The chevalier kept his ramrod in his teeth, to reload his pistols more rapidly; and now when we drew up for this purpose, and to recover breath, we were fully two miles from the valley of Ingweiler. Now the light horse of M. de Toneins wheeled up from the thicket, and assisted us to hem the horses more completely into a narrow way between hedges and walls, where, after half-an-hour's anxious delay, the whole suffered themselves to be taken without difficulty, and we threw over their heads the bridoons and stall-collars or halters with which we were amply provided. These were afterwards buckled together, linking all the horses into little troops; and these riderless ranks were each led by a trooper in the centre. In an incredibly short space of time all were ready, not a horse was lost; and we departed at full speed for the camp. This affair was rather disastrous for the enemy; for among the horses at grass were several which belonged to a foraging party. These, by the alarm or example of others, broke from their picquets, threw down both riders and trusses, and, by this, more than fifty men were trampled under foot, as we afterwards read in the _Gallobelgicus_. The whole decoy was ably and skilfully managed; but we had just effected our retreat in time, for the Austrian cuirassier regiments of Goetz and Gordon, with six pieces of cannon, despatched by Count Gallas, had almost overtaken us when we reached our camp on the frontier of Alsace. But this was not the only service I had the honour to perform before we advanced further into that province. Hearing that the enemy had stored up a quantity of provisions at Phalsbourg, a little town that lies at the foot of a mountain on the borders of Lorraine, and gives a title to a principality, I offered, if twenty of Brissac's dragoons were lent to me, to make a dash at the provender, of which my comrades of the Guard were rather short. This I also accomplished, and, at the sword's point, procured them fifteen waggons of dry and green forage; so that we once more had the Marechal de Logis' allowance of twenty pounds of hay, ten pounds of oats, and five pounds of straw per diem for each cuirassier. Moreover, in this night's onfall, we spiked two brass field-pieces, blew up the tumbrils, slew seven of the Emperor's own regiment of Pelardiers, and partly burned the town. These two exploits procured me the special notice of the Duke de Lavalette, and of one whose admiration I valued much more--my countryman, the great Sir John Hepburn of Athelstaneford, on whom the eyes of all France and Sweden were turning, as being in all probability the successor of his late master, Gustavus Adolphus, in the arduous struggle with the Empire; a hope in which they were doomed to be fatally disappointed by his premature death.