General Elphinstone died in the spring of 1794, when the colonelcy of the regiment was conferred on Major-General Gerard Lake, from lieut.-colonel in the first foot guards. Taking the field in April of this year, the regiment was engaged in the operations by which the enemy was driven from his positions at _Vaux_, _Prémont_, _Marets_, &c., on the 17th of that month, when the Duke of York expressed in general orders the sense he entertained of the bravery and conduct of the troops engaged. The regiment was subsequently employed in covering the siege of _Landrécies_; it was in line on the 26th of April, when the attack of the French on the British position at _Cateau_ was repulsed; and after the surrender of Landrécies, the regiment marched to the vicinity of Tournay. On the 10th of May the position near _Tournay_ was attacked, and the French were repulsed with severe loss. A combined attack on the posts occupied by the French army was made on the 17th of May; when the FOURTEENTH, THIRTY-SEVENTH, and FIFTY-THIRD regiments, forming the second brigade, under Major-General Fox,[7] were attached to the column under the Duke of York's immediate command, which captured _Lannoy_, _Roubaix_, and _Mouveaux_; and the three regiments were afterwards posted on the main road from Lisle to Roubaix. Meanwhile the failure of the other columns of the allied army had left the British troops exposed to the whole weight and power of the enemy's overwhelming numbers, and early on the 18th of May the fourteenth, thirty-seventh, and FIFTY-THIRD regiments were attacked by a numerous force. A historian of that campaign states,--"Major-General Fox, with the fourteenth, thirty-seventh, and FIFTY-THIRD regiments, was engaged with the whole of the column which had marched from Lisle, and the different corps, which had driven back the rest of the army, fell upon his flanks and rear. Perhaps there is not on record a single instance of greater gallantry and more soldier-like conduct than was exhibited on that occasion by these three regiments. At length Major-General Fox, finding that the whole army had left him, began to think of retreating; to effect which it was necessary to get possession of the causeway leading to Leers, and before that could be accomplished, he was obliged to charge several battalions of the enemy, who were astonished that such a handful of men should presume to give them battle, and expected every moment that they would lay down their arms; but with a degree of intrepidity that words cannot describe, and is, indeed, scarcely conceivable, they gained the wished-for point; then forming with such regularity that the enemy could not assail them, they secured their retreat towards Leers, and the next morning joined General Otto's column. This brigade, which consisted of only eleven hundred and twenty men, left in the field five hundred and thirty-three."[8]