th was so, nor
who took the tattle of our mess to head quarters, but Webb's regiment, as
its colonel, was known to be in the commander-in-chief's black books: "And
if he did not dare to break it up at home," our gallant old chief used to
say, "he was determined to destroy it before the enemy;" so that poor
Major Proudfoot was put into a post of danger.

Esmond's dear young viscount, serving as aide de camp to my lord duke,
received a wound, and won an honourable name for himself in the _Gazette_;
and Captain Esmond's name was sent in for promotion by his general, too,
whose favourite he was. It made his heart beat to think that certain eyes
at home, the brightest in the world, might read the page on which his
humble services were recorded; but his mind was made up steadily to keep
out of their dangerous influence, and to let time and absence conquer that
passion he had still lurking about him. Away from Beatrix, it did not
trouble him; but he knew as certain that if he returned home, his fever
would break out again, and avoided Walcote as a Lincolnshire man avoids
returning to his fens, where he is sure that the ague is lying in wait for
him.

We of the English party in the army, who were inclined to sneer at
everything that came out of Hanover, and to treat as little better than
boors and savages the Elector's court and family, were yet forced to
confess that, on the day of Oudenarde, the young electoral prince, then
making his first campaign, conducted himself with the spirit and courage
of an approved soldier. On this occasion his electoral highness had better
luck than the King of England, who was with his cousins in the enemy's
camp, and had to run with them at the ignominious end of the day. With the
most consummate generals in the world before them, and an admirable
commander on their own side, they chose to neglect the councils, and to
rush into a combat with the former, which would have ended in the utter
annihilation of their army but for the great skill and bravery of the Duke
of Vendosme, who remedied, as far as courage and genius might, the
disasters occasioned by the squabbles and follies of his kinsmen, the
legitimate princes of the blood royal.

"If the Duke of Berwick had but been in the army, the fate of the day
would have been very different," was all that poor Mr. von Holtz could
say; "and you would have seen that the hero of Almanza was fit to measure
swords with the conqueror of Blenheim."

The