While the regiment was reposing in winter quarters in Flanders, the King of France fitted out a fleet and embarked a body of troops at Dunkirk for the purpose of making a descent on the British coast in favour of the Pretender; and the ROYALS, with the Foot Guards and seven other corps, were ordered to return to England to repel the invaders. The ROYAL Regiment marched from Ghent on the 8th March, 1708 (O.S.), embarked at Ostend on the 15th, and arrived at Tynemouth on the 21st. Meanwhile the French fleet, with the Pretender on board, had sailed from Dunkirk; but being chased by the British men-of-war, the enemy returned to Dunkirk without effecting a landing. The ROYALS were then ordered back to Flanders, and having landed at Ostend on the 20th of April, proceeded in boats along the canal to Ghent. The regiment remained at Ghent until the 22nd of May, when it took the field and engaged in the general operations of the army, and soon afterwards the French obtained possession of Ghent and Bruges by treachery. A more important advantage was, however, gained on the 11th of July by the allied army commanded by the Duke of Marlborough, who crossed the Scheldt and defeated the French army, commanded by the Duke of Burgundy and Marshal Vendôme, near _Oudenarde_. The ROYALS formed part of the division of twenty battalions commanded by the Duke of Argyle, and having traversed the Scheldt by the pontoon bridge between Oudenarde and the Abbey of Eename, they ascended the heights of Bevere; then, inclining to the right, engaged the enemy in the fields and open grounds beyond the rivulet. A fierce conflict of musketry ensued, and charge succeeded charge, until the shades of evening gathered over the scene of conflict, and the combatants could only be discerned by the flashes of musketry which blazed in the fields and marshy grounds. The French, having been driven from hedge to hedge, and from thicket to thicket, were eventually overpowered. Part of their army being separated from the remainder was nearly surrounded and destroyed, and the work of destruction was continued until the darkness became so intense that it was impossible to distinguish friends from foes, when the troops were ordered to cease firing. Night favoured the enemy; many of the corps, which were nearly surrounded, escaped in the dark, and the wreck of the French army made a precipitate retreat to Ghent, leaving the allies in possession of the field of battle, with many prisoners, standards, colours, and other indisputable marks of victory.