Villars fortifies intrenchments. But the Dutch deputies, Hooft and Goslinga, interfered, as they had done on a similar occasion between Wavre and Waterloo, and so far modified this resolution as to induce a council of war, summoned on the occasion, to determine not to fight till the troops from Tournay were within reach, and St. Ghislain, which commanded a passage over the Haine, was taken. This was done next day, the fort being carried by escalade, and its garrison of two hundred men made prisoners; and on the day following, all the reserves from Tournay came up. But these advantages, which in themselves were not inconsiderable, were dearly purchased by the time which Villars gained for strengthening his position. Instead of pushing on to attack the allies, as Marlborough and Eugene had expected, in order to raise the siege of Mons, that able commander employed himself with the utmost skill and vigor in throwing up intrenchments in every part of his position. The nature of the ground singularly favored his efforts. 26. The heights he occupied, plentifully interspersed his position. with woods and eminences, formed a concave semicircle, the artillery from which enfiladed on all sides the little plain of Malplaquet, so as to render it literally, in Dumont's words, une trouée d'enfer." Around this semicircle, redoubts, palisades, abattis, and stockades were disposed with such skill and judgment, that, literally speaking, there was not a single inequality of ground (and there were many) which was not turned to good account. The two trouées or openings, in particular, already mentioned, by which it was foreseen the allies would endeavor to force an entrance, were so enfiladed by cross batteries as to be wellnigh unassailable. Twenty pieces of artillery were placed on a redoubt situated on an eminence near the center of the field; the remainder were arranged along the field-works, constructed along the lines. Half the army labored at these works without a moment's intermission during the whole of the 9th and 10th, while the other were under arms, ready to repel any attack which might be hazarded. With such vigor were the opera tions conducted, that by the night of the 10th the position was deemed impregnable.* 27. Plan of attack The allied forces passed these two days in inactivity, awaiting the arrival of the re-enforcements from Tournay, which the council of war had deemed indispen- by the allied generals, 10th sable to the commencement of operations. Mean- Sept. while, Marlborough and Eugene had repeatedly reconnoitered the enemy's position, and were fully aware of its growing strength. Despairing of openly forcing such formidable lines, defended by an army so numerous and gallant, they resolved to combine their first attack with a powerful demonstration in rear. With this view, the rear guard, of nineteen battalions and ten squadrons, which was coming up from Tournay under General Withers, received orders not to join the main body of the army, but, stopping short at St. Ghislain, to cross the Haine there, and, traversing the wood of Blangris by a country road, assail the extreme left of the enemy at the farm of La Folie, when the combat had been seriously begun in front. Baron Schulemberg was to attack the wood of Taisnière with forty of Eugene's battalions, supported by forty pieces of cannon, so placed that their shot reached every part of the wood. To distract the enemy's attention, other attacks were directed along the whole line; but the main effort was to be made by Eugene's corps on the wood of Taisnière; and it was from the co-operation of the attack of Schulemberg on its flank that decisive success was expected. All the corps had reached their respective points of destination on the evening of the 10th. Schulemberg was near La Folie; Eugene was grouped, in four lines, in front of Taisnière; and the men lay down to sleep, anxiously awaiting the dawn of the eventful morrow.‡ At three in the morning of the 11th, divine service was * CoXE, v., 34-37. DUMONT's Military History, ii., 381-387. KAUSLER, 770. ↑ Marlborough's General Orders, Sept. 10, 1709. KAUSLER, 784, 785. CoxE, v., 40-44. 28. Feelings of the soldiers on both performed with the utmost decorum at the head of every regiment, and listened to by the soldiers, sides, 11th Sept. after the example of their chief, with the most devout attention. The awful nature of the occasion, the momentous interests at stake, the uncertainty who might survive to the close of the day, the protracted struggle soon to be brought to a decisive issue, had banished all lighter feelings, and impressed a noble character on that impressive solemnity. A thick fog overspread the field, under cover of which the troops marched, with the utmost regularity, to their appointed stations: the guns were brought forward to the grand battery in the center, which was protected on either side by an épaulement to prevent an enfilade. No sooner did the French outposts give notice that the allies were preparing for an attack, than the whole army stood to their arms, and all the working parties, who were still toiling in the trenches, cast aside their tools, and joyfully resumed their places in the ranks. Never, since the commencement of the