CHAP. 



XIV.] 



FRENCH CAVALRY. 



28.') 



of his reflection and talent in availing himself of every 

 point that could ensure success was beyond anything 

 that had been done up to his time. At high tide he 

 availed himself of thi; fire of an auxiliary English fleet 

 which lay off the coast, while, when the tide ebbed, he 

 used the beach to enable him to effV'ct a turning movement 

 around the enemy's flank. Everything appears to have 

 been considered and arranged to the greatest advantage. 



The Spanish army consisted of 6,000 infantry and 

 8,000 cavalry. Don John commanded the right, which 

 rested on the sea. The Great Condd commanded the 

 left. The French army had 6,000 horse and 9,000 in- 

 fantry, and was ranged upon two lines, with a reserve. 

 The Marquis de Crdqui commanded the right, Castlenau 

 the left, and the Marquis of Gadagne and De Bellefond 

 the centre. When the battle was fairly joined, the tide 

 had gone out, and the Marquis of Castlenau, with the 

 cavalry on the French left, was able to march along the 

 strand and pass the right flank of the Spanish line. 

 When wheeling against them he penetrated between the 

 two lines of the hostile army, and spread confusion in all 

 that part of the field. Condd however, on the other 

 wing, had fought with his usual bravery, and leading a 

 charge of cavalry against the troops of the Marquis de 

 Crdqui, defeated him, and would have succeeded in 

 throwing relief into Dunkirk but for the arrival of 

 Marshal Turenne with some cavalry of the right wing, 

 which he led at the charge to Cr^qui's assistance. After 

 a desperate struggle, in which Condi's horse was shot 

 under him and he himself almost taken prisoner, the 

 victory was won by Turenne and the whole Spanish 

 army driven in rout from the field. 



This battle is mainly interesting from the fact of the 

 cavalry using the strand on the fall of the tide to effect 

 a turning movement upon the Spanish right, a stratagem 

 that Don John had evidently neither anticipated nor 

 guarded against. This is a very striking instance of a 

 plan of battle being arranged to suit the peculiarities 

 of the field of action. 



At the battle of Zintzheim, on 16th June, 1674, the 



