duke of Ormond received a letter from mons. de Villars, with an account that the town and citadel of Dunkirk should be delivered to Mr. Hill. Whereupon a cessation of arms was declared, by sound of trumpet, at the head of the British army; which now consisted only of about eighteen thousand men, all of her majesty's subjects, except the Holsteiners, and count Wallis's dragoons. With this small body of men the general began his march; and pursuant to orders from court, retired toward the sea, in the manner he thought most convenient for the queen's service. When he came as far as Flines, he was told by some of his officers, "That the commandants of Bouchain, Douay, Lisle, and Tournay, had refused them passage through those towns, or even liberty of entrance; and said it was by order of their masters." The duke immediately recollected, that when the deputies first heard of this resolution to withdraw his troops, they told him. "They hoped he did not intend to march through any of their towns." This made him conclude, that the orders must be general, and that his army would certainly meet with the same treatment which his officers had done. He had likewise, before the armies separated, received information of some designs that concerned the safety, or at least the freedom, of his own person, and (which he much more valued) that of those few British troops entrusted to his care. No general was ever more truly or deservedly beloved by his soldiers, who, to a man, were prepared to sacrifice their lives in his service; and whose resentments were raised to the utmost, by the ingratitude, as they termed it, of their deserters.
