by G. A. Henty
Chapter 22: Oudenarde.
The trumpet call which summoned Rupert and his friends to horsewas, as he suspected, an indication that there was a generalmovement of the troops in front.
Vendome had declined to attack the allies in the position they hadtaken up, but had moved by his right to Braine le Leude, a villageclose to the ground on which, more than a hundred years later,Waterloo was fought, and whence he threatened alike Louvain andBrussels. Marlborough moved his army on a parallel line toAnderleet. No sooner had he arrived there, than he found thatVendome was still moving towards his right--a proof that Louvainwas really the object of the attack. Again the allied troops wereset in motion, and all night, through torrents of rain, theytramped wearily along, until at daybreak they were in position atParc, covering the fortress of Louvain. Vendome, finding himselfanticipated, fell back to Braine le Leude without firing a shot.
But though Marlborough had so far foiled the enemy, it was clearthat he was not in a condition to take the offensive before thearrival of Prince Eugene, who would, he trusted, be able to come tohis assistance; and for weeks the armies watched each other withoutmovement.
On the 4th of July, Vendome suddenly marched from Braine le Leude,intending to capture the fortress of Oudenarde. Small bodies oftroops were sent off at the same time to Ghent and Bruges, whoseinhabitants rose and admitted the French. Marlborough, seeing thedanger which threatened the very important fortress of Oudenarde,sent orders to Lord Chandos who commanded at Ath, to collect allthe small garrisons in the neighbourhood, and to throw himself intoOudenarde. This was done before Vendome could reach the place,which was thus secured against a coup de main. Vendome invested thefortress, brought up his siege train from Tournay, and movedtowards Lessines with his main army, to cover the siege.
The loss of Ghent and Bruges, the annoyances he suffered from partyattacks at home, and the failure of the allies to furnish thepromised contingents, so agitated Marlborough that he was seizedwith an attack of fever.
Fortunately, on the 7th of July Prince Eugene arrived. Finding thathis army could not be up in time, he had left them, and,accompanied only by his personal staff, had ridden on to joinMarlborough.
The arrival of this able general and congenial spirit did much torestore Marlborough; and after a council with the prince, hedetermined 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 theircamp, and advanced in four great columns towards Lessines and theFrench frontier. By noon the heads of the columns had reachedHerfelingen, fourteen miles from their starting point, and bridgeswere thrown across the Dender, and the next morning the armycrossed, and then stood between the French and their own frontier.
Vendome, greatly disconcerted at finding that his plans had allbeen destroyed, ordered his army to fall back to Gavre on theScheldt, intending to cross below Oudenarde.
Marlborough at once determined to press forward, so as to force ona battle, having the advantage of coming upon the enemy whenengaged in a movement of retreat. Accordingly, at daybreak on the11th, Colonel Cadogan, with the advanced guard, consisting of thewhole of the cavalry and twelve battalions of infantry, pushedforward, and marched with all speed to the Scheldt, which theyreached by seven o'clock. Having thrown bridges across it, hemarched to meet the enemy, his troops in battle array; the infantryopposite Eynes, the cavalry extending to the left towardsSchaerken. Advancing strongly down the river in this order, Cadogansoon met the French advanced guard under Biron, which was moving upfrom Gavre. In the fighting the French had the advantage, retainingpossession 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 troopsacross the narrow bridges, but as yet but a small portion of theforces had crossed. Seeing this, Vendome determined to crush theBritish advanced guard with the whole weight of his army, and sohalted his troops and formed order of battle.
The country in which the battle of Oudenarde was about to be foughtis undulating, and cut up by several streams, with hedgerows,fields, and enclosures, altogether admirably adapted for an armyfighting a defensive battle. The village of Eynes lies about a milebelow Oudenarde and a quarter of a mile from the Scheldt. Throughit flows a stream formed by the junction of the two rivulets. At adistance of about a mile from the Scheldt, and almost parallel withthat river, runs the Norken, a considerable stream, which fallsinto the Scheldt below Gavre. Behind this river the ground risesinto 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 guardcompletely astonished the French generals. The allies were known tohave been fifteen miles away on the preceding evening, and that agreat army should march that distance, cross a great river, and bein readiness to fight a great battle, was contrary to all theircalculations of probabilities.
