Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	front_n	hand_n	left_a	2,153	5	10.7378	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64847	The commentaries of Sr. Francis Vere being diverse pieces of service, wherein he had command / written by himself in way of commentary ; published by William Dillingham ...	Vere, Francis, Sir, 1560-1609.; Dillingham, William, 1617?-1689.; Dorislaus, Isaac, 1595-1649.; Ogle, John, Sir, 1569-1640.	1657 (1657)	Wing V240; ESTC R219854	108,031	242

opinion of our fear or take the opportunity of our stay to fortifie upon the passage to Ostend to cut off our victuals and retreat I alleadged that their army that had been gathered in haste brought into a countrey where they intended no such war could neither have provision of victuals with them for any time nor any magazines in those parts to furnish them nor other store in that wasted countrey and in that latter end of the year to be expected so as fear there was none that they should seat themselves there to starve us that had store of victuals in our shipping and the sea open to supply us with all sailing winds And as for the vain courage they should get by our supposed fear after so long a march with climbing up and down those steep sandy hills in the extreamity of heat wearied and spent before they could come to us and then finding us fresh and lusty and ready to receive them in our strength of advantage it would turn to their greater confusion and terrour They persisted and as it were with one voice opposed so as in the end I was moved to say that all the world could not make me change my counsel The Count Maurice was pleased to like of it resolving not to passe any further towards the enemy and for the ordering of things reposed so much trust in me as that he believed they were well without viewing the places or examining the reasons of my doings but returned to give order to the rest of the army which as the water ebbed he enlarged to the sea-ward next the which the horsmen were placed and six piece of Ordnance advanced into the head of the vanguard In this order we stayed and the enemie though still in the eie moved not forward for the space of two hours and then rather turning from us then advancing they crossed the downs rested other two hours at the foot of them towards the land which confirmed their opinions that held he would lodge But we found reasons out of all their proceedings to keep us from wavering For it was probable to us that the enemy over-wearied tired with that night and dayes travell and seeing us passed the haven of Newport wherein to have hindered and prevented us was the greatest cause of his haste whilest he saw us stirring and ordering our selves might hope that we that were fresh now passed and engaged to fight would advance the rather to have the help of our troops with the Count Ernest if perchance he were retired to Ostend which the nearer the fight were to that place might be of most use to us or else if we had heard of their defeat vve vvould be dravvn on vvith revenge But vvhen they savv that vve held our place not moving forvvard being out of that hope and not provided to make any long stay for the reasons before mentioned they might resolve to refresh themselves and then to advance towards us for which that side was more convenient then the bare sea-sands Withall we considered that their chief trust resting in their footmen which were old trained souldiers and to that day unfoiled in the field they would the rather attend the growing of the tide which was then at the lowest that the scope of the sands might be lesse spacious and serviceable for horsmen About half-floud they crossed again the downs to the sea-sands and marched forward sending some light-horsmen far before the troop one of which as we supposed suffered himself to be taken who being brought to the Count Maurice told him aloud that Count Ernest was defeated and that he should presently have battel augmenting the number bravery and resolution of their men The losse of our men we understood before and therefore were carefull to have few present at the hearing of the prisoner whose mouth being stopped by the Count Maurice his order the rest that heard it bewrayed it either in vvord or countenance to the souldier The enemy grovving nearer and nearer and their horsmen coming in the head of their troops in a competent distance to have been dravvn to a fight I vvould very vvillingly have advanced the horsmen of the vanguard near to them and vvith some choice and vvelmounted men have beaten in their carabins skirmishers to their grosse vvith purpose if they had been charged again to have retired in haste with the said vanguard of horse betwixt the sea and the vanguard of foot and having drawn them from their foot under the mercy of our Ordnance and engaged to the rest of our horse to have charged and followed them resolutely This advise could not savour to that young Nobleman that was not well pleased with the power the Count Maurice had given me over his charge and therefore was not by him put into execution who chose rather as the enemy advanced leasurely so he in like sort to recuil towards the foot This counsel of mine taking no better effect and their horsmen now come within reach of our Cannon I made the motion to have them discharged which was well liked and so well plied that we