The Governor, finding himself unable to arrest the progress of the besieging force, surrendered. The fortress of _Aeth_ was afterwards captured, and this event terminated the campaign. Thus fortresses which had resisted powerful armies for months and years, and provinces disputed for ages, were the conquests of a summer: the nations of Europe witnessing with astonishment the splendid achievements of the forces under the Duke of Marlborough. After sharing in the brilliant successes of this campaign, the ROYAL IRISH regiment passed the winter at Ghent. [Sidenote: 1707] In May, 1707, the regiment again took the field, and was formed in brigade with the second battalion of the Royals, the eighth, twenty-fourth, and Temple's regiments, under Brigadier-General Sir Richard Temple (afterwards Viscount Cobham). During this campaign, the French army avoided a general engagement, and the summer was passed by the opposing armies in manœuvring and watching each other's movements. In the autumn, the regiment marched to the castle of Ghent, of which its commanding officer, Colonel Stearne, was appointed governor. [Sidenote: 1708] Finding his armies beaten on the continent, the French monarch fitted out an expedition for the purpose of landing the Pretender in Scotland, to embroil Great Britain in civil war; and the EIGHTEENTH regiment was one of the corps ordered home to repel the invaders: it embarked from Ostend in the middle of March, 1708, and sailed to the river Tyne; but the English fleet chased the French squadron from the British coast, and the regiment returned to Flanders.