on which the new French infantry showed itself not unworthy of the old.[1]
After the action the French main body retired once more across the Lys to its old camp between
May 11. Menin and Courtrai; but on the 11th Souham attacked Clerfaye in his position at Lendelede, about
May 12. four miles north of Courtrai, and after an obstinate engagement forced him to retire still further northward to Thielt, with the loss of fifteen hundred men and two guns. Meanwhile the Duke of York, in spite of his success on the 10th, became anxious as to his position in presence of numbers so overwhelmingly superior, and pressed Coburg to send him reinforcements. At the Emperor's headquarters, however, there was some hesitation whether the principal army should move eastward to the assistance of Kaunitz on the Sambre, or westward for the salvation of Flanders. The first idea was to make a demonstration towards Cambrai with a part of the force; the next to make a rapid march and invest Avesnes, also with only a part of the force, in order to take pressure off Kaunitz. The idea of moving with the whole army to any given point seems to have occurred to none of the Austrian Generals. Then came the Duke
May 11. of York's application for help, whereupon General Kinsky was ordered with some six thousand horse and foot to Denain, to enable Wurmb's detachment at that place to join the Duke of York at Tournai.
May 12. One day later arrived news from Kaunitz that he had
- ↑ The regiments engaged were the Blues, Second, Third, Sixth Dragoon Guards; First, Second, Sixth Dragoons; Seventh, Eleventh, Fifteenth, Sixteenth Light Dragoons. Which were engaged throughout and which came up as reinforcements, I have been unable to discover. The account of the action is drawn chiefly from Calvert, Journal, pp. 203-205. Narrative of an Officer, ii. 41. Ditfurth, ii. 75. Life of Lord Combermere, i. 38-39. The first is the most important.