made them scatter their troops and in disorder flie for safety into the downs which had doubtlesse given us the victory without more adoe if our horsmen had been ready and willing to have taken the benefit of that occasion Their footmen out of our reach kept on their way alongst the sands and the sooner to requite us advanced their Ordnance a good distance before them and shot roundly at us and did some hurt The water now grew very high so as both we and they were forced to streighten our front and the enemy whether of purpose as aforesaid to fight with more advantage as he took it with his foot in the downs or to avoid the shot of our Ordnance for he could not be so carelesse as to be surprised with the tide and so driven to this sudden change put all his forces as wel horse as foot into the downs which his horse crossed to the green way betwixt the low-lands and the downs All our horsemen stood with our rereward hereupon our vanguard altering order our battel and rereward passed into the downs and in the same distances backward sidewise as they had been on the sands on my left hand before ranged themselves so as the front of the three bodies of foot filled the breadth of the downs all the horsmen being placed on the green way betwixt the low-land and the foot of the downs not in any large front but one in the tail of another as the narrownesse of the passage enforced I found a fit place on the top of a hill from whence the green way on the inside of the downs might be commanded with Ordnance on which by the Count Maurice his order two demi-Cannons were presently mounted The enemy growing very near I told the Count it was time for me to go to my charge asking him whether he would command

which we did about fourteen dayes after the taking of it I got there three prisoners worth ten thousand ducats one of which was a Church-man and president of the contractation of the Indies The other two were ancient Knights called Don Pedro de Herera and Don Gieronymo de Auallos In the mean time vvhether of designe and set purpose or negligence the Indian fleet being left unseized on by those vvho had undertaken it some of the prisoners of the tovvn dealt with the Generalls to have those ships their lading set at ransome vvhereupon they had vvith the Generalls conference diverse times till the said ships were set on fire by the Spaniards themselves in which was lost by their own confession to the worth of twelve millions of merchandise The troops being imbarqued the Generalls met and consulted upon their next exploit it was long insisted on to put to sea and lie to intercept the West-Indian fleet which commonly at that time of the yeare arriveth upon the coast of Spain But the scarcenesse of our victuals overthrew that purpose and resolution was taken to sail towards England and on our way to visit the ports of that Coast and so spoil and destroy the shipping And so first we made towards Faroll a good town and Bishops-see of Portingall to which by water there was no safe entrance for our shipping the town lying better then a league from the sea served with a narrow creek through a low and marish bottome For the destroying of such shipping as might be in this creek as also for the wasting the Countrey adjoyning and the town it self which though it were great and populous was unfensed with walls it was thought meet to land the forces in a Bay some three leagues distant from the town and so to march thither which was done the town forsaken by the inhabitants taken by us our men sent into the Countrey brought good store of provisions for the refreshing of the army the artillery we found conveyed into our ships we after five or six dayes stay returned to our ships the way we came The regiments embattelled and marching at large in a triple front in right good order which was so much the more strange and commendable the men for the most part being new and once ranged having little further help of directions from the high officers which were all unmounted and for the great heat not able to perform on foot the ordinary service in such cases belonging to their charges The troops imbarqued we made towards the Groyne and looked into the Bay but the wind blowing from the sea it was thought dangerous to put in and therefore victuals dayly growing more scant so that in some ships there was already extream want it was resolved to hasten to our Coast and so about the midst of August we arrived in the Dovvns near Sandwich my Lord of Essex having taken land in the West parts to be with more speed at the Court left order with me for the dissolving the land-forces and shipping and sending back of the English forces into the Low-countreys At this parting there arose much strife betwixt the mariners and the souldiers about the dividing of the spoil for the mariners envying and repining at the souldiers who as it fell out had gotten most purloyned and detained their chests and packs of baggage perforce in so much as to satisfie the souldiers I went aboard my Lord Admirall to desire his Lordship of redresse who promised to take order therein but some other principall officers of the fleet shewing themselves more partiall asked me whether the poore mariners should have nothing to which I answered there was no reason they should pill the poore souldiers who had fought and ventured for that little they had and