L'Isle d'Ecosse.] THE SCOTTISH COMPANY. 431 and on the paltry pretext of public expedience, what I can express to see so many brave and their pay was withdrawn. Then the whole of those unfortunate gentlemen, who, by their unflinching loyalty, had forfeited their rank when they might have won new honours in the army of the invader, found themselves destitute in a foreign land. We are told that, with a noble spirit of generosity, they shared their little funds for the benefit of those who were penniless, making a common stock of their gilded corselets, laced uniforms, rings, watches, and so forth; but ere long, finding the horror of starvation before them, the unfortunate Scottish officers petitioned King James for leave to form themselves into a company of private soldiers for the service of King Louis, asking no other favour than permission to elect their own officers; and the king, unable to maintain the ruined dependants who made St. Germain's their rallying-point, reluctantly consented. Those high-spirited cavaliers were immediately furnished with the clothing and arms of French private soldiers; and previously to their incorporation with the French army under Marshal Noailles, they repaired to St. Germain's to be reviewed by the king, and to take a long-to many it proved a last-adieu of him. worthy men, who had once the prospect of being the chief officers of my army, reduced to the station of private sentinels. The sense of all you have undergone for your loyalty hath made so deep an impression upon my heart, that if it ever please God to restore me, it is impossible I can be forgetful of your services and sufferings; neither can there be any posts in the armies of my dominions but what you have just pretensions to. As for my son, your prince, he is of your own blood; and as his education will be from you, it is not to be supposed that he will forget your merits. At your own desire, you are now going on a long march, far distant from me. Fear God, and love one another. Write your wants particularly to me, and depend upon it always to find me your father and your king." According to the " Account of Dundee's Officers, London, 1714," the company listened to his words with the deepest emotion. He then went slowly along the line, asking each officer's name, inserting it in his note-book, and returning him personal thanks. He then turned to leave them, but came back once more, and covering his face with his handkerchief, burst into tears. The sobs of the unhappy king were so audible that the whole line sank at once upon their knees and bowed their heads. After a time their emotions became subdued; the company passed him in review order, and then "parted for ever on this earth, the dethroned monarch and his exiled subjects." Their destination was Perpignan, in Rousillon, where they were to join the army under Marshal de Noailles; but though death in the field, disease in the camp, poverty, and despair, did much to thin their ranks, they performed a march of 900 miles, Poor Ogilvie was killed by a cannon-shot, on the carrying their own camp-kettles and other equipbanks of the Rhine. On the morning they marched to St. Germain's, the king chanced to be coming forth to hunt, and on perceiving suddenly a company in French uniform, with fixed bayonets shining in the sun, formed in line in the park, he asked what troops they were. "Your Majesty's most faithful subjects and devoted followers," replied a gentleman in attendance. "Yesterday they bore your Majesty's commission, to-day they are privates in the army of France." Then the line presented arms, as the king leaped from his horse, and with his eyes full of tears approached them, and after a time spoke thus ;"Gentlemen, my own misfortunes are not so nigh my heart as yours. It grieves me beyond ments, and their indomitable endurance elicited the praise of the French. "Le gentilhomme," said a general, in praise of their readiness to face everything, "est toujours gentilhomme, et se montre toujours tel dans besoin et dans danger." The kind ladies of Perpignan presented them with a purse containing 200 pistoles, and bought all their rings as relics of les officiers Ecossais. Whereever they passed they were received with tears by the women and admiration by the men. They were the foremost in battle and the last in retreat; and of all the troops in the service of France, they were the most obedient to orders. The spirit of Dundee seemed to accompany them. On the 27th of May, 1693, the company of officers "By Santiago, they alone have made me sur- their periwigs, their cravats, and stockings. Bread render!" said the Spaniard. They marched from Roses to Piscador; and of an army of 26,000 men, 16,000 perished by the wayside of starvation. The atmosphere was intensely hot, the water muddy, and their only rations were horse-beans and garlic. Famine and the bullet slew was so dear that they were unable to buy it; and their only food was horse-beans, varied with turnips and colewort. Many died in the hospital there. The survivors, with two other companies of inferior Scottish refugees, in 1695 marched to Old Brissac, and December, 1697, found them on the L'Isle d'Ecosse.] FORDING THE RHINE. 