“I wish that I could have lent you a hand in the fight,” Enghien said, “but the Bavarians had fallen back into the woods, and we knew not whether they still held their ground there.  In the rain and darkness it would have been dangerous to have crossed the broken ground with its woods and ravines, and the troops, after their exertions and heavy marches, were incapable of such an effort.  Indeed, I had lost fully half my infantry, and the cavalry would be useless for such work.  You must indeed have been sorely pressed, having Merci’s whole force to contend with.  Still, I had no doubt even if you could not issue from the defile you would be able to check the enemy.”  Then the generals in turn repeated the details of the battles in which they had been engaged and the losses they had suffered.

Turenne then introduced his principal officers to Enghien, and when he had done so called up Hector.

“I need not introduce this officer to you, prince,” he said.

“No, indeed,” Enghien replied, holding out his hand; “I have good reason to recollect you, Colonel Campbell.  You have heard, marshal, what a good service he rendered me at Rocroi?”

“He has rendered me one no less this night,” Turenne said.  “I never saw a regiment stand more steadily than the one which he commands, and which he has trained to what seems to me perfection.  For the last three hours that regiment alone bore the brunt of the battle, although assailed alternately by infantry and cavalry, and thus afforded time to reform the regiments that fought earlier in the afternoon and to give me hope that even were the enemy to overcome the resistance of his men, I could still be able to check their further advance.”

He then told Enghien the manner in which Hector had arranged and fought his troops.

“A good device indeed,” Enghien said warmly, “and methinks it worthy of adoption whenever infantry have to meet other infantry and cavalry, for the muskets take so long to reload that there might not be half a dozen men ready to give fire when the cavalry charge.  Is that one of the many lessons that he tells me you have given him?”

“No, indeed; it has not, so far as I am aware, ever been tried before.  Parts of regiments are often held in reserve to reinforce their comrades if necessary, but this method, whereby half the regiment are able at a moment’s notice to meet cavalry with their muskets loaded, is methinks, entirely new, and in such cases as the present very valuable.”

In the second day’s fighting Turenne’s army had taken but small share, for during the retreat of the Bavarians the cavalry alone had come into play.