On my return to the regiment, I found that the troop which I commanded before my imprisonment had been nearly annihilated by the cross fire into which I had so rashly led them at Virmont. Not above twenty men, indeed, had escaped of those of whom it was originally composed. Monsieur de Villardin, however, had recruited it by the addition of about forty more; and, while we stayed at St. Denis, I did all that I could to gain volunteers. Thus, when we marched for Compiegne, the troop amounted to about eighty men; but, I must confess, that it was altogether in a much better state than when I had left it, for the number of marches, skirmishes, and man[oe]uvres, which it had since taken part in under the command of Turenne, had done far more to render the men expert, veteran, and well-disciplined, than all the drilling we could give them before. It was very necessary, indeed, that our troops should be of the best quality, for, at this time, with less than ten thousand men, we had to make head against the Spanish army and the Duke of Loraine on the frontiers of Flanders, while the force of the Princes was in our rear--not sufficiently powerful, indeed, to meet us in the open field, but quite sufficiently so to render any check that we might receive from the superior numbers of the Spaniards utterly fatal to the royal cause. It is unnecessary to relate the events that immediately succeeded, for there are few people in the present day who are not well acquainted with the skilful man[oe]uvres by which Turenne, without striking a stroke, compelled the Spanish army to evacuate the French territory; and it would be only wearisome in this place to detail the means which he employed to arrive at such a fortunate result. This having been effected, however, we returned to Gonesse, in order to watch the movements of the Prince de Condé, who remained in the neighbourhood of Paris for the purpose of keeping his party in the capital from the ruin with which it was continually threatened by the dissensions of the leaders.