Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/98

 At the Boyne Lieutenant-Colonel De Belcastel, who, at the time of the enrolment of the regiment, had the military rank of Major, and had been made captain of a company, commanded a squadron of cavalry; he made a brilliant charge, in which he was severely wounded; and he afterwards died of his wounds. Captain Montargis, of De Moliens’ company, was with Schomberg, and warned him against exposing himself so much. Captains D.’Avène and Montault and Cornet Vervillon were killed. Captain (Brevet Lt.-Col.) De Casaubon, Captains De Varengues, Hubac, Bernaste, Montault, and Des Loires, and other officers, were wounded.

At the Royal review on the 9th July (o.s.), the strength of the regiment was reported to be 395 men. They were next employed in the first siege of Limerick. A redoubt, which was a troublesome outwork, was taken with the co-operation of a detachment of the regiment, but almost every man was either killed or wounded, or his horse instead of him. Captains La Roche, Hautcharmois et La Roquière, were killed; Cornet Couterne, a very handsome man, was disabled by a wound, and his wounded horse having rolled over him and having died, he lay for three days and three nights on the ground; when he was relieved he could not rally, but died on the night of his removal to the camp.

Colonel de Romaignac (or Romagnac) retired from the army and became a settler in Ireland in 1692. He was a refugee from the Boulonnaise, and his family name was Chalant. He had a daughter married to Rev. John Darassus, refugee pasteur of Dublin. By a will dated Dublin, Dec. 1697, he left his fief of Romagnac and others in Burgundy to his grandson, Charles Peter Darassus.

The Marquis De Ruvigny, who was made Colonel of this regiment on the death of Schomberg, joined it in Ireland in the campaign of 1691. The Marquis commanded a division of the army as a Major-General, and we have already seen how, at the battle of Aughrim, he contributed to the great and decisive victory. Ruvigny’s Regiment here began to earn its celebrity; it was commanded at Aughrim by Lieutenant-Colonel De Casaubon, who did his duty nobly. It was in Lieutenant-General De Schravemor’s division. Victory was gained at the cost to Ruvigny’s of two captains, nine lieutenants, nine cornets, forty troopers, and twenty-six horses killed; and the following were wounded — two captains, one lieutenant, one cornet, and forty-five horses.

The Marquis De Ruvigny, after the pacification of Limerick, remained in Dublin as Commander of the Forces. He forwarded to the War Office in London the following petitions, dated 1692:—

Mainvilliers, who was sent as Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1689 to Londonderry, where he served, is paid at the rate of 15s. a day to the 1st of January last, prays some allowance from that time.

Rochemont, reformed cornet in the Duke of Schomberg’s regiment, who was sent over by his Grace with several others, unfit for service, to be paid in England, and being sick was omitted in the list, prays to be continued in pay.

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. At the battle of Landen, in 1693, Galway’s regiment of horse was led by King William in person, and also by Lord Galway himself. The French regiments served in Holland and “on the Rhine” till the Peace of Ryswick, when they were reviewed before disbandment. I shall copy the lists from the originals in the British Museum.

“ Regiment of Horse passed review before Major-General Ramsay, 27th July 1698.