At the battle of Fontenoy, the British troops, supporting the interests of the house of Austria against the power of France and Bavaria, were repulsed in their attempts to raise the siege of Tournay, and sustained severe loss; and the ROYAL IRISH regiment was ordered to join the British army in Flanders. The EIGHTEENTH embarked at Gravesend, with a detachment of foot guards and the fourteenth regiment, landed at Ostend, and, advancing up the country, joined the army, commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, at the camp at Lessines, in May, 1745. The French, having a great superiority of numbers, captured several strong towns, and besieged _Ostend_, when the ROYAL IRISH were selected to reinforce the garrison of that fortress. The regiment accordingly marched to Antwerp, where it embarked on board of Dutch billanders, in which it sailed to Flushing, where it was removed on board of transports that conveyed it to Ostend, which town was found abandoned by the inhabitants, and besieged by a numerous French force. The garrison did not exceed three thousand men, a number very inadequate to the defence of the place; the fortifications had been neglected and were out of repair; and the Austrian governor permitted the enemy to gain possession of the sluices before he had inundated the country round the town. The means of a long defence were wanting, and, after holding out until the ammunition was nearly expended, and the guns of the fortress dismounted, the governor capitulated, on condition that the garrison should march to the quarters of the allied army. The writer of the continuation of General Stearne's journal complains of the treacherous conduct of the French on this occasion, in causing the garrison to make a considerable détour, employing agents to induce, by promises of reward, the soldiers to desert, and, after a march of twenty miles in one day, delivering the garrison up at a frontier village cantonment about seven in the evening, and having a numerous force ready to cut off the fatigued men at an early hour on the following morning. This was, however, defeated; the Duke of Cumberland sent a General officer to take charge of the troops on their arrival, and, instead of allowing the tired soldiers to go into quarters, he ordered them to load their muskets, fix their bayonets, and march for Mons. The writer, before alluded to, states, "As we every moment expected the enemy, we continued our march in the greatest order; not a whisper was to be heard: the officers who were present will always remember with pleasure the discipline and good disposition every regiment showed on that occasion." ... "So narrow was our escape, that the French got to their ground within an hour of our passing it, and we saw them in the morning encamped about two miles from Mons."