The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-08


the Kings wish Turenne kept moving
all winter, and uniting his troops
to those of Cologne and Munster, ad-
vanced so far on the Elbe that the Elector
cried for peace. But Turenne had not men
enough to prevent The junction of the impe-
rialists and the Dutch, so returned to the
Rhine to punish the Bishop of Wurzburg and
the Elector of Yfeves for breaking faith with
him. Duripgtthis long and tedious cam
paign, Turenne endea1ed himself to his sol
diers, who we're devoted to his person and
proud of his fame On one occasion Turenne,
exhausted with fatigue, fell asleep under
bush. Heavy snow coming on, some of the
soldiers cut branches, and spread their cloaks
over them to shield him.
''What are you doing there p he said,
awakening.
1--WE want to preserve our father, the sol
diers replied, that is our great anxiety. If
we were to lose him, who would take gs back
to our own country
In 1872, Louis XIV, who had already partly
conquered Flanders, and only yielded up
Franche Comte at the treaty of Aix-la-Cha-
pelle, in 1868, to obtain breathing time for
fresh preparations invaded Holland with one
hundred and thirty thousand men. All the
wealth and genius of Europe seemed at the
disposal of the young king. Fifty million
francs had been spent in the organization of
this great force. Thirty French vessels had
Joined an English fleet of hundred sail to
sweep the coast of Holland. Conde and Tu-
renne were among the generals of Louis; Nau-
ban, the greatest engineer of the world, was
to conduct the sieges by the profoundest ma
thematica laws; Louvois, the great minister,
was to regulate the finance; Luxembourg (af-
terward the great foe OF William of Orange)
was one of the commanders; Martinez (his
name has become proverbial, who only year
before trained several regiments to the use of
the bayonet) diciplined the infantry. There
was even an historian on the royal staff, to
record the victories of the feur-de-bS. The
twelve companies of the gdTdes de corps were
all gentlemen; the ge1adGlmes of the guard,
light horse, the musLeteers, and the hundred
Swiss, shone with gold and silver, rutfled it in
silk or braved it in velvet.
''What war;" exclaimed Madame de
Sevigne, with the prettiest horror in the
world, ''the most cruel, the most perilous of
which we have ever heard since the march of
Charles VIII into Italy. They tell the king
that Yssel is defended with two hundred
pieces of cannon, sixty thousand infantry,
three great towns, and large river"
To meet this host of Frenchmen the Dutch
merchants had but twenty five thousand poor
soldiers commanded by young Prince Will
liam of Orange, then only Twenty-Five and
of feeble constitution. Four Dutch towns
surrendered, and Louis came to cross the
Rhine. Conde, informed by the peasants
that the extreme dryness of the season
had made the river passable, selected place
on an arm of the Rhine. 1t was only guarded
by an old tower, which served as a dollhouse
for the ferry, and by seventeen Dutch SOL
diers. The Count de Guche reconnoitred
the place, and found that there was only
spot about the centre, twenty PAGES wide,
where the cavalry would have to swim. Fiji
teen thousand of the kings household troops,
4l4 80 l., o1r al,
scarfs hutteripg, eorselets glittering, at once
dashed in. The infantry passed over a
bridge of boats and copper pontoons, invented
| by the redoubtable Martinez The king
| himself directed, or thought he directed, the
whole march, The Dutch had only five hun
dred troopers and two weak regiments of in
fantry, unsupported by artillery, to resist their
assailants. A few Dutch horsemen rode into
the river to attack the French, but soon
also raked by the French artillery
surrendered. Louis lost but few of his men.
The Count de Nogent and some other reck-
less riders struggled away from the ford, and
were drowned. The young Duke of Tongue
vile, having too much wine in his hot head,
fired at and killed a Dutch officer, who was
on his knees begging for mercy. The Dutch
infantry, enraged and in despair at this
cruelty, snatched up their muskets and fired
volley, which killed the duke. A Dutch
cavalry officer, seeing Conde getting out of u
boat and about to mount his horse. rode up
and shot him in the wrist-the only wound
Conde ever received in all his battles. Paris
made much of this passage of the Rhine.
''The general notion, says Voltaire, sar-
castically, after the war, 'was that the whole
army had swum the river in the face of an
intrenched host, and in spite of the artillery
of an impregnable fortress called the
'Tholus' Itoll-house) 1T is true" he adds,
''that, if there had been body of good
have been perilous.
Boileau puffed himself out till he looked
nearly as large as Homer, and wrote poem
in favor of Louis, and, fifteen years later
when Conde was a worn-out old veteran
Bossuet spoke of the passage of the Rhine a
1.-The prodigy of our age and of the life o.
Louis lie Grand"
Napoleon, however, always mathematicallN
just about all battles but his own, spoke o.
the affair with great contempt as fourth
class military operation, because in tina
place the river was fordable, weakened b!
the Waal, and only defended by handful o
men.
Instantly the French had crossed the river
Zutphen, Arnheim, Nimeguen, Utrecht, etc.
surrendered. Indeed, such was the panic
that an officer named Mazel said to Turenne
IF you only give me fifty horse, L could taxi
two or three places" But Louis, flushed b,
success, overshot Ms mark. He refused thl
Dutch offer to surrender Maestrecht and al
the frontier towns beyond the Seven Pro
vinces. Turenne was absent. Lonvoi
directed the rejection. The Dutch greV
desperate at tbs, and a mob, crkel in thei
wild fear, tore to pieces the patrist De Witt
and chose the Prince of Orange stadtS holder
The whOla courA$4ss<aas laid uodar M at Ars IN,