by G. A. Henty
Chapter 10: The Battle Of The Dykes.
For some time after his duel with Captain Muller, it is probablethat the little cornet was, after Marlborough himself, the mostpopular man in the British army in Flanders. He, however, bore hishonours quietly, shrinking from notice, and seldom going down intothe town. Any mention of the duel was painful to him; for althoughhe considered that he was perfectly justified in taking up thequarrel forced upon his regiment, yet he sincerely regretted thathe should have been obliged to kill a man, however dangerous andobnoxious, in cold blood.
Two days after the duel he received a letter from his grandfather.It was only the second he had received. In the previous letterColonel Holliday alluded to something which he had said in a priorcommunication, and Rupert had written back to say that no suchletter had come to hand. The answer ran as follows:
"My dear Grandson--Your letter has duly come to hand. I regret tofind that my first to you miscarried, and by comparing dates Ithink that it must have been lost in the wreck of the brig Flora,which was lost in a tempest on her way to Holland a few days afterI wrote. This being so, you are ignorant of the changes which havetaken place here, and which affect yourself in no slight degree.
"The match between your lady mother and Sir William Brownlow is brokenoff. This took place just after you sailed for the wars. It was broughtabout by our friend, Monsieur Dessin. This gentleman--who is, althoughI know not his name, a French nobleman of title and distinction--received,about the time you left, the news that he might shortly expect to hearthat the decree which had sent him into exile was reversed. Some littletime later a compatriot of his came down to stay with him. MonsieurDessin, who I know cherished ill feeling against Sir William for theinsult which his son had passed upon his daughter, and for variousbelittling words respecting that young lady which Sir William hadin his anger permitted himself to use in public, took occasion whenhe was riding through the streets of Derby, accompanied by hisfriends, Lord Pomeroy and Sir John Hawkes, gentlemen of fashion andrepute, to accost him. Sir William swore at him as a French dancingmaster; whereupon Monsieur Dessin at once challenged him to a duel.Sir William refused with many scornful words to meet a man of suchkind, whereupon Monsieur Dessin, drawing Lord Pomeroy to him, inconfidence disclosed his name and quality, to which hiscompatriot--also a French nobleman--testified, and of which heoffered to produce documents and proofs. They did then adjourn to atavern, where they called for a private room, to talk the matterover out of earshot of the crowd; and after examining the proofs,Lord Pomeroy and Sir John Hawkes declared that Sir William Brownlowcould not refuse the satisfaction which Monsieur Dessin demanded.
"It has always been suspected that Sir William was a man of smallcourage, though of overbearing manner, and he was mightily put towhen he heard that he must fight with a man whom he justly regardedas being far more than his match. So craven did he become, indeed,that the gentlemen with him did not scruple to express theirdisgust loudly. Monsieur Dessin said that, unless Sir William didafford him satisfaction, he would trounce him publicly as a coward,but that he had one other alternative to offer. All were mightilysurprised when he stated that this alternative was that he shouldwrite a letter to Mistress Holliday renouncing all claim to herhand. This Sir William for a time refused to do, blustering much;but finally, having no stomach for a fight, and fearing theindignity of a public whipping, he did consent so to do; andMonsieur Dessin having called for paper and pens, the letter wasthen written, and the four gentlemen signed as witnesses. The partythen separated, Lord Pomeroy and Sir John Hawkes riding off withoutexchanging another word with Sir William Brownlow.
"Your lady mother was in a great taking when she received theletter, and learned the manner in which it had come to be written.Monsieur Dessin left the town, with his daughter, two days later.He came over to take farewell of me, and expressed himself withgreat feeling and heartiness as to the kindness which he was goodenough to say that I had shown him. I assured him, as you maybelieve, that the action he had forced Mistress Holliday's suitorto take left me infinitely his debtor.
"He promised to write to me from France, whither he was about toreturn. He said that he regretted much that a vow he had sworn tokeep his name unknown in England, save and except his honour shouldcompel him to disclose it, prevented him from telling it; but thathe would in the future let me know it. After it was known that hehad left, Sir William Brownlow again attempted to make advances toyour lady mother; but she, who lacks not spirit, repulsed him soscornfully that all fear of any future entanglement in that quarteris at an end; at the which I have rejoiced mightily, although theChace, now that you have gone, is greatly changed to me.
"Farmer Parsons sends his duty to you, and his love to Hugh. Ithink that it would not be ill taken if, in a short time, you wereto write to Mistress Holliday. Make no mention of her brokenespousal, which is a subject upon which she cares not to touch. TheEarl of Marlborough has been good enough to write me a letterspeaking in high terms of you. This I handed to her to read, andalthough she said no word when she handed it back, I could see thatshe was much moved.
