without aching hips and knees.' Edward, still more
delicate, was sent off on a foraging party to find
something for the regiment to eat. He wrote home to his
father from Bonn on April 7: 'We can get nothing upon
our march but eggs and bacon and sour bread. I have no
bedding, nor can get it anywhere. We had a sad march last
Monday in the morning. I was obliged to walk up to my
knees in snow, though my brother and I have a horse
between us. I have often lain upon straw, and should
oftener, had I not known some French, which I find very
useful; though I was obliged the other day to speak
_Latin_ for a good dinner. We send for everything we want
to the priest.'

That summer, when the king arrived with his son the Duke
of Cumberland, the British and Hanoverian army was reduced
to 37,000 half-fed men. Worse still, the old general,
Lord Stair, had led it into a very bad place. These 37,000
men were cooped up on the narrow side of the valley of
the river Main, while a much larger French army was on
the better side, holding bridges by which to cut them
off and attack them while they were all clumped together.
Stair tried to slip away in the night. But the French,
hearing of this attempt, sent 12,000 men across the river
to hold the place the British general was leaving, and
30,000 more, under the Duc de Gramont, to block the road
at the place towards which he was evidently marching. At
daylight the British and Hanoverians found themselves
cut off, both front and rear, while a third French force
was waiting to pounce on whichever end showed weakness