[9] "The Sunday following was appointed for a day of thanks-giving, and after divine service the army drew out to fire a _feu-de-joie_ for the victory. Marshal Tallard and the officers with him were invited to ride out to see the army fire, which they did with much persuasion. Our generals paid Tallard the compliment of riding next the army, and ordered all the officers to salute him. When the firing was over, the Duke of Marlborough asked Tallard how he liked the army; he answered with a shrug, _Very well; but they have had the honour of beating the best troops in the world_. The Duke replied, _What will the world think of the troops that beat them?_"--_Parker's Memoirs._ [10] The following very spirited description of the charge of the Fifth Dragoon Guards, and Third and Fourth Dragoons, is copied from Colonel Napier's admirable History of the Peninsular War:-- "While Pakenham, bearing onward with a conquering violence, was closing on their flank, and the fifth division advancing with a storm of fire on their front, the interval between the two attacks was suddenly filled with a whirling cloud of dust, which moving swiftly forward carried within its womb the trampling sound of a charging multitude. As it passed the left of the third division Le Marchant's heavy horsemen, flanked by Anson's light cavalry, broke forth from it at full speed, and the next instant twelve hundred French infantry though formed in several lines were trampled down with a terrible clamour and disturbance. Bewildered and blinded, they cast away their arms and ran through the openings of the British squadrons stooping and demanding quarter, while the dragoons, big men and on big horses, rode onward smiting with their long glittering swords in uncontrollable power, and the third division followed at speed, shouting as the French masses fell in succession before this dreadful charge."