ever more truly or deservedly beloved by his soldiers, who, to a man, were prepared to sacrifice their lives in his service; and whose resentments were raised to the utmost, by the ingratitude, as they termed it, of their deserters. [Footnote 12: Barner, who commanded the troops of Holstein, being two battalions and eight squadrons, and Walef or Waless, who commanded the dragoons of Liège, both followed Ormonde. [S.]] [Footnote 13: At Bouchain, the British officers were told at the gates, that the commandant had positive orders to let no Englishman into the town; and at Douay, where the English had large stores and magazines, the same thing happened with considerable aggravation. Indeed, it was with difficulty and precaution that the commandant of the latter town would permit the body of an English colonel to be interred there. The same difficulties occurred at Tournay, Oudenarde, and Lille; and the Duke of Ormonde having sent an officer express to England on the 17th, he was stopped and interrupted at Haspre, misguided at Courtray, and refused admission at Bruges. (See "The Conduct of his Grace the Duke of Ormonde, in the Campagne of 1712," 1715, pp. 46-50.) [S.]] Upon these provocations, he laid aside all thoughts of returning to Dunkirk, and began to consider how he might perform, in so difficult a conjuncture, something important to the Queen, and at the same time find a secure retreat for his forces. He formed his plan without communicating it to any person whatsoever; and the disposition of the army being to march towards Warneton, in the way to Dunkirk, he gave sudden orders to Lieutenant-General Cadogan to change his route, according to the military phrase, and move towards Orchies, a town leading directly to Ghent. When Prince Eugene and the States deputies received news of the Duke's motions, they were alarmed to the utmost degree, and sent Count Nassau, of Woudenbourg, to the general's camp near Orchies, to excuse what had been done, and to assure his grace, that those commandants, who had refused passage to his officers, had acted wholly without orders. Count Hompesch, one of the Dutch generals, came likewise to the Duke with the same story; but all this made little impression on the general, who held on his march, and on the twenty-third of July, N.S., entered Ghent, where he was received with great submission by the inhabitants, and took possession of the town, as he likewise did of Bruges, a few days after.