The trumpet call which summoned Rupert and his friends to horse
was, as he suspected, an indication that there was a general
movement of the troops in front.
Vendome had declined to attack the allies in the position they had
taken up, but had moved by his right to Braine le Leude, a village
close to the ground on which, more than a hundred years later,
Waterloo was fought, and whence he threatened alike Louvain and
Brussels. Marlborough moved his army on a parallel line to
Anderleet. No sooner had he arrived there, than he found that
Vendome was still moving towards his right--a proof that Louvain
was really the object of the attack. Again the allied troops were
set in motion, and all night, through torrents of rain, they
tramped wearily along, until at daybreak they were in position at
Parc, covering the fortress of Louvain. Vendome, finding himself
anticipated, fell back to Braine le Leude without firing a shot.
But though Marlborough had so far foiled the enemy, it was clear
that he was not in a condition to take the offensive before the
arrival of Prince Eugene, who would, he trusted, be able to come to
his assistance; and for weeks the armies watched each other without
movement.
On the 4th of July, Vendome suddenly marched from Braine le Leude,
intending to capture the fortress of Oudenarde. Small bodies of
troops were sent off at the same time to Ghent and Bruges, whose
inhabitants rose and admitted the French. Marlborough, seeing the
danger which threatened the very important fortress of Oudenarde,
sent orders to Lord Chandos who commanded at Ath, to collect all
the small garrisons in the neighbourhood, and to throw himself into
Oudenarde. This was done before Vendome could reach the place,
which was thus secured against a coup de main. Vendome invested the
fortress, brought up his siege train from Tournay, and moved
towards Lessines with his main army, to cover the siege.
The loss of Ghent and Bruges, the annoyances he suffered from party
attacks at home, and the failure of the allies to furnish the
promised contingents, so agitated Marlborough that he was seized
with an attack of fever.
Fortunately, on the 7th of July Prince Eugene arrived. Finding that
his army could not be up in time, he had left them, and,
accompanied only by his personal staff, had ridden on to join
Marlborough.
The arrival of this able general and congenial spirit did much to
restore Marlborough; and after a council with the prince, he
determined to throw his army upon Vendome's line of communications,
and thus force him to fight with his face to Paris.
At two in the morning of the 9th of July, the allies broke up their
camp, and advanced in four great columns towards Lessines and the
French frontier. By noon the heads of the columns had reached
Herfelingen, fourteen miles from their starting point, and bridges
were thrown across the Dender, and the next morning the army
crossed, and then stood between the French and their own frontier.
Vendome, greatly disconcerted at finding that his plans had all
been destroyed, ordered his army to fall back to Gavre on the
Scheldt, intending to cross below Oudenarde.
Marlborough at once determined to press forward, so as to force on
a battle, having the advantage of coming upon the enemy when
engaged in a movement of retreat. Accordingly, at daybreak on the
11th, Colonel Cadogan, with the advanced guard, consisting of the
whole of the cavalry and twelve battalions of infantry, pushed
forward, and marched with all speed to the Scheldt, which they
reached by seven o'clock. Having thrown bridges across it, he
marched to meet the enemy, his troops in battle array; the infantry
opposite Eynes, the cavalry extending to the left towards
Schaerken. Advancing strongly down the river in this order, Cadogan
soon met the French advanced guard under Biron, which was moving up
from Gavre. In the fighting the French had the advantage, retaining
possession of Eynes, and there awaiting the advance of the English.
Meanwhile Marlborough and Eugene, with the main body of the army,
had reached the river, and were engaged in getting the troops
across the narrow bridges, but as yet but a small portion of the
forces had crossed. Seeing this, Vendome determined to crush the
British advanced guard with the whole weight of his army, and so
halted his troops and formed order of battle.
The country in which the battle of Oudenarde was about to be fought
is undulating, and cut up by several streams, with hedgerows,
fields, and enclosures, altogether admirably adapted for an army
fighting a defensive battle. The village of Eynes lies about a mile
below Oudenarde and a quarter of a mile from the Scheldt. Through
it flows a stream formed by the junction of the two rivulets. At a
distance of about a mile from the Scheldt, and almost parallel with
that river, runs the Norken, a considerable stream, which falls
into the Scheldt below Gavre. Behind this river the ground rises
into a high plateau, in which, at the commencement of the fight,
the greater portion of the French army were posted.
