Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/103

] of war, Mr. Godfrey, I think you should not expose yourself to the hazards of it." To which Godfrey replied, "Not being more exposed than your majesty, should I be excusable if I showed more concern?" The king said, "Yes; I am in my duty, and, therefore, have a more reasonable claim to preservation." Whilst he was uttering these words, a cannon-ball laid Godfrey dead at his feet.

On the 30th of July the elector of Bavaria attacked Vauban's line that surrounded the defences of the castle, and broke through it, and reached even Cohorn's celebrated fort, under the eyes of Cohorn himself, but could not effect a lodgment in it. On the 2nd of August another party of grenadiers, headed by the dare-devil lord Cutts, attacked and lodged themselves on the second counterscarp. The governor, count Guiscard, now engaged to give up the town, time being allowed for the garrison to retire into the citadel. This being done, and the allies having engaged to give up the one thousand five hundred wounded men left below, on the 13th the bombardment of the fort commenced with renewed fury. Both sides fought with the fanaticism of courage, and committed great havoc on each other. Boufflers at length attempted to cut his way through the besiegers in a headlong sally, but was repulsed, and shut up again.

At this crisis Villeroi's army had reached Fleurus, and fired ninety pieces of cannon to apprise the besieged of their vicinity. William immediately left the conduct of the siege to the elector of Bavaria, and drew out a strong force to confront Villeroi, who was reinforced by a large body of troops from Germany. This was a most anxious moment to the people of both England and France. The armies of the two nations were drawn out against each other, and covered the plains of the Sambre and the Meuse. Boufflers was urging Villeroi to strike a decisive stroke for his deliverance and the rescue of Namur, and William had Boufflers in his rear if he was beaten by Villeroi.

At Versailles Louis was imploring heaven for victory, with all his court on their knees, confessing and receiving the eucharist; and in London the Jacobites, frantic with confident expectation that now William would be annihilated, filled London with all sorts of horrible rumours and alarms. But after having faced each other for three days, Villeroi saw that the position and numbers of the allies were too formidable, and he quietly decamped along the river Mehaigne to Boneffe. As Boufflers was now left without hope of succour, the allies informed him of the retreat of Villeroi, and summoned him to surrender without occasioning more slaughter. But there was a tradition in the French army that no marshal of France had ever capitulated, and he stood out. The bombardment re-commenced on the 21st with sixty-six cannon and sixty mortars, and, says Ralph, "As if the besiegers had designed to level the walls like those of Jericho, with one blast, the dreadful business of the day was opened with one general discharge from all these batteries at the same instant with such an effect, that not only the whole circumference of the castle, but the very hill it stood on, seemed to reel with the shock, and to be lost in the cloud of dust and smoke that followed it. Scarce could the besiegers themselves sustain the horror of their own experiment; and, as to the besieged, their consternation and confusion were inexpressible; those that escaped could scarcely believe that they had escaped; every object round about them were a face of ruin; for bursting bombs, fractured battlements, dying men, and horses staking themselves on the palisadoes, or plunging headlong into the ditches in a fit of ungovernable frenzy, were the only objects they were surrounded with."

Yet this did not induce Boufflers to surrender; there must be yet more carnage. Early in the afternoon an assault was made in four places at once. Cutts, as usual, led on the chief body of grenadiers. They were mowed down by wholesale. Cutts himself received a wound in the head, which disabled him for some time; and, whilst his wound was bandaging, the grenadiers recoiled before the murdering fire from the batteries. But again Cutts presented himself at their head, and they turned to support a body of Bavarians who were ordered to support them, but who were in vain endeavouring to force the palisadoes, and were fest being shot down. The English coming up as they were on the point of giving way, by a desperate effort burst through the palisadoes, stormed the battery which had made such havoc with the Bavarians, and turned the guns against the enemy. In the meantime the Dutch and Brandenburgers had also been successful; lodgments were made for a mile in length in the French outworks, but two thousand of the allies had fallen.

Boufflers now demanded forty-eight hours to bury his dead, which was granted him; and, in truth, he had need of it, for his trenches were all choked with the fallen, and his force was already reduced to about one-third its original strength. When he entered the town the garrison mustered fifteen thousand men; now it was only about five thousand. When the dead were buried, Boufflers offered to surrender in ten days if he were not relieved before; but the allies would not listen to anything but an immediate surrender, and he complied, on condition that the garrison should be allowed to march out with the honours of war, but leaving the artillery and stores to the conquerors. The allies announced the surrender to Villeroi by the discharge of all their artillery, and by a running fire of all their musketry three times repeated. He knew the meaning of it, and retreated towards Mons.

Accordingly, on the 26th of August, Boufflers marched forth with drums beating and flags flying, William, the elector of Bavaria, and all the officers being assembled to witness this gratifying spectacle. Boufflers lowered his sword in token of submission to the elector of Bavaria, and the troops marched on. Before Boufflers, however, passed out of the trenches, Dykvelt informed him that ho was the prisoner of the king of England. Boufflers was highly enraged at what he regarded as an act of gross perfidy; but he was informed that he was detained in consequence of his sovereign having broken the cartel, and refused to deliver up the two captured garrisons of Dyxmude and Deynse, and that he was held as a hostage for the faithful discharge of the articles agreed upon. There was no denying the perfidy of his king, which had caused this refusal, and Boufflers sent an express to inform Louis, who immediately returned a promise that the garrisons should be sent back, and Boufflers was forthwith released. On his return to