"My pen runs not so fast as it did. I will therefore now conclude.
"YOUR LOVING GRANDFATHER."
This letter gave great pleasure to Rupert, not because it restoredto him the succession of the estates of the Chace, for of that hethought but little, but because his mother was saved from a matchwhich would, he felt sure, have been an unhappy one for her.
The winter passed off quietly, and with the spring the two armiesagain took the field. The campaign of 1803 was, like itspredecessor, marred by the pusillanimity and indecision of theDutch deputies, who thwarted all Marlborough's schemes for bringingthe French to a general engagement, and so ruined the Englishgeneral's most skillful plans, that the earl, worn out bydisappointment and disgust, wrote to the Queen, praying to berelieved of his command and allowed to retire into private life,and finally only remained at his post at his mistress's earnestentreaty.
The campaign opened with the siege of Bonn, a strongly fortifiedtown held by the French, and of great importance to them, as beingthe point by which they kept open communication between France andtheir strong army in Germany. Marlborough himself commanded thesiege operations, having under him forty battalions, sixtysquadrons, and a hundred guns. General Overkirk, who, owing to thedeath of the Earl of Athlone, was now second in command, commandedthe covering army, which extended from Liege to Bonn.
The siege commenced on the 3rd of May, and with such vigour was itcarried on that on the 9th the fort on the opposite side of theRhine was carried by storm; and as from this point the worksdefending the town could all be taken in reverse, the placesurrendered on the 5th; the garrison, 3600 strong, being permittedby the terms of capitulation to retire to Luxemburg.
Marshal Villeroi, who commanded the French army on the frontier,finding that he could give no aid to Bonn, advanced againstMaestrich, which he hoped to surprise, before Overkirk could arriveto its aid. On the way, however, he had to take the town ofTangres, which was held by two battalions of infantry only. These,however, defended themselves with astonishing bravery against theefforts of a whole army, and for twenty-eight hours of continuousfighting arrested the course of the enemy. At the end of that timethey were forced to surrender, but the time gained by their heroicdefence afforded time for Overkirk to bring up his army, and whenVilleroi arrived near Maestrich, he found the allies already there,and so strongly posted that although his force was fully twice asstrong as theirs, he did not venture to attack.
Marlborough, upon the fall of Bonn, marched with the greatestexpedition to the assistance of his colleague. His cavalry reachedMaestrich on the 21st, his infantry three days later. On the 26thof May he broke up the camp and advanced to undertake the grandoperation of the siege of Antwerp. The operation was to beundertaken by a simultaneous advance of several columns.Marlborough himself with the main wing was to confront MarshalVilleroi. General Spaar was to attack that part of the French lineswhich lay beyond
the Scheldt. Cohorn was to force the passage ofthat river in the territory of Hulst, and unite Spaar's attack withthat of Obdam, who with twenty-one battalions and sixteen squadronswas to advance from Bergen op Zoom.
The commencement of this operation was well conducted. On the nightof the 26th Cohorn passed the Scheldt, and the next morning he andSpaar made a combined attack on that part of the French linesagainst which they had been ordered to act, and carried them aftersevere fighting and the loss of 1200 men. Upon the following daythe Earl of Marlborough, riding through the camp, saw RupertHolliday, standing at the door of his tent. Beckoning him to him,he said:
"Would you like a ride round Antwerp, Master Holliday? I have aletter which I desire carried to General Obdam, whose force is atEckeron on the north of the city."
Upon Rupert saying that he should like it greatly, the earl badehim be at his quarters in an hour's time.
"There is the dispatch," he said, when Rupert called upon him. "Youwill give this to the general himself. I consider his position asdangerous, for Marshal Villeroi may throw troops into the town, andin that case the Marquis Bedmar may fall in great force upon any ofour columns now lying around him. I have warned Obdam of hisdanger, and have begged him to send back his heavy baggage, to takeup a strong position, and if the enemy advance in force to fallback to Bergen op Zoom. Should the general question you, you cansay that you are aware of the terms of the dispatch, and that I hadbegged you to assure the general that my uneasiness on his accountwas considerable."
The general then pointed out to Rupert on a map the route that heshould take so as to make a sweep round Antwerp, and warned him touse every precaution, and to destroy the dispatch if there shouldbe danger of his being captured.
"Am I to return at once, sir?"
"No," the earl said. "If all goes well we shall in three daysinvest the place, advancing on all sides, and you can rejoin yourcorps when the armies unite."
Rupert's horse was already saddled on his return, and Hugh was inreadiness to accompany him as his orderly.
It was a thirty miles ride, and it was evening before he reachedEckeron, having seen no enemy on his line of route.
