Word: fontenoy
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Dates: during 1938-1938
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...base of a hill, between a dense woods and the River Scheldt in Flanders, the battle of Fontenoy was fought. From foggy morning to midafternoon the French Army (with Irish and Scottish allies), commanded by Marshal Maurice de Saxe, and an equal English force (aided by Dutch and Hanoverians), commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, engaged in confused and bitter slaughter. About noon, the English infantry broke through the French centre, obtained a foothold within the disorganized French lines, formed a hollow square against which French cavalry charged repeatedly in vain. When the English were nearly exhausted, de Saxe ordered...
...which were never to be satisfied," it seemed that France had vanquished England, and that the hopes of the Irish exiles, of "Bonnie Prince Charlie," were to triumph. But the English fleet still ruled the seas, and French colonies in Canada and India were soon to be lost despite Fontenoy. In A Day of Battle, Sheean (Personal History) set himself the difficult task of both describing the brilliance of this victory and illustrating its historic unimportance...
...traveled to the front with innumerable servants, 600 horses and 28 cooks; given a glimpse of Voltaire and Madame de Pompadour at Etioles; sketched the life history of Maurice de Saxe (best character in the book), royal bastard and master of strategy, who had planned a battle at Fontenoy 13 years before, and on the day that it was fought, was carried, suffering from dropsy, to the battlefield in a chair...
...better book than Mr. Sheean's last novel, Sanfelice, is compact and tightly organized instead of sprawling and discursive. But having acknowledged the historical unimportance of the victory, Mr. Sheean's triumph with A Day of Battle sometimes resembles the triumph of the French at Fontenoy...