that the mariners hope having so rich a booty as the Indian fleet at their mercy was more to be desired then the trash the landmen had gotten so as they had none to blame for their povertie but their officers and their bad fortune this answer was taken to the heart and is not forgotten to this houre of which I feel the smart The troops dissolved I went to Court and there attended the most part of that winter The Island voiage IN the yeare of our Lord one thousand five hundred ninetie seven being the next yeare after the journey of Calis another journey was made by the Earl of Essex to the coast of Spain and the Islands with a royall navie as well of her Majesties own shipping as of her best Merchants to which also was joyned a good number of the States ships in all about one hundred and fourty with an armie of seven or eight thousand Land-men as well voluntary as prest commonly called the Island voiage To which I was called by her Majesties cōmandment to attend his Lordship as also to deal with the States that besides the shipping which they were to send with her Majesties fleet by vertue of the contract they would suffer a thousand of her subjects in their pay to be transported by me to her said Generall and fleet for that service Which having obtained I hastened into England and found my Lord of Essex at Sandwich and his fleet in readinesse anchored in the Downes It was early in the morning and his Lordship in bed when I was brought to him he welcomed me with much demonstration of favour and with many circumstances of words First he told me my Lord Mountjoy was to go his Lieutenant Generall not of his own choice but thrust upon him by the Queen before me in place yet that I should retain my former office of Lord Marshall which as it had been ever in English armies next the Generall in authority so he would lay wholly the execution of that office upon me and as for the Lieutenant Generall as he had a title without an office so the honour must fall in effect upon them that did the service With much more speech to this purpose all tending to perswade me that it was not by his working and to take away the discouragement I might conceive of it I answered that I had partly understood before my coming out of the Low-countreys my Lord Mountjoys going Lieutenant Generall so that I had forethought and resolved what to do For though I was sensible as became me who saw no cause in my self of this recuilment and disgrace yet my affections having been alwayes subject to the rules of obedience since it was my Princes action and that it could not be but that my Lord Mountjoy was placed with her Majesties consent my sincerity would not give me leave to absent my self and colour my stay from this action with any feigned excuse but counselled me to come over both to obey my Lord Mountjoy and respect him as his place which I had alwayes much honoured required much more his Lordship which was Generall to us both though I was not so ignorant of his Lordships power as to doubt

first ebb It was my turn then to have the vanguard which made me carefull not to be wanting in my duty so as in due time my troop was at the place appointed And because the water was not yet passable I went my self to the Count Maurice to know his further pleasure whom I found by the bridge with most of the chief officers of the army whither not long after news was brought unto him that the enemy was passed the Downs and marching towards us which strook him into a dump I told him that all possible speed must be used to passe the forces before the enemy was possessed of the other side of the haven that therefore I would go to my troop to take the first opportunity of the tide desiring him to give me his further order what I was to do when I had passed the haven he willed me to do in all things as I saw cause my self calling to him the Count Lodwick of Nassaw who then commanded the horse as Generall he bad him go along with me and follow my directions So I left the Count Maurice and went to my troop and so soon as the tide served I passed my men as they stood in their battalions The souldiers would have stripped themselves to have kept their clothes dry as I had willed them when I crossed the haven first but then I thought it not expedient the enemy being so near at hand And therefore willed them to keep on their clothes and not to care for the wetting of them for they should either need none or have better and dryer clothes to sleep in that night When the troop of the vanguard was passed I left the footmen standing ranged in their order betwixt the Downs or sand-hills and the sea and with the horse advanced towards the enemy whom we might discover afar off coming towards us by the sea-side not to engage a skirmish or fight but to choose a fit place to attend them in which was now the onely advantage we could by industry get of the enemy for by the situation of the countrey that skill and dexterity we presumed to excell our enemies in which was the apt and agile motions of our battalions was utterly taken from us For the space betwixt the sea and the sand-hills or Downs was commanded by the said hills which are of many heads reared and commanding one another containing so much breadth in most places that our troops could not occupy the whole and every where so confusedly packt together so brokenly and steeply that the