The Cornet of Horse: A Tale of Marlborough's Wars

by G. A. Henty

  Chapter 23: The Siege of Lille.

  The British cavalry suffered less severely at Oudenarde than didthose of the other allied nationalities, as they were during thegreater portion of the day held in reserve; and neither Rupert norany of his special friends in the regiment were wounded. He was,however, greatly grieved at the death of Sir John Loveday, who waskilled by a cannonball at the commencement of the action. Two ofthe captains in the 5th were also killed, and this gave Rupertanother step. He could have had his captain's rank long before, hadhe accepted the Duke's offer, several times repeated, of a post onhis staff. He preferred, however, the life with his regiment, andin this his promotion was, of course, regular, instead of going upby favour, as was, and still is, the case on the staff.

  The train for the siege of Lille was brought up by canal fromHolland to Brussels; and although the French knew that a largeaccumulation of military stores was taking place there, they couldnot believe that Marlborough meditated so gigantic an undertakingas the siege of Lille, and believed that he was intending to laysiege to Mons.

  Berwick, with his army, which had since his arrival on the scene ofaction been lying at Douai, now advanced to Montagne; and Vendomedetached 18,000 men from his army, lying between Ghent and Bruges,to Malle, to intercept any convoy that might move out fromBrussels.

  Marlborough's measures were, however, well taken. Eugene, withtwenty-five battalions and thirty squadrons, moved parallel to theconvoy, which was fifteen miles in length; while the Prince ofWurtemburg, General Wood, the Prince of Orange, each with a largeforce, were so placed as to check any movement of the enemy.

  The gigantic convoy left Brussels on the 6th of August, and reachedthe camp near Lille on the 15th, without the loss of a singlewagon. Prince Eugene, with 53 battalions and 90 squadrons, in all40,000 men, undertook the siege; while Marlborough, with the mainarmy of 60,000 men, took post at Heldun, where he alike preventedBerwick and Vendome from effecting a junction, and covered thepassage of convoys from Brussels, Ath, and Oudenarde. No less thaneighty-one convoys, with food, stores, etc., passed safely along;and the arrangements for their safety were so perfect that theyexcited the lively admiration both of friends and foes.

  Feuguieres, the French annalist, asks, "How was it possible tobelieve that it was in the power of the enemy to convey to Lilleall that was necessary for the siege and supplies of the army, toconduct there all the artillery and implements essential for suchan undertaking; and that these immense burdens should betransported by land over a line of twenty-three leagues, under theeyes of an army of 80,000 men, lying on the flank of a prodigiousconvoy, which extended over five leagues of road? Nevertheless, allthat was done without a shot being fired or a chariot unharnessed.Posterity will scarcely believe it. Nevertheless, it was the simpletruth."

  To facilitate his operations, Marlborough threw six bridges acrossthe Scheldt, and 10,000 pioneers were collected to commence thelines which were to surround the city. The lines were projected notonly to shut in the city, but to protect the besiegers from attacksby a relieving army. Never since Caesar besieged Alesia had worksupon so gigantic a scale been constructed. They were fifteen milesin circumference, and the ditch was fifteen feet wide and ninedeep.

  On the 23rd of August, the lines of circumvallation being nownearly finished, Eugene opened his trenches and began operationsagainst the city, the parts selected for attack being the gates ofSaint Martin and of the Madelaine. These points were upon the sameside of the city, but were separated from each other by the riverDyle, which flows through the town.

  On the morning of the 24th the cannonade opened, Prince Eugenehimself firing the first gun on the right, the Prince of Orangethat on the left attack. The troops worked with the greatestenergy, and the next day forty-four guns poured their fire into theadvanced works round the chapel of the Madelaine, which stoodoutside the walls. The same night the chapel was carried byassault; but the next night, while a tremendous cannonade was goingon, 400 French issued quietly from their works, fell upon the 200Dutch who held the chapel, killed or drove them out, blew up thechapel, which served as an advanced post for the besiegers, andretired before reinforcements could arrive.

  Marshal Vendome now determined to unite with the Duke of Berwick,and to raise the siege, and by making a long and circuitous march,to avoid Marlborough's force. This was accomplished; the two armiesunited, and advanced to relieve Lille.

  Marlborough, who foresaw the line by which they would approach,drew up his army in order of battle, with his right resting on theDyle at Noyelles, and his left on the Margne at Peronne. Two hoursafter he had taken up his position, the French army, 110,000strong, the most imposing France had ever put in the field,appeared before him.

  The Duke of Marlborough had been strengthened by 10,000 men dispatchedto him by Prince Eugene from the besieging army, but he had only70,000 men to oppose to the French. And yet, notwithstanding theirgreat superiority of numbers, the enemy did not venture to attack, andfor a fortnight the armies remained facing each other, without a blowbeing struck on either side.

  The French were, in fact, paralyzed by the jealousy of the twogreat generals commanding them, each of whom opposed the other'sproposals; and nothing could be decided until the king sentMonsieur Chamillard, the French minister of war, to examine thespot, and give instructions for an attack.

