One of the greatest military exploits of Louis XIV. was the conquest
of Valenciennes. Since the wars which had procured liberty for
Holland, the possessors of that city had neglected nothing to render
it impregnable. The project of the French monarch was considered as
the height of temerity. In the first place, it was necessary to gain
possession of two half-moons on the right and on the left. Behind these
half-moons was a grand crown-work, palisaded, frased (strengthened
with pointed stakes), and surrounded by a fosse intersected by many
traverses. In this crown-work there was yet a second, well covered and
surrounded with another fosse. After these had been mastered, there was
an arm of the Scheld to be crossed; this being done, a fresh work was
encountered, called a _pâté_; behind this pâté flowed the great stream
of the Scheld, deep and rapid, which served as a fosse between the pâté
and the wall; and this wall was supported by large ramparts. All these
works were covered with cannon. A garrison of nearly four thousand
men, a great quantity of munitions of war and provisions, the hatred
of the citizens for the French and their affection for their Spanish
governor, seemed to promise a long and firm resistance. At the head of
a formidable army, Louis XIV. advanced, seconded by his brother and the
marshals Humières, Schomberg, Feuillade, Luxembourg, and Lorges. The
celebrated Vauban directed all the operations. On the 9th of March,
1677, they opened the trenches. A few days after, the king called a
council upon the best means of attacking the outworks with greatest
regard to the lives of the soldiers. Vauban proposed to assault them
in open day; but all the marshals exclaimed strongly against such a
plan: Louvois condemned it, and yet Vauban held firm to his opinion,
with the confidence of a man perfectly understanding all he advanced.
“You wish,” said he, “to spare the blood of your soldiers, and this
will be best effected by fighting in the daylight, without confusion
and without tumult, without fear of one part of our men firing upon
another, as too frequently happens. Our object is to surprise the
enemy; and they are always in expectation of an attack by night: we
shall indeed surprise them when they will be fatigued by watching all
night, and they will not be in a condition to resist our fresh troops.
Add to this, there may be men among our soldiers who have but little
courage, and night will favour their timidity; whereas, during the day,
the eye of the master inspires valour and elevates men, particularly
the French, above themselves.” The king yielded to the reasoning of
Vauban, in opposition to his minister Louvois and five marshals of
France.
On the evening of the 16th, the two companies of musketeers, a hundred
grenadiers of the king’s household, a battalion of the guards, and one
of the regiment of Picardy, were commanded to be in readiness, and on
the 17th, at nine o’clock in the morning, these warriors marched to
the attack of the crown-work, after having overcome the two advanced
half-moons. Nothing seemed able to resist them: they mounted the
intrenchments in all directions; they seized them; they effected a
lodgment. This was all that had been required or hoped for in this
attack; but the valour of the musketeers was warmed, and could not be
checked. There was across the small arm of the Scheld, a bridge, which
communicated with the pâté. The passage over this bridge was closed
by a barrier of immense pieces of pointed timber, with a wicket in
the middle, through which only one man could pass at a time. Whilst
one party of the musketeers was endeavouring to force the wicket, the
rest climbed over the barrier, and in spite of pikes and musketry,
leaped down on the other side, sword in hand. The enemy, surprised
by this extraordinary feat, abandoned the defence of the wicket. The
musketeers pursued them, and on reaching the pâté, attacked it with
great fury, and carried it in spite of its defenders; but the cannon
of the ramparts now threatened destruction to the conquerors. The grey
musketeers perceived a little door; they broke it in, and discovered
a private staircase constructed in the thickness of the wall; they
rushed up this narrow passage and arrived at the top of the pâté. They
there remarked another door, which gave entrance to a gallery built
over the great canal of the Scheld. They broke that in; they gained
the ramparts, and intrenched themselves. They then turned against the
city the cannon they found there, and, sheltered from their thunders,
descended into the place with the fugitives. They pursued them
from intrenchment to intrenchment, from street to street; and they
triumphed before the king could have imagined the first work they
attacked was taken. But this was not the most astonishing part of this
marvellous affair. It was probable that young musketeers, carried away
by the ardour of success, should rush blindly upon the troops and the
citizens--that they would perish, or that the city would be plundered;
but these warriors, scarcely adolescent, led by a cornet named Moissac
and a quarter-master named Labarre, formed behind some waggons, and
whilst the troops, which came in crowds, were forming leisurely, other
musketeers got possession of some neighbouring houses, in order to
protect by their fire those who defended the bridge with incredible
bravery. They were three times charged by the cavalry of the garrison;
but notwithstanding the smallness of their numbers, they maintained
all they had won. The infantry endeavoured to take them in rear, but
they there encountered the greater part of the black musketeers and
the grenadiers of the king’s household, who repulsed them vigorously.
The citizens were astonished; the city council assembled. They entered
into a parley with Moissac, who received and gave hostages. Deputies
were sent to the king; and all this was done without confusion, without
tumult, and without the commission of a fault of any kind. The city
was obliged to submit without capitulation. The king made the garrison
prisoners of war, and entered Valenciennes, to his own great surprise,
as master. This conquest only cost him forty men. “I do not know,” says
Larrey, “if history furnishes many examples of an action so sharp and
prompt, and at the same time so fortunate, and of the capture, in so
short a time and with so little loss for the conquerors, of a great
and strong city which wanted nothing for its defence. The whole looks
like a miracle; and all was attributed to the fortunate rashness of
the musketeers.” “It was fortunate,” adds M. de St. Foix, “because
coolness and prudence completed that which impetuous courage had begun.
Everything in this affair is characteristic of true valour, that valour
which elevates man above himself, and which often makes him triumph
against all probability, and in spite of the evident danger into which
he seems to precipitate himself.”