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the London Gazette Mamoy St. Pierre.

The woods of Hainault were in all their summer greenery, and amid the openings in the copse the white uniforms of the French infantry were distinctly visible. Their position was strong, and could only be reached by narrow and tortuous lanes; and besides the woods and rocks, there was a steep rugged slope, which the London Gazette calls a precipice.

Luxembourg was so confident in the strength of his position, that in a letter to Marshal d'Estrades he wrote that he was so posted that if he had but 10,000 men, and the Prince of Orange 40,000, yet he was sure he could not be forced; whereas he took his army to be stronger than that of the prince.

He certainly deemed his ground inaccessible, and confidently awaited the advance of the allies, watching the scarlet uniforms of the British and the yellow of the Dutch, varied by the buff doublets and cuirasses of their officers, as they debouched from the Soignies road, and formed in columns of attack, with colours flying and trumpets sounding.

At twelve at noon the cannonade begun on both sides, when William of Orange sat down to dinner in the open field. At the same time the Duke of Luxembourg and several of his officers were similarly occupied in the abbey; when some of the Orange dragoons made a dash into it, sword in hand, "like rude guests, and having forced the French general to rise from table, seized his plate and carried it away before those about him recovered from their surprise" ("Life of William III.," 1754).

About three in the afternoon, some battalions under Count Waldeck began to assault the abbey, the Prince of Orange in person encouraging the soldiers with his presence and by his example; and this attack was seconded by the regiments of the left wing. The woods were soon full of smoke, and re-echoing with musketry.

In the meantime the Spanish troops, led by the Duke de Villa Hermosa, made a fierce attack on the French in the village of Casteau, seconded by the guards of the Prince of Orange, and the English and Scottish regiments under the Earl of Ossory, while a battery of guns was playing on the abbey of St. Denis.

Under cover of this fire, the confederate dragoons advanced with fury, and dismounting, with their muskets and plug-bayonets stormed the cloister; while Adjutant-General Colyear pushed on to the body of the abbey, seconded by the Dutch under

passages and slid down the the precipices with an invincible courage, and drove the enemy, after a vigorous resistance, within their own lines. In the midst of this pell-mell was His Highness, accompanied by the Duke of Monmouth, who fought all day by his side; and animated with success, his eyes sparkling like fire, he cried out, 'To me! to me!' to encourage those regiments that were to second the foremost" ("Life of Prince William," 1688).

There was no sparing of powder and shot, continues this author; and Count Horn, drawing his cannon nearer, fired into the valley upon the French battalions, and made dreadful havoc among them.

From the point of St. Denis, the Prince of Orange hurried to aid in the attack on Casteau, where the action was being hotly disputed by the French against the Spaniards of the right wing, and their supports, the Orange Foot Guards, under Count Solmes, with the regiments of Rocque-Senes and Holstein, and the two brigades of British under the Earl of Ossory.

It was at this point the most deadly struggle took place. It lasted for five hours, but the enemy were ultimately driven in, and pursued with pike and plug-bayonet "for a quarter of a league, through a field and down a precipice, where glides the river Haine, to the farther side of Casteau;" and here occurred the most serious loss to the British officers.

The English had the following casualties in this affair :-Monmouth's regiment, three officers killed and ten wounded; Wesley's regiment, two killed and ten wounded; Belasis' regiment, seven killed and five wounded, one mortally.

Of the Scottish officers were the following:Kirkpatrick's regiment, three killed, including the colonel (who was Governor Herzogenbush), and six wounded, including Lieutenant-Colonel Lauder, mortally; Colyear's regiment, two killed and three wounded, two of them mortally; Mackay's regiment, four killed and three wounded. Total, fiftyeight officers killed and wounded.

The last-named corps belonged to the Scots Brigade in the Dutch service, and the command of it had been recently bestowed upon Colonel Hugh Mackay, of Scourie, in preference to Graham of Claverhouse, one of its officers, who at the battle of Seneff saved the life of the Prince of Orange when he was defeated by the Prince of Condé ; and this favouritism led to Graham quitting the service of the States-General in disgust.

William of Orange, at the battle of St. Denis, displayed uncommon bravery. He advanced to

the front, sword in hand, leading the attack "in the midst of fire and smoak, and bullets flying thick as hail, adventuring so far that he had been in imminent danger had not M. de Overkirk opposed himself to a daring captain that was just ready to charge the prince in full careere, and layd the brisk assailant dead upon the spot."

