telligence that
the duke of Berwick was in the neighbourhood, they advanced on the
fourteenth day of April in four columns towards the town of Almanza,
where the enemy were drawn up in order of battle, their number being
considerably superior to that of the confederates. The battle began
about two in the afternoon, and the whole front of each army was fully
engaged. The English and Dutch squadrons on the left, sustained by the
Portuguese horse of the second line, were overpowered after a gallant
resistance. The centre, consisting chiefly of battalions from Great
Britain and Holland, obliged the enemy to give way, and drove their
first upon their second line; but the Portuguese cavalry on the right
being broken at the first charge, the foot betook themselves to flight;
so that the English and Dutch troops being left naked on the flanks,
were surrounded and attacked on every side. In this dreadful emergency
they formed themselves into a square, and retired from the field of
battle. By this time the men were quite spent with fatigue, and all
their ammunition exhausted: they were ignorant of the country, abandoned
by their horse, destitute of provisions, and cut off from all hope
of supply. Moved by these dismal considerations, they capitulated and
surrendered themselves prisoners of war, to the amount of thirteen
battalions. The Portuguese, and part of the English horse, with the
infantry that guarded the baggage, retreated to Alcira, where they
were joined by the earl of Galway, with about five and twenty hundred
dragoons which he had brought from the field of battle. About three
thousand men of the allied army were killed upon the spot, and among
that number brigadier Killegrew, with many officers of distinction.
The earl of Galway, who charged in person at the head of Guiscard's
dragoons, received two deep cuts in the face. The marquis das Minas was
run through the arm, and saw his concubine, who fought in the habit of
an Amazon, killed by his side: the lords Tyrawley, Mark Ker, and colonel
Glayton, were wounded: all their artillery, together with an hundred and
twenty colours and standards, and about ten thousand men, were taken; so
that no victory could be more complete; yet it was not purchased
without the loss of two thousand men slain in the action, including some
officers of eminence. The duke of Berwick, who commanded the troops
of king Philip, acquired a great addition of fame by his conduct and
behaviour before