nd
for that; and did not storm the Redoubt d'Eu at all; but hung fire, in
an unaccountable manner. For which he had to answer (to Court-Martial,
still more to the Newspapers) afterwards; and prove that it was
misfortune merely, or misfortune and stupidity combined. Too evident,
the REDOUTE D'EU was not taken, then or thenceforth; which might have
proved the saving of the whole affair, could Ingoldsby have managed it.
Royal Highness attacked Fontenoy, and re-attacked, furiously, thrice
over; and had to desist, and find Fontenoy impossible on those terms.

"Here is a piece of work. Repulsed at all those points; and on the left
and on the right, no spirit visible but what deserves repulse! His Royal
Highness blazes into resplendent PLATT-DEUTSCH rage, what we may call
spiritual white-heat, a man SANS PEUR at any rate, and pretty much SANS
AVIS; decides that he must and will be through those lines, if it please
God; that he will not be repulsed at his part of the attack, not he for
one; but will plunge through, by what gap there is [900 yards Voltaire
measures it (_OEuvres,_ xxviii. 150 (SIECLE DE LOUIS QUINZE, c. xv.
"BATAILLE DE FONTENOI,"--elaborately exact on all such points).)]
between Fontenoy and that Redoubt with its laggard Ingoldsby; and see
what the French interior is like! He rallies rapidly, rearranges;
forms himself in thin column or columns [three of them, I think,--which
gradually got crushed into one, as they advanced, under cannon-shot on
both hands),--wheeling his left round, to be rear, his right to be head
of said column or columns. In column, the cannon-shot from Fontenoy
on the left, and Redoubt d'Eu on our right, will tell less on us; and
between these two death-dealing localities, by the hollowest, least
shelterless way discoverable, we mean to penetrate: (Forward, my men,
steady and swift, till we are through the shot-range, and find men to
grapple with, instead of case-shot and projectile iron!' Marechal de
Saxe owned afterwards, 'He should have put an additional redoubt in that
place, but he did not think any Army would try such a thing' (cannon
batteries playing on each hand at 400 yards distance);--nor has any Army
since or before!

"These columns advance, however; through bushy hollows, water-courses,
through what defiles or hollowest grounds there are; endure the
cannon-shot, while they must; trailing their own heavy guns by hand, and
occasionally blasting out of them where the ground favors