“On receiving the news, Eugene at once sent an officer to inspect the Irish position; but his report was that they were too well placed to be driven from it.  He then sent Captain MacDonnell, an officer in his service, to offer, if the Irish would leave their position, to enrol them in the Austrian service, with higher pay than they now received.  You may guess the sort of answer he received, and he was at once arrested for bringing such a message to them.  Eugene then endeavoured to engage Marshal Villeroy to order the Irish to lay down their arms, as further resistance would only end in their slaughter.  Villeroy simply replied that, as a prisoner, he could no longer give orders.

“During this pause, the Count de Revel and the Marquis de Queslin succeeded in gathering together a considerable number of the scattered French infantry, and with these they marched to endeavour to recover the gates that had been lost, and, having occupied the church of Santa Maria, and a bastion near the gate of All Saints, ordered the Irish to leave a hundred men at the barricades, and with the rest to push forward to the gate of Mantua.  So I found myself in command of a full company.

“O’Mahony was now in command of the two regiments, as Wauchop had been wounded.  It was pretty hard work they had of it, and they suffered heavily in carrying the guardhouse, held by two hundred Austrians.  Eugene now launched a great force against our people, and attacked them on all sides; but O’Mahony faced them each way, and received the charge of the cuirassiers with so heavy a fire that they fled in disorder.  Another corps of cuirassiers came up, and these charged with such fury that their leader, Monsieur de Freiberg, pushed his way into the middle of Dillon’s regiment, where he was surrounded, and, refusing quarter, was killed; and his men, disheartened by the fall of their leader, fled, carrying with them the infantry who were ranged in their rear.

“But our men were now exhausted by their exertions, and suffered heavily; and O’Mahony, seeing that he was likely to be attacked by fresh troops, and that my post guarding the approach of the Po gate would then be left altogether unsupported, returned to it.  I was glad enough when I saw them coming, for it was mighty trying work being left there, and hearing the storm of battle going on all round, and knowing that at any moment we might be attacked.

“They did not stop long, for orders came from Revel, who had captured the gate of All Saints, and was preparing to attack Saint Margaret’s, to march again to the gate of Mantua.  It seemed a hopeless enterprise.  Captain Dillon, of Dillon’s regiment, marched out and, after hard fighting, drove the Austrians from house to house; but, on reaching a spot where the ground was open, he was attacked on all sides, and for a time the enemy and our men were mixed up together in a melee.

“I could hear by the sound of the firing that our men were returning, and posted my fellows so as to cover their retreat; and as they came back, hotly pressed by the enemy, we opened so warm a fire that they passed in through the gate of the barrier in safety, but only half as strong as they had gone out.