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From Macmillan's Magazine.. CROMWELL'S VETERANS IN FLANDERS.

are twice as many robins in the southern half of England as in the summer, and in the northern counties but few IN a former paper a brief account are to be seen. This any one may was given of the great design conobserve in his own garden; twice as ceived by Cromwell against Spain almany tits and wrens, and blackbirds most immediately upon his accession to and thrushes, and chaffinches, too, the Protectorate, and of the opening even without taking count of those attack on the Spanish West Indies.1 that have come from over the seas. The operations were planned, as beThese wandering flocks of birds may came the greatest naval power in be seen passing through various dis- Europe, to be carried on principally at tricts. One day in the fields a great sea; and while one fleet was busy in concourse of thrushes, the next not the West Indies, a second was cruisone to be seen; one week on the hill- ing off the Spanish coast. The latter, side numberless larks, and the next after months of weary waiting, at last they are gone as surely as the migra- reaped its reward in Blake's great victory wheatears. Often these passing tory and capture of the Spanish plateflocks of home birds precede cold fleet at Teneriffe on the 20th of April, weather. The birds are great weather 1657. But meanwhile Cromwell's agprophets, and people who are much out of doors-shepherds, sailors, gardeners-know by experience that their flittings presage a change of wind and weather; for the birds do not wait to be overtaken by famine - they exercise prevision. Often some time before cold weather sets in over the counties farther north, the fields and lanes and the cliffs by the sea in Devonshire and Cornwall are crowded with birds. Such multitudes of rooks and starlings, and thrushes and finches, and all small fowl, go down to the West Country in winter weather. And why? Because there is always an abundance of bird food in the soft and balmy weather that proclaims open house and an open winter there.

No little bird need fold its wings and idly face starvation; no little bird need sit on a tree-top and smile at grief. Some few are found dead from cold and starvation each year, it is true; but among all the hundreds of millions of birds that survive these are only exceptions that prove the rule. Often they are old birds. Perhaps, after long years of restless going to and fro, their wings are weary, and their hearts have failed them at the thought of more travelling, for the life of a bird is a very Odyssey of Wanderings.

gression had driven Spain to take to her heart all his bitterest enemies, and chief among these the exiled King Charles the Second. The Protector then began to look for an ally, as the war seemed likely to be carried on nearer home. He had already (9th September, 1655) concluded a treaty with France, and he now (March, 1657, N.S.) expanded this treaty into an offensive and defensive alliance. It so fell out that the famous Red-coats made their first appearance on the continent of Europe side by side with the French, and under supreme command of the great Marshal Turenne.

Of the protracted negotiations which preceded the conclusion of this alliance nothing need be said, except that they were conducted by William Lockhart, who had been himself sometime an ensign in the French army, had afterwards fought on the losing side at Preston, and soon after taken service with the victorious Cromwell. What difficulty he had to gain his treaty, point by point, from the trickery of Mazarin, how he outraged his Scotch conscience by going to a royal ball on a Sunday sooner than risk failure, and how ultimately he achieved success, all this must remain buried in the recesses of Thurloe's State papers. The terms of the treaty stipulated that the French

1 LIVING AGE, No. 2591, p. 539.

the conduct of a cavalry charge, "that not a man should fire till he came within a horse's length of the enemy, and then to throw their pistols in their faces and so to fall in with the sword (sic).”