Overkirk, or Auverquerque, shot the officer with his pistol. The brunt of this portion of the battle fell to infantry and dragoons (who could act on foot or in the saddle). The London Gazette says that owing to the nature of the ground the cavalry could not engage; but "the English and Scots regiments did things to the admiration of those who beheld them." And in the "Life of the Duke of Ormond," we learn that their leader, Lord Ossory, received from the States of Holland, the Duke of Villa Hermosa, and the King of Spain, letters acknowledging the great services he performed in this campaign.

federates remained masters of the Abbey of St. Denis. On the side of the allies were 1,500 killed and wounded; but on that of the enemy, more than 6,000 are said to have been the number of their united casualties.

The Duke of Luxembourg having lost so important a post, retired next day in confusion, and the Prince of Orange took possession of the camp he abandoned, and thus broke the blockade of Mons. For saving his life, he presented M. Overkirk with a gold-hilted sword, a pair of horsebuckles of gold, and a pair of magnificent pistols mounted with the same metal.

The Peace of Nimeguen, signed at twelve o'clock on the night of the 11th of August, three days before the battle, put an end to the war, and unfortunately for the honour and boasted humanity of William of Orange, he is alleged to have fought St. Denis with the treaty in his pocket, because, as General Napier has it, he was loth to lose a cheap lesson

DURING all these years of the war with Holland, and then with France, the persecution of the Covenanters continued to stain with blood the Scottish Government. There during eight-andtwenty years of tyranny more than 18,000 persons had suffered death or banishment, or perished of their wounds in wild places; 362 were executed in form of law; and 498 were slain in cold blood, without any form of law. The Duke of Lauderdale was at the head of this administration, which plundered and oppressed without mercy, till the suffering people became goaded almost to madness. All meetings for prayer or sermon, according to the simple forms of the Kirk of Scotland, had to be held in arms, and in lonely places, with scouts abroad to give early notice of the approach of the king's troops, who had special orders to disperse at the point of the sword all such meetings.

"It was a fair Sabbath morning, 1st June, A.D. 1679, that an assembly of Covenanters sat down on the heathy hills of Drumclog," says Thomas Brownlee, "Laird of Torfoot, and an officer of the Presbyterian army," in his narrative. "We had assembled, not to fight, but to worship the God of our fathers. We were far from the tumult of

cities; the long dark heath waved around us, and we disturbed no living creatures save the peesweep (ie., lapwing) and the heather-cock, As usual, we had come armed. It was for self-defence; for desperate and ferocious men made bloody raids through the country, and, pretending to put down. treason, they waged war against religion and morals. They spread ruin and havoc over the face of bleeding Scotland."

On that Sunday morning, at the very time these poor people were meeting for prayer in that wild part of Lanarkshire, Colonel John Graham, of Claverhouse-the gallant Viscount Dundee of a nobler strife and time-was riding at the head of the Scottish Life Guards up the lovely vale of Avon, carrying with him two field-preachers, whom he had apprehended in the vicinity of Hamilton. His regiment, which in 1674 consisted of four squadrons, and was almost entirely composed of gentlemen, is now represented by the second troop of the 1st Life Guards. In its ranks, serving as a private, rode Francis Stuart, the titular Earl of Bothwell, the cousin of the reigning monarch. To give timely notice of the approach of the military, and more especially of Claverhouse, whose

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lay a morass. Near it is the farmhouse of High Drumclog, still inhabited by the descendants of those who then possessed it. Therein Claverhouse placed his two prisoners.

During this halt he learned that the conventicle he intended to prevent or to disperse was not to be held, and relying on this information, he marched towards Glasgow. He had not proceeded far when he found that the peasantry had deceived him, and the Covenanters were actually at prayer in the glen of Drumclog.

"Their blood be on their own heads; and be 'No quarter' the word this day!" exclaimed Claverhouse ("Scott's Worthies"); and "No quarter!" rang from troop to troop of the Guards. Spurs were applied to the horses, and resuming their march towards the head of Avondale, the Cavalier Guards, after galloping over several miles of purple moor and waste land, about mid-day came in sight of the Covenanters, to the number of several hundreds or a thousand men, who were but indifferently armed; and to these the scouts on Loudon Hill had given due notice of the approach of the enemy.

