very successfully, to infuse some discipline into his troops, obeyed Charles's summons to repair to court, and at his request apparently drew up ‘Une methode pour avoir en tout temps un corps de troupes autant considérable que sa Majesté le jugera nécessaire pour son service,’ and a plan for improving the discipline of the army (Kazner, ii. 59–84). But his presence in England, where he was not unnaturally regarded as an emissary of Louis, proving distasteful to the nation, and there being no anxiety on the part of the court to retain him, he took his departure, and in November found himself back at Coubert. During the winter of 1673–4 he commanded the army between the Sambre and the Meuse, and, by skilfully outflanking the Prince of Orange, succeeded in effecting a junction with the Duc de Luxembourg. About this time, too, he received his patent conferring on him the rank of duc, with the exceptional privilege of transmitting the title to his eldest son. On 4 April 1674 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Roussillon, and, though his army was a small one, the reputation he had already acquired against the Spaniards in Portugal inspired his troops with hope of victory. The unexpected surrender of Bellegarde somewhat disconcerted his plans, and the Spanish general, San Germano, afterwards drawing down to the foot of the Pyrenees at Morillas, Schomberg took up a defensive position in the neighbourhood at Ceret. His plan was to act on the defensive, but the impatience of Le Bret, the former governor of Roussillon, ‘créature de Louvois,’ and his desire to revenge the disgrace he imagined to have been placed upon him in being superseded by Schomberg, led him to attack without his general's knowledge, on 27 July; the French were completely defeated, and only saved from total destruction by Schomberg. The defeat had a most disastrous effect on the French army, peasants for the greater part taken from the plough; and it was roughly estimated that from dysentery and despondency at least nine thousand of them found their grave that autumn in Roussillon. Schomberg, however, having firmly entrenched himself, refused to quit his position, and in the middle of October most of the Spanish forces were withdrawn to suppress a rising in Sicily. Nevertheless, the prospect for the following year's campaign was not encouraging, and, taken in connection with some complaints in regard to his laxity in permitting a certain amount of religious liberty in his camp, he declared that he would sooner serve as a volunteer in any other of the king's armies than have the honour to command one which was impotent to effect anything. His main object was to recapture Bellegarde, the key to Catalonia, and in the spring of 1675 he forced his way, not without great risk, through the Col de Bagnols, or, as it is also called, the Col de Portail, into Catalonia, and, having captured several outlying fortresses, sat down before Bellegarde on 15 July. The trenches were opened on the 19th, and ten days later the place capitulated. Leaving a garrison there, he returned into Roussillon, capturing by the way a small fortified chapel called Notre Dame del Castel, extremely difficult of access, which, he regarrisoned.
After the death of Turenne on 27 July Schomberg's services could no longer be overlooked, and he was rewarded by Louis with the much-desired marshal's truncheon, being the last Huguenot to attain to that dignity. But, as if to emphasise the fact that it was even then given grudgingly, a ludicrous attempt, countenanced by Louis, was made to convert him. He was superseded in the government of Roussillon by Navailles, and about the end of January 1676 repaired to Paris. On 10 March he was appointed to the army in Flanders, under the king's brother, the Duke of Orleans. He commanded the attack on Condé on 26 April, but when a favourable opportunity shortly afterwards presented itself of attacking the Prince of Orange, and probably of finishing the campaign at a blow, he was induced, through fear of risking the king's life, to join Louvois in dissuading Louis from offering battle, thereby, as he himself told Burnet (Own Time, i. 404), acquiring greater reputation as a courtier than as a general. After the king's departure the army, diminished by some twelve thousand men detached to strengthen Créqui on the Meuse, was placed under his sole control, and the Prince of Orange, believing him to be too weak to effect anything of importance, laid siege to Maastricht. His design was the occasion of a brilliant piece of strategy on Schomberg's part, for, having succeeded on 29 Aug. in compelling William to raise the siege, he managed by a dexterous movement to outflank him and regain his base at Charleroi. The year after (1677) he was reappointed to the army in Flanders, and was present at the capture of Valenciennes on 17 March, and of Cambrai on 5–17 April; but owing, it is conjectured, to the intrigues of Louvois, the command of the army subsequently to the king's retirement was conferred on Luxembourg, and Schomberg instead sent, on 22 May, to command the army of observation on the Meuse. The following year he
