HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



57 



to mauitain the posts very near the 

 town, and s.) situated as to admit 

 of rr idy assistance it' assailed. Ini- 

 patieni at the resoliue defence of 

 the -arrison, the French cndr-a- 

 voured to surround the place with 

 a multiplicity of batterie.s, in hopes 

 of keeping so incessant a fire on 

 every part of the town as s .ould 

 reduce it to a heap of ruins. The 

 situatioii was such as rendered this 

 an attempt extremely difficult. 

 They succeeded however in ertct- 

 ing one particular battery, with 

 which they r.nnoyed the towq in 

 3 very destructive degree. Gene- 

 ral Walmoden, the governor, de- 

 termined that a sally should be 

 made, in order to destroy it. In 

 the night of the 4th of November^ 

 General Deburgh, a r . m rkably 

 intrepid otficer, was placed at the 

 head of tliree thousand men, Bri- 

 tish, Dutch, and Hanoverians, to 

 efUct the object proposed ; and they 

 marched out accordingly wiiii all 

 customary precautions j but the 

 French, by means of their spies, 

 were previously acquainted with 

 the design, and duly prepared for 

 it. The consequence was, that 

 both parties engaged each other 

 with much fury, and that a great 

 slaughter ensued ; but General De- 

 burgh was wounded, and the at- 

 tempt wholly frustrated 



Two days ^ftetjilie French erect- 

 ed a battery against ihe bridge of 

 boats from the town, ovt.-r the 

 Rhine, and another against the 

 town itself. The fire of the former 

 destroyed immediately tv.-o of the 

 boats ; and tlie other proved of 

 great annoyance. It wa« ihere- 

 toie juJgcd adviseable to leave no 

 more troops in the town than were 

 requisite for its defence, and iq 



withdraw the others. This was 

 executed accordingly durin::^ the 

 following night ; and the bridge be- 

 ing expeditiously repaiied, afforded 

 a safe passage to the British, Hano- 

 vrian, and Hessian troops. A 

 large body of these was to remain 

 with tl e Dutch, and to form a gar-? 

 rlson ; which, it was presumed, 

 would be adequate to the defence 

 of the town. But this arrangement 

 proved ineffectual : when tl^e major 

 part of the troops had passed the 

 bridi^e, the Dutch divisi.;n, which 

 brougl't up the rear, found it on 

 fire. They attempted to cross th^ 

 river in the large flying bridgfe^ 

 which was the usual method of 

 passing-; but it swung round to- 

 wards the town, the ropes being 

 cut by tiie cannon-balls of the 

 enemy, oj possibly of their own 

 party, who fired on the French, 

 not knowing exactly how to direct 

 their shot. 



The result of this accident was 

 very unfortunate. I'he French, 

 while this business was transactincr, 

 had found means lo effect an un- 

 expected entia.ce into Nimeguen : 

 tiiey directly proceeded to the 

 bri-dge, and made piisoners all 

 the Dutch troops there, as well as 

 all the others whom they found 

 remaining in the town. Such was 

 the issue of the siege ofNimeguen: 

 it had been expected, amidst the ra- 

 pid success of the French in the sub- 

 duing of so many strong towns, that 

 this one would have escaped the 

 general imputation of having sur- 

 rendered too soon. Tlie number 

 of excellent troops it contained, the 

 gallantry thej h;jddisplayedonevery 

 occasion, the importance of holding 

 out till it became evident that no 

 succours could be expected from 



any 