On seeing the glittering array of the Life Guards, in all the bravery of plumed beavers, cuirasses, and scarlet doublets, pouring along the glen towards them, all the men of the conventicle came to the front, while the women and children gathered on an eminence, and, by their wailing and shrill cries, inspired their relatives to fight to the last. On the day of this skirmish at Drumclog, which formed the prelude to the battle of Bothwell Bridge, the Covenanters were led by John Balfour, of Kinloch, otherwise called, of Burleigh; David Hackston, of Rathillet, who was concerned in the murder of Archbishop Sharp; Robert, afterwards Sir Robert, Hamilton, of Preston, Bart.; Woodburn, of Mains; Sergeant John Nisbet, of Hardhill; and William Clelland, an accomplished soldier and poet, who afterwards fell at the head of the 26th or Cameronian Regiment, at the defence of Dunkeld, as we shall relate in a future chapter.

Graham's Guardsmen were only 250 strong, and their horses were somewhat fatigued by a long morning's march, over bogs and heavy moorland, under a sultry June sun; yet their leader was determined to attack those men whom he found assembled thus in arms, and who were forming

When the Guards formed line, it became apparent that if they and the Covenanters approached each other the conflict would take place in the marsh. Caught in the very act of prayer, the "hill-men," as they were named, knew that there was nothing before them but death or captivity; so their leaders formed them in three lines. The first was provided with matchlocks, and moved down to the edge of the morass. The second had pikes and halberds; the third had scythes, hayforks, clubs, fish-spears, and other implements, suddenly improvised as weapons for war.

On each flank of these men were posted a few who were mounted, to act as cavalry. Unslinging their carbines, the Guards poured a volley on the Covenanters; but as they were in the act of kneeling the shots passed over their heads. The dragoons then closed to the front, under a steadier fire from the Covenanters; and as their horses began to flounder in the morass, Cornet Graham, a kinsman of the colonel, fell dead from his saddle.

"In the name of God," cried Claverhouse, "cross the bog and attack them on the flanks! If we fail in crossing the morass we are lost!"

"The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!"" was now the cry of the insurgents. "Pikemen to the front," exclaimed Hamilton; "God and our country! Over the bog and at them, lads!"

Then, while many were "pouring forth a considerable portion of nasal psalmody," the whole rushed upon the troops with such irresistible fury that the latter began to back their horses up hill, or wheel by threes to get on firmer ground. Some dreadful personal encounters took place, and these were characterised by all the furious hatred which each party entertained towards the other.

Many gentlemen of the Guards were dragged from their saddles-among others, a captain named Arrol-and grappled hand to hand with their assailants in the morass, fighting with swords shortened, or with clubbed steel pistols seeking to beat out each others' brains. The morning was sultry, and during the conflict some were seen to drink the blood-stained water of the bog in which they fought. Torfoot avers that he did so out of his steel cap.

Colonel Graham, a man then in the prime of life, whose handsome oval face was almost feminine in its softness of feature and wonderful regularity, did all that a brave officer could do to rally his

retreat of his dragoons after they had given way;" and the Covenanters averred that "they saw the bullets recoil from his jack-boots and buff coat like hailstones from a rock of granite, as he galloped to and fro." By one sword his white plume was shorn away; by another a shred was hewn from his buff coat. The Laird of Torfoot describes the confusion of the Life Guards thus: "Some shrieked, some groaned, some shouted; horses neighed and pranced, and swords rang on steel helmets. I

Its destruction was greeted now with yells of joy; and as the Covenanters had a fanatical and superstitious idea that, like General Dalzell, its rider was impervious to lead, many an aim was taken at him with silver coins, and the narrow escapes he had were almost miraculous. "He has the proof of lead-take a piece of silver!" was the incessant cry of the Covenanters, as they loaded and cast about their matchlocks. "Easily distinguished by his rich dress, he was the foremost in all the charges he made at every favourable opportunity to arrest the pressure of the pursuers, and to cover the

rushed into the thickest in search of Claver'se. At that his trumpet sounded a retreat." He adds that Claverhouse was borne away by the press of his men, without sword or helmet.

It was in vain, he found, to contend longer with an enemy to whom the nature of the ground had given every advantage over cavalry, whose horses became useless at every plunge, and entangled more deeply in the morass. He ordered his trumpets to sound a retreat, which was achieved successfully; but he left two officers and thirty-six of the Life Guards dead in the skirmish, while the insurgents lost only six, one of whom, named Dingwall, had been among the slayers of Archbishop Sharp,