war, had the spirit of the French soldiers been so high, or had so enthusiastic a feeling been infused into every bosom. They looked forward with confidence to regaining, under their beloved commander, Marshal Villars, the laurels which had been withered in eight successive campaigns, and arresting the flood of conquest which threatened to overwhelm their country. When the general mounted his horse at seven, loud cries of “Vive le Roi !" "Vive le Maréchal de Villars!" burst from their ranks. He himself took the command of the left, giving the post of honor on the right, in courtesy, to Marshal Boufflers. On the allied side, enthusiasm was not so loudly expressed, but confidence was not the less strongly felt. They relied with reason on the tried and splendid abilities of their chiefs, on their own experienced constancy and success in the field. They had the confidence of veteran soldiers, who had long fought and conquered together. In allusion to the numerous field-works before them, which almost concealed the enemy's ranks from their view, the sarcastic expression passed through the ranks, "We are again about to make war on moles." The fog still lingered on the ground, so as to prevent the gunners seeing to take aim; but at half past seven it cleared up, the sun broke forth with uncommon brilliancy, and immediately the fire commenced with the utmost vigor from the artillery on both sides.* 29. Commencement of the battle. For about half an hour the cannon continued to thunder, so as to reach every part of the field of battle with their balls, when Marlborough moved forward his troops in échelon, the right in front, in order to commence his projected attack on the French center and left. The Dutch, who were on the left, agreeably to the orders they had received, halted when within range of grape, and a violent cannonade was merely exchanged on both sides; but Count Lottum, who commanded the center of twenty battalions, continued to press on, regardless of the storm of shot and grape with which he was assailed, and when well into the enemy's line, he brought up his left shoulders, and in three lines attacked the right of the wood of Taisnière. Schulemberg, at the same time, with his forty battalions to the right of Lottum, advanced against the wood of Taisnière in front, while Lord Orkney, with his fifteen battalions, as Lottum's men inclined to the right, marched straight forward to the ground they had occupied, and attacked the intrenchment before him in the opening. Eugene, who was with Schulemberg's men, advanced without firing a shot, though suffering dreadfully from the grape of the batteries, till within pistolshot of the batteries. They were there, however, received by so terrible a discharge of all arms from the intrenchmentsthe French soldiers laying their pieces deliberately over the parapet, and taking aim within twenty yards of their opponents—that they recoiled about two hundred yards, and were only brought back to the charge by the heroic efforts of Eugene, who exposed his person in the very front of the line. During this conflict, three battalions, brought up from the LEDIARD, Life of Marlborough, ii., 172-180. COXE, v., 45-47. blockade of Mons, stole unperceived, amid the tumult in front, into the southeastern angle of the wood of Taisnière, and were making some progress, when they were met by three battalions of French troops, and a vehement fire of musketry soon rang in the recesses of the wood.* Marlborough, rate conflict, carries the wood of Tais Meanwhile, Marlborough in person led on D'Auvergne's 30. cavalry in support of Lottum's men, who speedily after a despe- were engaged in a most terrific conflict. They bore without flinching the fire of the French brinière. gade du Roi, which manned the opposite works, and, crossing a ravine and small morass, rushed with fixed bayonets, and the most determined resolution, right against the intrenchment. So vehement was the onset, so impetuous the rush, that some of the leading files actually reached the summit of the parapet, and those behind pushing vehemently on, the redoubt was carried amid deafening cheers. But Villars was directly in its rear, and he immediately led up in person a brigade in the finest order, which expelled the assailants at the point of the bayonet, and regained the work. Marlborough, upon this, charged at the head of D'Auvergne's cavalry; and that gallant body of men, three thousand strong, dashed forward, and entered the intrenchments, which were, at the same time, surrounded by some of Lottum's battalions. While this desperate conflict was going on in front and flank of the wood, Withers, with his corps brought up from Tournay, was silently, and with great caution, entering the wood on the side of La Folie, and had already made considerable progress before any great efforts were made to expel them. The advance of this corps in his rear rendered it impossible for Villars any longer to maintain the advanced line of works in the front of the wood; it was therefore abandoned, but slowly, and in admirable order, the troops retiring through the trees to the second line of works in their rear, which they prepared to defend to the last extremity.† *KAUSLER, 786, 787. CoxE, v., 44–49. |