Before firing the keg of powder, Rupert and Hugh had rid themselves
of their jackboots, coats, and vests, and they therefore swam
easily and confidently.
"Listen, Hugh! Here is the boat coming back again," Rupert
exclaimed. "This thick mist is fortunate, for they can't see twenty
yards. We can always dive when they come near. Mind you go down
without making a splash. We are all right at present; the boat is
going to our right, let us swim quietly in the other direction."
Presently they heard a voice in English say, "It is no use our
troubling ourselves. It's a mere waste of time. The young rascals
are dead. Drowned or blown up, what matters it? They will never
trouble you again."
"You don't know the villains as well as I do. They have as many
lives as cats. I could have sworn that they were burned at that
mill, for I watched till it fell, and not a soul came out; and to
this moment I don't know how they escaped, unless they flew away in
the smoke. Then I thought at any rate the chief rogue was done for,
when Muller wrote to tell me he was going to finish him for me the
next day. Then they both got through that day's fighting by the
Scheldt, though I hear they were in the front of it. And now, when
I leave them fastened up like puppies in a basket, in a sinking
boat, comes this explosion, and all is uncertain again."
"Not a bit of it," the other voice said; "they simply preferred a
sudden death to a slow one. The matter is simple enough."
"I wish I could think so," the other said. "But I tell you, after
this night's work I shall never feel my life's safe for one hour,
till I hear certain news of their death.
"Stop rowing," he said, in Dutch. "There is a bit of a plank; we
must be just on the place where she blew up! Listen, does anyone
hear anything?"
There was a long silence, and then he said, "Row about for half an
hour. It's as dark as a wolf's mouth, but we may come upon them."
In the meantime, the two lads were swimming steadily and quietly
away.
Presently Hugh said, "I must get rid of my sword, Master Rupert, it
seems pulling me down. I don't like to lose it, for it was my
grandfather's."
"You had better lose the grandfather's sword, Hugh, than the
grandson's life. Loose your belt, Hugh, and let it go. Mine is no
weight in comparison. I'll stick to it as long as I can, for it may
be useful; but if needs be, it must follow yours."
"Which way do you think the shore lies?" Hugh asked, after having,
with a sigh of regret, loosed his sword belt and let it go.
"I have no idea, Hugh. It's no use swimming now, for with nothing
to fix our eyes on, we may be going round in a circle. All we need
do is to keep ourselves afloat till the mist clears up, or daylight
comes."
For an hour they drifted quietly.
Hugh exclaimed, "I hear a voice."
"So do I, Hugh. It may be on shore, it may be in a boat. Let us
make for it in either case."
In five minutes they saw close ahead of them a large boat, which,
with its sail hanging idly by the mast, was drifting downstream.
Two boatmen were sitting by the tiller, smoking their pipes.
"Heave us a rope," Hugh said in Dutch. "We have had an upset, and
shall be glad to be out of this."
The boatmen gave a cry of surprise, but at once leapt to their
feet, and would have thrown a rope, but by this time the lads were
alongside, and leaning over they helped them into the boat. Then
they looked with astonishment at their suddenly arrived guests.
"We are English soldiers," Hugh said, "on our way to Bergen op
Zoom, when by some carelessness a keg of powder blew up, our boat
went to the bottom, and we have been swimming for it for the last
couple of hours."
"Are you the English officer and soldier who left Dort this
afternoon?" one of the men said. "We saw you come down to the quay
with Mynheer Von Duyk and his daughter. Our boat lay next to the
boat you went by."
"That is so," Hugh said. "Are you going to Bergen? We have enough
dollars left to pay our passage."
"You would be welcome in any case," the boatman said. "Hans
Petersen is not a man to bargain with shipwrecked men. But go
below. There is a fire there. I will lend you some dry clothes, and
a glass of hot schnapps will warm your blood again."
