Cremona.] THE GATE OF THE PO. along the right bank of the stream, never thought of Cremona, to which he returned on the evening of the 31st, after having made a tour of the posts along the Oglio. Cassoli's house stood, we have said, near the gate of St. Margaret. Having been built up with stone, the latter had neither guard nor sentinel; hence, at three o'clock in the morning, when all was dark and still, the concealed Imperialists, by pickaxes and levers, quickly but quietly broke down the green masonry, and admitted a body of their cavalry, at the head of whom Prince Eugene speedily possessed himself of the great and lesser squares and the Town House, at all these points putting the guards to the sword. The Prince of Vaudemont, in command of a body of Modenese troops, had orders to attack the tête du pont near the Po at daybreak; and on the event of this attack depended the ultimate success of the enterprise. On the gate of St. Margaret being entered, the Count de Merci, with some grenadiers and 250 dragoons, passed with all speed by the ramparts to possess himself of the Po gate, where a guard of thirty-five Irishmen was posted. These were luckily, unlike their French comrades, on the alert, and on perceiving the approach of the enemy, retired in rear of a palisade, through which they opened a well-directed fire. The count ordered his grenadiers to fix their bayonets and push them between the palisades at those who were behind them, but they were anticipated by the Irish, whose bayonets were already through the apertures, whence they maintained a constant and most destructive fire. Disheartened by the fall of their comrades, the Imperialists drew back, though the count strove in vain to bring them on to the attack. They mounted, however, an adjacent battery, and captured seven 24-pounders which protected the pontoon bridge across the Po, and these guns, unfortunately for themselves, they omitted to turn on the defenders of the palisade. 471 awakened, but was told that the troops whose march he heard were not his own, but the Imperial cuirassiers!" Watching an opportunity, Mahoney rushed to the barracks, where the Irish drums beat to arms. The men had not time to put on their coats-which were scarlet in the Irish Brigade--but in their small-clothes, with cross-belts over their shirts, they got under arms, and marching at once for the gate of the Po, reached it at the very moment De Merci had taken the battery of 24-pounders. In front, by the streets that led towards the gate, and on flank by the ramparts, the Irish at once attacked him, pouring in a fire so destructive that the German infantry gave way; and though the count brought up the cuirassiers to support them, these were unable to act, as their routed infantry, on being charged by the Irish with fixed bayonets, fell back upon them, and the whole fled in disorder, leaving the gallant Merci mortally wounded. The neighbouring houses afforded a shelter for his infantry; but the Irish took possession of a Franciscan convent, from the windows of which they fired upon those at which the enemy appeared. From daybreak till noon this kind of skirmishing conflict was maintained, till the Irish, being in their shirts at such a season, and without food, were becoming exhausted. Prior to this the French had got under arms, and had carried by storm the church of Santa Maria Nicevo, Cassoli's house, and some of the intrenchments, all of which had been occupied by the Germans. Every street, square, alley, and garden became now the scene of a close and murderous conflict; blood flowed along the gutters, mangled bodies of men, of gored and maddened horses, broken swords, and bloody bayonets strewed them; while "the cries of the wounded, the shouts of the combatants, the thunder and smoke of the artillery and musketry, the crackling of the flames of houses set on fire, and the lamentations of the citizens, presented a theatre of horrors such as no pen could describe-no imagination could reach." The quarters of the regiments of Burke and Dillon, belonging to the Irish brigade in the French The Chevalier d'Entragues, colonel of the Royal service, were near the important gate of the Po. Regiment de Vaisseaux, was the first French officer Mahoney, a volunteer officer, who was afterwards who attended to his duties. By daybreak he was commander-in-chief in Sicily, commanded Dillon's on horseback at the head of his battalion, and battalion, in the absence of Lieutenant-Colonel on hearing the firing at the Po gate he marched Lake; Colonel Burke commanded the other. to the principal square, where he was joined by several officers, half dressed. "Mahoney, a great martinet," says O'Connor, "having ordered his men to parade at daybreak, had thrown himself into bed, ordering