m the enemy's country, from
whence we must likewise procure subsistence of all kinds (independently
of the money), that is to say, hay, straw, oats for the winter, bread,
corn, cattle, horses, even men to recruit our foreign troops. The war
must not be prolonged; and perhaps it may be necessary, according to the
events which may happen between this time and the end of September, to
make a downright desert before the line of the quarters which it may be
thought proper to keep during the winter, in order that the enemy may be
under a real impossibility of approaching us: at the same time reserving
for ourselves a bare subsistence on the route which may be the most
convenient for us to take, in the middle of winter, to beat up or seize
upon the enemy's quarters. That this object may be fulfilled, I cause
the greatest assiduity to be used in preparing what is necessary for
having all your troops, without exception, well clothed, well armed,
well equipped, and well refitted, in every respect, before the end of
November, with new tents; in order that, if it should be advisable for
the king's political and military affairs, you may be able to assemble
the whole or part of your army, to act offensively and with vigour, from
the beginning of January; and that you may have the satisfaction to show
your enemies and all Europe, that the French know how to act and carry
on war in all seasons, when they have such a general as you are, and a
minister of the department of war that can foresee and concert matters
with the general.

"You must be sensible, sir, that what I say to you may become not only
useful and honourable, but perhaps even necessary, with respect to what
you know, and of which I shall say no more in a private letter.

"M. duc de BELLEISLE."

"After observing all the formalities due to the magistrates of Cologne,
you must seize on their great artillery by force, telling them that you
do so for their own defence against the common enemy of the empire; that
you will restore them when their city has nothing further to fear, &c.
After all, you must take everything you have occasion for, and give them
receipts for it.--

"You must, at any rate, consume all sorts of subsistence on the higher
Lippe, Paderborn, and Warsburg; you must destroy everything which you
cannot consume, so as to make a desert of all Westphalia, from Lipstadt
and Munster, as far as the Rhine, on one hand: and on the other, from
the higher Lippe and P