est, expecting to be attacked when the sun rose. But when the sun rose
he found that the French had fallen back some miles. He immediately sent
to request that the Elector would storm the castle without delay. While
the preparations were making, Portland was sent to summon the garrison
for the last time. It was plain, he said to Boufflers, that Villeroy had
given up all hope of being able to raise the siege. It would therefore
be an useless waste of life to prolong the contest. Boufflers however
thought that another day of slaughter was necessary to the honour of the
French arms; and Portland returned unsuccessful. [612]

Early in the afternoon the assault was made in four places at once by
four divisions of the confederate army. One point was assigned to the
Brandenburghers, another to the Dutch, a third to the Bavarians, and
a fourth to the English. The English were at first less fortunate than
they had hitherto been. The truth is that most of the regiments which
had seen service had marched with William to encounter Villeroy. As
soon as the signal was given by the blowing up of two barrels of powder,
Cutts, at the head of a small body of grenadiers, marched first out of
the trenches with drums beating and colours flying. This gallant band
was to be supported by four battalions which had never been in action,
and which, though full of spirit, wanted the steadiness which so
terrible a service required. The officers fell fast. Every Colonel,
every Lieutenant Colonel, was killed or severely wounded. Cutts received
a shot in the head which for a time disabled him. The raw recruits, left
almost without direction, rushed forward impetuously till they found
themselves in disorder and out of breath, with a precipice before them,
under a terrible fire, and under a shower, scarcely less terrible,
of fragments of rock and wall. They lost heart, and rolled back in
confusion, till Cutts, whose wound had by this time been dressed,
succeeded in rallying them. He then led them, not to the place from
which they had been driven back, but to another spot where a fearful
battle was raging. The Bavarians had made their onset gallantly but
unsuccessfully; their general had fallen; and they were beginning to
waver when the arrival of the Salamander and his men changed the fate
of the day. Two hundred English volunteers, bent on retrieving at all
hazards the disgrace of the recent repulse, were the first to force a
way, sword in hand, through