The Duke of Burgundy wished to continue the march to Ghent. MarshalVendome pointed out that it was too late, and that although acountry so intersected with hedges was unfavourable ground for thearmy which possessed the larger masses of men, yet that a battlemust be fought. This irresolution and dissension on the part of theFrench generals wasted time, and allowed the allies to push largebodies of troops across the river unmolested. As fast as they gotover Marlborough formed them up near Bevere, a village a fewhundred yards north of Oudenarde. Marlborough then prepared to takethe offensive, and ordered Colonel Cadogan to retake Eynes.
Four English battalions, under Colonel Sabine, crossed the streamand attacked the French forces in the village, consisting of sevenbattalions under Pfiffer, while the cavalry crossed the rivuletshigher up, and came down on the flank of the village. The resultwas three French battalions were surrounded and made prisoners, andthe other four routed and dispersed.
The French generals now saw that there was no longer a possibilityof avoiding a general action. Vendome would have stood on thedefensive, which, as he had the Norken with its steep and difficultground in his front, was evidently the proper tactics to havepursued. He was, however, overruled by the Duke of Burgundy and theother generals, and the French accordingly descended from theplateau, crossed the Norken, and advanced to the attack. The armieswere of nearly equal strength, the French having slightly theadvantage. The allies had 112 battalions and 180 squadrons, in all80,000 men; the French, 121 battalions and 198 squadrons, in all85,000 men.
The French again lost time, and fell into confusion as theyadvanced, owing to Marshal Vendome's orders being countermanded bythe Duke of Burgundy, who had nominally the chief command, and whowas jealous of Vendome's reputation. Marlborough divined the causeof the hesitation, and perceiving that the main attack would bemade on his left, which was posted in front of the Castle ofBevere, half a mile from the village of the same name; orderedtwelve battalions of infantry under Cadogan to move from his rightat Eynes to reinforce his left.
He then lined all the hedges with infantry, and stationing twentyBritish battalions under Argyle with four guns in reserve, awaitedthe attack. But few guns were employed on either side during thebattle, for artillery in those days moved but slowly, and the rapidmovements of both armies had left the guns far behind.
The French in their advance at once drew in four battalions, postedat Groenvelde, in advance of Eynes, and then bearing to theirright, pressed forward with such vigour that they drove back theallied left. At this point were the Dutch and Hanoverian troops.Marlborough now dispatched Eugene to take command of the British onthe right, directed Count Lottum to move from the centre withtwenty battalions to reinforce that side of the fight, and wenthimself to restore the battle on the left.
Eugene, with his British troops, were gradually but steadily, inspite of their obstinate resistance, being driven back, whenLottum's reinforcements arrived, and with these Eugene advanced atonce, and drove back the enemy. As t
hese were in disorder, GeneralNatzmer, at the head of the Prussian cuirassiers, charged them anddrove them back, until he himself was fallen upon by the Frenchhorse guards in reserve, while the infantry's fire from thehedgerows mowed down the cuirassiers. So dreadful was the fire thathalf the Prussian cavalry were slain, and the rest escaped withdifficulty, hotly pursued by the French household troops.
An even more desperate conflict was all this time raging on theleft. Here Marlborough placed himself at the head of the Dutch andHanoverian battalions, and led them back against the French, whowere advancing with shouts of victory, and desperate strugglesensued. Alison in his history says:
"The ground on which the hostile lines met was so broken, that thebattle in that quarter turned almost into a series of partialconflicts and even personal encounters. Every bridge, every ditch,every wood, every hamlet, every enclosure, was obstinatelycontested, and so incessant was the roll of musketry, and sointermingled did the hostile lines become, that the field, seenfrom a distance, appeared an unbroken line of flame. A warmer fire,a more desperate series of combats, was never witnessed in modernwarfare. It was in great part conducted hand to hand, like thebattles of antiquity, of which Livy and Homer have left suchgraphic descriptions. The cavalry could not act, from the multitudeof hedges and copses which intersected the theatre of conflict.Breast to breast, knee to knee, bayonet to bayonet, they maintainedthe fight on both sides with the most desperate resolution. If theresistance, however, was obstinate, the attack was no lessvigorous, and at length the enthusiastic ardour of the Frenchyielded to the steady valour of the Germans. Gradually they weredriven back, literally at the bayonet's point; and at length,resisting at every point, they yielded all the ground they had wonat the commencement of the action. So, gradually they were pushedback as far as the village of Diepenbech, where so stubborn a standwas made that the allies could no longer advance."