433 Rhine, where they performed the most brilliant of it to France; and when darkness fell they protheir exploits. ceeded to put their plan in execution. General Stirk having advanced with 16,000 men to the bank of the river, the Marquis de Selle drew out all the garrisons in Alsace to oppose him, and among the rest the Scottish companies. In the middle of the Rhine, and between the armies, there chanced to be an island, where a battery planted by the Imperial general might have played with the most fatal effect on the French camp, besides They got quietly under arms, and tied their shoes, stockings, and ammunition round their necks to keep them dry. They then advanced stealthily to the verge of the stream, which there was deep and rapid; and now one of the old customs of their native land was found of some avail. They formed line, and holding each other firmly by the hand, waded steadily, with collected minds and After passing the deepest part they paused, unslung their cartridge-boxes, loaded, and then pushed on to the dry land and put on their shoes. affording a pier for a bridge by which the Germans | resolute purpose, into the depths of the Rhine. might cross into Alsace. This was at once seen by General Stirk, who lost not a moment in throwing over a bridge to the island, and establishing thereon 500 men, who began to entrench themselves and throw up a battery. The Marquis de Selle was filled with intense annoyance, almost with despair, at finding himself thus anticipated; and by the want of boats he found it impossible to arrest their operations, and a few short hours would see the battery armed. In this dilemma "the infallible gentilhommes Ecossais" came to his aid. It struck the mind of these daring men that by wading the stream they might storm the island in the night, expel the Germans, and restore This boldness had all its proper effect in surprising the enemy, none of whom-supposing themselves secure by the depth of the stream-had the least expectation of an assault. They poured one well-directed volley into the midst of the intrenchments, and then rushed on sword in hand. The Germans were instantly routed. As they fled the Scottish officers pursued them, and slew many. The survivors broke down the bridge in their flight, thus leaving the company in complete possession of the island. And thus sings one who may well be deemed the last of the Scottish bards, of this, breast, and was lost in admiration. By daybreak exploit: -or as soon as a boat could be procured-he went to the island, and, embracing each individual officer, thanked him in the warmest manner for his services. He declared that he never knew a braver action done in the field; and to this day the island, in memory of the event, is named L'Isk d'Ecosse. They saw little service after this event; but we are told that King William refused to commence those proceedings which led to the Treaty of Ryswick "till the company of officers which had performed so many brave exploits against his allies should be broken up. It was accordingly dissolved at Silistad." Sixteen were alive when the story of their adventures was published at London, in 1714, but only four ever saw their native land again.• CHAPTER LXXX. STEENKIRKE, 1692. IN the eventful May of 1692, in the prosecution of the war against Holland, the Marshal Duke of Luxembourg, with 120,000 men, had laid siege to Namur, and was speedily followed by the King of France, attended by a magnificent cortége of princes, princesses, and others of the then magnificent French Court; "by the effeminate pomp of an Asiatic emperor," according to Smollett, "attended by his mistresses and parasites, his band of music, his dancers, his opera, and, in a word, all the ministers of luxury and sensual pleasure." Namur had always been considered one of the strongest fortifications in Europe, and it had recently been strengthened under the direction of Cohorn, a celebrated Dutch engineer. To him was opposed Vauban, a French engineer of equal celebrity, whose works at Lisle and Tournay have ever won the admiration of military men. The siege of Namur was thus novel and imposing—the two most powerful monarchs then in Europe at the head of their respective armies, with the two greatest engineers of the age, to put forth all their efforts of combined genius and science in opposition to each other, till Cohorn was dangerously wounded. King William advanced with his army to relieve the town; but his march being impeded by heavy rains, which had caused the rivers and canals of that low-lying country to overflow, his object was frustrated. He failed to effect the relief, and Namur, after an obstinate defence, opened its gates to the enemy on the 1st of July, and King Louis, elated with his success, returned to Paris. King William was encamped at Mellé when Namur surrendered; and on the 1st of August he marched to Genappe, on the plains of which he reviewed the allied armies, accompanied by the Elector of Bavaria. On that day the English contingent, consisting of fifteen battalions of infantry, included three of the Guards, two of the Dutch Guards, and Count Solmes' Blues. The count was a branch of the family of Nassau, and took his title from a district of the west of Germany, in Wetteravia. The Scots, who were separately reviewed, consisted of ten battalions of infantry and two of Guards, led by Lieutenant-General Mackay. There was also a Danish contingent, and on being reinforced by 8,100 Hanoverians and two regiments of English horse, the Allies broke up from Genappe, and marched towards Halle, for the