first. The King of England, who was also Elector of
Hanover, would be a great prize, and the French were
eager to capture him. This was how the armies faced each
other on the morning of June 27, 1743, at Dettingen, the
last battlefield on which any king of England has fought
in person, and the first for Wolfe.

The two young brothers were now about to see a big battle,
like those of which their father used to tell them.
Strangely enough, Amherst, the future commander-in-chief
in America, under whom Wolfe served at Louisbourg, and
the two men who succeeded Wolfe in command at Quebec
--Monckton and Townshend--were also there. It is an awful
moment for a young soldier, the one before his first
great fight. And here were nearly a hundred thousand men,
all in full view of each other, and all waiting for the
word to begin. It was a beautiful day, and the sun shone
down on a splendidly martial sight. There stood the
British and Hanoverians, with wooded hills on their right,
the river and the French on their left, the French in
their rear, and the French very strongly posted on the
rising ground straight in their front. The redcoats were
in dense columns, their bayonets flashing and their
colours waving defiance. Side by side with their own red
cavalry were the black German cuirassiers, the blue German
lancers, and the gaily dressed green and scarlet Hungarian
hussars. The long white lines of the three French armies,
varied with royal blue, encircled them on three sides.
On the fourth were the leafy green hills.