Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 6, 1898

THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
body of French near Vezoii, wliero the Dauphin
was posted. Though tlie French were entrenched
breast high, the Guards with their ba3'onets and
the Highlanders with sword, jiistol and dirk,
forced them out, killing a considerable number.
The Guards and "Black Watch" then fell
back and rejoined the tirst line, the formation of
which was complete by nine o'clock, \\ hen Sir
John Ligonier sent his aide-de-camp to acquaint
Cumberland that, as the guns were silenced, he
was ready, and only waiting for the signal from
Prince Waldeck to attack Fontenoy; the troops
moved forward with astonishing intrepidity to
their respective points of attack.
Tiie ''advance" was then sounded by many a
trumpet and bugle, while, amid a deafening roar
of musketr}', the troops rushed on, the Dutch
led by Waldeck against Fontenoy, Ingnlsby to
assail the redoubt in fiont of Vezon, and the
first line of British and Hanoverians, led by
Cumberland in person, to attack the centre.
So quick was the rush that the Duke and
otlier otiicers liad to ride their horses at a canter,
but their men fell fast on every hand, the fire (jf
the cannon making whole lines tlirough the ranks
of the confederates, particulaily the British.
Under this fire tlie Dutch, who covered their
left, fell into disorder and could scarcely be
rallied. Seeing this, Cumberland detached the
Highlanders from Ingolsby's division, and .sent
them in command of Sir Robert Munro, a
veteran of Marlborough's time, to aid the Dutch.
Sir Fiobert obtained permission from Cumber-
land to permit the Highlanders to fight in their
own fa.shion; this was readily granted. The
gallant fellows advanced through tire and smoke,
undismayed by the terrible musketiy and
artillery fire of the French. At last they halted
and delivered a volley, then rushed forward,
clapped down and loaded, rose up, fired again,
and again rushed forward, repeating it till they
came near the French ranks, when they delivered
a concentrated fire which confounded the enemy,
then retired to their first position and re-
commenced their rushes. Cumberland, assisted
by Lord Cathcart, seeing the gallant advance of
the Flighlanders, now led forward his first line
and succeeded in passing Fontenoy and the
redoubt, and got within thirty yards of the
enemy's muzzles. Receiving fire at this distance,
the British doubled up in a column and adv-anced
between the batteries, all of which were playing
upon a space not quite half a mile in breadth.
The slaughter was indescribable. Whole ranks
fell, but the intervals were closed up. The
Highlanders at their second rush charged with
sword and bayonet, and broke through the right
of the brigade of French Guards. Cumberland
charging at the same time, the whole brigade
were hurled back in disorder upon their supports,
the Irish regiments of Lord I'lare. The French
cavalry now advanced, but went about, unable
to face the fire that mowed down horse and man.
The Duke of Cumberland noticed the gallant
conduct of the Highlanders in the hand to-hand
fighting, and observed one Highlander, who,
with his broadsword, had killed nine men,
making a stroke at a tenth when his arm was
shattered by a cannon ball. His Royal High-
ness applauded the Highlander's conduct and
promised him a reward equal to the value of the
lost arm.
At this crisis, the British had decidedly the
advantage on the left wing. Unsupported by
cavalry the infantry, as we have seen, bore down
all before them, driving the French left three
hundred paces beyond Fontenoy and making
themselves masters of the field, from the ground
upon which they stood to their own camp. But
as the French left retired the columns wheeled
back, or opened, and uncovered two batteries of
heavy guns, which poured on the British such a
storm of cartridge shot in front and flank that
it was impossible to face it. Rallying, however,
they completed the disorder of the French, who
were fairly lieaten, and had some fresh battalions
from the reserve replaced those that had suflered
from the masked batteries, or had the second
line advanced to enable the cavalry to get past
the redoubt, the enemy could not have recovered
the day.
When the French infantry were fairly driven
out of St. Antoine, Saxe thought the battle was
lost, and sent an officer with such tidings to the
King and Dauphin, who were seated on horse-
back at an eminence surveying the fight where
the Royal Standard of France was flying. The
Standard was immediately struck by order of
Louis, as the officer begged that they would
provide for their own safety by flight.
"If," says Voltaire, ''the Dutch had moved
at this moment and joined the British, there
would have been no resource, nay, no retreat
for the French army, nor, in all j)iobability, for
the King and his son." Old Marshal Konigsegg,
the Austrian general, congratulated Camberhmd
on his victory, but his compliments were pre-
mature. Saxe, when he saw the Dutch stand
aloof, leaving the British and Hanoverians to
fight the battle unaided, like a good general,
made another bid for victory as a last resource.
He immediately ordered up all his reserves,
brought all his artillery to bear upon tlie British
ranks, and bringing up the Household troops of
France, and the Irish and Scottish brigades
then in the service of France, strove to crush
Cumberland by an attack in overwhelming force,
in which the Irish brigade were the foremost
and most furious, who made their attack with a
yell that echoed through all their ranks as they