PRINCE OF YSEMBOURG DEFEATED.

It was at this period that count de Clermont resigned his command, which was conferred upon M. de Contades, and the French army was considerably reinforced. He even threatened to attack prince Ferdinand in his turn, and made some motions with that design, but was prevented by the little river Erff, behind which the prince resolved to lie quiet, until he should be joined by the body of the British troops under the command of the duke of Marlborough, the first division of which had just landed at Embden. He flattered himself that the prince of Ysembourg, at the head of the Hessian troops, would find employment for the prince de Soubise, who had marched from Hanau, with a design to penetrate into the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel: his vanguard had been already surprised and defeated by the militia of the country; and the prince Ysembourg was at the head of a considerable body of regular forces, assembled to oppose his further progress. Prince Ferdinand therefore hoped that the operations of the French general would be effectually impeded, until he himself, being joined by the British troops, should be in a condition to pass the Maese, transfer the seat of war into the enemy’s country, thus make a diversion from the Rhine, and perhaps oblige the prince de Soubise to come to the assistance of the principal French army commanded by M. de Contades. He had formed a plan which would have answered these purposes effectually, and, in execution of it, marched to Ruremond on the Maese, when his measures were totally disconcerted by a variety of incidents which he could not foresee. The prince of Ysembourg was, on the twenty-third day of July, defeated at San-garshausen by the duke de Broglio, whom the prince de Soubise had detached against him with a number of troops greatly superior to that which the Hessian general commanded. The duke de Broglio, who commanded the corps that formed the vanguard of Soubise’s army, having learned at Cassel that the Hessian troops, under the prince of Ysembourg, were retiring towards Munden, he advanced, on the twenty-third of July, with a body of eight thousand men, to the village of Sangarshausen, where he found them drawn up in order of battle, and forthwith made a disposition for the attack. At first his cavalry were repulsed by the Hessian horse, which charged the French infantry, and were broke in their turn. The Hessians, though greatly inferior in number to the enemy, made a very obstinate resistance, by favour of a rock in the Fulde that covered their right, and a wood by which their left was secured. The dispute was so obstinate, that the enemy’s left was obliged to give ground; but the duke de Broglio, ordering a fresh corps to advance, changed the fortune of the day. The Hessians, overpowered by numbers, gave way; part plunged into the river, where many perished, and part threw themselves into the wood, through which they escaped from the pursuit of the hussars, who took above two hundred soldiers and fifty officers, including the count de Canitz, who was second in command. They likewise found on the field of battle seven pieces of cannon, and eight at Munden; but the carnage was pretty considerable, and nearly equal on both sides. The number of the killed and wounded, on the side of the French, exceeded two thousand; the loss of the Hessians was not so great. The prince of Ysembourg, having collected the remains of his little army, took post at Eimbeck, where he soon was reinforced, and found himself at the head of twelve thousand men; but, in consequence of this advantage, the enemy became masters of the Weser, and opened to themselves a free passage into Westphalia.