guise. He gave him a full and satisfactory account of our first acquaintance, marriage, and situation, with the manner of his having entered into the service, and my resolution to go in search of him; adding the particulars of our meeting, and my obstinate refusal of bedding with him. My lord seemed very well entertained with my history, and ordered that I should want for nothing, and that my pay should be continued while under cure. When his lordship heard that I was well enough recovered to go abroad, he generously sent me a parcel of shirts and sheets to make me shifts. Brigadier Preston made me a present of a handsome silk gown; every one of our officers contributed to the furnishing me with what was requisite for the dress of my sex, and dismissed me the service with a handsome compliment. I being thus equipped, waited on my lord, the brigadier, and other my benefactors, to return them thanks for the obligations they had lain me under. My lord said, he hoped I would not continue my cruelty to my husband, now that I could no longer pass under a disguise. I answered, My lord, I must own, I have a strong inclination to the army, and I apprehended the consequence of conversing with my husband might be my dismission; for a great belly could not have been concealed. The discovery of my sex has now removed the cause, and I have no objection to living with my husband, as it is the duty of an honest wife. Well, said my lord, I am satisfied with your reason, and we will have a new marriage. Accordingly all our officers were invited, and we were, with great solemnity, wedded and bedded; the sack-posset eaten, and the stocking thrown. After this ceremony, every one, at taking leave, would kiss the bride, and left me a piece of gold, some four or five, to put me in a way of life.

I conceived the first night, having never known man, except my husband, but the time I was surprised, as I have before related. An idle life was what I

could never away with; beside, I was under a necessity, having now no pay, to do something for a support; wherefore I undertook to cook for our regiment, returning to my husband's quarters every night. I did not long carry on this business, as the close attendance it required prevented my marauding, which was vastly more beneficial. After I had given over my cooking, I turned sutler, and, by the indulgence of the officers, was permitted to pitch my tent in the front, while others were driven to the rear of the army.

The rapidity of the conquests which attended the victory of Ramillies, is so remarkable, that it would be unpardonable in me to pass it over in silence to continue my particular history.

Our victorious army having rested the night which followed the battle, briskly pursued the enemy the next morning; drew near to Judoigne, and crossed the Dyle on the 25th, near Louvain. This large city, being abandoned, submitted; we took possession of all the great stores of all sorts of provisions, which I have already said the enemy had there lain up, and placed a garrison in it. From hence our army marched on to Brussels; from which town the elector of Bavaria, and his court, had retired after the last battle, in which he shared no laurels with the marshal, as he had hoped wherefore, the town being summoned by a letter from the duke of Marlborough and the deputies of the States, opened her gates and submitted to king Charles. Malines, or Mechlin, followed this example, as did Lire, situated on the Nethe, and strongly fortified.

The elector of Bavaria, who had no settled place since his and the marshal's defeat, seemed determined to stand the allies behind the Scheld, near Ghent, with the troops he had saved; but they did not give him time to intrench himself, for they decamped from Grimbergen on the 30th, passed by Alost, and being advanced as far as Meerbeek, they heard that

the enemy had abandoned the lines in Flanders, and retired behind their old lines, near Merien and Courtray. While the army was on their march, I joined it, being entirely recovered. On this advice, Ghent was summoned, which surrendered to major-general Cadogan, on condition that their privileges should be preserved. General Fagel possessed himself of Bruges, on the same terms; and, without striking a stroke, made himself master of Dam, a small, but a very strong town, and of the castle of Rodenhuis, or Red-house. After the enemy had abandoned all their lines in the country of Waas, the garrison of Antwerp making a show of defence, general Cadogan marched thither with twelve hundred men, and summoned the place. After many parleys, it was at last agreed that the garrison should march out on the 7th of June, with arms and baggage, drums beating, colours flying, four mortars, and as many cannon. The next day the French also evacuated Fort Pearl, Fort Mary, and Fort Philip, situated on the Scheld, and near to Antwerp. Even Oudenard, a strong fortified town on the same river, between four and five leagues distant from Ghent, being summoned on the 1st of June, surrendered on composition the next day, the marquis de Bournonville seeing four pieces of cannon mounted on a battery. Thus the winning of one single battle reduced in a few days, all Brabant, and a great part of Flanders, to the obedience of king Charles.