Arrived at Bergen, one of the boatmen, at Rupert's request, went up
into the town, and returned with a merchant of ready-made clothes,
followed by his servant bearing a selection of garments such as
Rupert had said that they would require, and in another half hour,
after a handsome present to the boatmen, Rupert and Hugh landed,
dressed in the costume of a Dutch gentleman and burgher
respectively. Their first visit was to an armourer's shop, where
Hugh was provided with a sword, in point of temper and make fully
equal to that with which he had so reluctantly parted. Then, hiring
horses, they journeyed by easy stages to Huy, a town on the Meuse,
six leagues above Liege, which Marlborough, again forbidden by the
Dutch deputies to give battle when he had every prospect of a great
victory, was besieging.
The capture of the fortress, and subsequently of Limberg, was all
the campaign of 1703 effected; whereas, had the English commander
been allowed to have his way, the great results which were not
obtained until after three years' further fighting might at once
have been gained.
Rupert was greeted with enthusiasm by his comrades on his return.
After the battle before Antwerp the duke had caused inquiries to be
made as to the fate of his young friend, and had written to Dort,
and had received an answer from Rupert announcing his convalescence
and speedy return to duty.
Upon hearing his tale of the fresh attempt upon his life by Sir
Richard Fulke, the commander-in-chief wrote to the States General,
as the government of Holland was called, and requested that orders
should be issued for the arrest of Sir Richard Fulke, wherever he
might be found, upon a charge of attempt at murder. Nothing was,
however, heard of him, and it was supposed that he had either
returned to England or passed into Germany.
After the capture of Limberg the army went into winter quarters,
and the 5th dragoons were allotted their old quarters near Liege.
During the campaign of 1703, although slight advantages had been
gained by the allies in Flanders, it was otherwise in Germany and
Italy, where the greatest efforts of the French had been made.
Beyond the Rhine the French and Bavarians had carried all before
them, and Villars, who commanded their armies here, had almost
effected a junction across the Alps with Vendome, who commanded the
French troops in Italy. Had success crowned their efforts, the
armies could have been passed at will to either one side or the
other of the Alps, and could have thrown themselves with
overwhelming force either upon Austria, or upon Prince Eugene, who
commanded the imperial troops in Italy. The mountaineers of the
Tyrol, however, flew to arms, and held their passes with such
extreme bravery that neither the Bavarians on the north, nor the
French on the south, could make any progress, and the design had
for a time been abandoned.
Austria was paralyzed by the formidable insurrection of Hungary,
and it appeared certain that Vienna would in the ensuing campaign
fall into the hands of the French.
During the Winter Marlborough laboured earnestly to prepare for the
important campaign which must take place in the spring, and after
the usual amount of difficulties, arising from private and
political enemies at home and in Holland, he succeeded in carrying
out his plan, and in arranging that the Dutch should hold their
frontier line alone, and that he should carry the rest of his army
into Germany.
The position there seemed well-nigh desperate. Marshal Tallard,
with 45,000 men, was posted on the Upper Rhine, in readiness to
advance through the Black Forest and join the advanced force and
the Bavarians--who also numbered 45,000 men, and the united army
was to advance upon Vienna, which, so weakened was the empire, was
defended only by an army of 20,000 men, placed on the frontier.
On the 8th of May, Marlborough set out with his army, crossed the
Meuse at Maestricht, and arrived at Bonn on the 28th of that month.
Marching up the Rhine, he crossed it at Coblentz on the 26th, and
pushed on to Mundlesheim, where he met Prince Eugene, who now
commanded the allied force there. Next only to Marlborough himself,
Eugene was the greatest general of the age--skillful, dashing yet
prudent, brave to a fault--for a general can be too brave--frank,
sincere, and incapable of petty jealousy.
Between him and Marlborough, from the date of their first meeting,
the most cordial friendship, and the most loyal cooperation
prevailed. Each was always anxious to give the other credit, and
thought more of each other's glory than their own. So rapidly had
Marlborough marched, that only his cavalry had come up; and Prince
Eugene, reviewing them, remarked that they were the finest body of
men he had ever seen.
