Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/190

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178
FRENCH PROTESTANT EXILES

1st of July is notorious; Lamelonière took part in the perilous fording of the Shannon, under Major-General Mackay, and was honourably mentioned; one of his captains, the Sieur de Blachon, was killed. He received the substantive rank of Brigadier in July 1692. He afterwards served in Flanders, and rose to be a Major-General. In July 1697 he was tried by Court-Martial in Flanders, being accused by several officers of illegal practices in his regiment; he was honourably acquitted. The senior officers in 1719 were Colonel Solomon de Loche, and Brigadier and Colonel Josias Vimare (or Veymar). Its half-pay in 1719 amounted to £1925, and in 1722 to £2182. Its most celebrated officer was Captain St Sauveur, of the grenadier company. In 1689 Colonel Russel, with some cavalry. Colonel Lloyd, with the Enniskilleners, and the refugee captain, were in Sligo. The two former drew off on the approach of General Sarsfield; but St. Sauveur carried some provisions into a fort, and held out. The nights being dark, he dipped some fir deals in tar, and by the light these gave when set on fire, he perceived the enemy advancing towards the fort with an engine called by the Irish a sow. This engine was rendered proof against musket-balls by a fourfold covering of hides and sheepskins; it consisted of strong timbers bound together with iron hoops, enclosing a hollow space. The back part was left open for besiegers to go in; the machine was fixed on an iron axle-tree, and was forced under the wall; then the men within opened a door in front. Captain St. Sauveur, by killing the engineer and one or two more, obliged the rest to retreat, and then he burned the sow. At break of day he forced the Irish to quit a small field-piece which they had planted in the street, and immediately afterwards sallied out and killed many of them. But his provisions were consumed, and there was no water in the fort. He therefore surrendered on honourable terms. As the intrepid Huguenots marched over the bridge, Sarsfield stood with a purse of gold in his hand, and offered every man of them who would engage in King James’ service five guineas, with a horse and arms. They all, however, except one, replied that they would never fight for Papists; and that one, deserting next day, with his gold, his arms, and his horse, got safely to Schomberg’s head-quarters. Captain St Sauveur died of fever in Lisburn.

As to Major-General Lamelonière, his pension on the Irish establishment was £303, 15s. per annum, and he died probably in 1715. Anne de la Melonière, residing in London, had an Irish pension of £91, 5s.; Captain Florence La Melonière had in 1719, as half-pay, £91, 5s., and in 1723, £155, 2s. 6d. Anthony Lamelonère was Major in the Grenadier Guards in 1736. In July 1737, a Lieutenant-Colonel Lamelonière was promoted, and in 1745 was wounded at the battle of Fontenoy. There died in London, 13th Nov. 1761, Lieutenant-Colonel Lamelonière of the first troop of Horse Guards.

3. cambon’s foot — afterwards marton’s (earl of lifford’s) pp. 184-186.

Colonel Cambon, or Du Cambon, received the colonelcy of one of the Huguenot foot regiments in 1689. He was also an Engineer; but in Ireland he was indisposed to do duty in that department, and displayed ill-temper and insubordination when the Duke of Schomberg projected some military engineering employment for him. The Duke then intimated to him that he had power to dispense with his services as Colonel of Infantry also. Goulon, reputed to be a great engineer, did not conduct himself well in Ireland; and he and Du Cambon were perpetually quarrelling. Schomberg privately reported to the King this distracting feud, as well as Du Cambon’s insubordination; but, if Dalrymple’s translation were right, Cambon would have been petrified on the spot on being dubbed with the ugly and incomprehensible designation, “a mathematical chicaner!” I believe the expression which Schomberg used meant only “a wrangler over his mathematics” — (chicanier sur ses mathematiques).[1] Cambon profited by Schomberg’s hint and promptly returned to subordination and decorum: so that the very next day he was made Quarter-Master-General,[2] At a later date Schomberg defended him from the injurious accusation that his regiment had not 150 men. “I can assure your Majesty,” wrote Schomberg, 10th February 1690, “that though, since they came into winter (quarters, many of Cambon’s regiment have died, yet 468 healthy men have survived, and a good recruit of 70

  1. Despatch, No. 2.
  2. Despatch, No. 3.