the
Main. Nevertheless they failed to take Cassel, the chief object of the
campaign, and were obliged to retire from Hesse. In June two French
armies, under Marshal de Broglie and Prince Soubise, effected a junction
at Paderborn, advanced to Soest, and threatened Lippstadt. Ferdinand
took up a position between the Lippe and the Ahse at Vellinghausen. On
July 15 he was attacked by the French. The enemy engaged his left wing,
formed by the British troops under their commander, the gallant Marquis
of Granby. The attack was splendidly met and finally repulsed. The
battle was renewed the next morning at daybreak, and the allies gained a
complete victory. The British troops, who formed about a fourth part of
the allied army, highly distinguished themselves; Maxwell's grenadiers
alone captured four French battalions. This victory, won against heavy
odds, foiled the most serious attempt of the French against Hanover; it
saved Lippstadt, which would have been exceedingly useful to them as a
depot; and, more than that, it caused a quarrel between Broglie and
Soubise, which ended in the recall of Broglie, by far the abler of the
two generals. Meanwhile they parted company; Soubise did much mischief
in Westphalia, and Broglie campaigned to the east of the Weser. The
French kept their hold on Gottingen and Cassel, and were therefore in a
position to renew their attacks on Hanover the following year.

[Sidenote: _CAPTURE OF BELLE ILE._]

News came from India of the fall of Pondicherry on January 15, 1761, and
this was the end of the French power in that land. Few were the French
ships which put out to sea during the year, and they were all taken. In
the West Indies Dominica, one of the so-called neutral islands, of which
the French had taken possession, was reduced by Lord Rollo, then holding
a command in New York. About the same time the French received a more
galling blow. On March 29 a fleet under the command of Keppel, carrying
a land force of about 9,000 men under General Hodgson, sailed for Belle
Ile, a small and barren island with a population of 5,000, mostly
fisher-folk. It was fortified and well garrisoned. A first attempt to
land was repulsed with nearly 500 casualties. Tidings of the repulse
were brought to Pitt; he sent reinforcements and ordered the commander
to persevere. A second attempt, carried out with remarkable daring, was
successful, and siege was laid to Palais, the strong place of the
island. It was gallantl