Dauvet made
himself master of Dillembourg, the garrison of the allied troops being
obliged to retire into the castle, where they were closely besieged.
Prince Ferdinand no sooner understood their situation, than he began his
march with a strong detachment for their relief, on the seventh day of
the month, when he attacked and totally defeated the besiegers, took
seven hundred prisoners, including forty officers, with seven pair of
colours, and two pieces of cannon. On that very day, the Highlanders,
under major Keith, supported by the hussars of Luckner, who commanded
the whole detachment, attacked the village of Ryebach, where
Beaufremont's regiment of dragoons was posted on the side of
Dillembourg, and routed them with great slaughter. The greater part of
the regiment was killed, and many prisoners were taken, together with
two hundred horses, and all their baggage. The Highlanders distinguished
themselves on this occasion by their intrepidity, which was the more
remarkable, as they were no other than raw recruits, just arrived from
their own country, and altogether unacquainted with discipline. On the
eighth day of January, M. de St. Germain advanced on the left of the
allies with the grenadiers of the French army, supported by eight
battalions, and a body of dragoons; but he was encountered by the duke
of Holstein, at the head of a strong detachment, in the neighbourhood
of Ersdorff, who, by dint of a furious cannonade, obliged him to retreat
with precipitation. After this attempt the French parties disappeared,
and their army retired into winter-quarters, in and about Franckfort
on the Maine; while prince Ferdinand quartered the allies at Cassel,
Paderborn, Munster, and Osnabruck; this last place being allotted to the
British troops, as being the nearest to Embden, where the reinforcements
from Britain were to be landed. In the beginning of February, the
hereditary prince of Brunswick, with the detachment of the allied
army under his command, began his march from Chemnitz in Saxony for
Westphalia, where he safely arrived, after having assisted at a long
conference in Hamelen, with his father the reigning duke, his uncle
prince Ferdinand, and some principal members of the regency of Hanover.

The French general continued to send out detachments to beat up the
quarters of the allies, and lay their towns under contribution. In the
beginning of March, the marquis de Blaisel marched at the head of two
thousand four hund