"On receiving the news, Eugene at once sent an officer to inspect
the Irish position; but his report was that they were too well
placed to be driven from it. He then sent Captain MacDonnell, an
officer in his service, to offer, if the Irish would leave their
position, to enrol them in the Austrian service, with higher pay
than they now received. You may guess the sort of answer he
received, and he was at once arrested for bringing such a message
to them. Eugene then endeavoured to engage Marshal Villeroy to
order the Irish to lay down their arms, as further resistance
would only end in their slaughter. Villeroy simply replied that,
as a prisoner, he could no longer give orders.

"During this pause, the Count de Revel and the Marquis de Queslin
succeeded in gathering together a considerable number of the
scattered French infantry, and with these they marched to
endeavour to recover the gates that had been lost, and, having
occupied the church of Santa Maria, and a bastion near the gate of
All Saints, ordered the Irish to leave a hundred men at the
barricades, and with the rest to push forward to the gate of
Mantua. So I found myself in command of a full company.

"O'Mahony was now in command of the two regiments, as Wauchop had
been wounded. It was pretty hard work they had of it, and they
suffered heavily in carrying the guardhouse, held by two hundred
Austrians. Eugene now launched a great force against our people,
and attacked them on all sides; but O'Mahony faced them each way,
and received the charge of the cuirassiers with so heavy a fire
that they fled in disorder. Another corps of cuirassiers came up,
and these charged with such fury that their leader, Monsieur de
Freiberg, pushed his way into the middle of Dillon's regiment,