Gages were at the head of a greater number in the neighbourhood of
Milan; and the duke of Modena, with eight thousand, secured his own
dominions. The king of Sardinia augmented his forces to six-and-thirty
thousand; and the Austrian army, under the prince of Lichtenstein,
amounted to a much greater number; so that the enemy were reduced to the
necessity of acting on the defensive, and retired towards the Mantuan.
In February, baron Leutrum, the Piedmontese general, invested and took
the strong fortress of Aste. He afterwards relieved the citadel of
Alexandria, which the Spaniards had blocked up in the winter, reduced
Casal, recovered Valencia, and obliged Maillebois to retire to the
neighbourhood of Genoa. On the other side, Don Philip and count Gages
abandoned Milan, Pavia, and Parma, retreating before the Austrians with
the utmost precipitation to Placentia, where they were joined on the
third of June by the French forces under Maillebois.

Before this junction was effected, the Spanish general Pignatelli had
passed the river Po in the night with a strong detachment, and beaten up
the quarters of seven thousand Austrians posted at Codogno. Don
Philip, finding himself at the head of two-and-fifty thousand men by his
junction with the French general, resolved to attack the Austrians
in their camp at San Lazaro, before they should be reinforced by his
Sardinian majesty. Accordingly, on the fourth day of June, in the
evening, he marched with equal silence and expedition, and entered the
Austrian trenches about eleven, when a desperate battle ensued. The
Austrians were prepared for the attack, which they sustained with great
vigour till morning. Then they quitted their intrench-ments, and
charged the enemy in their turn with such fury, that after an obstinate
resistance the combined army was broke, and retired with precipitation
to Placentia, leaving on the field fifteen thousand men killed,
wounded, and taken, together with sixty colours and ten pieces of
artillery. In a few weeks the Austrians were joined by the Piedmontese;
the king of Sardinia assumed the chief command; and prince Lichtenstein
being indisposed, his place was supplied by the marquis de Botta. Don
Philip retired to the other side of the Po, and extended his conquests
in the open country of the Milanese. The king of Sardinia called a
council of war, in which it was determined that he should pass the river
with a strong body of troops, in order to straiten