[395] Cal. Treas. Papers, 18th November 1707.

[396] S. P., Dom., vol. viii. 81.

[397] S. P., Dom., vol. xvi. 92.

[398] Cal. Treas. Papers, 15th August 1711.

[399] Ibid., 12th October 1709.

[400] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 20th September and December 1705.

[401] S. P., Dom. (12th March 1711), vol. xix. 21.

[402] 5th, 6th, 8th Dragoons; 18th, 27th Foot.

[403] Two troops Household Cavalry, Scots Greys and 7th Dragoons, Scots Guards, and 1st Royals (each two battalions), 21st, 25th, 26th Foot.

[404] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 22nd May 1704.

[405] Not always, however, for among the capital offenders pardoned I find a boy of ten.

[406] Levy money of £2, of which one moiety for the recruit.

[407] Levy money of £1.

[408] Abundant instances in the Secretary's Common Letter Book.

[409] Ibid., 13th March 1704.

[410] S. P., Dom., vol. v. 135; vol. ix. 75.

[411] S. P., Dom., vol. v. 128.

[412] Tindal.

[413] A curious and, I imagine, illegal stretch of the Royal prerogative appears in the shape of a Royal warrant for the impressment of fifes, drums, and hautbois. H. O. M. E. B., 1st Jan. 1705.

[414] The levy-money was £4 per man, of which it seems that half was bounty, and half for expenses of the recruiting officer.

[415] The system was introduced by Lewis XIV. in the autumn of 1703. The still earlier suggestion of a short-service system in the sixteenth century has already been related.

[416] The number of volunteers enlisted in March 1708 for the regiments in the Peninsula was something over 800, of which London and Middlesex supplied just twenty-three.

[417] Newspapers, 13th March 1709.

[418] S. P., Dom. (15th September 1708), vol. xiv.

[419] E.g., Secretary's Common Letter Book, 21st September and 23rd December 1708.

[420] S. P., Dom., (undated), vol. x.

[421] Ibid. (20th February 1711), vol. xviii.; (14th April 1712), vol. xxii.

[422] Lord Lansdowne. Secretary's Common Letter Book, 12th March 1712. The question had originally been brought up a year before.

[423] Ibid., 23rd April 1711.

[424] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 6th July 1707.

[425] Four regiments destined for the Peninsula in 1711 were kept waiting three months for their ships at Cork. In that time they lost 500 men by desertion, probably not much less than a fourth of their numbers.

[426] A clause against concealment of deserters was inserted in the Mutiny Act of 1708-9.

[427] Abundant instances in Secretary's Common Letter Book.

[428] Ibid., 18th October 1707.

[429] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 25th, 27th July; 17th August; October 1705.

[430] See, for instance, the complaint of a regiment which had been paid in unsaleable tallies. Several officers had been arrested for debts contracted by their men for want of their pay. Secretary's Common Letter Book, 18th April 1711.

[431] Such a Board, or rather intermittent meeting of Generals, had been established in January 1706. For the report of St. John and Churchill and the new regulations, see Miscellaneous Orders, 4th February 1706; 14th January 1708.

[432] I can adduce only one instance in proof, that of the Duke of Schomberg, who offered £2 a man to old soldiers to join his regiment of dragoons (Newspaper Advertisement, 27th July 1705), but the fact is indubitable.

[433] There are two or three memoirs of her, attributed to Defoe and others.

[434] See Steele's Tatler (No. 87), 29th Oct. 1709.

[435] S. P., Dom. (11th September 1705), vol. vi.

[436] They went on guard once and were put in the guard-room once, that their names might appear on the list of prisoners.

[437] Commons Journals, 5th, 13th, 22nd February; 8th, 26th May 1711.

[438] See the case of Lillingston's regiment in Antigua, Cal. Treas. Papers, 18th November 1707: for the Mediterranean garrisons and Peninsula, S. P., Dom. (December 1705), vol. vii.; (19th June 1709), vol. xiv.

[439] E.g. Secretary's Common Letter Book, 22nd December 1710.

[440] Ibid., 22nd December 1708.

[441] Despatches, vol. v. pp. 21, 241. This colonel, Bennett by name, was an admirable officer at his work, and had done excellent service at Gibraltar.

[442] Cal. Treas. Papers, 18th November 1710, 6th January 1711. Recruits were practically bought and sold at from £2 to £3 a head at ordinary times, colonels receiving so much a man when they furnished drafts. In strictness one officer took a recruit from another, and paid to him the expenses of raising a substitute. See Commons Journals, 8th May 1711.

[443] See Humours of a Coffee House (a dialogue), 26th December 1707. Guzzle.—How go on your recruits this winter? Levy (an officer).—Very poorly. I am almost broke; they cost us so much to raise them, and run away so fast afterwards that, without the Government will consider us, we shall be undone, and the service will suffer into the bargain.... Some of us were forced to live on five shillings weekly; the rest was stopped by the Colonel for the charge we had been at in raising recruits; and after all they deserted from us and the service wanted what the nation paid for.... What recruits stayed with us, we were no better, for being most of them boys, they fell sick as soon as we got into the field.... If our regiments were only complete as they ought to be, you would hear something to surprise you in a campaign.