The appearance of Colonel Cadogan with his advanced guard
completely astonished the French generals. The allies were known to
have been fifteen miles away on the preceding evening, and that a
great army should march that distance, cross a great river, and be
in readiness to fight a great battle, was contrary to all their
calculations of probabilities.
The Duke of Burgundy wished to continue the march to Ghent. Marshal
Vendome pointed out that it was too late, and that although a
country so intersected with hedges was unfavourable ground for the
army which possessed the larger masses of men, yet that a battle
must be fought. This irresolution and dissension on the part of the
French generals wasted time, and allowed the allies to push large
bodies of troops across the river unmolested. As fast as they got
over Marlborough formed them up near Bevere, a village a few
hundred yards north of Oudenarde. Marlborough then prepared to take
the offensive, and ordered Colonel Cadogan to retake Eynes.
Four English battalions, under Colonel Sabine, crossed the stream
and attacked the French forces in the village, consisting of seven
battalions under Pfiffer, while the cavalry crossed the rivulets
higher up, and came down on the flank of the village. The result
was three French battalions were surrounded and made prisoners, and
the other four routed and dispersed.
The French generals now saw that there was no longer a possibility
of avoiding a general action. Vendome would have stood on the
defensive, which, as he had the Norken with its steep and difficult
ground in his front, was evidently the proper tactics to have
pursued. He was, however, overruled by the Duke of Burgundy and the
other generals, and the French accordingly descended from the
plateau, crossed the Norken, and advanced to the attack. The armies
were of nearly equal strength, the French having slightly the
advantage. The allies had 112 battalions and 180 squadrons, in all
80,000 men; the French, 121 battalions and 198 squadrons, in all
85,000 men.
The French again lost time, and fell into confusion as they
advanced, owing to Marshal Vendome's orders being countermanded by
the Duke of Burgundy, who had nominally the chief command, and who
was jealous of Vendome's reputation. Marlborough divined the cause
of the hesitation, and perceiving that the main attack would be
made on his left, which was posted in front of the Castle of
Bevere, half a mile from the village of the same name; ordered
twelve battalions of infantry under Cadogan to move from his right
at Eynes to reinforce his left.
He then lined all the hedges with infantry, and stationing twenty
British battalions under Argyle with four guns in reserve, awaited
the attack. But few guns were employed on either side during the
battle, for artillery in those days moved but slowly, and the rapid
movements of both armies had left the guns far behind.
The French in their advance at once drew in four battalions, posted
at Groenvelde, in advance of Eynes, and then bearing to their
right, pressed forward with such vigour that they drove back the
allied left. At this point were the Dutch and Hanoverian troops.
Marlborough now dispatched Eugene to take command of the British on
the right, directed Count Lottum to move from the centre with
twenty battalions to reinforce that side of the fight, and went
himself to restore the battle on the left.
Eugene, with his British troops, were gradually but steadily, in
spite of their obstinate resistance, being driven back, when
Lottum's reinforcements arrived, and with these Eugene advanced at
once, and drove back the enemy. As these were in disorder, General
Natzmer, at the head of the Prussian cuirassiers, charged them and
drove them back, until he himself was fallen upon by the French
horse guards in reserve, while the infantry's fire from the
hedgerows mowed down the cuirassiers. So dreadful was the fire that
half the Prussian cavalry were slain, and the rest escaped with
difficulty, hotly pursued by the French household troops.
An even more desperate conflict was all this time raging on the
left. Here Marlborough placed himself at the head of the Dutch and
Hanoverian battalions, and led them back against the French, who
were advancing with shouts of victory, and desperate struggles
ensued. Alison in his history says:
"The ground on which the hostile lines met was so broken, that the
battle in that quarter turned almost into a series of partial
conflicts and even personal encounters. Every bridge, every ditch,
every wood, every hamlet, every enclosure, was obstinately
contested, and so incessant was the roll of musketry, and so
intermingled did the hostile lines become, that the field, seen
from a distance, appeared an unbroken line of flame. A warmer fire,
a more desperate series of combats, was never witnessed in modern
warfare. It was in great part conducted hand to hand, like the
battles of antiquity, of which Livy and Homer have left such
graphic descriptions. The cavalry could not act, from the multitude
of hedges and copses which intersected the theatre of conflict.
