In the meantime, the progress of the war had assumed an unfavourable aspect in Germany; the Elector of Bavaria had embraced the French interest, and having been joined by a numerous body of the forces of Louis XIV., he had gained considerable advantage over the army of the empire. Under these circumstances, the Duke of Marlborough resolved to lead the British troops from the ocean to the Danube, and make a powerful effort to change the fortune of the war, in the heart of Germany. To engage in this splendid enterprise, which was replete with important results, the FIFTEENTH foot marched towards the Rhine in the early part of May, and were joined at Bedburg by the detachment from Maestricht. The designs of the British commander were secret; the object, for which the movements were made, held Europe in perplexing anxiety, suspended the operations of the Elector of Bavaria, and confounded the French Generals; and the moment the advance assumed a specific direction, the enemy was no longer able to render the plan abortive. Arriving in the heart of Germany, the regiment was formed in brigade with a battalion of the royals, and the twenty-sixth and thirty-seventh regiments, and this brigade was posted in the second line. At three o'clock on the morning of the 2nd of July, the army advanced in the direction of Donawerth, to attack a body of French and Bavarians under Count d'Arco, in an entrenched camp on the heights of _Schellenberg_, on the left bank of the Danube. Arriving in front of the enemy's position, the attack was commenced about six in the evening, by a detachment from each British corps, and the foot guards, royals, and twenty-third regiments. The difficulty of the ground,--the formidable preparations of the enemy,--and the steady bravery of the Bavarians, occasioned this to prove a particularly severe contest; but the determined assaults of the British soldiers shook the strength and weakened the resistance of the enemy; and eventually the soldiers of the allied army overpowered all resistance, captured the heights, and pursued the French and Bavarians across the Danube, capturing sixteen pieces of artillery, a number of standards and colours, with the enemy's tents, and the equipage and plate of the Bavarian commander. The FIFTEENTH regiment shared in this splendid triumph of the British arms on the banks of the Danube. Its loss was one serjeant and nine rank and file killed; Captains Bolton and Lesley, Lieutenant Morris, three serjeants, and nineteen rank and file wounded. After this victory the army penetrated the country of Bavaria, and the Elector concentrated his forces at Augsburg, where he formed an entrenched camp. The FIFTEENTH regiment advanced to the vicinity of Augsburg; but the fortified camp was found too strong to be attacked with any prospect of success, and the troops retired a few stages; the Germans commencing the siege of _Ingoldstadt_, and the British troops forming part of the covering army.