should provide twenty thousand men, known chiefly for his good service and the Protector six thousand as well in restoring order in Scotland under as a sufficient fleet. The plan of cam- Monk's vice-royalty. He there gained paign, as set down on paper, was the the affectionate name of "the little reduction of the three coast towns of colonel," and was a cavalry officer of a Mardyck, Dunkirk, and Gravelines; stamp best explained by his orders for whereof the two first, when captured, were to be made over to England and the third to be retained by France. Cromwell's object, of course, was to secure a naval station from which he could check any attempt of the Stuarts upon England from the Spanish Neth- The arrival of the six thousand, all, erlands. Mazarin's object was to get as we are expressly told, in new red all that he could from his English allies coats, created some sensation in France. for his own ends, Condé being still un- Ambassador Lockhart went down to tamed. Of the six thousand English review them, and solemnly welcomed soldiers, three thousand were actually each company to France; while the paid by France; but the whole were men on their side "received him with commanded by English officers and acclamations, throwing up their caps; reckoned to be the Lord Protector's and prayed for his Highness." They forces. Moreover, the English fleet was an important factor, not only for its co-operation by sea but also for the transport of supplies. As a matter of fact the idea of an attack on Dunkirk was much disliked by Turenne; to invest Dunkirk without the previous capture of Nieuport, Furnes, and Bergues, was, as one of his officers said, to be besieged while conducting a siege. But Cromwell had made up his mind that it could and should be done; and eventually, as shall be seen, it was done.

were "cried up by all that saw them for the bravest men that ever were seen in the French service," and their reputation was so great that the court of France made a journey on purpose to inspect them. Never were English soldiers made so much of. They took precedence of all the French regiments except the two old regiments of guards; the court itself moved out of Montreuil to make room for them when they marched thither; the king sent the captain of his guards to welAll through the spring of 1657 the come them; and Cardinal Mazarin English journals are full of the little sent wine, beer, and provisions to the army. The force, though composed officers, and made the town provide mainly of veterans, was redrafted, so them with cheap tents, so that a tent to speak, into six regiments, known, as fit for a captain, we are told, might be usual, by the names of their colonels. had for some ten shillings. In fact, The process began in April, and on the there was no end to the compliments first day of May one-half of each regi- and civility. At the same time there ment marched to Dover and thence were some small drawbacks. The pay took ship to St. John's Bay, seven of the privates was fivepence a day miles from Boulogne. A fortnight (more than twice as much as the ordilater the remainder of the force was nary French rate) and rations in lieu embarked, and two days after them of twopence more; but the specie came followed the officer in command of the in very slowly and was of short weight; expedition. This was Commissary- and the men did not like the French General Sir John Reynolds, the Pro-" ammunition-bread.” Still, in spite

tector's brother-in-law, sometime officer of all the flattery on one hand, and bad in the Ironsides, and, under the New money and bad food on the other, the Model, captain in Lieutenant-General men behaved very well. "We can lie Cromwell's regiment of horse. His in towns [Abbeville, for instance] four major-general was Thomas Morgan, days without one complaint," wrote

Reynolds at this time, contrasting the ing and shrugging], Major-General Mor

discipline of his own men with that of the French, which, however, he contemptuously admits to be good enough for France.

gan was much troubled, leaped upon the point, and called out fifty to take up the spades, pickaxes, and fascines and follow him. But so it happened that all in the

approaches leaped out after him; the encould. Major-General Morgan (conceiving emy in the mean time firing as fast as they his loss in bringing them again to their approaches would be greater than in carrying them forward) passed over a channel of water on which there was a bridge and a turnpike; and the soldiers crying out "Fall on, fall on," he fell upon the counterscarp, beat the enemy from it and [from] Which caused them to three redoubts.

capitulate and, the next morning, to surrender the town. (A Relation of Sir Thomas Morgan's Progress in France; 1698. Harleian Misc. III. 340. See note at end.)

The design that underlay all this blandishment soon became apparent. Although Dunkirk lies to the north and seaward of Boulogne, the march of the army was to the south and east or laudward. Having got hold of their six thousand men, Turenne and Mazarin threw the treaty to the winds, and set about the siege of Cambrai, concentrating all forces towards that point. Unluckily for them, Condé got wind of the design, threw himself by a sudden dash into the town with four thousand horse, and upset the whole plan of campaign. Turenne then detached a force to besiege Montmédi In this characteristic, haphazard fashstill further to the east, and eventually ion did the Red-coats, on the 26th of went thither himself, taking the En- August, 1657, make their first appearglish with him in spite of all Lock-ance on the Franco-Spanish frontier, a hart's remonstrances. At last, after fitting prelude to many subsequent the capitulation of Montmédi (July The engagement, accident 28th), Turenne entered Spanish terri- though it was, gained them a great tory and besieged St. Venant. And reputation, for it extricated Turenue here, for the first time, the Red-coats from a difficulty. It enabled him to raise the siege of Ardres which was came into prominence, in their own threatened by the Spaniards, and compeculiar fashion. forted him for the loss on the previous day of the whole of the baggage.