his valet and host to waken him a little before the first light. Hearing the trampling of horses in the street, he now started up, complaining of not being "You are welcome, messieurs," said he, when within musket-shot of the Germans. "You have somewhat deranged our toilets, but we shall do you all the honour in our power." A few minutes after he fell under the shower of bullets poured by the Germans from the windows of the Town House, and then his regiment fled. Roused by the firing, Marshal Villeroi sprang from bed, destroyed all his papers, and rushed into the square, where he was on the point of being cut down by the cuirassiers, when he was rescued by Francis Macdonell, an exiled Irish officer of the cavalry regiment of Bagni, in Eugene's army. "I am the Marshal Villeroi," whispered the prisoner; "I can make your fortune-bring me to the citadel, and you shall have a pension of 2,000 crowns annually, and the command of a regi ment!" "I have hitherto served with fidelity," replied the Jacobite officer, "and shall never be disgraced by perfidy. I prefer honour to fortune, and hope to attain by service in the Imperial army the rank you offer me in that of France as the reward of treachery." He conducted the marshal to the most remote corps de garde, where he was again tempted by the offer of 10,000 pistoles; but Macdonell, whose honour was incorruptible, gave up his distinguished prisoner to General Staremberg. The next officer in command, Lieutenant-General the Marquis de Crenant, attacked the cuirassiers, but fell mortally wounded; General the Marquis de Mognon was unhorsed, trod under foot, and made prisoner; and now the whole circuit of Cremona, except the gate of the Po, the Irish barracks, and the citadel, was in the hands of the Imperialists. The principal officers were all killed or taken, and the Count de Revel and the Marquis de Praslin, conceiving that all was lost, raised the cry of "Frenchmen, to the ramparts!" Led astray by his guides, the column under the Prince of Vaudemont, after wandering for five hours, approached the tête du pont at the time when the Count de Merci was most hotly engaged. An Irish officer in the redoubt abandoned it; and one of his sergeants volunteered to cut away and set fire to the pontoon bridge, which the brave fellow effected under a heavy fire, and then the whole party rejoined their battalion under Mahoney. Frustrated by the vigour of their resistance, Eugene had no hope now but to tempt the fidelity of the Irish, and for this purpose Captain Macdonell, having procured a cessation in the firing, was sent towards them with a flag of truce, and thus addressed them : "Countrymen,--Prince Eugene sends me to say to you that if you will change, you shall have higher pay in the Imperial than in the French service. My regard for my countrymen in general, and especially for brave men like you, induces me to exhort you to accept their offers. If you should reject them, I do not see how you can escape certain destruction. We are in possession of the whole town, except your part. His Highness only waits my return to attack you with his whole force, and cut you to pieces, if you do not accept his offers!" "Sir," replied an officer, speaking for the rest, "if Prince Eugene only waits your return to cut us to pieces, he is likely to wait long enough, as we will take care that you shall not return. You are my prisoner! You come here, not as the deputy of a great captain, but as a suborner. We wish to gain the esteem of the prince by doing our duty, not by cowardice or treachery, unworthy of men of honour." Again the fierce conflict was renewed. Facing outward on all sides, the Irish resolutely met the attack. They turned the guns of the recaptured battery on Vaudemont's column beyond the Po, and having bayoneted or ferreted the enemy out of the adjacent houses, they left 100 men to guard the battery, and fought their way through the streets to the Mantua gate, there to await the further orders of the Count de Revel. Dispersing a corps of grenadiers on the way by one rush with the bayonet, they reached the appointed post, and once more resumed firing. Eugene now had recourse to a ruse. He sent Prince Commerci to Marshal Villeroi to obtain from him an order for the Irish to submit. "You see," said the prince, " that we are masters of the town; but there is still some firing on the ramparts, which will compel us to put to the sword the few who so madly resist us.” "I am a prisoner, monseigneur," replied Villeroi; "I have no power to give orders, and those men on the ramparts may do as they please.” As another resource, Eugene now detached a large body of cuirassiers to overwhelm the Irish by one desperate effort; but on perceiving their approach, Mahoney drew off what