Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/296

 BUTLER. 285 commencement of the year 1678, he took upon bimself the command of the British subjects in the pay of the States and at the close of the war was continued in his command with extraordinary marks of honour from the States- general. In the progress of the campaign that followed, he greatly distinguished himself, especially at the battle of Mons, fought on the Srd of August, wherein he commanded the English troops, and by his skill and courage, contri- buted so much to the retreat Marshal Luxemburg was obliged to make, that the States of Holland, the governor of the Low Countries, and even his catholic majesty hin- self thought fit, in a letter under his hand, to acknowledge the great services he performed in that action* He returned to England on the 13th of September, 1678, but did not long live to enjoy the high reputation he had gained in his new occupation. He was attacked by a violent fever in the month of July 1680, which, after a few days illness, put a period to his existence on the 30th of the same month, in the forty-sixth year of his age, and on the following evening (fearful of infection) his body was deposited in Westminster Abbey. His eminent loyalty and forward zeal on all occasions, to serve his country and his sovereign, was evinced by a long series of brave and perilous services, which, as they rendered him both honoured and esteemed when living, caused him, when dead, to be both pitied and lamented. Nor were his talents less in the senate than on the ocean, or in the field. His speech, addressed to the Earl of Shaftesbury, in vindication of his father, the Duke of Ormonde, possessed so much vigour of language, and was so energetically delivered, that it even confounded that Extract of a letter from St. Denis, dated August 15, N. S The Earl of Ossory, with the regiments of the king of England's subjects under his command, was engaged in the attack on the side of Castleham, in which, as well the officers as common soldiers, in emulation of his lordship's example, who always charged with them, behaved themselves with the greatest courage and bravery." In a letter from the Hague, written on the same occasion, is the following expression, " The Earl of Ossory and his troops did wonders."