On this occasion the regiment entered the plain in front of the French position, formed line under a heavy fire of artillery from the enemy’s batteries, and advanced to attack the formidable array of infantry and artillery posted on the right of the village of Fontenoy. The British infantry, advancing to the attack, exhibited a splendid spectacle of war, and the heroic resolution with which they precipitated themselves, with the bayonet, upon the opposing ranks, proved the innate bravery of the men; but owing to the failure of the Dutch in their attack on the village, the British were forced to retire. The attack was repeated, British prowess was again triumphant, and the French lines were forced; but the Dutch failed a second time, and the British were compelled to withdraw: the army retreated from the field of battle to Aeth. Captain Queenchant, two serjeants, and thirty-five private soldiers of the THIRTEENTH foot, were killed; Captain Lieutenant Daniel Nicholas, Lieutenants William Jones and Samuel Edhouse, two serjeants, and thirty-nine private men were wounded. Leaving Aeth on the 16th of May, the regiment encamped on the plains of Lessines, and was afterwards employed in defensive operations; but the allied army was not sufficiently numerous to prevent the enemy obtaining possession of several fortified towns. While the army was in Flanders, Charles Edward, eldest son of the Pretender, arrived in Scotland, and being joined by several clans, he asserted his father’s pretensions to the throne. Unaccustomed to hear the sound of war at their own gates, the British people were at first alarmed, but soon recovering, they evinced loyalty and union in sustaining the fixed rights of their sovereign and in defending their own liberties. The volunteer associations were not, however, ready to take the field for some time, and several corps were ordered to return from Flanders. The THIRTEENTH regiment was one of the corps ordered home on this occasion, and it landed at Blackwall on the 23rd of September. It was immediately ordered to the north; and, joining the troops assembled by Field-Marshal Wade at Doncaster, marched from thence to Newcastle-on-Tyne. When the clans penetrated into England, the regiment was employed in covering Yorkshire, and when they made their precipitate retreat to Scotland, it returned to Newcastle, where it arrived on the 26th of December. [Sidenote: 1746]