V.

CHAP. reinforcement of 4,000 Wirtemburghers, in their pay, who were to be drawn from the Rhine. Yet with all this, he was still inferior to the enemy when the campaign commenced; and but for the reinforcements thus tardily yielded to his urgent representations, he would have been so much so, that the campaign, so far from leading to a prosperous result, would in all probability have terminated in nothing but disaster. * At length, however, Marlborough took the field at the head of 110,000 men; and although his force was composed of a heterogeneous mixture of the troops of different nations, yet, like the colluvies omnium gentium which followed the standards of Hannibal, it was held together by the firm bond of military success, and inspired with that unbounded confidence which is founded on experience of the resources and capacity of its chief. Events of the greatest and most interesting kind could not but be anticipated, from the contest of two armies of such magnitude, headed by such leaders, and when the patriotic ardour of the French nation, now roused to the uttermost, was matched against the military strength of the confederates, matured by a series of victories so long and brilliant. †

Marl

11.

borough's

deceive

lars.

Though relying with confidence on the skill and intrepidity of his troops, Marlborough, according to his measures to usual system, resolved if possible to circumvent the enemy by manoeuvring, so as to reserve his hard blows for the time when success was to be won in no other way. His design was to begin the campaign either with a + lbid. v. i. 5.

* CoxE, iv. 371, 372.

general battle or by the reduction of Tournay, lying on the direct road from Brussels by Mons to Paris, which would break through, in the most important part, the barrier fortresses. To prepare for either event, and divert the enemy's attention, strong demonstrations were made against Villars' intrenched position. If it had been practicable, he would have been attacked; but after a close reconnoitre, both generals deemed it too hazardous an enterprise, and it was resolved to besiege the fortress. On the 23d June, the right under Eugene crossed the lower Dyle below Lille; while the left, with which were the whole English and Dutch contingents, crossed the upper Dyle, and Marlborough fixed his head quarters at the castle of Looz. So threatening were the masses which the Allies now accumulated in his front that Villars never doubted he was about to be attacked; and in consequence he strengthened his position to the utmost of his power, called in all his detachments, and drew considerable reinforcements from the garrisons of Tournay and the other fortresses in his vicinity.

CHAP.
V.

12.

siege to

27th June.

Having thus fixed his antagonist's attention, and concentrated his force in his intrenched lines between Douay and Bethune, Marlborough suddenly moved off And lays to the left, in the direction of Tournay. This was done, Tournay, however, with every imaginable precaution to impose upon the enemy. The Allied army decamped at nightfall on the 27th in dead silence, and advanced part of the night straight towards the French lines; but at two in the morning, the troops were suddenly halted, wheeled to the left, and marched in two columns, by Pont à

CHAP.

V.

13.

of Tournay.

Bovines and Pont à Tressins, towards Tournay. So expeditiously was the change in the line of march managed, and so complete the surprise, that by seven in the morning the troops were drawn round Tournay, and the investment complete, while half of the garrison being absent in the lines of Marshal Villars, it was thereby rendered incapable of making any effectual defence. Meanwhile that commander was so deceived, that he was congratulating himself that the enemy had "fixed on the siege of Tournay, which should occupy them the whole remainder of the campaign; when it is evident their design had been, after defeating me, to thunder against Aire la Venant with their heavy artillery, penetrate as far as Boulogne, and after laying all Picardy under contribution, push on even to Paris." *

Tournay is an old town, the ancient walls of which are of wide circuit; but it had a series of advanced Description works erected by Vauban, and its citadel, a regular pentagon, was considered by the great Condé as one of the most perfect specimens of modern fortification in existence. So little did the governor expect their approach, that many of the officers were absent, and a detachment of the garrison, sent out to forage, were made prisoners by General Lumley, who commanded the investing corps. The fortifications, however, were in the best state, and the magazines well stored with ammunition and military stores. It was the ancient capital of the Nervii, so celebrated for their valour in

*Mém. de Villars, ii. 63. Marlborough to Godolphin, June 27, 1709. COXE, iv. 5, 6.

the wars with Cæsar; and an inscription on its walls testified that Louis XIV., after taking it in four days, had assisted in the construction of additional works which it was supposed would render it impregnable. The attempt to take such a place with a force no greater than that which Villars had at hand to interrupt the operations, would have been an enterprise of the utmost temerity, and probably terminated in disaster, had it not been for the admirable skill with which the attention of the enemy had been fixed on another quarter; and the siege commenced with one half of its garrison absent, and the other imperfectly supplied with provisions.*

CHAP.

V.

14.

capture of

that town,

The heavy artillery and siege equipage required to be brought up the Scheldt from Ghent, which in the outset occasioned some delay in the operations. Marl- Sege and borough commanded the attacking, Eugene the covering 29th July' forces. By the 6th July, however, the approaches were commenced; on the 10th the battering train arrived, and the trenches were armed; repeated sallies of the enemy to interrupt the operations were repulsed, and several of the outworks were carried between that time and the 21st, on which last occasion the besiegers succeeded in establishing themselves in the covered ways. The breaching batteries continued to thunder with terrible effect upon the walls; and on the 27th, a strong horn-work, called the Seven Fountains, was carried, and the Allies were masters of nearly the whole line of

* Marlborough to Mr Secretary Boyle, 27th June, 1709. Disp. iv. 520. Coxe, v. 7, 8.

CHAP.

V.

15.

the counterscarp. Meanwhile, Villars made no serious movement to interrupt the besiegers, contenting himself with making demonstrations between the Scarpe and the Scheldt to alarm the covering forces. Eugene, however, narrowly watched all his proceedings; and in truth the French marshal, far from really intending to disquiet the Allies in their operations, was busied with an immense army of pioneers and labourers in constructing a new set of lines from Douay along the Scarpe to the Scheldt near Condé, in order to arrest their progress in the direction they had now taken. Seeing no prospect of being relieved, the governor on the 29th surrendered the town, and retired with the remains of the garrison, still four thousand strong, into the citadel.*

On the surrender of the town, no time was lost in prosecuting operations against the citadel, and the line its desperate of circumvallation was traced out that very evening.

Siege of the

citadel, and

chances.

But this undertaking proved more difficult than had been expected, and several weeks elapsed before any

*

Marlborough to Lord Galway, 4th July, 1709; and to the Queen, 29th July, 1709. Disp. iv. 530 and 556. COXE, v. 8-13. Marlborough's private letters to the Duchess, at this period, as indeed throughout all his campaigns, prove how tired he was of the war, and how ardently he sighed for repose at Blenheim. "The taking of the citadel of Tournay will, I fear, cost us more men and time than that of the town; but that which gives me the greatest prospect for the happiness of being with you, is, that certainly the misery of France increases, which must bring us a peace. The misery of the poor people we see is such, that one must be a brute not to pity them. May you be ever happy, and I enjoy some few years of quiet with you, is what I daily pray for."-Marlborough to the Duchess, July 30, 1709. COXE, v. 12.