with which the generals Sporcken and Oberg
had done great execution, and employed the attention of the enemy on
that side, while prince Ferdinand prosecuted his attack on the other
quarter. It must be owned, however, that their right wing and centre
retired in great order to Nuys, though the left was defeated, with the
loss of some standards, colours, and pieces of cannon, and six thousand
men killed, wounded, or taken prisoners.*

* Among the French officers who lost their lives in this
engagement, was the count de Gisors, only son of the
mareschal duke de Belleisle, and last hope of that
illustrious family, a young nobleman of extraordinary
accomplishments, who finished a short life of honour in the
embrace of military glory, and fell gallantly fighting at
the head of his own regiment, to the inexpressible grief of
his aged father, and the universal regret of his country.

This victory, however, which cost the allies about fifteen hundred
men, was not at all decisive in its consequences; and, indeed, the
plan seemed only calculated to display the enterprising genius of the
Hanoverian general. True it is, the French army took refuge under the
cannon of Cologn, where they remained without hazarding any step for the
relief of Dusseldorp, which prince Ferdinand immediately invested, and
in a few days reduced, the garrison being allowed to march out with the
honours of war, on condition that they should not, for the space of one
year, carry arms against the allies.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

PRINCE OF YSEMBOURG DEFEATED.

It was at this period that count de Clermont resigned his command, which
was conferred upon M. de Contades, and the French army was considerably
reinforced. He even threatened to attack prince Ferdinand in his turn,
and made some motions with that design, but was prevented by the little
river Erff, behind which the prince resolved to lie quiet, until he
should be joined by the body of the British troops under the command of
the duke of Marlborough, the first division of which had just landed at
Embden. He flattered himself that the prince of Ysembourg, at the head
of the Hessian troops, would find employment for the prince de Soubise,
who had marched from Hanau, with a design to penetrate into the
landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel: his vanguard had been already surprised
and defeated by the militia of the country; and the prince Ysembourg
was at the head of a c