remained of both battalions to his former post at the gate of the Po. The ground there was level, and at some distance from the houses, thus enabling cavalry to act. Accordingly, Baron Friburg, lieutenant-colonel of the cuirassiers of Count Taaffe, by wheeling them round, fell suddenly upon the Irish rear; but the latter formed square and poured in a deadly fire, that brought men and horses to the ground by dozens. Thrown into utter disorder, the cuirassiers fled, riding down their own infantry in their terror and confusion, nor did they rally till they reached the Square Sabbatine. On being reinforced by infantry, the baron once more attacked the Irish in front, flank, and rear; and putting himself at the head of Taaffe's cuirassiers again, resolved to exterminate them or perish. The fury of his charge broke down both ranks and bayonets. The cuirassiers burst into the heart of Dillon's regiment, and for some minutes the strife was close, wild, and fearful; "but almost naked though they were, the Irish grappled with their foes. The linen shirt and the steel cuirass-the naked footman and the harnessed cavalier-met, and the conflict was desperate and doubtful." Hewing right and left, Friburg dashed amid the ranks of Dillon, till Mahoney seized his bridle, and cried, "Quarter for Friburg!" "This is not a day for quarter," replied the baron (meaning that there was no quarter for the Irish); "do your duty, and I shall do mine." At that moment he was shot dead. On seeing him fall, the cuirassiers paused; the Irish yelled, closed in, and dashed at them with their bayonets; the troopers fled, and once more, and as an Irish writer has it, "there stood these glorious fellows in the wintry streets, bloody, triumphant, and halfnaked." After eight hours of incessant fighting, the Irish were much exhausted. Their loss exceeded a third of their whole number; but it attested the bitterness of their resistance and their splendid heroism. In this affair, Burke's regiment had 88 of all ranks killed and wounded, that of Dillon 135 of all ranks; the total loss being 223 out of 600 men. Apprehensive of an attack on the battery, Mahoney did not again proceed to the gate of Mantua; and his apprehensions proved well founded, for a large body of the enemy once more returned to the attack. Retiring into the battery, he turned its 473 seven 24-pounders against them, and by one salvo sent crashing through their masses, he drove them back, broken and utterly discomfited. The brave survivors of the two regiments now sought shelter in the angles of the bastions and other places; but night was descending, and Eugene was gradually drawing off his troops by the same way he had entered, leaving more than 2,000 dead in the streets. "Thus ended the surprise of Cremona," says O'Connor, "one of the most remarkable events in modern warfare-a garrison of 7,000 men, in a town strongly fortified, surprised in their beds; obliged to march in their shirts, in the obscurity of night, through streets filled with cavalry, meeting death at every step; scattered in small bodies, without officers to lead them, fighting for ten hours without food or clothes, in the depth of winter; yet recovering gradually every post, and ultimately forcing the enemy to retreat." Mahoney was sent to Paris with the dispatches bearing intelligence of this glorious achievement. All Europe heard of the story; and Forman mentions what has been considered a very doubtful saying of King William's about it. King Louis sent his formal thanks to the regiments of Burke and Dillon, and raised their pay forthwith. The Irish at home long exulted over the achievement of Mahoney, and in one of their songs it is referred to thus: "News, news, in Vienna !-King Leopold is sad; News, news, in St. James's !--King William is mad; CHAPTER LXXXIX. VIGO BAY, 1702. WITH the death of William, and the accession of Queen Anne to the throne in 1702, came a new cause of strife, entitled the "War of the Spanish Succession." Louis XIV. claimed the crown of Spain for his grandson, afterwards Philip V.; while Britain supported the rival claims of the Archduke Charles, and forming the grand alliance with Holland and Germany, Spain and the Low Countries became the chief scene of a glorious but desperate war, which was waged by sea as well as by land, and one of the earliest incidents of which was the destruction of the Spanish galleons at Vigo, by Sir George Rooke. The English army was greatly increased in this year, and all the regiments between the 29th and 39th Foot owe their existence to the Spanish war; and by an order issued on the 20th of June, the pikes, which had been reduced to twelve per company, were totally abolished, and every regiment was completely armed with the musket and bayonet. |