About three o'clock on the morning of the 13th of August the allied army advanced, and after traversing several miles of rugged ground, and overcoming many local difficulties, arrived in presence of the enemy; and the FOURTH HORSE, forming part of the cavalry of the left wing under Major-General Wood, had their post in the first line; the right wing being composed of Germans under Prince Eugene of Savoy. About noon the troops, advancing across the little river Nebel, by bridges prepared for the occasion, commenced the engagement, and a succession of attacks were made and resisted with great bravery on both sides. The FOURTH HORSE, with the other English cavalry regiments, were engaged in the early part of the action[28] with the household troops of France, and the superior spirit and power of the British horsemen were conspicuous, particularly in the unconquerable resolution with which they renewed the attack after a temporary repulse; yet the palm of victory was nobly contested, and the combatants fought hand to hand until the plain was covered with dead. After successive efforts made by the adverse armies--the one to advance, and the other to maintain its ground--the protracted contest drew to a crisis, and the French infantry began to shrink before the tempest of balls which thinned their ranks, while their cavalry, broken and dispirited, gave way, when nine battalions were cut to pieces or made prisoners. The enemy attempted to restore the battle, but the allied horse, once more rushing forward with tremendous force, decided the fate of the day. The enemy, after an irregular fire, fled in dismay, and the regiment which forms the subject of this memoir, after distinguishing itself in the charge, pursued the French squadrons with terrible clamour and confusion in the direction of Sonderheim, smiting them to the ground, and chasing them down the declivity near _Blenheim_ into the Danube, where numbers were drowned. At the same time their commander-in-chief, Marshal Tallard, and several other officers and many men, were made prisoners.[29] While this regiment was pursuing the French horsemen towards the Danube, another part of the army surrounded the village of _Blenheim_, where twelve squadrons of dragoons and twenty-four battalions of infantry were forced to surrender themselves prisoners of war. At the same time the Germans on the right, under Prince Eugene, were also triumphant. Thus a victory was achieved which shed lustre on the British arms, and the record of these events forms a page in history of which every Englishman may be justly proud, particularly the corps whose valour delivered the empire from impending ruin, and whose fame resounded throughout Christendom.[30]