That the fruit of such a successful opening of a campaign might not be lost, the duke of Marlborough went to the Hague, to consult the States-general on the plan of military expeditions, and returned to the camp on the 13th of June, when he immediately invested Ostend by land, while admiral Fairborn blocked it up by sea with nine men-of-war, and four bombketches. We could not entirely enclose the town, without taking Fort de Plasendaal, raised on the canal of Bruges; general Fagel attacked this with such re

solution, that the garrison, consisting of two hundred and fifty men, was made prisoners of war. The fire upon the town, both from the land and sea, was so terrible, that it capitulated on the 6th of July; she had, under the government of the archduke Albert, held out a three years' siege, and now hardly so many days. The garrison was suffered to march out with their swords, and them only on condition that they should not, of six months, bear arms against king Charles, or his allies.

After the reduction of Ostend, our army encamped with the right at Wellem, the left at Harlebeck. Hither the town of Courtray sent deputies to the generals to make its submission, the French having abandoned it after having exacted large contributions. Brigadier Meredith went to blockade, and try if he could reduce it by famine, while the grand army undertook the siege of Menin, with two hundred pieces of cannon, great and small, brought from Maestricht and Holland. General Salisch, who had the direction of this important siege, invested the place the 22nd of July; which, though called the key of France, held out but eighteen days after our trenches were opened, and surrendered upon terms in a month after it was invested. We lost a great many men in this siege; I was myself exposed to no danger but when my husband was, whom I always followed, and whom I would never abandon, wherever he went. While the army stayed here to fill up the works, and repair the breaches, general Churchill was detached with six battalions, and the same number of squadrons, to reduce Dendermond, which made a more obstinate resistance than was expected. The general acquitted himself so well of his commission, that this town, which was almost inaccessible, surrendered on the 5th of September.

The siege of Ath was next undertaken, by fieldmarshal Ouwerkerke, or Auverquerque, with forty bat

talions and thirty squadrons. General Ingoldsby broke ground on the 20th, at night, with the loss of one man only; for, the enemy imagining we should open our trenches on the side where the lord Auverquerque was, had drawn their strength to that quarter, to prevent, or impede, his works. Our men covered themselves before they discovered their mistake. When my husband marched with general Ingoldsby to the side where they were to break ground, he left me boiling the pot, with which I designed to regale him and the officers of his regiment. When my meat was ready, I covered it with cloths so close that no steam could get out, and, venturing through a village belonging to the enemy, in which I ran the hazard of being killed or stripped, by a circuit of five miles, I got safe, with my provisions on my head, to the trench. It was a fatiguing journey, the way being difficult to find, and the night being very dark but what danger will deter a woman who truly loves her husband? having found mine, I set my broth and meat before him; he invited his colonel, and other officers, who where not a little surprised at the risk I had run, and that I could bring it so hot such a length of way. Lord Auverquerque, who was come to thank the officers and soldiers for their diligence, stood talking to some of the former, when I, looking through the sandbags, saw a soldier, who, ignorant of our being on the side we were, came out of the town to gather turnips. I took a piece out of one of our people's hand, and called to an officer to see me shoot him; for we had pushed our trenches within thirty-three paces of the palisades. I suppose we were just then perceived; for the instant I killed the man, a musket-shot, from the town, came through the sand-bags, split my under lip, beat one of my teeth into my mouth, and knocked me down. Both this shot and mine, with which I killed the soldier, were so exactly at a time, that none could distinguish whether I fell by the recoiling of the piece, or the enemy's ball. My husband, and some of