Turenne had invested the town on

the east side, and Morgan (Reynolds being on the sick-list) with his English and a brigade of French horse under Count Schomberg, on the west. In due time it fell to the English to relieve Schomberg in the trenches, and accordingly Morgan marched in eight hundred of his men.

actions.

But by this time the season was far spent, and Cromwell's patience thoroughly exhausted. He had not gone to the expense of furnishing his contingent to do Mazarin's work and capture inland towns, and he would have no more of it. He wrote an angry letter to Lockhart, tearing Mazarin's excuses and new proposals to shreds. To talk, he said, of giving inland garrisons as cautions for future action, aud of what would be done next campaign" was "parcels of words for children." Delay would only give the Spaniards time to gather reinforcements; and as to the lateness of the season, "I desire you to let the cardinal know that the English have had good experience in winter expediCount tions." For the New Model army

66

The English at that time being strangers in approaches, Major-General Morgan instructed the officers and soldiers to take their places by fifties that thereby they might relieve the point to carry on the approaches every hour. In the evening Count Schomberg with six noblemen came upon the point to see how Major-General Morgan carried on his approaches; but there happened a little confusion by the soldiers intermingling themselves in the approaches, so as there was never an entire fifty to be called to the point. Schomberg and his noblemen taking notice fought all through the winter of 1645-6, thereof [probably not without some grimac- entering Cornwall over the high ground

the mortality in the garrison was appalling. At the beginning of December the men were dying at the rate of ten or twelve a day, and once the number was as high as fifty. "Want of beds, firing, and other accommodations," wrote Reynolds, "will soon reduce these regiments to be like the French at the end of a campaign." Still Cromwell would not at first permit the three regiments in winter quarters to be brought up to Mardyck to reinforce the garrison, and Reynolds's last letter to him was to press this point. Early in December Reynolds and one of his colonels sailed for England, to try what they could do at

to the extreme north-west of Devon- gathered, though frequent alarms; inshire in February. deed so many that, according to one This letter had its effect. Early in account, Morgan "never went out of September Turenne began to move his clothes the whole winter, except towards the coast; and Reynolds sum- to change his shirt." Nevertheless moned Montague, who commanded the fleet in the Downs, to move up and take his share in the operations. Shortly after Reynolds paid a flying visit to Whitehall, with the result that on the twenty-second a reinforcement of two thousand old soldiers was embarked at Deptford and the Tower to fill up the gaps made by sickness and the sword. On the twenty-third Reynolds returned to his post and on the twenty-ninth Mardyck was invested. The siege lasted but four days, for the place was weak, and our soldiers again distinguished themselves. "They took the wooden fort, which struck the poor Spaniards into a panic fear and made them surrender immediately." This Whitehall in person. They were never ended the campaign of 1657. The French indeed made an attempt on Gravelines, but were foiled by the simple expedient of opening the sluices; and Turenne thought an attack on Dunkirk impracticable.

Mardyck, pursuant to treaty, was made over to the English, half of whom, together with four hundred French lent by Turenne, were left to garrison that and Bourbourg, a little to the east. In this duty, together with that of repairing the fortifications, the English forces did not show so well. "The English who were at Mardyck," wrote Turenne, "kept very bad guards there. It is not credible how very much the English are startled at the labor which they undergo; they cannot bear it in any wise." The Spaniards took advantage of these failings to assault the place on the 22nd of October with five thousand men, but were repulsed with a loss of four hundred after an engagement lasting six hours, an action creditable to the garrison, consisting as it did of but thirteen hundred

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seen again, their vessels having been lost in a great storm, as it was supposed, on the Goodwin Sands. Thus by the end of the first year the English had lost their commander, and nearly if not quite four thousand out of six thousand men; so that when both armies finally retired to their winter quarters in January, 1658, the six full regiments were reduced to four of half their original strength. Lockhart succeeded Reynolds in command.

