The battle began at daybreak, and the Spaniards charged with such fury that an Austrian battery, consisting of twenty-six pieces, was taken by Arambure, who was dangerously wounded. Count Gages broke their left, when 250 gallant men of Prince Eugene's dragoons bore them back, and struck a panic into the French, amongst whom the Marshal de Maillebois was fighting on foot. These dragoons were led by Count Brown, and by their charge the Spanish and Walloon Guards were routed, trampled under hoof, and destroyed. The allies made a precipitate retreat. Two days after the battle they were reviewed, and found to have lost 3220 who were killed, 4460 wounded, and 915 prisoners. The Count de Brostel, General of the French artillery, the Chevalier de Tesse, two Spanish lieutenant-generals, and the commander of the Swiss, were among the slain. Ten pieces of cannon and thirty pairs of colours were left upon that sanguinary field, where the Austrians buried 3500 of their own dead. The King of Spain survived these tidings but a few days. On the 9th of August the combined French, Spanish, and Neapolitan armies attempted to cross the Po at the Lombra and Tydone. Count Sabelloni, with 7000 Austrians, made a noble stand against them, from nine in the evening till ten the next morning, when General Botta and Count Brown hastened to his relief, and the conflict began again with renewed fury; and after a terrific cross fire of cannon and musketry, and a furious melee, in which Spaniard, Frenchman, Swiss, Italian, and Austrian soldiers were all mingled, with musket, sword and bayonet--no man valuing life or limb when compared with the glory of the day--the three allies were driven back, leaving 8000 killed, wounded, and prisoners, with nineteen guns and twenty standards, on the field. The Austrians lost General Barenclau (whose courage was ever rash) with 4000 men. Counts Brown and Pallavicini were wounded. The Spaniards lost the flower of their officers, and among them the young and noble Colonel Don Julio Deodato of Lucca, an accomplished cavalier and scholar. Marshal Maillebois and Count Gages retreated to Genoa, from thence to Nice, and from thence to Parma; abandoning Piacenza, of which the Austrians took immediate possession, and wherein they placed 9000 men, most of whom were suffering from wounds received in previous battles. Despite his wound, Brown remained at the head of his division and with the army which pursued the Bourbon allies towards Genoa, taking every place by storm or capitulation on their route, except Tortona and the mandamento or fortified town of Gavi.