DUKE OF CUMBERLAND PASSES THE WESER.

The allies encamped at Cofeldt on the fourteenth, and remained there all the next day, when the enemy’s detachments advanced to the gates of Hervorden, and made a feint as if they would attack the town, after having summoned it to surrender; but they retired without attempting any thing further; and, in the meantime, the troops that were posted at Hervorden, and formed the rear guard, passed the Weser on the side of Remen, without any molestation, and encamped at Holtzuysen. A body of troops which had been left at Bielefeldt, to cover the duke’s retreat, after some skirmishes with the French, rejoined the army in the neighbourhood of Herfort; and a few days after, his royal highness drew near his bridges on the Weser, and sent over his artillery, baggage, and ammunition. At the same time some detachments passed the river on the right, between Minden and Oldendorp, and marked out a new camp advantageously situated, having the Weser in front, and the right and left covered with eminences and marshes. There the army under his royal highness re-assembled, and the French fixed their head-quarters at Bielefeldt, which the Hanoverians had quitted, leaving in it only a part of a magazine, which had been set on fire. By this time the French were in such want of forage, that M. d’Etrées himself, the princes of the blood, and all the officers without exception, were obliged to send back part of their horses. However, on the tenth of June, their whole army, consisting of seventy battalions and forty squadrons, with fifty-two pieces of cannon, besides a body of cavalry left at Ruremonde for the conveniency of forage, was put in motion. In spite of almost impassable forests, famine, and every other obstacle that could be thrown in their way by a vigilant and experienced general, they at length surmounted all difficulties, and advanced into a country abounding with plenty, and unused to the ravages of war. It was imagined that the passage of the Weser, which defends Hanover from foreign attacks, would have been vigorously opposed by the army of the allies; but whether, in the present situation of affairs, it was thought advisable to act only upon the defensive, and not to begin the attack in a country that was not concerned as a principal in the war, or the duke of Cumberland found himself too weak to make head against the enemy, is a question we shall not pretend to determine. However that may have been, the whole French army passed the Weser on the tenth and eleventh of July, without the loss of a man. The manner of effecting this passage is thus related: mareschal d’Etrées, being informed that his magazines of provisions were well furnished, his ovens established, and the artillery and pontoons arrived at the destined places, ordered lieutenant-general Broglio, with ten battalions, twelve squadrons, and ten pieces of cannon, to march to Engheren; lieutenant-general M. de Chevert, with sixteen battalions, three brigades of carabineers, the royal hunters, and six hundred hussars, to march to Hervorden, and lieutenant-general marquis d’Armentieres, with twelve battalions, and ten squadrons, to march to Ulrickhausen. All these troops being arrived in their camp on the fourth of July, halted the fifth. On the sixth, twenty-two battalions, and thirty-two squadrons, under the command of the duke of Orleans, who was now arrived at the army, inarched to Ulrickhausen, from whence M. d’Armentieres had set out early in the morning, with the troops under his command, and by hasty marches got on the seventh, by eleven at night, to Blankenhoven, where he found the boats which had gone from Ahrensberg. The bridges were built, the cannon planted, and the intrenchments at the head of the bridges completed in the night between the seventh and eighth. The mareschal having sent away part of his baggage from Bielefeldt on the sixth, went in person on the seventh at eleven o’clock to Horn, and on the eighth to Braket. On advice that M. d’Armentieres had thrown his bridges across without opposition, and was at work on his intrenchments, he went on the ninth to Blankenhoven, to see the bridges and intrenchments; and afterwards advanced to examine the first position he intended for this army, and came down to the right side of the Weser to the abbey of Corvey, where he forded the river, with the princes of the blood, and their attendants. On the tenth in the morning he got on horseback by four o’clock, to see the duke of Orlean’s division file off, which arrived at Corvey at ten o’clock; as also that of M. d’Armentieres, which arrived at eleven, and that of M. Souvre, which arrived at noon. The mareschal having examined the course of the river, caused the bridges of pontoons to be laid within gunshot of the abbey, where the viscount de Turenne passed that river in the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-three, and where the divisions under Broglio and Chevert now passed, it on the twelfth and thirteenth. These two generals being informed of what was to be done upon the Upper Weser, attacked Minden, and carried it, whilst a detachment of the French entered the country of East Friesland, under the command of the marquis d’Auvel; and, after taking possession of Lier, inarched on the right side of the Ems to Embden, the only sea-port the king of Prussia had, which at first seemed determined to make a defence; but the inhabitants were not agreed upon the methods to be taken for that purpose. They therefore met to deliberate, but in the meantime, their gates being shut, M. d’Auvel caused some cannon to be brought to beat them down; and the garrison, composed of four hundred Prussians, not being strong enough to defend the town, the soldiers mutinied against their officers, whereupon a capitulation was agreed on, and the gates were opened to the French commander, who made his troops enter with a great deal of order, assured the magistrates that care should be taken to make them observe a good discipline, and published two ordinances, one for the security of the religion and commerce of the city, and the other for prohibiting the exportation of corn and forage out of that principality. The inhabitants were; however, obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the French king.