Breast to breast, knee to knee, bayonet to bayonet, they maintained
the fight on both sides with the most desperate resolution. If the
resistance, however, was obstinate, the attack was no less
vigorous, and at length the enthusiastic ardour of the French
yielded to the steady valour of the Germans. Gradually they were
driven back, literally at the bayonet's point; and at length,
resisting at every point, they yielded all the ground they had won
at the commencement of the action. So, gradually they were pushed
back as far as the village of Diepenbech, where so stubborn a stand
was made that the allies could no longer advance."
Overkirk had now got the rear of the army across the river, and the
duke, seeing that the Hill of Oycke, which flanked the enemy's
position, was unoccupied by them, directed the veteran general with
his twenty Dutch and Danish battalions to advance and occupy it.
Arrived there, he swung round the left of his line, and so pressed
the French right, which was advanced beyond their outer bounds into
the little plain of Diepenbech. The duke commanded Overkirk to
press round still further to his left by the passes of Mullem and
the mill of Royeghem, by which the French sustained their
communication with the force still on the plateau beyond the
Norken; and Prince Eugene to further extend his right so as to
encompass the mass of French crowded in the plain of Diepenbech.
The night was falling now, and the progress of the allies on either
flank could be seen by the flashes of fire. Vendome, seeing the
immense danger in which his right and centre were placed,
endeavoured to bring up his left, hitherto intact; but the
increasing darkness, the thick enclosures, and the determined
resistance of Eugene's troops, prevented him from carrying out his
intention. So far were the British wings extended round the plain
of Diepenbech, that they completely enclosed it, and Eugene's and
Overkirk's men meeting fought fiercely, each believing the other to
be French. The mistake was discovered, and to prevent any further
mishap of this kind in the darkness, the whole army was ordered to
halt where it was and wait till morning. Had the daylight lasted
two hours longer, the whole of the French army would have been
slain or taken prisoners; as it was, the greater portion made their
way through the intervals of the allied army around them, and fled
to Ghent. Nevertheless, they lost 6,000 killed and wounded, and
9,000 prisoners, while many thousands of the fugitives made for the
French frontier. Thus the total loss to Vendome exceeded 20,000
men, while the allies lost in all 5000.
When morning broke, Marlborough dispatched forty squadrons of horse
in pursuit of the fugitives towards Ghent, sent off Count Lottum
with thirty battalions and fifty squadrons to carry the strong
lines which the enemy had constructed between Ypres and Warneton,
and employed the rest of his force in collecting and tending the
wounded of both armies.
A few days later the two armies, that of Eugene and that of the
Duke of Berwick, which had been marching with all speed parallel to
each other, came up and joined those of Marlborough and Vendome
respectively. The Duke of Berwick's corps was the more powerful,
numbering thirty-four battalions and fifty-five squadrons, and this
raised the Duke de Vendome's army to over 110,000, and placed him
again fairly on an equality with the allies. Marlborough, having by
his masterly movement forced Vendome to fight with his face to
Paris, and in his retreat to retire still farther from the
frontier, now had France open to him, and his counsel was that the
whole army should at once march for Paris, disregarding the
fortresses just as Wellington and Blucher did after Waterloo.
He was however, overruled, even Eugene considering such an attempt
to be altogether too dangerous, with Vendome's army, 110,000
strong, in the rear; and it must be admitted it would certainly
have been a march altogether without a parallel.
Finding that his colleagues would not consent to so daring and
adventurous a march, Marlborough determined to enter France, and
lay siege to the immensely strong fortress of Lille. This was in
itself a tremendous undertaking, for the fortifications of the town
were considered the most formidable ever designed by Vauban. The
citadel within the town was still stronger, and the garrison of
15,000 picked troops were commanded by Marshal Boufflers, one of
the most skillful generals in the French army. To lay siege to such
a fortress as this, while Vendome, with this army of 110,000 men,
lay ready to advance to its assistance, was an undertaking of the
greatest magnitude.
In most cases the proper course to have taken would have been to
advance against and defeat Vendome before undertaking the siege of
Lille; but the French general had entrenched his position with such
skill that he could not be attacked; while he had, moreover, the
advantage, that if the allies stood between him and France, he
stood between them and their base, commanded the Scheldt and the
canals from Holland, and was therefore in position to interfere
greatly with the onerous operation of bringing up stores for the
British army, and with the passage to the front of the immense
siege train requisite for an operation of such magnitude as was now
about to be undertaken, and for whose transport alone 16,000 horses
were required.