[1746-1747 A.D.]

He

Austrians, and retained his ample conquests of Flanders and Brabant. had now advanced almost as far as Louis XIV, in his first memorable war. Holland was menaced in its vital territories. The isle of Zealand was threatened with invasion. The Dutch had recourse to the same measures which they had adopted in the preceding century. The prince of Orange was raised to sovereign power, and created hereditary stadholder. In the meantime the duke of Cumberland arrived from the field of Culloden, to defend the ally of England against Marshal Saxe. Immense armies on either side seemed to promise a decisive campaign. Maestricht and Bergenop-Zoom were the only two fortresses that held out against the French. In manœuvring to besiege the former town, the French came in front of their enemies, advantageously posted at Lawfeld. It was now the turn of the duke of Cumberland to be entrenched and defended by cannon, whilst Marshal Saxe attacked in close column. It was the day of Fontenoy reversed.

TAILLENDIER'S ACCOUNT OF LAWFELD (1747 A.D.)

Maurice of Saxony had returned to Brussels, March 31st, 1747, and tracing out a plan of campaign for his subordinates had taken possession of Dutch Flanders. Löwendal, Contades, Montmarin, able coadjutors in the plans of their chief, effected this conquest in the space of one month (15th of April to 16th of May). Everything was made ready for battle. The duke of Cumberland, at the head of an English army; the prince of Waldeck and Marshal Batthyányi at the head of the Austrians, wished to avenge Fontenoy and Rocoux; while Louis XV, full of confidence in the marshal's plans, was eager to share a second time the glory of a great victory. Perhaps this arose from a combination of state reasons and personal vanity. With regard to Marshal Saxe others than interested accusers thought that the marshal was not sorry to prolong the war. His wonderful manoeuvres, eulogised by Frederick the Great, were a little too deliberate for French patience. The king thought that his presence would force on an engagement and give a definite success which would end the war. The battle took place on the 2nd of July, 1747, a battle resulting in triumphs for Maurice. That same evening the king announced the good news to the dauphin and instructing him to convey the good news to the dauphine wrote, "Tell her that our general was never so great, but blame must mingle with our praise in that he exposed himself like an ordinary grenadier."

Such, in effect, Maurice, the consummate general, had shown himself— an intrepid foot-soldier. He had seen from the opening of the action that the village of Lawfeld was the key to the battle and that once master there he would be master also of the enemy. The duke of Cumberland, either believing the place to be sufficiently strong, or not realising its importance, had placed only a small number of troops there. Warned suddenly of danger, he brought his whole army thither at the moment when the first brigade, directed by the count de Saxe, had taken possession of the village.

Our men [the French] recoil under the shock. A new column advances, which vainly tries to cut the allies to pieces and is in its turn repulsed. English, Hessians, Hanoverians, a whole army, a whole deep coluran concentrates behind Lawfeld and repairs incessantly the advanced ranks which fall before the French. It is the Fontenoy column over again, only more terrible, having its front protected by a natural stronghold. A road cut between two embankments fringed with hedges furnishes a formidable trench.

[1747 A.D.]

fous,

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Maurice, afraid for a moment that he will lose the day, says to M. de ValWell, what do you think of this? We begin badly, the enemy holds well." "Monsieur le maréchal, you were dying at Fontenoy; you won: convalescent at Rocoux, you beat them again; your good health to-day shall crush them." It does, but the mêlée is awful. What a veritable furnace that village is-showers of stone and fire! For a moment the tumult ceases; neither gun nor musketry fire is heard. Our soldiers advance with fixed bayonets only. Just the noise of the charge-just the shock of the men meeting; the clash of arms; the fury of war going up in inarticulate cries from thousands of throats!

Maurice, sword in hand, rushes to the head of the king's regiment and takes the village in flank. On rush his men, striking and killing! The example of the chief kindles enthusiasm in every soldier there. What avail trumpets and drums? The drummers carry their drums on their backs, preferring sword play. Not a blow to waste, not a moment to lose. When we hold Lawfeld, the artillery for which we are cutting the road will soon blow Cumberland to pieces.

Here we have a unique glimpse of the count de Saxe and his marvellous charge, so very French, where the general and soldier were as one. "At that moment," he says, in his Mémoires," "the enemy who were engaged in the village, hearing firing behind them, abandoned the hedges. Our troops attacked them at the other end and followed up. In an instant the whole outer part of the village was in our hands, taken amidst deafening shouts. The enemy's line was broken. Two brigades of artillery which had followed me opened fire and increased the disorder. Two cavalry brigades had come up on our left; I took two squadrons and ordered the marquis de Bellefonds, who was in command, to push on speedily to the enemy's infantry, and called to the horsemen: Seek your forage, my children'; and they did." That foraging in the midst of the column which had incessantly reinforced the natural defences of Lawfeld made an enormous hole of two thousand paces in width in the English lines. "My two squadrons," adds Maurice, were shot. Scarcely a man returned, but I had gained my object."

