Briefwisseling en aantekeningen. Deel 1

CXII.
Willem Bentinck aan de gravin van Portland.

[B.M., Eg. 1713]

Sorgvliet, 8 Juni 1745.

The posts in the army that become vacant by the death of those that were killed in the last actions or dyed of their wounds in a fortnight after, is left to the disposition of the P^ce of Waldeck²⁾ in favour of those who were in the action, and behaved well there. There are some restrictions with relation to the regiments of general Officers, who have the disposal in their own regiments. And this is only for the regiments on the repartition of Holland. The other provinces dispose as they please. And the Gards are excepted. So that as long as Charles remains at The Hague, or does not serve where the blows are given, he will have the displeasure of seeing younger officers put above him and gain the rank, unless some vacancy happen in the Regiment.

2) De Prins van Waldeck, in Sept. 1742 tot generaal bevorderd, maar door Friesland buiten het leger gehouden, was 1745 tot opperbevelhebber over het Nederlandsche leger te velde aangesteld.

[p. 127]

The letter of Mr. Twickel to the Duke of Arenberg has been seen in England; but pray has the answer also been seen? Twickel has given himself the airs of commanding the Duke of Arenberg and General Smissaert¹⁾, and deciding what was to be done or not, but he has had severe rubbs not only from the generals, but also from hence, for meddling with what he does not understand, and what is not his business. And Monsieur Aylva has had the same fate for the same reason. People talk away bout the Duke of Arenberg, but they don't know enough to judge. (Rechtvaardigt houding van Arenberg bij Fontenoy.)

If Lord Stair had been in the army I am persuaded he would have made no difficulty of coming into the project nor helping to execute it. And I believe that many use his name for things which he never said nor thought... I don't wonder at the Duke's¹⁾ laying heavily at heart the bad success of the 11th of May. But every body does him justice and knows that he did all that could be done, and shew'd the greatest intrepidity together with the greatest calmness. We must now await for what will follow. Our army is or will in a few days, be stronger then before the action, and the Citadel of Tournay holds still. If the releiving of it is not attempted, I shall suppose it was not possible, but I shall never do the Duke nor Mar^l. Konigsegg the injustice of deciding that they have neglected anything......

Lord Chesterfield has gain'd here an universal approbation, and indeed with great reason. For he has acted with all the judgment, penetration, and prudence imaginable. If he has not carry'd the point which was the chief object of his Embassy²⁾ t'is not his fault, but that of Him he represented³⁾. I cannot quite explain this as clearly as I should be able to do in a conversation.

1) Cumberland.

1) Cumberland.

2) Om de Republiek te krijgen tot een oorlogsverklaring aan Frankrijk.

3) De koning, die niet wilde dat daar al te zeer op aangedrongen zou worden uit vrees dat men hem anders geen excuus zou laten om Hannover buiten de oorlog te houden. Vgl. P. Geyl, a.w., blz. 136 vlgg.

[p. 128]

But t'is well for those who attack the Dutch now on that point that they talk alone, without anybody to answer 'em. As Lord Chesterfield has acted with me a very handsome, free and open part, I have had occasion to follow him in the greatest detail, and all the time he has been here, he has not received a scrap of paper, which I have not seen, nor taken one step which I have not been informed of. So that I do not talk by guess or suspicion.

I am solliciting here the Company of Guards which Boetselaer¹⁾ had, for Bentinck who is Lieut. in the same Regiment. And I have a very good appearance, hitherto, of succeeding. He is very much beloved and esteemed in the army, where he is an excemple of exactness and diligence in his duty. The battle of Fontenoy was the first time he saw the fire; and the account he gave me of what he felt during the action, gave me great pleasure. I know by others that not only he behaved well there, but was distingiushed by the generals for his attention and calmness. He was Major de Brigade to Brigadier Salis, whose head having been carryd off by a bullet, Bentinck went to his post at the Regiment of Gards, and did the function of Lieut^t.

I am always afraid of my cousins. T'is a work of people in general that are very troublesome, and that think parentage a title to friendship, without any merit. It is happy when one has relations, that one is not ashamed to avow; and there are three Bentincks in the army who are all three very honest and brave fellows, and who don't give themselves any airs of any kind. The youngest of the three, the son of Mr. Bentinck that lived at Nienhuis in the year 1743, marched all the way from the Hague to Worms²⁾ a foot, and back again, except when some friend or other lent him now and then a horse; which seidom happen'd but upon good roads, because in dirty deep ones, they kept their horses for themselves......

I am very sorry that I cannot see nor renew the acquaintance of Sis Lim(erick). In general it is very dis-

1) Zie hiervóór, brief CVII.

2) Met het expeditieleger onder Smissaert.

[p. 129]

agreable for me to be in a constant course of life with people I neither like, nor love, nor esteem, nor can approve, and to be entirely deprived of all commerce of friendship, nay even almost of the acquaintance of a family I love and esteem, and who are so well suited to my taste and humour......