signed by the deputies of the States in conjunction with King William, and by the French plenipotentiaries, on the 20th of September. The King of England ratified this peace on the 25th. It was proclaimed in Paris the 23rd of October, and in London on the 28th, O. S.

The King of England having reviewed the army on the plain of Breda, we were disbanded, and I set cut for the Brill, took my passage on board a ship bound for, and arrived safe in Dublin. On inquiry, I found my mother, children, and friends, wanted neither health, nor the necessaries of life. I found means to converse with them; but I was so much altered by my dress, and the fatigues I had undergone, that not one of them knew me, which I was not sorry for. The demand the nurse had upon me, on account of my youngest child, being greater than suited with my circumstances to discharge, I resolved to remain incog.

I was not long easy in this indolent way of life, which must soon have drained my purse, wherefore I sought for employment, and found means to support myself, while in Dublin, without breaking into my capital (which I had hitherto husbanded with great economy), till the death of the King of Spain, on the 31st of October, 1700; his having in his will declared, through the intrigues of Cardinal Portocarrero, the Duke of Anjou his successor; and his immediately taking possession of those kingdoms, alarmed all the powers of Europe; and the King of France having acknowledged the Prince of Wales King of England, on the death of his father, which happened at St. Germains on the 16th of September, N. S., 1701, grossly affronting King William, seemed to be the harbingers of a new war, as indeed they proved; for it could not be supposed that the emperor would tamely cede his right. Hostilities were begun in Italy; which prince Eugene entered in May, 1701, at the head of twenty thousand men; beat the French and Savoyards, who guarded the passage of the Adige, from their posts, and passed the river.

Though none of the powers had declared war, the Hollanders drew together their troops near Rosendaal, under the command of the Earl of Athlone; and the imperialists, commanded by Prince Nassau Sarbruch, generalissimo of the emperor, re-enforced by some Dutch troops, besieged Keisersweert.

This news of a war awakened my martial inclination.

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I was not long considering what party to take; but immediately took shipping for Holland, and finding my quondam Lieutenant Keith, I enlisted with him in my old corps, the regiment of dragoons, under the command of Lord John Hayes.

The first action I was in, was that of Nimeguen, where we were very roughly handled by the French. As this, which deserves rather to be called a battle than an action, would have ruined all the schemes of the allies, had we lost it, I shall give the best account of it I am capable; to do which, I must return to the siege of Keisersweert.

This town, which was very strongly fortified, the Germans invested on the 16th of April, 1702, N. S. The Prussians took post above, and the Dutch below the town, and each of these troops on their respective sides broke ground on the 18th. At the first advice which was given Marshal Boufflers of this siege, he passed the Maes, near Stevensweert, with design to surprise a body of Dutch troops under the command of Count Tilly: but that general being informed of the march of the French, sent all his heavy baggage to Emerick, went to, and encamped at Ebber, within a league of Cleves, where the Earl of Athlone joined him with the rest of the army belonging to the States-general; so that Monsieur Boufflers' design proved abortive. The Count de Tallard proved more successful in his, which he entered upon a few days after. He took post over against Keisersweert, on the banks of the Rhine; and thus, not only kept open a communication with the town by water, but galled the besiegers so much with his cannon, that they were obliged to quit their works, contract their quarters, and begin new attacks, out of the reach of his cannon. During this siege, the Duke of Burgundy arrived at the French army, to take upon him the command in chief.

Soon after the arrival of this prince, Marshal Boufflers, concluding that the town would not hold out long, resolved to make a diversion to save it. This was to surprise Nimeguen. After having lain some few days quiet in his camp, to give the Count de Tallard, and other forces, time to join him, he decamped from Santin, the 10th of June, and marched immediately to Keverdonk; from whence he marched between Goch and Gennep, designing to continue his route between Mook and Nimeguen, and to fall upon the Earl of Athlone, who was encamped at Clarenbeek, in hopes the confu

sion that would attend such an unexpected attack, would afford a fair opportunity to surprise Nimeguen. But the earl having had informatiou of his march, sent away, with all speed, his artillery and heavy baggage, and detached the Duke of Wirtemberg with some troops to take possession of the higher grounds and passes in the neighbourhood of Mook, while he followed with the rest of the army. In coming to the post which he was to defend, the duke discovered the vanguard of the enemy. He diverted them by a retreating fight, till the Earl of Athlone came up to sustain him with the rest of the Dutch army: notwithstanding which, the two enemy armies, in continually skirmishing, made towards Nimeguen; and the French mixing with the Dutch, some of them got, with the latter, into a few of the outworks, and hoped, in the confusion, to push into the town. Everything seemed to favour their design; for there were no cannon planted on the ramparts; the magazines were locked up, the keys were not to be found, and those who had the care of them, were absent. remember it was upon a Sunday, and in sermon time. burghers taking the alarm, took to their arms, broke open the magazines, and drew out the cannon, which they mounted and played upon the French. The fire between the two armies, which advanced with equal pace towards the town, was all this while very hot. The French having placed some cannon on a rising ground, made terrible havoc among the Dutch horse, and seized on one of the fortifications called Kykindeport; but a detachment of the Dutch guards, favoured by eight pieces of cannon, which the burghers fired upon the French, soon dislodged them.

