Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/487

1743.] steadiness, which bore down everything before it. The dense column of infantry, led on by the king, broke the French ranks, and cut through them with terrible slaughter. Noailles, seeing the havoc, gave a command which completed the disaster. To shield his men, he ordered them to repass the Maine; but a word of retreat, in all such cases, is a word of defeat. The retrograde movement produced dismay and disorder; the whole became a precipitate route. The French were driven in confused masses against the bridges, the bridges were choked up with the struggling throng, and numbers were forced into the river, or jumped in for escape, and were drowned. There was a wild flinging down of arms and a rush to get into the woody hills. Of these fugitives, great numbers were compelled to surrender. The battle, however, did not cease till four o'clock in the afternoon, when the French drew off, leaving the king of England in possession of the field, where he continued till night.

The French had fought with a bravery which must have defeated any but British troops; and their officers, in particular, made stupendous exertions to repair the unfortunate circumstances of the opening battle. The slaughter was therefore in proportion. No less than six thousand on their side were killed, taken, and wounded; amongst them many officers. The allies had betwixt two and three thousand men killed and wounded. Amongst the officers were generals Clayton and Murray killed, the earl of Albemarle and general Iluske wounded. Marshal D'Aremberg was also wounded in the shoulder, both he and Stair having shown the greatest bravery during the action. The king was wholly untouched, notwithstanding his unflinching exposure in the very front. Stair, as if to make up for his bad management, was eager to pursue the enemy and complete the route; but the allies had been for some time almost famished. They had neither food, nor drink, nor tents to shelter them, and both they and their horses were in a state of exhaustion, and the French army, as a body, still numerous. It was therefore determined to pursue their way to Hanau, where they had plenty of supplies. In doing this, they were obliged to leave their wounded in the hands of the French, which, notwithstanding their own needs, was not very creditable in conquerors. The French, however, treated them with great humanity.

Such was the battle of Dettingen, equally remarkable for the blunders of the generals and the valour of the men; still more so, as the last battle in which a king of England has commanded in person. At Hanau, the army not only refreshed itself, but was joined by reinforcements, which rendered the allies nearly equal in numbers to the French. Lord Stair, therefore, proposed to pass the Maine, and make a second attack on the enemy. The king, however, would not consent. Stair, with all his bravery, had shown that he was very incautious. He was, moreover, of a most haughty temper, and had quarrelled violently with the Hanoverian officers, and displayed much contempt for the petty German princes. They were, therefore, by no means inclined to second his counsels, though they had fought gallantly at Dettingen. Stair complained loudly of the neglect to follow up the French, and when, some weeks after, Voltaire saw him at the Hague and asked him about the battle, he replied, "I think the French made one mistake and the English two. Yours was, not standing still; and ours — first, in entangling ourselves in a most perilous position; and secondly, in failing to pursue our victory."

The best excuse for George II.'s apparent sluggishness was, that the French were now so closely pressed by concentrating armies. Prince Charles of Lorraine and the Austrians were pressing De Broglie so hotly that he was glad to escape over the Rhine near Manheim; and Noailles, thus finding himself betwixt two hostile armies, followed his example, crossed over the Rhine to Worms, where, uniting with Broglie, they retreated to their own frontier at Lauter, and thus the empire was cleared of them.

The emperor Charles now suffered the fate which he may be said to have richly deserved, by his long infatuation of aiding the French to commit their depredations, and continue these invasions of his native Germany. He had lost his crown of Bavaria to the Austrians; his title of emperor of Germany was an empty sound; he was left without a friend or ally, except the French, who, themselves in retreat, sent him word that France could do nothing more for him. He was a miserable, deserted object, destitute of the ordinary necessaries of life. Noailles, before retreating farther, had, indeed, made him a passing visit, and lent him forty thousand crowns to keep him from starvation; and Stair also paid his respects to him after the battle. Reduced to extremities, the last spark of spirit which he showed was when De Broglie sent him word that he had better make peace, to which he returned the answer, that he would not be taught how to make peace by those who had shown that they did not know how to make war.

Yet he did, immediately after, solicit for peace from Austria through the mediation of George of England and prince William of Hesse. But Maria Theresa, now helped out of all her difficulties by English money and English soldiers, was not inclined to listen to any moderate terms, even when proposed by her benefactor, the king of England. The emperor was down, and she proposed nothing less than that he should permanently cede Bavaria to her, or give up the imperial crown to her husband. Such terms were not to be listened to; but the fallen emperor finally did conclude a treaty of neutrality with the queen of Hungary, by which he consented that Bavaria should remain in her hands till the conclusion of a peace. This peace the king of England and William of Hesse did their best to accomplish; and Carteret, who was agent for king George, had consented that on this peace England should grant a subsidy of three hundred thousand crowns to the emperor. No sooner, however, did the English ministers receive the preliminaries of this contract, than they very properly struck out this subsidy, and the whole treaty fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, in the camp of the allies at Hanau, not merely this treaty had been in agitation, but councils of war were held for the prosecution of the campaign. Prince Charles of Lorraine and count Khevenhöller were present, and the arguments of Stair, that the enemy should be