Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/397

  “, June 16,, 1706.

“Sir, — After the fatigue of forty-one days’ march, we are arrived at our desired port, and I think on this side it may more properly be called a conquest than a revolution, since in the whole campaign there has not been above three Spaniards joined us (and these of no note), unless the towns and villages by which we passed, who rendered themselves to the obedience of K. Charles rather out of fear than inclination. The grandees have all left Madrid, some to their country houses and others to follow the Duke D’Anjou, who has taken with him all the plate, jewels, and rich furniture belonging to the palace. The magistracy of the town seem very well pleased with this change, and the people are generally passive and wish that either one or other of the kings had power enough to protect them and put an end to the war. The D. of Berwick is on his march, with the few forces he has left, towards Navarre; though some of his parties are so near us that they have this day killed and taken three or four of the foragers of my regiment. But as soon as the king joins us, either with or without the assistance of the Portuguese, we hope to clear Spain of the French. Our Noble Allies [the Portuguese] have been very humoursome ever since the taking of Rodrigo, and have been for going back several times. The last time they proposed it was two days ago, when we were within three leagues of Madrid; and their only quarrel was that K. Charles had writ a letter to my Lord Galway, and none to the Marquis das Minas, and in the superscription called him The General Commanding the Army, which (they urged) was not only a slight but a reflection on the Portuguese generals. However, my Lord has at last brought them hither, which nobody believed he would be able to effect.

“The town is much finer, and the inhabitants more numerous, than I expected; and I believe that we have had twice the number to see our camp than the army consists of, with four or five hundred coaches filled with ladies as well as dons. And the news they tell us this evening is, that Seville has certainly declared for us, and the garrison of Pampelona has murdered a great many of the French and turned the rest out of the gates. We hope to have the king with us in eight or ten days.”

Lord Galway sent his aide-de-camp, Captain Montague, nephew of Lord Halifax, to England with despatches. His fame had now reached the highest point which the discordant elements of a confederate army would allow. Bishop Burnet’s summary of his career up to this date is as follows:—

“He heartily engaged in King William’s service, and has been ever since employed in many eminent posts, in all which he has acquitted himself with that great reputation both for capacity, integrity, courage, and application, as well as success in most of his undertakings, that he is justly reckoned among the great men of the age; and to crown all, he is a man of eminent virtues, great piety, and zeal for religion.”

A large number of thanksgiving sermons were preached and printed in England; the longest and the best was by the Rev. Robert Fleming, a distinguished man, celebrated as an author, and as a private friend and councillor of King William III. His discourse on this occasion was printed with the title, “Saeculum Davidicum Redivivum," David’s “first three” among his generals being represented by Marlborough, Peterborough, and “the noble and brave Earl of Galway.” As to the latter he adds:—

“But that great general and statesman, the Earl of Galway, deserves a peculiar representation by himself, whilst contending with difficulties on all hands, and yet turning them about with such address and prudence as still to force his way forward to the heart of Spain, whilst the Duke of Berwick is glad to retire before him, and the Spanish cities are as glad to have so fair an opportunity of being under his protection.”

 

We must go back a little as to time, in order to bring our readers into contact with Charles III. and Peterborough at Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. The singularly successful campaign there had been crowned by the retreat of the French on the arrival of the English fleet.

The young king always chafed under the arrangement of the English government, according to which he was nominally in command of the army, while the real power was exercised by the generals. His affection for the Prince of Hesse had sweetened his submission to this arrangement. Hut the prince had died a soldier’s death, and had left Lord Peterborough to concentrate upon himself all the honour both of the plan and of the execution of the recent brilliant enterprise. Peterborough openly treated the king as a cypher, and exhibited before the populace his consciousness of his own pre-eminent greatness. As to Lord Galway, Brigadier Stanhope, and all his brother officers, Peterborough, when not himself in the field, spent most of his time in defaming and disparaging them. If the king was 