, they told him, they hoped he did not intend to march through any
of their towns. This made him conclude, that the orders must be general,
and that his army would certainly meet with the same treatment which his
officers had done. He had likewise, before the armies separated,
received information of some designs that concerned the safety, or at
least the freedom of his own person, and (which he much more valued)
that of those few British troops entrusted to his care. No general was
ever more truly or deservedly beloved by his soldiers, who, to a man,
were prepared to sacrifice their lives in his service; and whose
resentments were raised to the utmost, by the ingratitude, as they
termed it, of their deserters.

[Footnote 12: Barner, who commanded the troops of Holstein, being two
battalions and eight squadrons, and Walef or Waless, who commanded the
dragoons of Liege, both followed Ormonde. [S.]]

[Footnote 13: At Bouchain, the British officers were told at the gates,
that the commandant had positive orders to let no Englishman into the
town; and at Douay, where the English had large stores and magazines,
the same thing happened with considerable aggravation. Indeed, it was
with difficulty and precaution that the commandant of the latter town
would permit the body of an English colonel to be interred there. The
same difficulties occurred at Tournay, Oudenarde, and Lille; and the
Duke of Ormonde having sent an officer express to England on the 17th,
he was stopped and interrupted at Haspre, misguided at Courtray, and
refused admission at Bruges. (See "The Conduct of his Grace the Duke of
Ormonde, in the Campagne of 1712," 1715, pp. 46-50.) [S.]]

Upon these provocations, he laid aside all thoughts of returning to
Dunkirk, and began to consider how he might perform, in so difficult a
conjuncture, something important to the Queen, and at the same time find
a secure retreat for his forces. He formed his plan without
communicating it to any person whatsoever; and the disposition of the
army being to march towards Warneton, in the way to Dunkirk, he gave
sudden orders to Lieutenant-General Cadogan to change his route,
according to the military phrase, and move towards Orchies, a town
leading directly to Ghent.

When Prince Eugene and the States deputies received news of the Duke's
motions, they were alarmed to the utmost degree, and sent Count Nassau,
of Woudenbourg, to the general's camp near Orchies, to excuse what had