1810.] 
and men.” JT will lead SAP said 
he, * to take possession of Dunkirk, 
which the French are to deliver to ines?’ 
“T congratulate the two nations,” re- 
plied J, “on thissoperation, which will 
confer as much honour on the one as on 
the other. Adieu,. sir.”* -He ordered 
ail the troops in the pay of England to 
follow him. Very few obeyed. I bad 
foreseen the stroke; and had made sure 
of the prince of Anhalt, and the prince 
of Hesse Cassel. 
July the 80th [ took Quesnoi. I.gave 
the direction ef the siege of Landrecy to 
the prince of Anhalt, end entered the 
lines. which I had directed. to be/ form- 
ed between Marchiennes and Denain. 
The Dutch had collected large stores of 
aminunition and provisions at Marchi- 
ennes. In vain I represented to them 
that they would be better at Quesnoi, 
only three leagues from Landrecy, and 
only ten from us; the economy of these 
gentlemen opposed the change. This 
made me say peevishly, and as I have 
been told, with an dath, one day when 
Alexander’s conquests were thie subject 
of conversation, ‘* He had no Dutch 
deputies with his army.” I ordered 
twenty of their battalions, and ten’ squa- 
drons under the com eae of the earl of 
Albemarle, to enter the lines, and ap- 
proached Quesnoi with the main body of 
my army, to watch the motions of Vil-. 
Jars, During all these shuffling tricks, 
of which I foresaw that [ should be the 
dupe, and which Louis X1V. knew no- 
thing of, [ made him tremble upon his 
throne. Ata very small distance from 
Versailles, one of my partisans carried 
of Berenghen, under the idea that it was 
the dauphin; others pillaged Champagne 
and Lorraine. Growenstein, with two 
thousand horse, levied contributions all 
‘over the country, spreading dismay, and 
deciaring that [was at his heels with my 
army. It was then that he is reported 
to have said: ‘If Landrecy is taken, I 
will put myself at the head of my no- 
bility, and perish rather than see my 
kingdom lost.” Would he have done 
60? I cannottell. He wanted once to 
leave the trench, but was dissuaded. 
Henry 1V. was formerly advised the 
contrary: he made the sign of the cross, 
and remained where he was, 
Villars thinking himself not strong 
enough to attack: me, as I had hoped 
he would, attempted the deliverauce of 
Denain in another way. I have men- 
tioned my vexation respecting the maga- 
ines at Marchiennes, upon which de- 
3 
Memoirs of Prince Hugene, of Son UP 
Q1S 
pended the continuation aft the siege. 
Two leagues of ground were too mien 
for the Dutch corps. Had ic not been 
for the defection of the English, they 
might have been defended. _ The-follow- 
ing circumstance demonstrated the 
talents of Villars, and a kind of fault 
with which I had to reproach myself: 
To conceal a movement made on ‘his 
Jeft toward the Scheldt with the: great- 
est possible secrecy and celerity, he 
with his right drew ‘my attention” to 
Landrecy, as if be:designed to attack the 
lines of countervallation. — All| at once 
he drew back his right towards his left, 
awikich during the night had easily formed: 
bridges, as the Scheldt isnot wide at this 
place. These two wings united, ad- 
vanced unknown to the earl of Albe- 
marle, who attempted»with his cavalry, 
but in vain, to fight what had passed. 
He relied upon me, but I reckoned upon 
him. On the first. firing of his artillery, 
I marched to-his succour, with a strong 
detachment of dragoons, at full trot, in- 
tending to make them dismount, if ne- 
cessary, and followed by my infantry, 
which came up at a quick pace. The 
cowardice of the Dutch rendered my 
elforts unavailing. Had they: but main. 
tained themselves half an hour in the 
post of Denain, Thad been in time. So 
T had calculated, supposing matters at 
the worst, had I even been deceived by 
the mancuvre of Villars. fi, 
I found only eight hundred men, and 
three or four generals drowned in 
‘the Scheldt; and all those who had been 
surprised iu the entrenchments, killed 
without making any defence. Albe- 
mare, and all the princes and generals 
“Inthe Dutch service, were taken pri- 
soners, while endeavouring to rally their 
troops. The conduct of the former was 
represented in very black colors to the 
states-general. [ wrote to Heinsius 
the pensicnary: “Tt would be my pro- 
vince, sir, to throw the faults or the 
disasters of that day on the earl of Albe- 
marle, if I bad a single reproach to make 
him. 
but I defy the ablest genera 
himself when his troops, after a vile 
discharge, ignominiously- ron away. 
Your obstinacy in leaving your maga- 
zines at Marchiennes, is the cause eg 
all this. Assure their bigh mig ones 
of the truth of what I write you, of my 
dissatist faction and profound mortifie 
cation,’ 
{ was obliged to raise the siege of 
Landrecy, and to, a Mons, we 
the 
nl to extricate 
He behaved like a man of honor, 