He was at once conducted to the quarters of the Dutch general, whoreceived him politely, and read the dispatch which he had brought.It did not strike Rupert that he was much impressed with itscontents, but he made no remark, and simply requested one of hisstaff to see to Rupert's wants, and to have a tent pitched for him.
He spent a pleasant evening with the Dutch general's staff, most ofwhom could talk French, while Hugh was hospitably entertained bythe sergeants of the staff.
The next morning the tents were struck, and the heavy baggage was,in accordance with Lord Marlborough's orders, sent to the fortressof Bergen op Zoom. But, to Rupert's surprise and uneasiness, noattempt was made to carry out the second part of the instructioncontained in the dispatch.
The day passed quietly, and at night the party were very merryround a campfire. At eight o'clock next morning a horseman rodeinto camp with the news that the French were attacking the rear,and that the army was cut off from the Scheldt!
The Earl of Marlborough's prevision had proved correct. The Frenchmarshals had determined to take advantage of their centralposition, and to crush one of their enemy's columns. On the eveningof the 29th, Marshal Villeroi detached Marshal Boufflers withthirty companies of grenadiers and thirty squadrons of horse. Thesemarching all night reached Antwerp at daybreak without interruption,and uniting with the force under the Marquis Bedmar, issued out30,000 strong to attack Obdam. Sending off detached columns, whomoved round, and--unseen by the Dutch, who acted with as greatcarelessness as if their foes had been 500 miles away--he tookpossession of the roads on the dykes leading not only to Fort Lilleon the Scheldt, but to Bergen op Zoom, and fell suddenly upon theDutch army on all sides.
Scarcely had the messenger ridden into Eckeron, when a tremendousroar of musketry broke out in all quarters, and the desperateposition into which the supineness of their general had sufferedthem to fall, was apparent to all.
In a few minutes the confusion was terrible. Rupert and Hughhastily saddled their horses, and had just mounted when GeneralObdam with twenty troopers rode past at full gallop.
"Where can he be going?" Rupert said. "He is not riding towardseither of the points attacked."
"It seems to me that he is bolting, Master Rupert, just flying bysome road the French have not yet occupied."
"Impossible!" Rupert said.
But it was so, and the next day the runaway general himself broughtthe news of his defeat to the League, announcing that he hadescaped with thirty horse, and that the rest of his army wasdestroyed. It is needless to say that General Obdam neverafterwards commanded a Dutch army in the field.
The second part of the news which he brought the Hague was notcorrect. General Schlangenberg, the second in command, at onceassumed the command. The Dutch rallied speedily from theirsurprise, and the advancing columns of the enemy were soon met witha desperate resistance. In front General Boufflers attacked withtwenty battalions of French troops, headed by the grenadiers he hadbrought with him, while a strong Spanish force barred the retreat.Under such circumstances many troops would at once have laid downtheir arms; but such a thought never occurred to the Dutchmen ofSchlangenberg's army.
While a portion of this force opposed Boufflers' troops pressing ontheir front, the rest threw themselves against those who barredtheir retreat to Fort Lille. Never was there more desperatefighting. Nowhere could ground have been selected more unsuited fora battlefield.
It was by the roads alone running upon the dykes above the generallevel of the country the troops could advance or retreat, and itwas upon these that the heads of the heavy columns struggled forvictory.
There was little firing. The men in front had no time to reload,those behind could not fire because their friends were before them.It was a fierce hand-to-hand struggle, such as might have takenplace on the same ground in the middle ages, before gunpowder wasin use. Bayonets and clubbed muskets, these were the weapons onboth sides, while dismounted troopers--for horses were worse thanuseless here, mixed up with the infantry--fought with swords. Onthe roads, on the sides of the slopes, waist deep in the water ofthe ditches, men fought hand-to-hand. Schlangenberg commanded atthe spot where the Dutchmen obstinately and stubbornly resisted thefury of the French onslaught, and even the chosen grenadiers ofFrance failed to break down that desperate defence.
All day the battle raged. Rupert having no fixed duty rodebackwards and forwards along the roads, now watching how went thedefence against the French attack, now how the Dutch in vain triedto press back the Spaniards and open a way of retreat. Late in theafternoon he saw a party of the staff officers pressing towards therear on foot.
"We are going to try to get to the head of the column," one said toRupert. "We must force back the Spaniards, or we are all lost."
"I will join you," Rupert said, leaping from his horse.
"Hugh, give me my pistols and take your own; leave the horses, andcome with me."
