Battle of Ramillies

He served first as a cadet, which must have been very early; and then, at fourteen years old, he bore an ensign’s commission in a Scotch regiment in the Dutch service, in which he continued till the year 1702, when (if my information be right) he received an ensign’s commission from queen Anne, which he bore in the battle of Eamillies, being then in the nineteenth year of his age. In this ever-memorable action he received a wound in his mouth by a musket-ball, which has often been reported to be the occasion of his conversion. That report was a mistaken one j but as some very remarkable circumstances attended this affair, which I have had the pleasure of hearing more than once from his own mouth, I hope my readers will excuse me, if I give him so uncommon a story at large.

Our young officer was of a party in the forlorn

hope, and was commanded on what seemed

almost a desperate service, to dispossess the

French of the church-yard at Ramillies, where a considerable number of them were posted to remarkable advantage. They succeeded much better than was expected; and it may well be supposed that Mr. Gardiner, who had before been in several encounters, and had the view of making his fortune to animate the natural intrepidity of his spirit, was glad of such an opportunity of signalizing himself. Accordingly he had planted his colours on an advanced ground; and while he was calling to his men, (probably in that horrid language which is so peculiar a disgrace to our soldiery, and so absurdly common on such occasions of extreme danger,) he received into his mouth a shot, which, without beating out of any of his teeth, or touching the fore part of his tongue, went through his neck, and came out about an inch and a half on the left side of the vertebras. Not feeling at first the pain of the stroke, he wondered what was become of the ball, and in the wildness of his surprise began to suspect he had swallowed it; but falling soon after, he traced the passage of it by his finger, when he could discover it in no other way; which I mention as one circumstance, among many which occur, to make it probable that the greater part of those who fall in battle by these instruments of death, feel very little anguish from the most mortal wounds.

This accident happened about five or six in

the evening, on the 23d of May, 1706; and the

army, pursuing its advantages against the French,

without ever regarding the wounded, (which

was, it seems, the Duke of Marlborough’s

constant method,) our young officer lay all night

on the field, agitated, as may well he supposed,

with a great variety of thoughts. He assured

me, that when he reflected upon the circumstance

of his wound, that a hall should, as he then

conceived it, go through his head without killing

him,, he thought God had preserved him by a

miracle; and therefore assuredly concluded that

he should live, abandoned and desperate as his

state seemed to be. Yet (which to me appeared

very astonishing) he had little thoughts of

humbling himself before God, and returning to

him after the wanderings of a life so licentiously

begun. But, expecting to recover, his mind

was taken up with contrivances to secure his

gold, of which he had a good deal about him;

and he had recourse to a very odd expedient,

which proved successful. Expecting to be

stripped, he first took out a handful of that

clotted gore of which he was frequently obliged to clear his mouth, or he would have been choked; and putting it into his left hand, he took out his money, which I think was about 19 pistoles, and shutting his hand, and besmearing the back part of it with blood, he kept in this position till the blood dried in such a. manner that his hand could not easily fall open, though any sudden surprise should happen, in which he might lose the presence of mind which that concealment otherwise would have required. In the morning the French, who were masters of that spot, though their forces were defeated at some distance, came to plunder the slain ) and seeing him to appearance almost expiring, one of them was just applying a sword to his breast, to destroy the little remainder of life, when, in the critical moment, upon which all the extraordinary events of such a life as his afterwards proved, were suspended, a Cordelier who attended the plunderers interposed, (taking him by his dress for a Frenchman) and said, “Do not kill that poor child.” Our young soldier heard all that passed, though he was not able to speak one word; and, opening his eyes, made a sign for something to drink. They gave him a sup of some spirituous liquor which happened to be at hand, by which he said he found a more sensible refreshment than he could remember

from anything he had tasted either before or

since. Then signifying to the friar to lean down

his ear to his mouth, he employed the first efforts

of his feeble breath in telling him (what, alas!

was a contrived falsehood) that he was a nephew

to the governor of Huy, a neutral town in the

neighbourhood; and that if he could take any

method of conveying him thither, he did not

doubt but his uncle would liberally reward him.

He had indeed a friend at Huy, who I think was

governor, and, if I mistake not, had been

acquainted with the captain, his father, from

whom he expected a kind reception; but the

relation was only pretended. On hearing this,

they laid him on a sort of hand-barrow,* and sent

him by a file of niusqueteers towards the place;

but the men lost their way, and, towards the

evening, got into a wood in which they were

obliged to continue all night. The poor patient’s

wound being still undressed, it is not to be

wondered at that by this time it raged violently.

The anguish of it engaged him earnestly to beg

that they would either kill him outright, or

leave him there to die without the torture of

any further motion; and indeed they were

obliged to rest for a considerable time, on account of their own weariness. Thus he spent the second night in the open air, without any thing more than a common bandage to staunch the blood. He has often mentioned it as a most astonishing providence that he did not bleed to death, which, under Grod, he ascribed to the remarkable coldness of these two nights.

Judging it quite unsafe to attempt carrying him to Huy, from whence they were now several miles distant, his convoy took him early in the morning to a convent in the neighbourhood, where he was hospitably received, and treated with great kindness and tenderness. But the cure of his wound was committed to an ignorant barbersurgeon who lived near the house, the best shift that could then be made, at a time when it may easily be supposed persons of ability in their profession had their hands full of employment. The tent which this artist applied, was almost like a peg driven into the wound; and gentlemen of skill and experience, when they came to hear of the manner in which he was treated, wondered how he could possibly survive such management. But by the blessing of God on these applications, rough as they were, he recovered in a few months. The Lady Abbess, who called him her son, treated him with the affection and care of a mother; and lie always declared that every thing which he saw within these walls, was conducted with the strictest decency and decorum. He received a great many devout admonitions from the ladies there, and they would fain have persuaded him to acknowledge what they thought so miraculous a deliverance, by embracing the Catholic faith, as they were pleased to call it. But they could not succeed; for though no religion lay near his heart, yet he had too much of the spirit of a gentleman lightly to change that form of religion which he wore, as it were loose about him; as well as too much good sense to swallow those monstrous absurdities of Popery which immediately presented themselves to him, unacquainted as he was with the niceties of the controversy.