The regiment of Poitou had suffered heavily in the battles of
Freiburg. In the first advance Turenne had placed it in the rear
of his infantry.

"I must have, Hector," he said, "a reserve upon which I can implicitly
rely; brought up at the right moment it might decide the fate of
a battle, if we are beaten it can allow the disorganized regiments
to pass, check the pursuit of the enemy, and retire in good order,
contesting every foot of the ground until the rest of the force
have emerged from the mouth of the defile and been enabled to form
up in sufficient order to withstand the effect of the enemy's
cavalry."

The regiment, therefore, took no part in the work of clearing the
defile of the enemy's infantry, and for the first four hours of
the battle remained in the rear. Then Turenne ordered it to the
front, to take the place of the regiments which had already lost
half their strength, and were no longer capable of resisting the
continued assaults of the Imperialists. Turenne himself rode with
Hector at the head of the regiment. They pushed their way through
the hardly pressed troops in front, and when they faced the enemy
deployed and poured a terrible volley into their assailants, and
for the remaining three hours bore the whole brunt of the battle.
Standing four deep, their flanks resting upon the rising ground on
either side of the mouth of the pass, the two front lines alone
maintained their fire so long as infantry only pressed them,
the two lines behind being ordered by Hector not to fire a shot.
When, however, the Bavarian infantry drew aside and the cavalry
thundered down, the front lines fell back through those behind them,