A few days later the Prince of Baden came down from the Austrian
army of the Danube to meet him. Eugene and Marlborough wished the
prince to take the command of the army of the Rhine, leaving the
army of the Danube to their joint command. The prince, however,
stood upon his rank; and it was finally arranged that Eugene should
command the army of the Rhine, and that Marlborough and the Prince
of Baden should command the army of the Danube on alternate
days--an arrangement so objectionable that it is surprising it did
not terminate in disaster.
Marlborough at once marched with his force, and making his way with
great difficulty through the long and narrow defile of Gieslingen,
effected a junction with the Prince of Baden's army; and found
himself on the 2nd of July at the head of an army of 96 battalions,
202 squadrons of horse, and 48 guns; confronting the French and
Bavarian army, consisting of 88 battalions, 160 squadrons, 90 guns,
and 40 mortars, in a strong position on the Danube.
The bulk of the army was on the right bank. On the left bank was
the height of Schellenberg, covering the passage of the river at
Donauwoerth, and held by 12,000 men, including 2500 horse. Along
the front of this hill was an old rampart, which the French were
engaged in strengthening when the allied army arrived. The latter
were not when they came up, according to the ordinary military
idea, in a condition to attack. Their camp had been broken up at
three in the morning, and it was two in the afternoon before they
arrived, after a long and fatiguing march, in front of the enemy's
position.
Thinking that it was probable that he would be forced to fight
immediately upon arriving, Marlborough had selected 530 picked men
from each battalion, amounting to 6000 men, together with thirty
squadrons of horse, as an advance guard; and close behind them
followed three regiments of Imperial grenadiers, under Prince
Louis. The total strength of this force was 10,500 men.
The French and Bavarian generals did not expect an attack, knowing
the distance that the troops had marched, and therefore quietly
continued their work of strengthening the entrenchments. The Duke
of Marlborough, seeing the work upon which they were engaged,
determined to attack at once, for, as he said to the Prince of
Baden, who wished to allow the men a night's rest, "Every hour we
delay will cost us a thousand men." Orders were therefore given for
an instant assault upon the hill of Schellenberg. Not only was the
position very strong in itself, but in front of it was a wood, so
thick that no attack could be made through it. It was necessary,
therefore, to attack by the flanks of the position, and one of
these flanks was covered by the fire of the fortress of
Donauwoerth.
"This is as bad as a siege," Rupert said, discontentedly, to his
friend Dillon, for their squadron formed part of the advance. "We
are always out of it."
"You are in a great hurry to get that bright cuirass of yours
dented, Rupert; but I agree with you, the cavalry are always out of
it. There go the infantry."
In splendid order the 6000 picked men moved forward against the
face of the enemy's position, extending from the wood to the
covered way of the fortress; but when they arrived within range of
grape, they were swept by so fearful a storm of shot that the line
wavered. General Goor and his bravest officers were struck down,
and the line fell into confusion.
The Bavarians seeing this, leapt from their entrenchment; and
pursued their broken assailants with the bayonet; but when
disordered by their rush, a battalion of English guards, which had
kept its ground, poured so tremendous a fire into their flank that
they fell back to their entrenchments.
"This looks serious," Dillon said, as the allies fell back. "The
enemy are two to our one, and they have got all the advantage of
position."
"There is the duke," Rupert exclaimed, "reforming them. There they
go again, and he is leading them himself. What a terrible fire!
Look how the officers of the staff are dropping! Oh, if the duke
should himself be hit! See, the infantry are slackening their
advance in spite of the shouts of their officers. They are
wavering! Oh, how dreadful; here they come back again."
"The duke is going to try again, Rupert. See how he is waving his
hand and exhorting the men to a fresh attack.
"That's right, lads, that's right.
"They have formed again; there they go."
Again the troops wavered and broke under the terrible rain of
bullets; and this time the Bavarians in great force leapt from
their entrenchments, and pounced down upon the broken line.