It took upwards of an hour to make their way along the dyke,sometimes pushing forward between the soldiers, sometimes wading inthe ditch, but at last they reached the spot where, over groundhigh heaped with dead, the battle raged as fiercely as ever. With ashout of encouragement to the men the party of officers threwthemselves in front and joined in the fray. Desperate as thefighting had been before, it increased in intensity now. The Dutch,cheered by the leading of their officers, pressed forward withrenewed energy. The Spaniards fought desperately, nor indeed couldthey have retreated, from the crowd of their comrades behind. Thestruggle was desperate; bayonet clashed against bayonet, heavymuskets descended with a showering thud on head and shoulders,swords flashed, men locked together struggled for life. Those whofell were trampled to death, and often those in front were sojammed by the pressure, that their arms were useless, and theycould do nought but grasp at each other's throats, until a blow ora bayonet thr
ust from behind robbed one or other of his adversary.Slowly, very slowly, the Dutch were forcing their way forward, butit was by the destruction of the head of their enemy's column, andnot by any movement of retreat on their part.
After a few minutes of desperate struggles, in which twice Hughsaved his life by shooting a man on the point of running himthrough with a bayonet, Rupert found himself on the edge of theroad. He drew out of the fight for an instant, and then making hisway back until he came to a Dutch colonel, he pointed out to himthat the sole hope was for a strong body of men to descend into theditch, to push forward there, and to open fire on the flank of theenemy's column, so as to shake its solidity.
The officer saw the advice was good; and a column, four abreast,entered the ditches on each side, and pressed forward. The waterwas some inches above their waists, but they shifted their pouchesto be above its level, and soon passing the spot where the struggleraged as fiercely as ever on the dyke above, they opened fire onthe flanks of the Spaniards. These in turn fired down, and thecarnage on both sides was great. Fresh Dutchmen, however, pressedforward to take the place of those that fell; and the solidity ofthe Spaniards' column being shaken, the head of the Dutch bodybegan to press them back.
The impetus once given was never checked. Slowly, very slowly theDutch pushed forward, until at last the Spaniards were driven offthe road, and the line of retreat was open to the Dutch army. Thenthe rear guard began to fall back before the French; and fightingevery step of the way, the last of the Dutch army reached FortLille long after night had fallen.
Their loss in this desperate hand-to-hand fighting had been 4000killed and wounded, besides 600 prisoners and six guns. The Frenchand Spaniards lost 3000 killed and wounded.
It was well for Rupert that Hugh kept so close to him, for nearlythe last shot fired by the enemy struck him, and he fell beneaththe water, when his career would have been ended had not Hughseized him and lifted him ashore. So much had the gallantry of thelittle cornet attracted the attention and admiration of the Dutch,that plenty of volunteers were glad to assist Hugh to carry him toFort Lille. There during the night a surgeon examined his wound,and pronounced that the ball had broken two ribs, and had thenglanced out behind, and that if all went well, in a month he wouldbe about again.
The numbers of wounded were far beyond the resources of Fort Lilleto accommodate, and all were upon the following day put into boats,and distributed through the various Dutch riverine towns, in orderthat they might be well tended and cared for. This was a far betterplan than their accumulation in large military hospitals, where,even with the greatest care, the air is always impure, and thedeaths far more numerous than when the men are scattered, and canhave good nursing and fresh air.
Rupert, with several other officers, was sent to Dort, at that timeone of the great commercial cities of Holland. Rupert, althoughtightly bandaged, and forbidden to make any movement, was able totake an interest in all that was going on.
"There is quite a crowd on the quay, Hugh."
"Yes, sir; I expect most of these Dutch officers have friends andacquaintances here. Besides, as yet the people here cannot tell whohave fallen, and must be anxious indeed for news."
The crowd increased greatly by the time the boat touched the quay;and as the officers stepped or were carried ashore, each wassurrounded by a group of anxious inquirers.
Hugh, standing by his master's stretcher, felt quite alone in thecrowd--as, seeing his British uniform, and the shake of his head atthe first question asked, none tried to question him--and lookedround vaguely at the crowd, until some soldiers should come to liftthe stretcher.
Suddenly he gave a cry of surprise, and to Rupert's astonishmentleft his side, and sprang through the crowd. With some difficultyhe made his way to a young lady, who was standing with an elderlygentleman on some steps a short distance back from the crowd. Shelooked surprised at the approach of this British soldier, whoseeyes were eagerly fixed on her; but not till Hugh stepped in frontof her and spoke did she remember him.
"Mistress Von Duyk," he said, "my master is here wounded; and as hehas not a friend in the place, and I saw you, I made bold to speakto you."
"Oh! I am sorry," the girl said, holding out her hand to Hugh.
"Papa, this is one of the gentlemen who rescued me, as I told you,when Sir Richard Fulke tried to carry me off."
The gentleman, who had looked on in profound astonishment, seizedHugh's hand.
"I am indeed glad to have an opportunity of thanking you.
"Hasten home, Maria, and prepare a room. I will go and have thisgood friend brought to our house."