See also Secretary's Common Letter Book, 23rd April 1711, wherein the Generals report that under the present system of mustering, recruiting is impossible, and recommend that if any men die, desert, or are discharged, their names may be kept on the rolls for the next two musters; and see Coxe's Marlborough, vol. vi. pp. 232, 233.

[444] Miscellaneous Orders (Guards and Garrisons), 17th May 1707.

[445] Ibid. (Forces Abroad), 5th March 1706.

[446] Conyngham's regiment (8th Hussars) lost on passage to Portugal 27 chargers out of 70, and 141 troop horses out of 216, owing to the use of two such transports. The animals were beaten to pieces and stifled for want of room.

[447] "Good squat dragoon horses," S. P., Dom., 27th February, 10th August 1705.

[448] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 27th February, 10th August 1705.

[449] Ibid., 19th February 1709.

[450] Ibid., 15th February 1712.

[451] Hence the expression, once very common, of a widow's man. Readers of Marrayat will remember that when Peter Simple was searching the ship for Cheeks the marine, he was informed that Cheeks was a widow's man.

[452] Despatches, vol. v. pp. 356, 412. A scale of widows' pensions from £50 a year for a colonel's to £16 for a cornet's or ensign's was fixed by regulation, 23rd August 1708. Miscellaneous Orders (Guards and Garrisons), under date.

[453] E.g., Cadogan's regiment (5th Dragoon Guards). Marlborough tried to obtain relief for it. Secretary's Common Letter Book, 5th April 1705.

[454] W. O. Miscellaneous Orders. 17th April 1712.

[455] See account of Captain Richard Hill. S. P., Dom., Anne, vol. x. (undated).

[456] Miscellaneous Orders (Guards and Garrisons), 19th October 1711.

[457] Ibid. (Forces Abroad), 1st May 1711.

[458] Despatches, vol. v. p. 412. Amended regulations, Miscellaneous Orders (Forces Abroad), 7th September 1712. In the same letter Marlborough pleaded for the abolition of the 5 per cent purchase money paid to Chelsea Hospital, which was done by Order of 1st April 1712. H. O. M. E. B., under date.

[459] Even as things were, officers were occasionally obliged to accept a Chelsea pension; a captain of horse being admitted on the footing of a corporal of horse. Secretary's Common Letter Book, 10th January 1712.

[460] Coxe's Marlborough, vol vi. p. 232, 233.

[461] Journals of Irish House of Commons. Speeches from the throne, 1703, 1707, 1710, 1713.

[462] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 21st August 1704. "The marines are entirely under the Prince's (George of Denmark's) direction. You must apply to his secretary."

[463] The Commissary of the Musters at Portsmouth was "a superannuated old man who was rolled about in a wheel-barrow." Cal. Treas. Papers, 15th November 1703.

[464] E.g., Caermarthen's and Shovell's, ibid., 7th November 1706.

[465] S. P., Dom. (29th March 1709), vol. xiv. Thirty-eight mutineers marched on London from Portsmouth in order to lay down their arms publicly at Whitehall. They were stopped at Putney. See also Cal. Treas. Papers of same date.

[466] H. O. M. E. B., under date.

[467] H. O. M. E. B., St. John's Commission, 20th April 1704, 8th June 1707; Walpole's, 23rd February 1708; Granville's, 17th October 1710; Windham's, 28th June 1712; Francis Gwynne's, 31st August 1713.

[468] Compare the Duke of Wellington's evidence in 1837: "The Commander-in-Chief cannot at this moment move a corporal's guard (four men) from hence to Windsor without going to a civil department for authority."

[469] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 22nd December 1708.

[470] Ibid., 29th January 1709.

[471] Ibid., 7th March 1709.

[472] Ibid., 14th May 1709.

[473] Ibid., 22nd December 1710.

[474] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 1st and 3rd March, 24th May 1712.

[475] H. O. M. E. B., 30th June 1702. Marlborough was appointed Master-General on 26th March.

[476] Commons Journals, 29th March 1707. The cost of Dutch muskets was £8000, and of English £11,000 per 10,000; but great superiority was claimed for the English.

[477] H. O. M. E. B., 16th April 1703. April 1704 (arms of Evans's regiment).

[478] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 12th June 1706.

[479] H. O. M. E. B., 14th October 1704. Commons Journals, 19th March 1707.

[480] Parker. See the account of the meeting between the Royal Irish of England and of France at Malplaquet.

[481] Millner. 30th May, 1707.

[482] The Duke of Marlborough's new exercise of firelocks and bayonets, by an officer in the Foot Guards. London, N.D.

[483] The most appalling sentence was that given to a guardsman at home who had slaughtered his colonel's horse for lucre of the hide—seven distinct floggings of eighteen hundred lashes apiece, or twelve thousand six hundred lashes in all. His life was despaired of after the first flogging, and the Queen remitted the remaining six. Secretary's Common Letter Book, 12th Jan. 1712.

[484] Newspapers, 3rd March 1703.

[485] Despatches, vol. iii. pp. 309, 335, 461; S. P., Dom., vol. xix. 23.

[486] The testimony to these exertions is to be found only in Hare's Journal, but it is emphatic.