The winter of 1657-8, a very severe one by all accounts, was gradually worn through, and the time came for the officers (who seem generally to have left the troops to take care of themselves in winter quarters) to repair once more to their posts. Four thousand recruits were supplied for the English on one side, and some hundreds of Irish for James, Duke of York, on the other. The garrison of Mardyck shook itself up, for we learn that by March the new fortifications were "in a gallant posture." At the same time discipline had grown rather lax. The French complained bitterly of "the insolency of the English soldiers ;" and when Lockhart paid a visit of inspection in May, he made a most distressing discovery. "I find not one

minister here, and out of charity have | former (who, as general, had a regi

sent for my chaplain from Calais; the
soldiers need much to be both dehorted
from evil and exhorted to do good. If
you
will send over three ministers,
they may very well serve the six regi-
ments." Perhaps Uncle Toby's was
not the first English army that swore
terribly in Flanders.

ment of his own) came up to Morgan with a white cap on his head, and said : "You see the condition I am in; I am not able to give you any assistance on this day; you are the older soldier, and the greatest part of the work of this day must lie on your soldiers." Whereat, it is said, the soldiers smiled, as perhaps they reasonably might. As Lockhart mentions that he was suffering from a violent attack of stone, and gives a very vague account of the battle, I am inclined to think that Morgan did most of the work.

Morgan had opened the campaign of 1658 by the capture of two Spanish redoubts on the canal between Mardyck and Dunkirk on the 31st of March; but it was not till May 4th that Turenne left his quarters at Amiens, reaching Dunkirk after a very Turenne's order of battle was of the difficult march on the fifteenth. On the mathematically precise type that presixteenth the investment was begun, vailed in those days. In the first line and on the twenty-fourth the trenches were thirteen troops of cavalry (say a were opened; the English being on hundred to a troop) on the right, thirthe south or Mardyck side, the French teen troops on the left, and eleven baton the north. On the twenty-seventh talions of infantry (five hundred to a the Spanish made a sortie against the battalion) in the centre; in the second English, which was vigorously re-line, ten troops on the right, nine troops pulsed. The action, wrote Lockhart, on the left, seven battalions in the cen"passed for a handsome one in the report of the French, who are not over apt to flatter us," and Turenne himself acknowledged that "les Anglais y firent fort bien." The English lost but few killed and one hundred and twenty wounded in this affair, which was only the prelude to a greater.

On the 2nd of June the Spanish army, fifteen thousand strong, under Don John of Austria, Condé, the Marquis Caracena, and James, Duke of York, drew down to within a mile of Turenne's headquarters with the evident intention of attacking the besiegers' lines. Turenne at once resolved 1 to give him battle, and intimated to Lockhart late in the afternoon that the English must march next morning. At 6 A.M. therefore they marched off with Lockhart at their head in his coach, having six miles to traverse before they reached their position. It is difficult to discover whether the English were under Lockhart's command or Morgan's in the action which followed; one account being that the

1 This is Bussy Rabutin's account; the English story is that Morgan went on his knees to Turenne to beg him to fight. Harl. Misc. III. 340.

tre. Four troops of gendarmes were posted between the two lines of infantry, and four more were held in reserve. The whole force was reckoned at nine thousand foot and six thousand horse. The English were posted at the extreme left of the infantry, four battalions in the first line and three in the second. But these battalions from their number were evidently much stronger than those of the French, for they formed of themselves the complete left wing of the infantry. In this order the army advanced, dressing by the right; and Morgan gave particular orders that when the French halted, the English should keep an even front with them. "But when the French came to halt, it so happened that the English pressed upon their leading officers, so that they came up within shot of the enemy; but when they saw that Major-General Morgan was in a passion, they put themselves to a stand;" in other words they halted, MajorGeneral Morgan when in a passion being not a man to be trifled with.

Then came one of those strange scenes, such as Marryat has related for us of the Swiss mercenaries at the

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