Overkirk had now got the rear of the army across the river, and theduke, seeing that the Hill of Oycke, which flanked the enemy'sposition, was unoccupied by them, directed the veteran general withhis twenty Dutch and Danish battalions to advance and occupy it.Arrived there, he swung round the left of his line, and so pressedthe French right, which was advanced beyond their outer bounds intothe little plain of Diepenbech. The duke commanded Overkirk topress round still further to his left by the passes of Mullem andthe mill of Royeghem, by which the French sustained theircommunication with the force still on the plateau beyond theNorken; and Prince Eugene to further extend his right so as toencompass the mass of French crowded in the plain of Diepenbech.
The night was falling now, and the progress of the allies on eitherflank could be seen by the flashes of fire. Vendome, seeing theimmense danger in which his right and centre were placed,endeavoured to bring up his left, hitherto intact; but theincreasing darkness, the thick enclosures, and the determinedresistance of Eugene's troops, prevented him from carrying out hisintention. So far were the British wings extended round the plainof Diepenbech, that they completely enclosed it, and Eugene's andOverkirk's men meeting fought fiercely, each believing the other tobe French. The mistake was discovered, and to prevent any furthermishap of this kind in the darkness, the whole army was ordered tohalt where it was and wait till morning. Had the daylight lastedtwo hours longer, the whole of the French army would have beenslain or taken prisoners; as it was, the greater portion made theirway through the intervals of the allied army around them, and fledto Ghent. Nevertheless, they lost 6,000 killed and wounded, and9,000 prisoners, while many thousands of the fugitives made for theFrench frontier. Thus the total loss to Vendome exceeded 20,000men, while the allies lost in all 5000.
When morning broke, Marlborough dispatched forty squadrons of horsein pursuit of the fugitives towards Ghent, sent off Count Lottumwith thirty battalions and fifty squadrons to carry the stronglines which the enemy had constructed between Ypres and Warneton,and employed the rest of his force in collecting and tending thewounded of both armies.
A few days later the two armies, that of Eugene and that of theDuke of Berwick, which had been marching with all speed parallel toeach other, came up and joined those of Marlborough and Vendomerespectively. The Duke of Berwick's corps was the more powerful,numbering thirty-four battalions and fifty-five squadrons, and thisraised the Duke de Vendome's army to over 110,000, and placed himagain fairly on an equality with the allies. Marlborough, having byhis masterly movement forced Vendome to fight with his face toParis, and in his retreat to retire still farther from thefrontier, now had France open to him, and his counsel was that thewhole army should at once march for Paris, disregarding thefortresses just as Wellington and Blucher did after Waterloo.
He was however, overruled, even Eugene considering such an attemptto be altogether too dangerous, with Vendome's army, 110,000strong, in the rear; and it must be admitted it would certainlyhave been a march altogether without a parallel.
Finding that his colleagues would not consent to so daring andadventurous a march, Marlborough determined to enter France, andlay siege to the immensely strong fortress of Lille. This was initself a tremendous undertaking, for the fortifications of the townwere considered the most formidable ever designed by Vauban. Thecitadel within the town was still stronger, and the garrison of15,000 picked troops were commanded by Marshal Boufflers, one ofthe most skillful generals in the French army. To lay siege to sucha fortress as this, while Vendome, with this army of 110,000 men,lay ready to advance to its assistance, was an undertaking of thegreatest magnitude.
In most cases the proper course to have taken would have been toadvance against and defeat Vendome before undertaking the siege ofLille; but the French general had entrenched his position with suchskill that he could not be attacked; while he had, moreover, theadvantage, that if the allies stood between him and France, hestood between them and their base, commanded the Scheldt and thecanals from Holland, and was therefore in position to interferegreatly with the onerous operation of bringing up stores for theBritish army, and with the passage to the front of the immensesiege train requisite for an operation of such magnitude as was nowabout to be undertaken, and for whose transport alone 16,000 horseswere required.