e allies; but whether, in the
present situation of affairs, it was thought advisable to act only upon
the defensive, and not to begin the attack in a country that was not
concerned as a principal in the war, or the duke of Cumberland found
himself too weak to make head against the enemy, is a question we shall
not pretend to determine. However that may have been, the whole French
army passed the Weser on the tenth and eleventh of July, without the
loss of a man. The manner of effecting this passage is thus related:
mareschal d'Etrees, being informed that his magazines of provisions were
well furnished, his ovens established, and the artillery and pontoons
arrived at the destined places, ordered lieutenant-general Broglio, with
ten battalions, twelve squadrons, and ten pieces of cannon, to march
to Engheren; lieutenant-general M. de Chevert, with sixteen battalions,
three brigades of carabineers, the royal hunters, and six hundred
hussars, to march to Hervorden, and lieutenant-general marquis
d'Armentieres, with twelve battalions, and ten squadrons, to march to
Ulrickhausen. All these troops being arrived in their camp on the fourth
of July, halted the fifth. On the sixth, twenty-two battalions, and
thirty-two squadrons, under the command of the duke of Orleans, who
was now arrived at the army, inarched to Ulrickhausen, from whence M.
d'Armentieres had set out early in the morning, with the troops under
his command, and by hasty marches got on the seventh, by eleven at
night, to Blankenhoven, where he found the boats which had gone
from Ahrensberg. The bridges were built, the cannon planted, and the
intrenchments at the head of the bridges completed in the night between
the seventh and eighth. The mareschal having sent away part of his
baggage from Bielefeldt on the sixth, went in person on the seventh at
eleven o'clock to Horn, and on the eighth to Braket. On advice that M.
d'Armentieres had thrown his bridges across without opposition, and was
at work on his intrenchments, he went on the ninth to Blankenhoven, to
see the bridges and intrenchments; and afterwards advanced to examine
the first position he intended for this army, and came down to the right
side of the Weser to the abbey of Corvey, where he forded the river,
with the princes of the blood, and their attendants. On the tenth in the
morning he got on horseback by four o'clock, to see the duke of Orlean's
division file off, which arrived at Corvey at ten o'clock