attempt. The first corps which the
English approached was the regiment of Gardes Francaises. Before the
fire commenced, an English officer stepped forth from the rank, and
taking off his hat, said, 'Gentlemen of the French guard, fire.' A
French officer advanced and replied, 'The French do not fire first: we
will reply.' The English then levelled their pieces, and sent in a
discharge with such precision, that the whole front rank of the Guard
fell. That ill-timed piece of courtesy cost the lives of eighteen
officers. No sooner was this over than the column renewed its march,
slowly but with immovable firmness. Soon it had passed by six hundred
toises (1800 feet) the front of the French army. The battle seemed lost,
and the persons who surrounded the King already began to counsel him to
leave the field. 'Who is the scoundrel who dares to give that advice to
your Majesty?' exclaimed the Marshal, who had been all day in the
hottest of the fire. 'Before the action began it was my time to give it:
now it is too late.' In truth, all was lost if the monarch had left his
post. His remaining there seemed to make heroes spring out of the earth:
his departure would have spread discouragement through the ranks. The
advice of the Marshal coincided with the feelings of the King, and he
remained firm. The blood of Henry IV. then beat at his heart. By his
advice a new effort better combined was resolved on. The King, whose
_sang froid_ had never for an instant been disturbed, in person rallied
the fugitives. Four guns, kept in reserve for his personal safety, were
brought forward, and placed in battery at the distance of forty paces
from the head of the English column. They fired with grape with
extraordinary rapidity, and soon huge chasms appeared in the enemy's
ranks. The cavalry of the French Guard charged impetuously in at the
openings,--the Dauphin, sword in hand, leading them on. The swords of
the horsemen, aided by the fire of the guns and the foot-soldiers, soon
completed the work of destruction. And ere long that terrible column
which had so recently made the bravest tremble, is nothing but a vast
ruin. The English had nine thousand killed and wounded, the French were
weakened by five thousand men."--(Vol. i. pp. 425-426.)

Such is the account of the conduct of the English troops at
Fontenoy--the only great battle on the continent of Europe in which they
ever sustained a defeat from the French--as given by the historians of
Fr