Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/197

 the Spanish plot. He reported that the Huguenots were patriotic on prinriple, and would not rserise [sic] at the instigation of any foreigner; that there was no danger except from driving them to desperation by fanatical and persecuting edicts; and that before his visit they had packed off the Cardinal’s emissaries.

Besides the officers of French regiments there were many others enrolled in the other corps of the British army. Some notice of these officers I shall insert in another chapter. Skelton said truly concerning the French Protestant refugees, “They have shown themselves brave and faithful in the army, just and impartial in the magistracy. For the truth of the former assertion, the noble carrrage of Sir John Ligonier is a sufficient voucher; and for that of the latter the mayoralty of Alderman Porter.”

Having been very comprehensively digested before, Chapter XVII. was capable of but little abridgement, and is re-edited in this volume, almost at full length. With regard to Ruvigny’s (formerly Schomberg’s) Horse, I now add that it was a very effective regiment in appearance as well as in action. Luttrell notes, under date 23d June 1692, “Yesterday Monsieur Ruvigny’s regiment (now Viscount Galway) of horse of French Protestants, drew up in Hyde Park, bravely accoutred, having tents by their horses’ side, and sixty horses carrying their equipage, and after marched through the city and are gone for Essex.” “July 5, yesterday Major-General Ruvigny’s regiment of horse embarked for Flanders.” The fact of their actual sailing is noted on the 19th. A correspondent at the seat of war mentions their arrival at King William’s camp on the 2d August.

The regiments of La Melorinière, Cambon, and Belcastel were, after the pacification of Ireland, transferred to foreign service in the Duke of Leinster’s expedition of 1692. By the help of Captain Robert Parker’s Military Memoirs (London, 1747), and D’Auvergne’s Campaigne in the Spanish Netherlands, 1692 (London, 1693), we can follow the track of that expedition more accurately than other authors have done. “In the month of May 1692 (says Parker), Lord Galway embarked at Waterford with 23 regiments of foot, of which ours was one. We landed at Bristol, from whence we marched to Southampton, and there embarked, in order to make a descent into France under the command of the Duke of Leinster, second son to the old Duke Schomberg. We had the grand Fleet of England and Holland to attend us; but as the famous sea-fight of La Hogue, in which the naval force of France was in a great measure destroyed, had been fought but three weeks before, the French Court expected a descent, and had drawn a great number of the regular troops and militia to the sea-coast; and we found it so strongly guarded at all parts, that in a council of war, which was held on that occasion, neither Admirals nor Generals were for landing the troops. So when we had sailed along the shore as far as Ushant, we returned and came to an anchor in the Downs. The King was then with the army in Flanders; here then we waited until the return of an Express, which the Queen had sent to know His Majesty’s pleasure with respect to the troops on board. . . . Upon the return of the Express we sailed to Ostend, where the troops landed, and marched from thence to Furness, and Dixmuyde, the enemy having quitted them on our approach. We continued there until we had fortified them and put them in a state of defence, leaving garrisons in them.” D’Auvergne informs us that on the 1st of September the Duke of Leinster arrived at Ostend, bringing fifteen regiments, including La Melonnière’s, Belcasel’s, and Cambon’s; and in a few days he was joined by a detachment under the command of Lieut.-General Talmash, consisting of six regiments sent by King William from headquarters. The re-fortification of Furnes and Dixmuyde (the French having, before retreating, demolished the former fortifications), was conducted by Colonel Cambon. An adventure happened in a ditch at the bastion by Ypres port in Dixmuyde:— “The ordinary detachments of the Earl of Bath’s Regiment and the Fusiliers, being at work in enlarging the ditch, found an old hidden treasure, which quickly stopped the