einforcements, and
the body commanded by Imhoff was occasionally augmented; But the siege
was not formally undertaken till November, when some heavy artillery
being brought from England, the place was regularly invested, and the
operations carried on with such vigour, that in a few days the city
surrendered on capitulation.

Prince Ferdinand having possessed himself of the town and castle of
Marburg, proceeded with the army to Neidar-Weimar, and there encamped;
while Contades remained at Giessen, on the south side of the river
Lahn, where he was joined by a colleague in the person of the mareschal
d'Etrees. By this time he was become very unpopular among the troops, on
account of the defeat at Minden, which he is said to have charged on the
misconduct of Broglio, who recriminated on him in his turn, and seemed
to gain credit at the court of Versailles. While the two armies
lay encamped in the neighbourhood of each other, nothing passed but
skirmishes among the light troops, and little excursive expeditions.
The French army was employed in removing their magazines, and
fortifying Giessen, as if their intention was to retreat to
Franckfort-on-the-Maine, after having consumed all the forage, and made
a military desert between the Lahn and that river. In the beginning
of November, the duke de Broglio returned from Paris, and assumed the
command of the army, from whence Contades and d'Etrees immediately
retired, with several other general officers that were senior to the new
commander.

The duke of Wirtemberg having taken possession of Fulda, the hereditary
prince of Brunswick resolved to beat up his quarters. For this purpose
he selected a body of troops, and began his march from Marburg early in
the morning on the twenty-eighth day of November. Next night they lay
at Augerbauch, where they defeated the volunteers of Nassau; and at one
o'clock in the morning of the thirtieth they marched directly to Fulda:
where the duke of Wirtemberg, far from expecting such a visit,
had invited all the fashionable people in Fulda to a sumptuous
entertainment. The hereditary prince having reconnoitred the avenues
in person, took such measures, that the troops of Wirtemberg, who were
scattered in small bodies, would have been cut off if they had not
hastily retired into the town, where however they found no shelter. The
prince forced open the gates, and they retreated to the other side of
the town, where four battalions of them were defea