and other officers followed them to avoid the imputation of fear. The consequence was that they were blown up and buried in the ruins of the one bastion that was hurt. Thus died, on March 4, 1709, Colonel Sibourg, Major Vignolles, and above thirty officers and soldiers. The senior surviving officer, Lieut.-Colonel D’Albon, continued to hold out till the 18th April, when a capitulation was agreed to; the garrison marched out with two pieces of cannon and every mark of honour, and were conveyed by the British fleet to Minorca.
“A Person of Honour” (1740), in his history of the two last wars, gives some additional particulars on the authority of the enemies’ engineer and of Colonel Sibourg’s “gentleman;” the following is a summary:—
The French general having invited the officers to inspect the mine, Colonel Thornicroft and Captain Page, a Huguenot engineer, went; and on their return they reported to the garrison that the mine was a sham. On the morning fixed for the explosion, the enemy again gave warning, and the country people, who also received notice, went to the surrounding heights to look on from a safe distance. Sitting over their wine the night before, every one observed that General Richards was tormented by a great fly, which was perpetually buzzing about his ears and head, and that he appeared to be gloomy, thinking this annoyance a bad omen. In the morning a large party of officers went upon the doomed battery, and the General hurried to get off; but Colonel Sibourg jocularly said that they would go off without loss of time, but that they must first drink Queen Anne’s health where they stood; and he sent his “gentleman” for two bottles of wine. The “gentleman,” returning with the bottles, observed Captain Daniel Weaver, shouting that he would drink the Queen’s health with them, leap upon the battery; in a moment the mine was sprung, and blew up the Captain along with the General, Colonel Sibourg, Colonel Thornicroft, and at least twenty more officers.
Most of the officers of Nassau’s, Sibourg’s, and Blosset’s were entitled to the original half-pay fund. The rest were provided for, as appears in the list of Half-pay officers in 1718, “ Under Lord Rivers, £346, 15s.”
9. Dragoon Regiments in Portugal.
Lord Galway raised six regiments of Portuguese dragoons, all in British pay, and entirely commanded by British and refugee officers. Luttrell says, “Aug. 9, 1709. Letters from Lisbon of the 4th (n.s.) say that Generals Ogilvy and Wade had presented to the king several English and French officers in order to command his horse, who made objections, saying he never intended his regiments should be commanded by all foreigners, but that each should have half Portuguese officers — to which Lord Galway answered, that ours and his would be always disagreeing, and thereby hinder the operations of the campaign.” The regiments were disbanded in 1711. Their Colonels were Major-General Foissac, Lieutenant-General Desbordes, Major-General Paul de Gualy, Colonel Bouchetière, Colonel Magny, and Colonel Sarlande.
Several of these names have already appeared in our lists. The military rank prefixed to the first three names is the rank the officers attained to before their death. Balthazar Rivas de Foissac followed John Cavalier in the lists as Brigadier in December 1735, and Major-General in July 1739. John Peter Desbordes survived all his comrades; he became Brigadier in 1727, Major-General in 1735, and Lieutenant-General in July 1739. The two officers, as to whom some biographical information has been preserved, are De la Bouchetière and De Gualy.
Paul de Gualy was a son of Pierre de Gualy, Sieur de la Gineste. As a captain of infantry he came to England with William of Orange. He was enrolled as captain in Du Cambon’s, 1st April 1689, and served under that colonel in Ireland. He shared in all the campaigns of that regiment, under the colonelcy of the Comte de Marton (Earl of Lifford). He was enrolled as a major under Colonel Blosset for service in Spain and Portugal, and was rewarded with the above-mentioned colonelcy. He wore his laurels for more than a quarter of a century. According to Beatson, he became a brigadier on 12th March 1707; he appears in the list of major-generals in December 1735. He died in July 1737, in his 77th year. He had a brother, François, also a military officer, who founded a Dublin family.
Colonel de la Bouchetière had been a lieutenant in De Casaubon’s company in Schomberg’s in the Irish campaigns, and a captain in Galway’s in 1698, and was a trusted associate and intimate friend of the Earl of Galway. His memory was long extolled in Waterford by the heads of two distinguished refugee families, who had been in his regiment in Portugal, namely, Captain Francquefort and the Chaplain, the Rev. Philip Amaury Fleury.
Cardinal Alberoni, the Prime Minister of Spain, was so bent on displacing the Duke of Orleans from his post of Regent of France, that he never could desist from
