HE NARROWLY ESCAPES BEING TAKEN BY A FRENCH PARTISAN.
When the army broke up in November, the general repaired to Maestricht, from whence he proposed to return to the Hague by water. Accordingly he embarked in a large boat, with five-and-twenty soldiers under the command of a lieutenant. Next morning he was joined at Ruremonde by Coehorn in a larger vessel, with sixty men, and they were moreover escorted by fifty troopers, who rode along the bank of the river. The large boat outsailed the other, and the horsemen mistook their way in the dark. A French partisan, with five-and-thirty men from Gueldres, who lurked among the rushes in wait for prey, seized the rope by which the boat was drawn, hauled it ashore, discharged their small arms and hand-grenades, then rushing into it, secured the soldiers before they could put themselves in a posture of defence. The earl of Marlborough was accompanied by general Opdam, and mynheer Gueldermalsen, one of the deputies, who were provided with passports. The earl had neglected this precaution; but recollecting he had an old passport for his brother general Churchill, he produced it without any emotion, and the partisan was in such confusion that he never examined the date. Nevertheless, he rifled their baggage, carried off the guard as prisoners, and allowed the boat to proceed. The governor of Venlo receiving information that the earl was surprised by a party and conveyed to Gueldres, immediately marched out with his whole garrison to invest that place. The same imperfect account being transmitted to Holland, filled the whole province with consternation. The states forthwith assembling, resolved that all their forces should march immediately to Gueldres, and threaten the garrison of the place with the utmost extremities unless they would immediately deliver the general. But, before these orders could be despatched, the earl arrived at the Hague, to the inexpressible joy of the people, who already looked upon him as their saviour and protector.
THE IMPERIALISTS ARE WORSTED AT FEIDLINGUEN.
The French arms were not quite so unfortunate on the Rhine as in Flanders. The elector of Bwaria surprised the city of Ulm in Suabia by a stratagem, and then declared for France, which had by this time complied with all his demands. The diet of the empire assembled at Batisbon were so incensed at his conduct in seizing the city of Ulm by perfidy, that they presented a memorial to his Imperial majesty, requesting he would proceed against the elector according to the constitutions of the empire. They resolved, by a plurality of voices, to declare war in the name of the empire against the French king and the duke of Anjou, for having invaded several fiefs of the empire in Italy, the archbishopric of Cologn, and the diocese of Liege; and they forbade the ministers of Bavaria and Cologn to appear in the general diet. In vain did these powers protest against their proceedings. The empire’s declaration of war was published and notified, in the name of the diet, to the cardinal of Limberg, the emperor’s commissioner. Meanwhile the French made themselves masters of Neuburgh, in the circle of Suabia, while Louis prince of Baden, being weakened by sending off detachments, was obliged to lie inactive in his camp near Fridlinguen. The French army was divided into two bodies, commanded by the marquis de Villars and the count de Guiscard; and the prince thinking himself in danger of being enclosed by the enemy, resolved to decamp. Villars immediately passed the Rhine to fall upon him in his retreat, and an obstinate engagement ensuing, the Imperialists were overpowered by numbers. The prince having lost two thousand men, abandoned the field of battle to the enemy, together with his baggage, artillery, and ammunition, and retired towards Stauffen without being pursued. The French army, even after they had gained the battle, were unaccountably seized with such a panic, that if the Imperial general had faced them with two regiments he would have snatched the victory from Villars, who was upon this occasion saluted mareschal of France by the soldiers; and next day the town of Fridlinguen surrendered. The prince being joined by some troops under general Thungen and other reinforcements, resolved to give battle to the enemy; but Villars declined an engagement, and repassed the Rhine. Towards the latter end of October, count Tallard and the marquis de Lo-marie, with a body of eighteen thousand men, reduced Triers and Traerbach; on the other hand, the prince of Hesse-Cassel, with a detachment from the allied army at Liege, retook from the French the towns of Zinch, Lintz, Brisac, and Andernach.
BATTLE OF LUZZARA, IN ITALY.
In Italy prince Eugene laboured under a total neglect of the Imperial court, where his enemies, on pretence of supporting the king of the Romans in his first campaign, weaned the emperor’s attention entirely from his affairs on the other side of the Alps, so that he left his best army to moulder away for want of recruits and reinforcements. The prince thus abandoned could not prevent the duke de Vendôme from relieving Mantua, and was obliged to relinquish some other places he had taken. Philip, king of Spain, being inspired with the ambition of putting an end to the war in this country, sailed in person for Naples, where he was visited by the cardinal-legate with a compliment from the pope; yet he could not obtain the investiture of the kingdom from his holiness. The emperor, however, was so disgusted at the embassy which the pope had sent to Philip, that he ordered his ambassador at Eome to withdraw. Philip proceeded from Naples to Final under convoy of the French fleet which had brought him to Italy; here he had an interview with the duke of Savoy, who began to be alarmed at the prospect of the French king’s being master of the Milanese; and, in a letter to the duke de Vendôme, he forbade him to engage prince Eugene until he himself should arrive in the camp. Prince Eugene, understanding that the French army intended to attack Luzzara and Guastalla, passed the Po with an army of about half the number of the enemy, and posted himself behind the dike of Zero in such a manner that the French were ignorant of his situation. He concluded that on their arrival at the ground they had chosen, the horse would march out to forage, while the rest of the army would be employed in pitching tents and providing for their refreshment. His design was to seize that opportunity of attacking them, not doubting that he should obtain a complete victory; but he was disappointed by mere accident. An adjutant with an advanced guard had the curiosity to ascend the dike in order to view the country, when he discovered the Imperial infantry lying on their faces, and their horse in the rear, ranged in order of battle. The French camp was immediately alarmed, and as the intermediate ground was covered with hedges which obliged the assailants to defile, the enemy were in a posture of defence before the Imperialists could advance to action; nevertheless, the prince attacked them with great vivacity in hopes of disordering their line, which gave way in several places; but night interposing, he was obliged to desist, and in a few days the French reduced Luzzara and Guastalla. The prince, however, maintained his post, and Philip returned to Spain without having obtained any considerable advantage.