Louis XV.

felt the necessity of not abandoning his ally; the Duke of Boufflers and six thousand French shut themselves up in the place.
"Show me the danger," the general had said on entering the town; "it is my duty to ascertain it; I shall make all my glory depend upon securing you from it." The resistance of Genoa was effectual; but it cost the life of the Duke of Boufflers, who was wounded in an engagement, and died three days before the retreat of the Austrians, on the 6th of July, 1747.
On the 19th of July, Common-Sense Belle-Isle (_Bon-Sens de Belle-Isle_), as the Chevalier was called at court, to distinguish him from his brother the marshal, nicknamed _Imagination,_ attacked, with a considerable body of troops, the Piedmontese intrenchments at the Assietta Pass, between the fortresses of Exilles and Fenestrelles; at the same time, Marshal Belle-Isle was seeking a passage over the Stura Pass, and the Spanish army was attacking Piedmont by the way of the Apennines.

The engagement at the heights of Assietta was obstinate; Chevalier Belle-Isle, wounded in both arms, threw himself bodily upon the palisades, to tear them down with his teeth; he was killed, and the French sustained a terrible defeat;--five thousand men were left on the battle-field.

The campaign of Italy was stopped.

The King of Spain, Philip V., enfeebled and exhausted almost in infancy, had died on the 9th of July, 1746.