The Virginia Gazette

FRANCFORT, Feb 23. N.S. All the French having passed the Mayn, except a small Detachment, which they left to secure their Baggage at Hochst, it was thought they would draw together, and canton at Trebur; but they appear now to have altered their Intention, for they are forming a Line on the other Side of the Mayn from Griefheim to Aschaffenburg, with 28 Battalions, which however are but half complete: The rest of the Troops are disposed in two Lines, so that they occupy all the Places on this Side of Darmstadt, particularly Allheiligen, Griefheim, Gottelau, and Erfelden. They give out, that they are soon to be considerably reinforced, and that Marshal Maillebois intends to dispute with the approaching combined Army the Passage over the Mayn, and with this View is to remove his Head Quarters from Worms to Gerau. But as they have laid three Bridges over the Rhine at Rhine-Turkheim, and on the 19th removed their Hospital from Hochst first to Trebur, and the next Day over the said Bridges to Worms, it is generally believed, that upon the combined Army's approaching the Mayn, they will not face them, but retire to the other Side of the Rhine, the rather as the Territories of Darmstadt are so exhausted, that they can furnish nothing for subsisting an Army, nor can they be supplied with Necessaries from Franconia by the Mayn, by Reason of the Ice. They have indeed, notwithstanding this Obstacle, brought together 20 Vessels, which with Difficulty passed by this City on the 25th Instant, for Hochst, and with which, as they give out, they will form a Bridge for repassing the Mayn.