purpose of attacking the French at Steenkirke, and seeking to retrieve the honour they had lost in failing to relieve the castle of Namur. Of the English regiments present at this time the following are still in existence :-The Royal Steenkirke.] THE TREACHERY OF MILLEVOIX. Horse Guards; Viscount Fitzhardinge's Dragoons (now the 4th or Queen's Hussars); the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards; Trelawney's Foot, or King's Tangier Regiment (now 4th of the Line); Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt's (6th Foot); Earl of Bath's (10th Foot); Hodges' Foot (now 16th), then commanded by Robert Hodges, formerly captain of the Royal Scots Grenadiers at Tangiers. Of the Scottish regiments present the following are still in existence :-The Scots Fusilier Guards; O'Farrel's (now 21st Foot, or Royal Scots Fusiliers); Douglas's (1st Royals); the Earl of Leven's, or Old Edinburgh Regiment (now 25th, or King's Own Borderers); the Earl of Angus's (26th, or Cameronians). Mackay's, or the old 94th (represented by the present corps, embodied at Glasgow in 1823, in place of the old Scots Brigade, disbanded a year or two before, after having been more than two centuries in existence). The second in command to King William was Count Solmes, and under the latter were the Duke of Wirtemberg and the Bavarian Elector. Lieutenant-General Hugh Mackay commanded the whole of the British infantry. The French were fully prepared for an attack, so far as order went, and were formed in two lines by their leader, the brilliant François Henri, Duc de Luxembourg, and yet they were taken by surprise. The nature of the ground which lay between King William's army and the French position was extremely awkward for manoeuvres, as it was intersected by a vast number of thick hedges and deep muddy ditches, and there was no mode of approaching Steenkirke save through long, narrow, and rough lanes and defiles. The marshal had no idea that he was about to be attacked. He was confident in the strength of his position, and he had some contempt for the tactics of a king who had failed to relieve Namur. He had corrupted by gold an adventurer named Millevoix, who was private secretary to the King of Bavaria, and this man sent regularly to the French headquarters authentic details concerning the designs and strength of the allied armies. It chanced that a peasant had picked up in a field a letter which contained ample proofs of the villany of Millevoix, and he conveyed it at once to the tent of the Elector of Bavaria. The guards were summoned, the perfidious secretary was seized; a pen was placed in his hand and a cocked pistol was held to his head. On pain of instant death, he had to write a letter dictated by William III. to mislead Luxembourg, by informing him that next day the Allies meant to 435 send out a large party to forage; and that, in order to protect this party from attack, several battalions of infantry, with some field-pieces, were to move forward in the night, and occupy those lanes and defiles which we have said lay in front of the French position. The whole allied army got under arms as soon as the darkness fell. They mustered and formed in silence, and began to move towards Steenkirke when the Senne was reddened by the glare of the distant watchfires which, like a long garland of lights, marked the post of Luxembourg. Thick woods and laden orchards covered the eminences that rose above the plain. By battalions and brigades the forward movement continued, and the French patrols were galloping in to announce that "the enemy was approaching in great force." To these tidings, reiterated again and again, the marshal, who dearly loved his ease, turned a careless ear. Millevoix, his correspondent, had, he deemed, been as usual correct—these battalions on the march, and those field-pieces whose ruinble came upon the night breeze, were the column sent out to protect the foragers. But alarms followed each other fast. At last officers emphatically asserted that all the defiles in front, the very avenues to their position, were now possessed by vast columns of horse and foot, with brigades of artillery, and that all were moving steadily on Steenkirke. Then Luxembourg mounted his horse and rode to the front, to find that his outposts were attacked, and that the Brigade de Bourbonnais, that lay half a mile in advance, had already been swept away, with the loss of seven field-guns. But the marshal in an incredibly short time got his troops into position, and dispatched pressing instructions to Marshal Boufflers, who lay six miles distant with a large division, to march instantly on Steenkirke. So far the plans of William were successful, but he did not find the French army in the state of alarm and confusion he had anticipated. Moreover, he was somewhat ignorant of the real character of the ground over which he would have to pass ere he could hope to reach the heart of the French position. Though the Bourbonnais were driven in, by ten o'clock on the morning of the 24th of July, the whole French army was under arms, in two long lines; and conspicuous there, for the splendour of their array were the household troops of Louis, and a glittering crowd of young French nobles and princes. In a doublet magnificent with embroidery above his gilded cuirass, the Duke of Luxembourg galloped from column to column, urging his leaders |