ducted twenty-five battalions from Affleghem to assist Ramsay along the Ghent-Bruges canal. Close to Ghent at MariaKercke were posted, among others, the two battalions of the First Royals, Seymour's, Saunderson's, and the Fifth, and Seventeenth Foot: and between the ford of St. Joris and the bridge of Moorbrugge were the Twenty-fifth with three other English regiments besides the Dragoons. About Nieuport were ten battalions and the Third Dragoons, under Major-General Fagel. De Vaudemont, with the main body of the western army, encamped about Ghent between Maria-Kercke and Destelberge. Along the canals the troops were employed, together with large bodies of peasants, in throwing up breast-works. On the 27th of the month King William arrived in camp and took command of the army of the West. By this time Prince Nassau-Saarbruck had been joined by the Brandenburg, Cologne, and Liége contingents, and had thereupon advanced as far as Wavre, de Boufflers retiring to Charleroi. King William, having first reviewed de Vaudemont's arrangements and ordered some few alterations in them, left Ghent on the Ist of June to proceed to Wavre, taking with him the Life-Guards, the Third and Sixth Dragoon-Guards, and Portland's Horse, the two battalions of the First Foot-Guards, and the Seventh, Eighth, Sixteenth, Twenty-first, Twenty-third, and Twentysixth Foot, with two other English regiments, eight foreign battalions, and four regiments of foreign Horse.

This large detachment necessitated some change in de Vaudemont's dispositions: his main body encamped behind Ghent between Maria-Kercke and Wondelghem; five English regiments lay along the canal between Ghent and Maria-Kercke ; four more lay to the immediate right of the bridge at this latter place, with another battalion in rear of them. About half a mile beyond these, near Lowedeghem, was a brigade of Danes. At right angles to the canal, midway along this line, was another line of troops in readiness to afford support at any threatened point. The Artillery lay quite in rear towards the Sas-vanGhent.

On the 9th of June the King marched from Wavre to Conroy midway between Wavre and Gemblours; but de Boufflers's attitude all along the Sambre was such, that William hesitated before making any fresh move. On the 27th, however, the King advanced to Gemblours, and there awaited the Landgrave of Hesse whose contingent was en route by way of Namur. On the 15th of July the Landgrave with fifteen

thousand men arrived at Namur, and William advanced to Sombref to meet him.

De Boufflers' fears at this time were that the Allies would either force the Sambre and thus make their way on to French territory towards Dinant and in rear of Charleroi, or else repeat the tactics of 1694 and make a sudden rush for a concentration against the Lines of Espierre or for the siege of Mons.

De Boufflers's precautions were therefore necessarily multifold, and their principle was dispersion with facility of re-concentration. He dispatched one body of troops to Ham-surHeure, one to la Bussière, and stationed others at Gerpines, at Fosse, and Quievrain, while he himself kept between St. Gerard and Biésme he also summoned d'Harcourt from Dinant to St. Gerard, and threw up intrenchments at the pass of Montigny on the Sambre, while he sharply watched Jemeppe and the other passages of that river.

Finding it impossible to force the Sambre William marched on the 16th of July to Nivelles, and thence to Soignies. Upon this de Boufflers collected his forces and marched to Thille-lechateau; and the next day, upon William's movement to Ath, he crossed the Sambre at la Bussiere and advanced to near Condé, taking care to maintain a communication with the Sambre by means of detachments along the line of route.

Meanwhile de Vaudemont and de Villeroi remained observing each other on the canals of Ostend and Bruges, contenting themselves with foraging and with reconnaissances towards one another's fortresses. De Vaudemont was too well placed to be attacked, and he had nothing to gain by attacking de Villeroi. On the tenth of August the latter shifted his camp to Thielt in the hope of finding an opportunity to force the canals; but on the first of September he moved again to Wynendael; whereupon de Vaudemont, first destroying the bridge at MariaKercke, took ground to his right as far as Steinbrugge in anticipation of designs upon Bruges.

The King of England had marched to Grammont on the fourteenth of August and there remained. The attitude of both sides was simply that of waiting for something to turn up. The extent of frontier on either side was now so extensive, so aligned, and so well defined, that, except Ath, there was nothing left as it were in the open to sieze upon, nothing else that would admit of a concentralisation of forces upon it without consequent exposure elsewhere. The French army was upon the whole the strongest: the aggressive lay therefore with

the French, and the Allies could not initiate any action of decision.

Here then is a problem for the student: what enterprise of importance could have been undertaken by the French General, supposing him to have been a de Luxembourg instead of a de Villeroi ?

On the 16th of August King William left the Army, and at the beginning of September the troops went into winter quarters, both parties glad to have got through the campaign without loss.

Huy however had had an exceedingly narrow escape of capture at the end of July. A number of soldiers being concealed in wagons of hay, the wagons were purposely upset immediately after passing inside the fortress: the Frenchmen scrambled out, overpowering the Guard, and even overcoming a body of men that came hurriedly down to their aid. The place was virtually in their hands. Fortunately for the garrison, however, there was such delay in the bringing up of the French supports, that ultimately the adventurous assailants were driven out or captured, and the gates secured again.

The British regiments taking part in this campaign were as follows:

CHAPTER XX.

THE WAR IN FLANDERS. CAMPAIGN OF 1697.

1697.

Opening of the campaign.—Siege of Ath.-French attempt on Brussels. -The British Contingent. The peace of Ryswick.

[For Illustrations, see Note on p. xiii.]

THE campaign of 1697 was almost as devoid of incident as that of the previous year, and its course would be scarcely worth narrating were it not that the history of the War would be incomplete without it.

In April 626 the troops on both sides began to come out of their winter quarters, and to prepare for the campaign. The Allies occupied themselves in perfecting a line of defence from Ostend by Bruges and Brussels to Namur; and for the protection of this work the Elector of Bavaria assembled a camp at Deinse, while at the same time the main army rendezvoused at Bois-Seigneur-Isaac.

It has been already noticed how Ath had come within the embrace of the French, and being now even more isolated by the completion of the new lines, it naturally fell a prey to the enemy. The Maréchal de Villeroi took command of an army of observation, while the Maréchal de Catinat undertook the siege; and de Boufflers, as usual, was detailed for the flying duties with a corps d'armée which assembled on the Meuse.

On the 5th of May Ath was invested by de Catinat from Helchin on the Tournai side (Ill. LXXXIX), and by the Marquis de Gassion from Mons, de Villeroi's army encamping at the same time at Leuze. On the tenth this covering army, having made an intermediate movement to Ligne, took up a position with the right at Lessines and the left at Hamaide. M. de Boufflers marched from Beaumont by Fontaine l'Evêque and Binch to Roeulx. M. de Créquy with some five thousand

626 The authorities for this campaign are the same as those quoted in the previous chapter; and similarly the incidents are not of sufficient consequence, or sufficiently open to dispute, to demand detailed quotations.

Y