Meanwhile the TWELFTH regiment, serving under the Duke of York, in Holland, was exposed to much suffering and privation. The Dutch, having imbibed the revolutionary doctrines of equality, beheld the advance of the French without alarm, and surrendered their fortresses without much resistance. The British troops had no chance of ultimate success, yet they held their positions with firmness, and they did not fail to impress the enemy with a just idea of British valour. The TWELFTH were in position near Nimeguen in September, and afterwards attempted to defend the passage of the Waal. [Sidenote: 1795] During the winter the river Waal became frozen, so as to admit the immense masses of the enemy to pass on the ice, and the British were obliged to retreat through Holland to Germany. The sufferings of the soldiers during this retrograde movement were very great; long marches, exposed to snow-storms and tempests, along roads choked with ice and snow, and a deficiency of provisions, put to a severe test the strength of the officers and soldiers. In March, 1795, they arrived at Bremen, where the hardships they had endured were ended. The TWELFTH regiment lost so many men during the campaign and retreat through Holland, that its numbers were reduced from eight hundred and fifteen to four hundred and twenty-five rank and file. The regiment embarked from Bremenlee on the 11th of April, landed at Gosport on the 12th of May, and marched from thence to Portchester, where it was joined by Lieutenant O'Brien, one serjeant, and one private soldier from the West Indies; being the only surviving individuals of the two fine flank companies which proceeded to the West Indies in 1793. Every effort was made to recruit the regiment as speedily as possible, and on the 2nd of July, it was reviewed by His Royal Highness the Duke of York, who expressed his approbation of its appearance. On the 19th of October, the regiment embarked from Southampton, and sailed to Spithead, where it remained a few days, and afterwards put to sea. On the 5th of October, it landed on the Isle de Dieu, in conjunction with a small force under Major-General Needham, and a body of French emigrants, accompanied by the Count D'Artois, brother of the King of France. No circumstances occurred to favour any further attempts connected with this enterprise, and in December the regiment left the island; it was exposed to several violent storms at sea, but arrived safely at Southampton in ten days, and marched from thence to Iron-hill barracks. [Sidenote: 1796]