Having completed this conquest, the troops proceeded through a difficult tract of country, and besieged Vervins. The weather continued inclement, the men were suffering from the want of food, and great difficulties had to be overcome; yet the attacks were made with such spirit and determination, that possession was gained of this town on the 28th of January.
The troops were now exhausted, and Douglas' Regiment was sent into quarters of refreshment. It again took the field in June following; but the enemy had so great a superiority of numbers, that the greater part of the year was passed in defensive operations.
1654
1655
The regiment appears to have passed the year 1654 in garrison. In 1655 it was employed in the Netherlands; its Colonel, Lieutenant-General Lord James Douglas, commanded a flying camp between Douay and Arras; several skirmishes occurred, and on one occasion Lord James Douglas was killed; he was succeeded in the Colonelcy by his brother, Lord George Douglas, afterwards Earl of Dumbarton. This change in its Colonel did not alter the title of the corps, as it continued to be distinguished by the title of Douglas' Regiment.
This year (1655) the King of France concluded a treaty with Cromwell, who was at the head of the British nation with the title of Lord Protector; and it was stipulated that a body of Cromwell's forces should proceed to Flanders to co-operate with the French against the Spaniards.
1656
1657
1658
This treaty occasioned King Charles II. to unite his interests with those of Spain; the Duke of York quitted France, and obtained a command in the Spanish army; and a great part of the Royal British troops, which had escaped from England and entered the French army, transferred their services from the crown of France to that of Spain. The cavalier gentlemen, who thus transferred their services to the crown of Spain, were formed into a troop of Horse Guards, of which Charles Berkeley (afterwards Earl of Falmouth) was appointed Captain and Colonel; and the remainder were formed into six regiments of foot—one English, one Scots, and four Irish.[48] The determination thus manifested, by the British troops in the service of France to preserve their loyalty to King Charles II., appears to have occasioned measures to be adopted by the French commanders to prevent Douglas', and the other old Scots regiments, from following this example; and these corps appear to have been placed in remote garrisons, as they are not mentioned in the histories of the military transactions in the Netherlands in 1657 and 1658, in which years the French army and Cromwell's forces captured St. Venant and Mardyk, defeated the Spanish army, and afterwards took Dunkirk, Ypres, Bruges, Dixmude, Furnes, Gravelines, Oudenarde, and Menin; and Dunkirk was occupied by the English.