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On the twelfth day of June, the duke of Berwick, in visiting the trenches, was killed by a cannon-ball, and the command devolved upon the marquis d'Asfeldt who carried on the operations of the siege with equal vigour and capacity.
"On determining to exercise the ministry in this kingdom," he wrote, in 1746, to the superintendent of Languedoc, Lenain d'Asfeldt, "I was not ignorant of what I exposed myself to; so I regarded myself as a victim doomed to death. I thought I was doing the greatest good of which I was capable in devoting myself to the condition of a pastor.
He accepted it, in spite of his old connections with Spain, the benefits which Philip V. had heaped upon him, and the presence of his eldest son, the Duke of Liria, in the Spanish ranks. There were others who attached more importance to gratitude. Berwick thought very highly of lieutenant-general Count D'Asfeldt, and desired to have him in his army; the Duke of Orleans spoke to him about it.
Istevan de Litera, where the chevalier d'Asfeldt, with nine squadrons of horse and dragoons, and as many battalions of French infantry, attacked colonel Wills at the head of a small detachment; but this last being supported by lieutenant-general Cunningham, who was mortally wounded in the engagement, repulsed the enemy, though three times his number, with the loss of four hundred men killed upon the spot.
The Duke of Noailles, who at once received the marshal's baton, succeeded him in the command of the army by agreement with Marshal d'Asfeldt. Philipsburg was taken after forty-eight days' open trenches, without Prince Eugene, all the while within hail, making any attempt to relieve the town. He had not approved of the war.
At length the chevalier d'Asfeldt ordered the rock to be undermined, and having lodged two hundred barrels of gunpowder, gave Syburg the governor to understand, that two of his officers might come out and see the condition of the works.
"Of three emperors that I have served," he would say, "the first, Leopold, was my father; the Emperor Joseph was my brother; this one is my master." Eugene was old and worn out; he preserved his ability, but his ardor was gone. Marshal Noailles and D'Asfeldt did not agree; France did not reap her advantages. The campaign of 1735 hung fire in Germany.
"Monseigneur," answered D'Asfeldt, "I am a Frenchman, I owe you everything, I have nothing to expect save from you, but," taking the Fleece in his hand and showing it, "what would you have me do with this, which I hold, with the king's permission, from the King of Spain, if I were to serve against Spain, this being the greatest honor that I could have received?"
Colonel Wills wrote in reply that an important action had taken place at San Esteban de Litera on the 26th and 27th of January, between General Conyngham with his brigade and the Chevalier d'Asfeldt, in which, after a bloody contest, the French were driven from the field with a heavy loss of killed, wounded, and prisoners, the allies had also suffered serious loss, and General Conyngham had received a mortal wound.
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