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At what a price! For five hours the attack on the village lasted (from ten in the morning till three in the afternoon), and how many brave men on both sides had died in a purposeless war! What frightful slaughter, and doubly frightful, seeing it changed nothing in the political situation, and brought peace no nearer. In the English army ten thousand men bit the dust. We lost more than five thousand; and when that field of death was ours the twenty-seven thousand Austrians of Count Batthyányi, held in check by our left wing, retired peaceably upon Maestricht without losing a man or a cartridge. A serious mistake had been made, which Maurice realised later. There was a second victory to be achieved over Batthyányi after the defeat of Cumberland. Instead of re-uniting his victorious troops with those confronting the Austrians, and crushing an enemy inferior in numbers and already demoralised by the bloody reverse their comrades had received, Maurice committed an error by pausing to enjoy his triumph, by going to Herderen to receive the king's congratulations, so allowing Maria Theresa's general to withdraw in good order. But who will dare to blame him? Perhaps in charging as a common soldier at Lawfeld Maurice failed in his duty as general. But if this general in a decisive hour had not turned into the fiercest private soldier should we have conquered? In the intoxication of the struggle he had not foreseen probable results of the engagement.

[1744-1747 A.D.]

Yet

A Frederick, a Napoleon would doubtless not have made this mistake. the victory of Lawfeld, incomplete though it was, will ever be one of the most glorious memories of French infantry, and in the annals of Maurice de Saxe one of the most brilliant pages.s

OTHER AFFAIRS ON LAND AND SEA

The duke of Cumberland was worsted, but remained still strong enough to cover Maestricht. Marshal Saxe, unable to besiege this town, sent Löwendal to invest Bergen-op-Zoom, considered impregnable. It was nevertheless taken by assault, after a month's siege.

These successes in Flanders were compensated by reverses in Italy. Genoa, it is true, had risen in insurrection against the Austrians, and driven them out. Boufflers, and after him the duke de Richelieu, aided by the populace, were enabled to preserve the town. But to Genoa was limited their footing on Italian soil. The imperialists even penetrated into Provence. And when the chevalier de Belle-Isle attempted to force the passes of the Alps, he was defeated at Exilles, and slain, with the greater part of his soldiers. By sea, the French lost almost their last ship of war.

Although a naval war had seemed imminent in 1740, it was postponed on account of the complications caused by the Austrian succession. For four years there were no naval hostilities between France and England. But from 1744, that is, from the date when war was officially declared, things went otherwise. The French troops received orders to be in readiness and began preparations accordingly, while the English on their side threatened the ports. The French possessed Cape Breton (Île Royale), a place doubly valuable, first because of the fisheries there, and secondly because it was the key to Canada and the American possessions. This was Louisburg. Since 1720, three million francs had been spent in fortifying it. The AngloAmericans in Boston, jealous of its prosperity, and animated by a strong feeling of animosity against the French settlers, organised on their own account a small fleet to invade it in 1745, and asked London for help from the royal navy. The French colony was badly administered and full of disorder. Therefore, after only a fifty days' siege, the Anglo-Americans were victorious. The garrison surrendered, on condition that they and some two thousand inhabitants should be sent to a French port.

The conquerors, established at Louisburg, tried to enter Canada, but the governor, La Gallissonière, repulsed this attempt. They took, however, two richly cargoed ships belonging to the Company of the Indies (Compagnie des Indes); these, not having been warned in time, were sailing in fancied security by Cape Breton. Such losses naturally caused disgust and alarm in France. There was an outcry against an inefficient navy and the unreadiness of Maurepas, who commanded it. All were unanimous against the shortsighted economy of Cardinal Fleury. This was only the beginning of the reverses. A fleet equipped in 1746 to retake Louisburg, placed under the command of De la Rochefoucauld d'Enville, could not get to its destination. The corsairs captured several isolated ships, and commerce with the colonies was partly stopped. Sugar, coffee, and other colonial products, which had become almost necessary articles of daily consumption, went up enormously in price.

A bold plan was devised by the English, of destroying the establishments of the Company of the Indies at Lorient. General Sinclair disembarked the 1st of October, 1746, in Quimperlé Bay, marched on Lorient, and gave the

[1746-1747 A.D.] town twenty-four hours to surrender. But the governor, the troops, and the inhabitants put forward their best means of defence. So the English general, who could then succeed only by a surprise, was obliged to re-embark. It became necessary to escort the company's transports by squadrons of the royal marines. Twice in 1747 these fleets succumbed in an unequal fight with the more powerful English. On May 3rd, Admiral Anson, commanding twenty-seven ships, captured near Cape Finisterre, in Spain, a fleet of five vessels and two frigates. The Londoners showed their delight at seeing the ingots captured from the French ships by having bonfires. On the 14th of October, Admiral Hawke captured quite near to Belle-Île six vessels escorted by a convoy going from France to the Antilles. England conquered by her superior fleet. She had, according to Voltaire, 130 ships, manned by 50 to 100 guns, with about 115 guns below. The French had only from 30 to 35 ships, with an inefficient naval force. Although this naval war was only accessory to the great struggle, and gave but a slight hint of the turn affairs would take, these numerous losses inspired fears that were only too well founded for the safety of the colonies. The maritime superiority of the British was a crushing revelation.

