plunder.” Mr. Harbord took his fowling-piece one night and went on a party with Count Schomberg. Harbord fell from his horse. Five or six Enniskillen troopers began to strip and rob him, though he cried that he was the paymaster, and would give them money to carry him to the camp. A French officer, who happened to pass, recognised him, and on his testimony the troopers carried Harbord back.[1] In December, Charles Schomberg went to England to give a report to the king of the state of the army. He seems now to have been lent to the Elector of Brandenburg. He is said to have commanded the Prussians at the battle of Fleurus. Professor Weiss says, “The Prussians, commanded by Charles de Schomberg, prevented Marshal Luxemburg from profiting by the bloody victory of Fleurus.” This was on the 30th of June 1690.
On the very next day, his noble father fell at the Battle of the Boyne. Charles thus became Duke of Schomberg; he also got the first instalment of the annuity of £4000 a-year from the English Treasury. He was in England this winter, according to Dumont de Bostaquet, who drove with him to court in the Marquis De Ruvigny’s carriage.
In February 1691 our King William paid his first royal visit to his native country and dominions. The Dutch gave him a most magnificent welcome. All the splendour and honours of fetes, firing of cannon by day and fireworks by night, triumphal arches, court-dresses, equipages and processions have been kept in memory by fifteen large engravings in the goodly folio volume published at the time by Arnout Leers of the Hague, entitled:— “Relation du Voyage de Sa Majesté Britannique en Hollande et de la Reception qui lui a été faite.” In the lists of distinguished courtiers are included Dukes and Earls of England, one of whom is Le Duc Charles De Schomberg (page 87).
The grand living justification of the war with France was the ancient church of the Vaudois, or Waldenses. Louis XIV. considered it his mission to exterminate these primitive Christians. His persecution of his Huguenot subjects was held up as an example to the ruler of Piedmont, the Duke of Savoy, whose subjects the Waldenses were. The House of Savoy was not only exhorted but also compelled to persecute. Being one of the lesser powers, it could not withstand the tremendous dictation of France. The young Duke Victor Amedeo II. had succeeded his father in 1675 when he was only nine years of age. His mother, on whom the regency devolved, was a French lady of the blood royal, Francoise, daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orleans, the king’s uncle. The Vaudois, cruelly banished from their valleys, succeeded in fighting their way back to them. They were aided by the money and sympathy of the Elector of Brandenburg and the Prince of Orange. The Emperor of Germany having sided with the confederacy, the Duke of Savoy had to decide whether he would have that Emperor, or the Grand Monarque as his enemy. France had no time to meditate any active projects against the poor Waldenses, who had long foreseen that such a war was the only real peace for them. Victor Amedeo sided with the Emperor. The allied powers succoured him. Having a genius for military affairs, he was supplied with reinforcements.
But the French, under Marshal Catinat, were on the spot to punish his defection, before the arrival of his succours from abroad. Some of the Piedmontese troops were successful against the French at Carignan and Lucerne. The enemy had difficulty in subsisting their troops, and might have had to decamp, if defensive measures had been relied on. The young Duke, however, would fight the battle of Salusses (18th Aug. 1690), in which the French gained a complete victory. Loss after loss followed, Suza being the last and most serious; that fortress surrendered to the French in November.
While the armies were in winter-quarters, President de la Tour obtained King William’s substantial aid for the unhappy Duke, namely, a pecuniary subsidy of £100,000 a-year, the joint contribution of England and Holland. And in December, Charles, Duke of Schomberg, was ordered to prepare to go to Savoy in spring, at the head of a contingent of 12,000 men, to be accompanied by several Protestant chaplains, such as Arnaud, Dubourdieu, and others. He was also to raise recruits in Holland. His rank in our army at this date was Lieutenant-General.
The subjects of the Duke of Savoy were alarmingly dispirited. On the 26th of March 1691, Nice surrendered to Marshal Catinat, the citizens having taken the French side, from the very first, against their own garrison. The French took Carmagnola on the 8th June. Schomberg arrived at Turin on the 18th, and found the whole country in the greatest consternation and despondency. French money, which was always in circulation to introduce treacherous counsels and foul play, was now
- ↑ Schomberg’s Despatches, No. 14.
