vinced Villeroi that the real attack of the allies was in that quarter; but he had no reserve of foot to support the troops in the villages, every disposable man having been sent off to the left in the direction of Autre Eglise. In this dilemma, he hastily ordered fourteen squadrons of horse to dismount, and, supported by two Swiss battalions, moved them up to the support of the troops in Tavières. Before they could arrive, however, the Dutch battalions had with great gallantry carried that village; and Marlborough, directing the Danish horse, under the brave Duke of Wirtemberg, against the flank of the dismounted dragoons, as they were in column and marching up, the Swiss were speedily cut to pieces, and hurled back in confusion on the French horse, who were advancing to their support.*

37.

Repulse of imminent dan

Overkirk, and

ger of Marlborough when hastening to

Following up his success, Overkirk next charged the first line of advancing French cavalry with the first line of the allied horse, and such was the vigor of his onset, that the enemy were broken and thrown back. But the second line of French and Bavarian horse soon came up, and assailing Overkirk's his relief. men when they were disordered by success, and little expecting another struggle, overthrew them without difficulty, drove them back in great confusion, and almost entirely restored the battle in that quarter. The chances were, that the victorious French horse, having cleared the open ground of their opponents, would wheel about and attack in rear the twelve battalions who were warmly engaged with the attack on Ramillies. Marlborough instantly saw the danger, and, putting himself at the head of seventeen squadrons at hand, led them on himself to arrest the progress of the victorious horse, while, at the same time, he sent orders for every disposable saber to come up from his right with the utmost expedition. Twenty squadrons were there in reserve; they instantly wheeled threes about, and galloped off to the support of their leader. The moment was critical, and nothing but the admirable intrepidity * KAUSLER, 346. CoXE, ii., 345–347.

and presence of mind of the English general could have retrieved the allied affairs. As he was leading on this reserve with his wonted gallantry, and under a dreadful fire from the French batteries on the heights behind Ramillies, he was recognized by some French troopers, with whom he had formerly served in the time of Charles II., who made a sudden rush at him. They had wellnigh made him prisoner, for they succeeded in surrounding him before his men could come up to the rescue; but he extricated himself from the throng of assailants by fighting his way out, like the knights of old, sword in hand. He next tried to leap a ditch, but his horse fell in the attempt; and, when mounting another horse given him by his aid-de-camp Captain Molesworth, Colonel Bingfield, his equerry, who held the stirrup, had his head carried off by a cannon ball. The imminent danger of their beloved general, however, revived the spirit of the troops. The dreadful severity of the cannonade had, during the scuffle, thrown them into disorder; but, re-forming with great celerity, they again returned with desperate resolution to the charge.*

38. The twenty squadrons ordered up from the right restore the bat

tle.

In this emergency, when nothing was as yet decided, the twenty fresh squadrons which Marlborough had so opportunely called up from the allied right were seen galloping at full speed, but still in regular order, on the plain behind this desperate conflict. Halting directly in rear of the spot where the horse on both sides were so vehemently engaged, they wheeled into line, and advanced in close order and admirable array to the support of the duke. Encouraged by this powerful re-enforcement, the whole allied cavalry re-formed, and swept forward in three lines, with loud shouts, to the attack of the now intimidated and disheartened French, who no longer withstood the onset, but, turning their horses' heads, fled with precipitation. The low grounds between Ramillies and the old chaussée were quickly passed, and the victorious horse, pressing up the slope on the opposite side, ere long reached the summit of the

COXE, ii., 347. KAUSLER, 766, 767.

plateau. The tomb of Ottomond, the highest point, and visible from the whole field of battle, was soon resplendent with sabers and cuirasses, amid a throng of horse; and deafening shouts, heard over the whole extent of both armies, announced that the crowning point and key of the whole position had been gained.*

39. Villeroi's ef

forts to restore

which are un

the battle,

successful.

