ith a bevy of
mistresses in a barn, should come to reign over the proudest and most
polished people in the world. Were we, the conquerors of the Grand
Monarch, to submit to that ignoble domination? What did the Hanoverian's
Protestantism matter to us? Was it not notorious (we were told and led
to believe so) that one of the daughters of this Protestant hero was
being bred up with no religion at all, as yet, and ready to be made
Lutheran or Roman, according as the husband might be whom her parents
should find for her? This talk, very idle and abusive much of it was,
went on at a hundred mess-tables in the army; there was scarce an ensign
that did not hear it, or join in it, and everybody knew, or affected to
know, that the Commander-in-Chief himself had relations with his nephew,
the Duke of Berwick ('twas by an Englishman, thank God, that we were
beaten at Almanza), and that his Grace was most anxious to restore the
royal race of his benefactors, and to repair his former treason.

This is certain, that for a considerable period no officer in the
Duke's army lost favor with the Commander-in-Chief for entertaining or
proclaiming his loyalty towards the exiled family. When the Chevalier de
St. George, as the King of England called himself, came with the dukes
of the French blood royal, to join the French army under Vendosme,
hundreds of ours saw him and cheered him, and we all said he was like
his father in this, who, seeing the action of La Hogue fought between
the French ships and ours, was on the side of his native country during
the battle. But this, at least the Chevalier knew, and every one knew,
that, however well our troops and their general might be inclined
towards the prince personally, in the face of the enemy there was no
question at all. Wherever my Lord Duke found a French army, he would
fight and beat it, as he did at Oudenarde, two years after Ramillies,
where his Grace achieved another of his transcendent victories; and the
noble young prince, who charged gallantly along with the magnificent
Maison-du-Roy, sent to compliment his conquerors after the action.

In this battle, where the young Electoral Prince of Hanover behaved
himself very gallantly, fighting on our side, Esmond's dear General
Webb distinguished himself prodigiously, exhibiting consummate skill
and coolness as a general, and fighting with the personal bravery of
a common soldier. Esmond's good-luck again attended him; he escaped
without a