I

The

Marshal Boufflers, who did not expect so stout a defence, finding his project fail, retreated about two o'clock in the afternoon.

In the interim, the siege of Keisersweert, was vigorously and successfully pushed on; and the governor, after having bravely defended the town thirty days, on the 15th of June capitulated. The garrison was conducted to Venlo with all marks of honour.

That I might not break in upon the account of this battle and the siege of Keisersweert, I made no mention of myself, and of a particular event. About the middle of the siege, a party of horse and dragoons were detached from the army, under the command of Major-general Dompre: I was in the detachment. We fell in with a superior number of the

THE BATTLE OF LIEGE.

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French cavalry, and put them to the run, with a considerable loss on their, and very little on our, side. I had here the good fortune, though in the thickest of the engagement, to escape without hurt, and to be taken notice of by the officers.

Soon after the surrender of Keisersweert, the Prussian troops joined the grand army, and the Earl of Marlborough, about the same time, arrived with those sent by the Queen of England.

After several motions, in which we could never draw the French to a battle, a detachment invested the town and citadel of Venlo, on the 29th of August, in the night. The horse being not employed in, we covered the siege, and were sometimes sent out to forage. The poor peasants fled before us, and leaving their implements of husbandry in the field, my horse trod on a scythe, and was cut in so dangerous a manner, that I despaired of his recovery; though he at length was again fit for service.

Six days after the trenches had been opened before this town, we assaulted the citadel, and with such success, that after we had carried the covered way, we took it; which obliged the town to capitulate on the 23rd of September.

Stevensweert and Ruremonde were next invested and bombarded, one after another. The former of these bore our fire but two days, the latter three.

The taking all these places, clearing the Maes of the French garrisons as far as Maestricht, their army retired within their lines, and the allies, on the 14th of October, 1702, appeared before Liege. At our approach the French withdrew into the castles: the deputies of the chapter, and of the magistracy, on the same day agreed on a capitulation with the Earl of Marlborough, and the commissioners of the States-general, for the principality of Liege. In the interim, preparations were made to attack the two forts which commanded the town. Three days together we battered the citadel, and the breach being thought sufficient, we assaulted it the 23rd in the afternoon. We soon carried the half-moon, and finding less resistance than we expected, we cleared the palisades, mounted the breach sword in hand, and made a cruel slaughter. The English, in particular, distinguished themselves in this assault; for they mounted at a place called the Six-cent-pas, the six hundred steps, for so many there are, and steeper than any pair of stairs I ever saw in my life.

We found in the place above thirty pieces of cannon, and beside twenty thousand florins in silver, a very considerable booty; for the citizens had carried thither their most valuable effects for security. I got but little of the plunder; for the grenadiers, who were in the place, before our dragoons had dismounted and left their horses to the care of every tenth man, which we do when we fight on foot, were very industrious in their search. I got, however, a large silver chalice, and some other pieces of plate, which I afterwards sold to a Dutch jew for a third part of their value.

As the citadel was taken by assault, few of the garrison escaped with life, and not one of those who did carried off with them rags enough for a cut finger.

We, after this, attacked the fort of the Carthusians on the other side the Maes. Our batteries began to play the 29th, with great fury; the garrison, terrified by the example made of that citadel, and fearing an assault, in less than three hours asked to capitulate. Articles were that day agreed upon, and the French marched out the next.

The taking of these places proved a great refreshment to the army, for we found a great quantity of good wine, and excellent bread.

Thus ended our first campaign in Flanders; the success of which did not a little raise the hopes of the allies.

I forgot to take notice of the declaration of war; for though hostilities were begun before any was made, yet they were carried on but a little while; for the emperor declared war the 15th of May, 1702, N. S., as did the English queen and the Dutch on the same day.

In Italy, Prince Eugene, in October this year, surprised Cremona, got into the town through an aqueduct, and had kept possession had not the courage of my countrymen, so much despised in England, driven out the Germans; who, however, carried off prisoners Marshal Villeroy, Monsieurs de Mongon, d'Egrigney, and some other persons of distinction. The honour of taking the marshal fell also to an Irishman, captain of horse in the imperial service.

I was ordered into quarters at Venlo, and a night or two afterwards, was one of those commanded by the governor to escort the Earl of Marlborough along the banks of the Maes, the troops which brought him from Ruremond having been dismissed. During our march, by the darkness of the night,