hedge, he soon cleared it of French combatants, and drove one of the enemy's battalions from the field in confusion. A second hedge was attacked and carried by the gallant Scots in a few moments:--a third was assaulted,--the French stood their ground,--the combatants fought muzzle to muzzle,--and again the ROYALS proved victorious, and the third hedge was won. The toil of conflict did not cool the ardour of the veteran Scots; but forward they rushed with a loud huzza, and attacked the troops which lined the fourth hedge. Here the fighting was severe; but eventually the ROYALS overthrew a fourth French battalion, and drove a crowd of combatants from their cannon.[79] In this conflict the first battalion lost one of its three colours. Sir Robert Douglas, seeing the colour on the other side of the hedge, leaped through a gap, slew the French officer who bore the colour, and cast it over the hedge to his own men; but this act of gallantry cost him his life, a French marksman having shot him dead on the spot while in the act of repassing the hedge. "Thus the Scots commander improved upon the Roman general; for the brave Posthumius cast his standard in the middle of the enemy for his soldiers to retrieve; but Douglas retrieved his from the middle of the enemy, without any assistance, and cast it back to his soldiers to retain."[80] While the leading regiments were thus carrying all before them, the main body of the army was a mile in the rear, and could not be brought up in time to sustain the corps in advance: the ROYALS and other regiments of the advance-guard, after displaying a degree of constancy and valour seldom equalled, were forced to retire; and eventually the army retreated to its camp. [Illustration: Sir Robert Douglas of Glenbervie, Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Foot, killed at the Battle of Steenkirk, July 24th, 1692. [To face page 83.] The loss of the regiment in this action has not been ascertained. Mention has, however, been made in history of two Captains, viz. Mackraken and Levingston, of the ROYAL Regiment, who were killed; and from the returns published at the time, the brigade to which the regiment belonged lost 6 field officers, 14 captains, 24 subalterns, and 507 men killed; and 6 field officers, 20 captains, 32 subalterns, and 608 men wounded[81]; and doubtless a number of these belonged to the ROYAL Regiment. A few days after the battle, King William conferred the Colonelcy on Lord George Hamilton (afterwards Earl of Orkney) from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. On the 2nd of August, a detachment of the ROYAL Regiment, commanded by Captain Rowland Mackenzie, was engaged with a party of French troopers in a wood near the camp, and took twenty prisoners.[82] Towards the end of September the regiment marched from the camp to Bruges, from whence parties were detached to Scotland to procure recruits. [Sidenote: 1693]