for its defence. Calais opened its gates to the conqueror, and St. Omer surrendered after a week's siege.
These rapid successes terrified the court of Charles; they were surprised at the boldness of George's attempt, to make a regular attack on so powerful a monarchy as that of France, with such a handful of men. But it was a maxim with the King to despise numerous armies: forty thousand men, he often said, under a good General, were a match for any number; and wtth some favourable circumstances even twenty-five or thirty thousand. Charles, to stop the progress of his Britannic Majesty, placed the Duke of Ventadour at the head of a prodigious army (collected from all parts of France) of near one hundred thousand men; a force, if well managed, by being divided into two or three armies, strong enough to overwhelm George at once: but numerousas
