it in their order of battle, alternating squadrons of horse with battalions of infantry upon their wings. Galway, who had taken his post at the left wing, began the onset that same day the 25th of April, towards three in the afternoon. He fought, as always, with great bravery, but was ere long disabled by a sabre-cut above the eyes, while his troops were thrown into confusion by a charge of the enemy's cavalry. A similar fate befel the right wing of the Allies under its Portuguese chief the Count of Atalaya. Das Minas himself commanded in the centre and for a time seemed to prevail; he broke the first line of the French and Spaniards; he caused the second to waver; he enabled two English battalions to pierce through. Already had they reached the very walls of Almanza, when, as Berwick relates it, the fortune of the day in that quarter was turned by a Spanish chief Don Joseph Amezaga; the same who three years later was slain by Stanhope in single combat. Amezaga, drawing together two squadrons of the Spanish regiment called Ordenes Viejos, came to the rescue of his countrymen, and with their aid overthrew the two English battalions.5 Das Minas was soon afterwards severely wounded and compelled to quit the van; and the rout of the Allies in all their three divisions was entire. Only their cavalry, about 3,500 in number, could escape; the infantry found themselves hemmed in on a bare plain with no hedge or ditch to shelter them, and were for the most part either made prisoners or cut down. Two of the chiefs, Count Dohna and Major-General Shrimpton, with about thirteen battalions, made their way in a body to the neighbouring hills; but next day, failing in pro 5 Memoires de Berwick. vol. i. p. 253. visions and surrounded by the enemy's horse, they were compelled to surrender. On the whole this fatal battle of Almanza cost the Allies the whole of their baggage and artillery, twenty-four pieces in number, with one hundred and twenty banners; with at least 4,000 slain and 8,000 prisoners. The loss of the Bourbon army in killed and wounded was estimated at 2,000. On the day after the battle the Duke of Orleans arrived in Berwick's camp, scarce able to conceal his deep mortification that his ill-timed politeness at Madrid had lost him the glory of command in so great a victory. However he at once applied himself with Berwick to improve the auspicious occasion, and seeing no foes left before them they led their army by Buñol full on the city of Valencia. It is the quality of great chiefs to maintain an everbuoyant hopeful spirit and to plan some new encounter on the very morrow of defeat. Galway did not belong to that class. Brave as he had been in the battle, he was so wholly cast down in mind by its result as to despair not only of the campaign but even of the war. Here are his own words to Marlborough written only two days afterwards: "I cannot, my Lord, but look upon the affairs of Spain as lost by this bad disaster; our foot which was our main strength being gone; and the horse we have left chiefly Portuguese, which is not good at all. . . . All the Generals here are of opinion that we cannot continue in this kingdom; so I have desired Sir George Byng to take on board again the recruits he had just landed at Alicant; and to call at Denia or Valencia for our sick, wounded, and baggage; and have sent all to Tortosa, where we shall march with the remnant of our horse." 6 It soon appeared however 6 Galway to Marlborough, letter dated Alegre, April, 27, 1707. that the case of the Allies in Spain was by no means so desperate as Galway at first conceived it, and that although much must be relinquished something might be still retained. The battle of Almanza, as the first gleam of returning fortune, was hailed with great delight not only by the subjects of Louis in his own dominions but by all his partisans in Europe. It might also even among his enemies afford matter of triumph to the detractors of Lord Galway. We find Lord Peterborough discuss it with no generous spirit in a letter to one of his friends in England; a letter of which the rough draft in his own handwriting has been preserved among the papers of his Secretary, Mr. Arent Furly. Here follows one passage: "No Irishman could have proved a bolder hero against common sense than our French General, who, contrary to the sentiments of the whole nation concerned, the protestations of so many Generals, and the repeated instances of a King, pursues the rashest measures in the world and meets a suitable fate. . . . Too dearly have so many brave men paid for these partialities at home." And in a subsequent letter to Stanhope, Peterborough adds no less bitterly: "I thank all those that have assisted in sending me to London. Pray present my service to the Marquise de La Casta, and tell her I hope she finds herself better in her new friendships than the King has done in his new Generals." Marching onwards from their field of victory, D'Orleans and Berwick encountered no resistance, and found the city of Valencia open its gates at their approach. With equal ease they reduced the remainder of the province, except only the two seaports of Denia and Alicant and the inland town of Xativa. Of the last Berwick proceeded to make the siege. It was taken by assault, fifteen days from the first investment, and was treated by Berwick with most merciless severity, razing to the ground as he did the greater part of the houses, and hanging or sending into banishment the greater part of the men. During that time the Duke of Orleans had separated from his colleague, to invade the kingdom of Aragon. He entered Zaragoza in triumph, and reduced all Aragon with ease. In the autumn, again combining with Berwick, they undertook the siege of Lerida. It was a fortress strong alike by nature and by art; and they had beside them Galway and Stanhope, who had taken the field with the Allied cavalry now increased to 5,000 men. Still that force was far too small to strike a blow at the besiegers, and the garrison was reduced to capitulate, obtaining however advantageous terms. Then the two Dukes returned to France, and Charles found himself enabled, in spite of his great reverse, to maintain himself as before in the principality of Catalonia. Even before the battle of Almanza Marlborough had found the leading statesmen at the Hague much inclined to treat with France. Thus he writes: "In two conversations I have had with M. de Buys he has been very plain in telling me that he should think it a very good peace if we could persuade the Duke of Anjou to be contented with Naples and Sicily. I am afraid there are a great many more in Holland of his mind, but as we are very sure I think of making this campaign there may be many alterations before winter." 7 In the campaign which was thus before him, the Duke had no longer to dread the impracticable temper and the wayward humour of Prince Louis of Baden. His High 7 Marlborough to Godolphin, April 20, 1707. ness had died in his palace of Rastadt in the first days of this year. His pompous monument some thirty feet high, set off by a no less pompous inscription and by abundance of tawdry gilding, may still be seen in the parish church of Baden.8 Unhappily however on the death of Prince Louis the choice of his successor, as General of the Empire, gave little promise of better concert. The Margrave of Bareith, who was named to this important post, was a martinet trained in the same school as the Margrave of Baden, but with far less of knowledge and experience and full as much of pride. Such was the distrust which he inspired that several of the petty states of Germany withdrew or withheld their contingents. At this moment however there was a still more pressing danger. Charles the Twelfth of Sweden had completed his conquest of Poland, had entered Saxony, and had fixed his head-quarters at Alt Ranstadt near Leipsick. It was called the camp of the three Kings, since there appeared in it at one time not only Charles himself but Stanislaus, whom he had placed on the throne of Poland, and Augustus whom he had displaced from it, leaving to the latter merely the Electorate of Saxony and the empty Royal title. Already in the heart of Germany and at the head of some 40,000 wellappointed and victorious troops, Charles if he so chose it might take part with decisive effect on the side of France. Nor were the most eager solicitations wanting to engage him. Louis had by a secret envoy represented to him the ancient glories of Gustavus Adolphus and the close Here are some lines of the in- | Quoad vixit semper vicit, nunquam vicscription as I copied them : : Infidelium debellator, Imperii protector, tus Nisi a communi fato Quod nec magno heroi pepercit. |