. The chronicles of an old campaigner, M. de la Colonie, 1692-1717 . etreat. It was after one oclock in the afternoon whenthis order reached us, and we were still holding our ownas well as ever in our wood, where the enemy had lostvery heavily without scoring any further advantage thanthat of sharing its occupation with us. Had Marechal deVillars not been wounded, it is quite certain that we shouldnever have given up the fight, for the enemys cavalry,which had entered the plain and then become engagedwith the Household troops, could have easily been repulsed,as we had all our cavalry posted ri
. The chronicles of an old campaigner, M. de la Colonie, 1692-1717 . etreat. It was after one oclock in the afternoon whenthis order reached us, and we were still holding our ownas well as ever in our wood, where the enemy had lostvery heavily without scoring any further advantage thanthat of sharing its occupation with us. Had Marechal deVillars not been wounded, it is quite certain that we shouldnever have given up the fight, for the enemys cavalry,which had entered the plain and then become engagedwith the Household troops, could have easily been repulsed,as we had all our cavalry posted right and left, who upto then had not had an opportunity of even letting off apistol. It would have been perfectly feasible to makethem converge upon the centre, and so wipe out those ofthe enemy, the more so as our infantry had lost next to noground, and were by no means so broken as to be likely tolose their grip of what they held. In short, although theenemy ultimately found themselves at liberty to undertakethe siege of Mons, they owe it entirely to him who hap-. 1709] OUR RETREAT 343 pened to wound Mardchal de Villars. As far as the battleitself is concerned, it would be impossible for them, if theyimpartially considered the matter, to say with truth thatthey really gained anything by their victory. When we began our retreat, none of our infantrybrigades were at all broken, always excepting the twofamous regiments who held the centre of our line, andwhose behaviour in quitting the field I have already re-marked upon. Our cavalry were in excellent trim. TheMaison du Roi and the gendarmerie alone had beenengaged, and were not much disordered thereby. Ourmarch was as undisturbed as if there were no enemy inthe country. Our right retired on Quesnoy and our lefton Valenciennes. It is true that as soon as our line ofretreat was determined upon, and our columns began theirretirement, the enemy sent out a number of squadronsto keep us under observation, but they neither daredapproac
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