troops could neither well discern what was done a stones-cast before them nor advance forward in any order to second if need were And on the other side of the Downs towards the firm land if the whole breadth were not possessed the enemy might passe to the haven of Newport where our bridge and most of our shipping yet lay on the dry ground and spoil and burn them in our view All which inconveniences I was to prevent Finding therefore a place where the hills and Downs stood in a manner divided with a hollow bottom the bottom narrower and the hills higher to the sea-side and North then towards the in-land and South which ran clean thwart from the sea-sand to the in-land the Downs also there being of no great breadth so that we might conveniently occupy them with our front and command as well the sea-shore as the way that lay betwixt the low in-land and the foot of the Downs In that place on the hither side of that bottom I resolved to attend the enemy and therefore having caused my troop to advance I drew from the whole vanguard about one thousand men viz. two hundred and fifty English-men the Count Maurice his guard and of such other companies as usually marched with it two hundred fifty and of the Frisons five hundred which were all muskettiers the other two troops consisting of shot and pikes The English and fifty of the Counts guard I placed on the top of a hill that lay more advanced then the rest which being steep and sandy was not easily to be mounted and in the top so hollow that the men lay covered from the hills on the other side and might fight from it as from a parapett Just behinde this hill about one hundred paces was another far more high on the top of which also I placed the other two hundred men of the troop of the guard on which also with a little labour of the souldier they lay at good covert These two hills were joyned together with a ridge somewhat lower then the foremost hill which end-wise lay East and West and broad-wise looked towards the South or in-land and commanded all the ground passable on the out-side very steep loose sandy and ill to be mounted within hollow in which I placed the five hundred Frison-muskettiers giving charge to the Officers to bestow their shot onely to the Southward when time should serve which was directly on our right side and flank as we then stood turned towards the enemy Betwixt those two hills on the left hand or flank looking towards the sea I placed in covert in places for the purpose so near the sea-sand that they might with ease and good order in an instant break into it two of the four troops of the English making about seven hundred men ranged with their faces to the Northvvard looking directly from our left flank If the enemy adventured to passe by us to the other troops I meant to leave them in his eie Upon the sands more Easterly then the inmost of the two hills I ranged in a front with a space betwixt them the other two troops of the English and a pretty distance behinde them more to the seaward the Frisons in four battalions two in front with a space to receive betwixt them one of the other two battalions that stood behinde them the files and spaces betwixt the troops as close as might be conveniently to leave the more space for the ranging the other troops with a competent distance betwixt each troop so as one troop shadowed not another but all might be in the enemies eie at one instant And thus the vanguard occupied about one third part of the downs leaving the rest to be manned as occasion should serve by the other troops and on the left hand uttermost to the sea and more advanced I placed the horsmen I had scarce done this work when the Count Maurice with the chief Commanders of the army came to the head of my troops where on hors-back and in the hearing of all standers by which were many he put in deliberation whether he should advance with his army towards the enemy or abide their coming Those that spake as in such cases most men will not seem fearfull counselled to march forward for that they thought it would daunt the enemy and make the victory the more easie whereas in attending him he would gather courage out of the

me any more service he said no but to do as I saw cause willing us the Chiefs that stood about him to advise him in what part of the army he should be personally whereunto we all answered that for many reasons he was to keep in the rereward of all which he yielded unto So I went to the vanguard and after I had viewed the readinesse and order of the severall troops the enemy now appearing at hand I the better to discover their proceedings and for the readier direction upon all occasions as also with my presence to encourage our men in the abiding of the first brunt took my place in the top of the foremost hill before mentioned where I resolved to abide the issue of that dayes service as wel because the advantages of the ground we had chosen were to stand upon the defence as also for that in that uneven ground to stirre from place to place as is usuall and necessary in the execution and performance of the office of a Captain where the countrey is open and plain I should not onely have lost the view of the enemy upon whose motions in such cases our counsels of execution depend but of my troops and they of me which must needs have caused many unreasonable and confused commandments The enemies