"Prepare to charge!" shouted General Lumley, who commanded the
cavalry. "Forward, trot, gallop, charge!"
With a cheer the cavalry, chafed at their long inaction while their
comrades were suffering so terribly, dashed forward, and threw
themselves furiously upon the Bavarians, driving them headlong back
to their lines, and then falling back under a tremendous fire,
which rolled over men and horses in numbers.
At this moment a cheer broke from the dispirited infantry, as the heads
of the three regiments of Imperial grenadiers, led by the Prince of
Baden, arrived on the ground. These, without halting, moved forward
towards the extreme left of the enemy's position--which had been left
to some extent unguarded, many of the troops having been called off to
repulse Marlborough's attack--pushed back two battalions of French
infantry, and entered the works.
General D'Arco, the French commanding officer, withdrew some of his
men from the centre to hold the Prince of Baden in check; and
Marlborough profited by the confusion so caused to endeavour, for
the fourth time, to carry the hill. His force was however, now
fearfully weakened; and General Lumley, after conferring with him
for a moment, rode back to the cavalry.
"The 5th dragoons will dismount and join the infantry," he said.
In a moment every soldier was on his feet; and five minutes later
the regiment, marching side by side with the infantry, advanced up
the hill.
This time the assault was successful. The enemy, confused by the
fact that the allies had already forced their line on the left,
wavered. Their fire was wild and ineffectual; and with a tremendous
cheer the allies scaled the height and burst into the works. Close
behind them General Lumley led his cavalry, who made their way
through the gaps in the entrenchments, and fell upon the fugitives
with dreadful slaughter. The French and Bavarians fled to a bridge
across the Danube below Donauwoerth, which, choked by their weight,
gave way, and great numbers were drowned. The rest retreated
through Donauwoerth, their rear being gallantly covered by General
D'Arco, with a small body of troops who held together. Sixteen guns
and thirteen standards fell into the victors' hands.
The loss of the allies, considering the force that they brought
into the field--for the main army had not arrived when the victory
was decided--was extraordinary, for out of a total of 10,500 men,
including cavalry, they lost 1500 killed, and 4000 wounded, or more
than half their force; and the greater part of these were English,
for upon them fell the whole brunt of the fighting.
The enemy suffered comparatively little in the battle, but great
numbers were killed in the pursuit or drowned in the Danube. Still
greater numbers of Bavarians scattered to their homes; and out of
12000 men, only 3000 joined the army on the other side of the
Danube.
The Elector of Bavaria fell back with his army to Augsburg, under
the cannon of which fortress he encamped, in a position too strong
to be attacked. His strong places all fell into the hands of the
allies; and every effort was made to induce him to break off from
his alliance with France. The elector, however, relying upon the
aid of Marshal Tallard, who was advancing with 45,000 men to his
assistance, refused to listen to any terms; and the allied powers
ordered Marlborough to harry his country, and so force him into
submission by the misery of his subjects.
Such an order was most repugnant to the duke, who was one of the
most humane of men, and who by the uniform kind treatment of his
prisoners, not only did much to mitigate the horrors of the war in
which he was engaged, but set an example which has since his time
been followed by all civilized armies. He had, however, no resource
but to obey orders; and the cavalry of the allies were sent to
carry fire through Bavaria. No less than 300 towns and villages
were destroyed in this barbarous warfare.
This duty was abhorrent to Rupert, who waited on the duke, and
begged him as the greatest of favours to attach him for a short
time to the staff, in order that he might not be obliged to
accompany his regiment. The duke--who had already offered Rupert an
appointment on his staff, an offer he had gratefully declined, as
he preferred to do duty with his regiment--at once acceded to his
request, and he was thus spared the horror of seeing the agony of
the unhappy peasantry and townspeople, at the destruction of their
houses. Rupert, in his rides with messages across the country, saw
enough to make him heartsick at the distress into which the people
of the country were plunged.
