and twenty-four pieces of cannon.  Strong entrenchments had been thrown up round our position, but these were not altogether completed.  Blenheim, moreover, had been surrounded by very heavy and strong palisades, altogether impassable by infantry, and, as the allies could not hope to get cannon across the stream and swamps, it seemed to defy any attack.  From Oberglau the army of Marshal de Marcin and the Elector stretched to the village of Lutzingen.  We had some five-and-twenty cannon at Oberglau.

“The weak point, as it afterwards turned out to be, was the crest between us and Blenheim.  Considering that both the artillery and musketry fire from both villages swept the slope, and as in numbers we equalled the enemy, it was thought well-nigh impossible for him to cross the swamps and advance to the attack; and almost the whole of the French cavalry were massed on the crest, in order to charge them, should they succeed in crossing and try to ascend the slope.

“At first the battle went altogether favourably.  We had opposite to us the English, Dutch, Hanoverians, and Danish troops under Marlborough, while facing our left were Prussians, Imperialists, and other German troops under Eugene.  Marlborough’s Danish and Hanoverian cavalry first crossed, but were at once charged and driven back.  Then they tried again, supported by English infantry.  Then Marlborough led up a still stronger force, drove back our light cavalry, and began to ascend the hill.  We were attacked by ten battalions—­Hanoverians, Danes, and Prussians, while the English bore against Blenheim.  The fighting at both places was desperate, and I must do the Germans the justice to say that nothing could have exceeded the gallantry they showed, and that, in spite of the heavy fire we maintained, they pressed up the slope.

“We remained in our entrenchments, till it could be seen that the English were falling back from Blenheim, whose palisade, manned by twenty-seven battalions of infantry, offered an obstacle that would have defied the best troops in the world to penetrate.

“Immediately this was seen, nine battalions, headed by our three regiments, leapt from the trenches and poured down on the Germans.  The enemy could not withstand our onslaught.  Two of their regiments were utterly destroyed, the rest suffered terribly, and were driven back.  On the left, Marcin held his ground against all the attacks of Eugene, and it seemed to us that the battle was won.

“However, it was not over yet.  While the fierce fighting had been going on in front of Oberglau and Blenheim, Marlborough had passed the whole of his cavalry and the rest of his infantry across the rivulet, and, in spite of artillery and musketry fire, these moved up in grand order, the infantry inclining towards the two villages as before, the cavalry bearing straight up the slope, and, when they reached the crest, charging furiously upon our horse stationed there.  They were superior in numbers, but on this head accounts differ.  At any rate, they overthrew our cavalry, who fled in the greatest disorder, pursued by the allied horse.