forelorn-hope of harquebuziers having gotten the tops of the hills and places of most advantage on the other side of this bottom before mentioned began from thence to shoot at us whilest their vanguard approached which now growing near at hand five hundred Spanish pikes and shot mingled without ensignes or precise order gave upon the place where my self was and very obstinately for the space of a great half-hour laboured to enter and force it favoured with more store of shot from the tops of their hills the grosse of their vanguard standing in some covert from the shot with me on the other side of the bottom In the mean time the vanguard of their horse advanced along the green way so often mentioned betwixt the low-inland and the Downs towards our horse that stood more backward against the flank of our battel Our two pieces of Ordnance were discharged from the top of the hill to good effect and well plyed and when they came nearer and thwart our right flank the five hundred Frison-muskettiers who as I have before said were onely destined to bestow their shot that way did their part and so galled them that upon the first proffer of a charge which our horsmen made they were put to a disordered retreat even to their troops of foot our horsmen following them in the tail who were fain there to give them over At the same instant I gave order that a hundred men should be sent from the foremost troop of foot I had layed as aforesaid in the Downs to have given upon the left flank of the enemy if he attempted to passe by us upon the sands and as covertly as they could to approach and give upon the right flank of those that were in fight with me When they were come up and at hands with the enemy I sent from the hill where I was by a hollow descent some sixty men to charge them in front which amazed the enemy and put them to run our men chasing and killing them till they had passed the bottom and came to the grosse of their vanguard from which were disbanded anew the like number as before who followed our men and seized on some heights that were in the bottom somewhat near us covering their pikes under the shadow of the hills and playing with the shot from the tops upon our disbanded and skirmishing men I sent to drive them from thence being loth they should gain ground upon us one of the same troops from whence I had drawn the hundred men before mentioned with order onely to make that place good This was a bloudy morsell that we strave for for whilest our men and theirs were not covered with the hanging of the hills as they advanced or were chased they lay open to the shot not onely of those that were possessed of those little hills but of the other higher which poured in greater tempests upon them so as the souldiers that I sent hasted as for their safety to get the side of the hill and the enemy for like respect abode their coming with resolution so as in an instant as the hill was round and mountable the men came to handy-blows upon the whole semicircle of it with much slaughter on both sides till in the end the enemy was forced to retire In the mean time the battel of the enemies foot were come up to the grosse of the vanguard which as it had taken the right hand of the Downs so the battel with some distance betwixt them though even in front having been well welcomed with our shot from the tops of the hills stayed in as good covert as the place would afford sending fresh men to beat ours from those grounds of advantage in the bottom so as ours beginning to give back I sent a new supply to make good the place in this bottom sometimes getting and sometimes losing ground The fight was still maintained with new supplies on both sides wherein I persevered though with losse of men because the advantage the ground gave me to beat as well upon their grosse as their loose fighting men made the losse farre greater on their side my design being to engage their whole force upon my handfull of men which I employed sparingly and by piece-meal so to spend and waste the enemy that they should not be able to abide the sight of our other troops when they advanced The horsmen of their battel and ours encountered but somewhat more advanced toward the enemy our men having gotten courage with the first successe so as our fore-mentioned Frison-muskettiers could not so well favour them but our horsmen being put to retreat the enemy in the pursuit being saluted by them were stopped and drew back Their rereward now come up even with the other two bodies for so I term them because their ensignes remained together though most of the men were drawn from them and in fight and the ensignes barely attended advanced on the left hand of the battel and spreading the breadth of the Downs they were to my troop rather on the corner of the right flank then a front and our battel and rereward upon which they directly fronted a musket-shot behinde my troop toward which it seemed they intended to advance First we gave as much to them as we could spare from our hills but when they began to open upon my Frison-muskettiers which as before is said could onely bestow their shot on our rigthtflank and till that time had done no service but against their horse they were exceedingly galled so as they staid suddenly and amazed or ashamed to go back seeing none to chase them in a bottom of some small covert bestowed themselves