One day when riding, followed by Hugh, he came upon a sad group. By
a hut which had recently been burned, after some resistance, as was
shown by the dead body of a Hessian trooper, a peasant knelt by the
body of his wife. A dead child of some five years old lay by, and a
baby kicked and cried by the side of its mother. The peasant looked
up with an air of bewildered grief, and on seeing the British
uniform sprang to his feet, and with a fierce but despairing
gesture placed himself as if to defend his children to the last.
Rupert drew his rein.
"I would not hurt you, my poor fellow," he said in Dutch.
The man did not understand, but the gentleness of the tone showed
him that no harm was meant, and he again flung himself down by his
wife.
"I do not think that she is dead, Hugh," Rupert said. "Hold my
horse, I will soon see."
So saying, he dismounted and knelt by the woman. There was a wound
on her forehead, and her face was covered with blood. Rupert ran to
a stream that trickled by the side of the road, dipped his
handkerchief in water, and returning, wiped the blood from the face
and wound.
"It is a pistol bullet, I imagine," he said to him; "but I do not
think the ball has entered her head; it has, I think, glanced off.
Fasten the horses up to that rail, Hugh, get some water in your
hands, and dash it in her face."
The peasant paid no attention to what was being done, but sat
absorbed in grief; mechanically patting the child beside him.
"That's it, Hugh. Now another. I do believe she is only stunned.
Give me that flask of spirits out of my holster."
Hugh again dashed water in the woman's face, and Rupert distinctly
saw a quiver in her eyelid as he did so. Then forcing open her
teeth, he poured a little spirit into her mouth, and was in a
minute rewarded by a gasping sigh.
"She lives," he exclaimed, shaking the peasant by the shoulder.
The man looked round stupidly, but Rupert pointed to his wife, and
again poured some spirits between her lips. This time she made a
slight movement and opened her eyes. The peasant gave a wild scream
of delight, and poured forth a volume of words, of which Rupert
understood nothing; but the peasant kneeling beside him, bent his
forehead till it touched the ground, and then kissed the lappet of
his coat--an action expressive of the intensity of his gratitude.
Rupert continued his efforts until the woman was able to sit up,
and look round with a frightened and bewildered air. When her eye
caught her husband, she burst into tears; and as Hugh raised the
baby and placed it in her arms she clasped it tightly, and rocked
to and fro, sobbing convulsively.
"Look, Hugh, see if you can find something like a spade in that
little garden. Let us bury this poor little child."
Hugh soon found a spade, and dug a little grave in the corner of a
garden under the shade of an old tree.
Then the lads returned to the spot where the husband and wife,
quiet now, were sitting hand in hand crying together. Rupert made a
sign to him to lift the body of his little girl, and then led the
way to the little grave. The father laid her in, and then fell on
his knees by it with his wife, and prayed in a loud voice, broken
with sobs. Rupert and Hugh stood by uncovered, until the peasant
had finished. Then the little grave was filled in; and Rupert,
pointing to the ruined house, placed five gold pieces in the
woman's hand. Then they mounted their horses again and rode on, the
man and his wife both kneeling by the roadside praying for
blessings on their heads.
A week later, Rupert again had occasion to pass through the
village, and dismounted and walked to the little grave. A rough
cross had been placed at one end, and some flowers lay strewn upon
it. Rupert picked a few of the roses which were blooming neglected
near, and laid them on the grave, and then rode on, sighing at the
horrors which war inflicts on an innocent population.
This time their route lay through a thickly wooded mountain, to a
town beyond, where one of the cavalry regiments had its
headquarters. Rupert was the bearer of orders for it to return to
headquarters, as a general movement of the army was to take place.
The road was a mere track, hilly and wild, and the lads rode with
pistols cocked, in case of any sudden attack by deserters or
stragglers from the Bavarian army. The journey was, however,
performed without adventure; and having delivered their orders,
they at once started on their homeward way.