But Villeroi was an able and determined general, and his soldiers fought with the inherent bravery of the French nation. The contest, thus virtually decided, was not yet over. A fierce fight was raging around Ramillies, where the garrison of twenty French battalions opposed a stout resistance to Schultz's grenadiers. By degrees, however, the latter gained ground; two Swiss battalions, which had long and resolutely held their ground, were at length forced back into the village, and some of the nearest houses fell into the hands of the allies. Upon this the whole rushed forward, and drove the enemy in a mass out toward the high grounds in the rear. The Marquis Maffei, however, rallied two regiments of Cologne guards, in a hollow way leading up from the village to the plateau, and opposed so vigorous a resistance, that he not only checked the pursuit, but regained part of the village; but Marlborough, whose eye was every where, no sooner saw this than he ordered up twenty battalions which had been stationed in reserve behind the center, and speedily cleared the village. Maffei, with his gallant troops, being charged in flank by the victorious horse at the very time that he was driven out of the village by the infantry, was made prisoner, and almost all his men were taken or destroyed.†

40. The enemy,

The victory was now decided on the British left and center, where alone the real attack had been made; but so vehement had been the onset, so desperate though the passage of arms which had taken place, that, disorder, en

thrown into

deavor to ral

though the battle had lasted little more than three ly.

KAUSLER, 767, 768. CoxE, ii., 348.

+ COXE, ii., 348. KAUSLER, 767, 768. MAFFEI, Memoirs, 347.

hours, the victors were nearly in as great disorder as the vanquished. Horse, foot, and artillery were every where blended together in confusion, more especially between Ramillies and the Mehaigne, and thence up to the tomb of Ottomond, in consequence of the various charges of all arms which had so rapidly succeeded each other on the same narrow space. Marlborough, seeing this, and before attempting any thing more, halted his troops on the ground where they stood, which, in the left and center, had been occupied by the enemy at the commencement of the action. Villeroi skillfully availed himself of this breathing-time to endeavor to re-form his broken troops, and to take up a new line from Geest-a-Gerompont, on his right, through Offuz to Autre Eglise, still held by its original garrison, on his left. But in making the retrograde movement so as to get his men into this oblique position, he was even more impeded and thrown into disorder by the baggagewagons and dismounted guns on the heights, than the allies had been on the plain below.

General ad

allies, which completes

On observing this, Marlborough resolved to give the enemy 41. no time to rally, but again sounding the charge, orvance of the dered infantry and cavalry to advance. A strong column passed the morass in which the Little Gheet the victory. takes its rise, directing their steps toward Offuz; but the enemy, panic-struck, as at Waterloo, by the general advance of the victors, gave way on all sides. Offuz was abandoned without a shot being fired, the cavalry pursued the fugitives with headlong fury, and the plateau of Mont St. André was soon covered with the flying enemy. The troops in observation on the right, seeing the victory gained on the left and center, of their own accord joined in the pursuit, and soon made themselves masters of Autre Eglise and the heights behind it. The Spanish and Bavarian Horse-guards made a gallant attempt to stem the flood of disaster, but without attaining their object. This only led to their own destruction. General Wood and Colonel Wyndham, at the head of the English Horse-guards, charged them, and they were immediately

cut to pieces. The rout now became universal, and all resistance ceased. In frightful confusion, a disorganized mass of horse and foot, abandoning their guns, streamed over the plateau, poured headlong, on the other side, down the banks of the Great Gheet, and fled toward Louvain, which they reached in the most dreadful disorder at two o'clock in the morning. The British horse, under Lord Orkney, did not draw bridle from the pursuit till they reached the neighborhood of that fortress, having, besides fighting the battle, ridden full five-andtwenty miles that day. Marlborough halted for the night, and established head-quarters at Mildert, thirteen miles from the field of battle, and five from Louvain.*

Losses of the

the allies in

The trophies of the battle of Ramillies were immense; but they were even exceeded by its results. The loss 42. of the French in killed and wounded was seven French and thousand men, and, in addition to that, six thou- the battle. sand prisoners were taken. With the desertions which took place after the battle, they were weakened by fully fifteen thousand men. They lost fifty-two guns, their whole baggage and pontoon train, all their caissons, and eighty standards wrested from them in fair fight. Among the prisoners were the Princes de Soubise and Rohan, and a son of Marshal Tallard. The victors lost one thousand and sixty-six killed, and two thousand five hundred and sixty-seven wounded, in all, three thousand six hundred and thirty-three. The great and unusual proportion of the killed to the wounded shows how desperate the fighting had been, and how much of it, as in ancient warfare, had been in hand-to-hand contest. Overkirk nobly supported the duke in this action, and not only repeatedly charged at the head of his horse, but continued on horseback in the pursuit till one in the morning, when he narrowly escaped death from a Bavarian officer he had made prisoner, and to whom he had given back his sword, saying, "You are a gentleman, and may keep it." The base wretch no sooner got it into his hand than he made a lounge

* CoXE, ii., 348, 349. Mem. de Marquis Maffei, 349, 350. KAUSLER, 768.