soldiers working, who fell all a scrambling in a heap one upon another, some bringing off a very good booty, some gold and some silver, several Jacobus’s and sovereigns being found by the soldiers, and a great many old pieces of silver of Henri II., Charles IX., Henri III., Henri IV’s. coin, which are now hardly to be found in France. The people of the town suppose that this money belonged to one Elfort, a gentleman dead many years ago, who buried his treasure (when the Mareschal de Rantzau took the town) in the Bernardine Nuns’ garden (this ground where the money was found having been formerly in that garden), which Count de Monterey caused to be demolished; and they think that there might have been about 900 Pounds Groot, which makes the value of 450 guineas (English). This Elfort left it by Will to his children, and the marks where to find it, but his children could never discover it.” The Huguenot infantry regiments remained in winter quarters, and served till the Peace of Ryswick in all the campaigns, as did Galway’s Horse and Miremont’s Dragoons. So that Sir John Knight’s malicious assertion that the naturalized foreigners were quartered in England, while Englishmen were sent to fight and fall in Flanders, had no foundation as far as the Huguenot refugees were concerned.
Page 188. The best account of the granting and withdrawing of Lord Peterborough’s commission to command an expedition to the West Indies may be found in John Locke’s Correspondence. My authority for stating that Huguenot refugee soldiers offered their services to his lordship, is the following paragraph in a pamphlet, entitled, “The Lawfulness, Glory, and Advantage of giving immediate and effectual relief to the Protestants in the Cevennes”:—
“If Her Majesty can spare none of her English Forces, there are above 300 French Protestant officers, near half of which are natives of Languedoc, in Her Majesty’s half-pay upon the Irish establishment, who are weary of being idle whilst others are employed abroad in the service of Her Majesty and the nation; and who, if they were encouraged, would undertake to raise 6000 Frenchmen, in a month’s time, for the relief of the Cevennes. This I know from the mouth of several of them; and (to persuade such as might question it) I need but mention with what alacrity, diligence, and success, two French Captains in half-pay raised above 100 French dragoons to serve under the Earl of Peterborough in his (then) intended expedition to the West Indies; for the truth of which I appeal to that noble and illustrious Peer.”
Colonel La Bouchetière seems to have had some naturalized British soldiers in his regiment, on the reduction of which he and they had to retire on British half-pay. Some of these men were called out for active service, and ordered to join the Marquis De Montandre’s regiment of English infantry, in June 1718. They rose in mutiny, and a reward of £20 was offered for the apprehension of the six ringleaders. I offer this statement as correct, though the Historical Register, which is my only authority, spells the Colonel’s name “La Bouchelier.” Probably the men, having been in active service as dragoons, could not submit to the thought of being dismounted, and drilled along with infantry recruits.
The Dutch had Huguenot refugee regiments, which served the common cause in the Grand Alliance against the Bourbons. In the reign of Queen Anne, refugees who had belonged to regiments in English pay, removed their residence to Holland, that they might have the sea between them and the Bourbon-loving Jacobites. In Dumont de Bostaquet’s lists of officers, we meet with the name Vesansay, or Vesancé. At the Battle of Almanza we read of Visonse’s regiment. Perhaps the colonel was the same man as the captain named by De Bostaquet, and the regiment may have been raised in Holland. (See my Vol. I., p. 197.)
Chapter XVIII. , (pp. 191-202).
The Three Ligoniers.
Besides “the three,” who made the name of Ligonier eminent in England, there were Major Anthony Ligonier (died 1767), a brother of the first two, and the Rev. Abel Ligonier.