WARS IN INDIA

It is true, the French had better success in the East Indies. The English company had there four large settlements - Bombay, Madras, Fort William (near Calcutta), and Bencoolen. The French company had two, Pondicherry and Chandernagor, the latter a recent creation of Dupleix. It was considered best to try for a peaceful settlement, and Dupleix proposed neutrality to the English. But these, considering themselves stronger than they really were, summoned a fleet from the mother-country into Indian seas and took several French ships. Labourdonnais, governor of the isle of Bourbon (Réunion), and an officer in the navy, had for several years been warning the ministry that it was dangerous to leave the almost total direction of colonial affairs in the hands of the company; that a great national interest was at stake, India running the risk of becoming the prey of the English. By an order from the government he armed at the company's expense a small fleet of nine vessels, manned by some three thousand men, of whom eight hundred were natives.

On the 6th of July, 1746, he attacked and dispersed an English fleet. Then he appeared unexpectedly before Madras. It is reckoned that there were in the town about one hundred thousand people, but the only defence was a fort guarded by two hundred Europeans and a few sepoys. Labourdonnais had eleven hundred French troopers and a few hundred sepoys and blacks, without counting sailors and the marines. The English gave up keys of Madras on condition of their being returned when an indemnity of 1,100,000 pagodes (estimated at 9,000,000 francs) had been paid. Thus was the taking of Louisburg revenged.

the

Dupleix protested against this capitulation. He maintained that in signing it Labourdonnais had exceeded his powers, and that the right of disposing of Indian conquests belonged only to the governor-general of Pondicherry. Labourdonnais resisted, saying he had given his word; that he had the right to conclude the treaty, and wished to submit the whole affair to a royal decision. But France was far distant. Dupleix, knowing himself to be the stronger party, broke the treaty, and destroyed the native quarters of Madras, which was really the most populous quarter and occupied wholly by Indians.

[1746-1748 A.D.]

Labourdonnais later returned to France, where he was imprisoned in the Bastille on charges signed by the Council of Pondicherry under the direction of Dupleix. These pretended that he had betrayed the company's interests and sold Madras to the English. Dupleix next attempted to take Fort St. George. The enterprise was unsuccessful.

Then England sent out Admiral Boscawen, who, having rallied the scattered navy, found himself at the head of thirty men-of-war. Boscawen went to besiege Pondicherry. To do this he had to land his troops and set them at work with which they were ill acquainted. Dupleix armed the Indians, and was helped by a young and brilliant officer named Bussy, who was destined to become one of the greatest heroes of the Indian wars. Boscawen raised the siege after forty-eight days of incessant warfare. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, assured to France the possession of Pondicherry, and Louis XV recompensed the governor by giving him the order of St. Louis, although that was distinctly a military order. The Indian princes of the Carnatic, from seeing the victory over the English, conceived the highest idea of French military prowess. This was exactly what Dupleix wanted, for he proposed thereafter to trade on their fear and admiration. I

When peace was restored no sign of amity made its appearance between the rival merchants on the Coromandel coast. Dupleix sided with one of the princes of Arcot, replaced him on his throne, and was so carried away by security and ostentation, that he bought or forged the title of "viceroy of the Carnatic of the Great Mogul," and affected a greater magnificence than the native rulers. But India had not been without its elevating effect on the genius of the rival nation.

England saw the earlier services of Robert Clive, a merchant's clerk in a counting-house near Calcutta, at first with surprise and then with pride. He left his desk, and took the command in war with a self-reliant dignity which gave confidence to his companions. Step by step he followed the proceedings of Dupleix, and smote him hip and thigh at the siege of Madura, near Arcot. The native mind was subdued by the sight of a people who vanquished the French as easily as the French had scattered the Hindus; and court influence at home completed the misfortunes which English superiority had begun.

Dupleix was recalled, and, in spite of his title of marquis, was again looked upon as a book-keeper in a stall, and died of a broken heart in the effort to induce his judges to leave him some small portion of the great fortune he had at one time acquired. The count Lally, an Irishman by descent, was sent out to replace the plebeian Dupleix, and made matters a thousand times worse. He so offended the inhabitants of Pondicherry, which was a second time besieged by the English, that they almost prayed for the capture of the town and the disgrace of the commander. The capture came; and the commander, storming, cavilling, and finding fault with everybody but himself, was sent home, and, after some years' imprisonment in the Bastille, was executed as a traitor.

Labourdonnais, Dupleix, and Lally were the victims of French feeling in the matter of a colonial empire. Clive, on the other hand, was ennobled, Coote promoted, and honours and wealth showered on the bearers of the English flag. The issue of a contest in which the combatants were so differently treated by their employers was easily seen. And with India laid open to her powers, with immense squadrons blockading Toulon and Marseilles, and her Austrian allies ravaging Provence, England looked on with patience at the momentary triumphs of France in Italy and Flanders.