  The six days, however, which elapsed between the appearance of theFrench army in front of Marlborough and the arrival of MonsieurChamillard in camp, had given Marlborough time so to entrench hisposition, that upon reconnoitring it Chamillard, Vendome, Berwick,and the other generals, were unanimous in their opinion that it wastoo strong to be attacked. The great army therefore again retired,and taking up its post between Brussels and Lille, completelyinterrupted the arrival of further convoys or stores to the Britishcamp.

  The siege meantime had been pressed hotly. From the 27th of Augustto the 7th of September 120 cannon and eighty mortars thunderedcontinuously; and on the evening of the 7th two breaches wereeffected in the side of the bastions of the outworks that were tobe assaulted.

  Fourteen thousand men prepared to storm the outworks. The Frenchallowed them to get, with but slight resistance, into the coveredway, where a terrific fire was poured upon them. 800 were shot downin a few minutes, and two mines were exploded under them. Thefighting was desperate; but the assailants managed to retainpossession of two points in the outwork, a success most dearlypurchased with a loss of 2000 killed, and as many wounded.

  It was not until the 20th that a fresh attempt to carry the placeby storm was made. At this time Marlborough's position was becomingcritical. The fortress held out bravely. The consumption ofammunition was so enormous, that his supplies were almostexhausted, and a great army lay directly upon his line ofcommunication. It became a matter of necessity that the placeshould be taken. Immense efforts were made to secure the success ofthe assault. Enormous quantities of fascines were made for fillingup the ditch, and 5000 British troops were sent by Marlborough fromhis army to lead the assault.

  Rupert Holliday, with many other officers, accompanied this body asa volunteer. The troops were drawn up as the afternoon grew late,and just as it became dark they advanced to the assault.

  The besieged in the outworks assaulted were supported by the fireof the cannon and musketry of the ramparts behind, from which, sosoon as the dense masses of the stormers advanced, a stream offlame issued. So tremendous was the carnage, that three times thetroops recoiled before the storm of balls.

  On the fourth occasion Eugene himself led them to the assault, oneither side of him were the Princes of Orange and Hesse, and anumber of officers.

  "Remember Hochstadt, Ramilies, and Oudenarde!" the prince shouted;but scarcely had he spoken when he was struck to the ground by abullet, which struck and glanced over the left eye.

  Then the troops dashed forward, and forced their way into theoutwork. The French fought with magnificent resolution; and werefrom time to time reinforced by parties from the city.


  For two hours the fight raged. With bayonets and clubbed muskets,hand to hand, the troops fought. No one flinched or gave way;indeed it was safer to be in the front line than behind; for infront friends and foes were so mixed together, that the French onthe ramparts were unable to fire, but had to direct their aim atthe masses behind.

  At last the allies gained ground. Gradually, foot by foot, theFrench were thrust back; and Rupert, who had been fightingdesperately in the front line of the stormers' party, directed hisefforts to a part where a French officer still held his ground,nobly backed by his men. The piled up dead in front of them showedhow strenuous had been the resistance to the advancing wave of theallies.

  Rupert gradually reached the spot, and had no difficulty in placinghimself vis-a-vis to the French officer; for so terrible was hisskill, that others willingly turned aside to attack less dangerousopponents. In a moment the swords crossed!

  The light was a strange one, flickering and yet constant, with thethousands of firearms, which kept up an unceasing roar. The swordsclashed and ground together, and after a pass or two both men drewback. A bright flash from a musket not a yard away threw a brightthough momentary light on their faces.

  "Monsieur Dessin!" Rupert exclaimed, in delight.

  "What! Is it possible?" the Frenchman exclaimed. "Rupert Holliday!"

  At the moment there was a tremendous rush of the British. TheFrench were borne back, and hurled over the edge of the outwork;and before Rupert could avert the blow, the butt end of a musketfell with great force upon his late opponent's head.

  Rupert leapt forward, and lifting him in his arms, made his waywith him to the rear; for with that last rush the fight was over,and the allies had established themselves in the left demi-bastionof the outwork--an important advantage, but one which had cost them5000 killed and wounded, of whom 3000 belonged to the Englishforce, whom Marlborough had sent. The fact that more than half ofthem were hors-de-combat showed how fiercely they had fought.

  Owing to the wound of Prince Eugene, the Duke of Marlborough had todirect the operations of the siege as well as to command the armyin the field. On the 23rd he followed up the advantage gained onthe 20th, by a fresh attack in two columns, each 5000 strong, andheaded by 500 English troops. After being three times repulsed,these succeeded in maintaining a lodgment in another outwork;losing, however, 1000 men in the attack, the greater part beingdestroyed by the explosion of a mine.

  Both besiegers and besieged were now becoming straitened forammunition, for the consumption had been immense. The Frenchgenerals succeeded in passing a supply into the fortress in a verydaring manner.

  On the night of the 28th, 2500 horsemen set out from Douai, underthe command of the Chevalier de Luxembourg, each having fortypounds of powder in his valise. They arrived at the gate of thewalls of circumvallation, when the Dutch sentry cried out:

  "Who comes there?"

  "Open quickly!" the leader answered in the same language; "I amclosely pursued by the French."

  The sentry opened the gate, and the horsemen began to pass in.Eighteen hundred had passed without suspicion being excited, whenone of the officers, seeing that his men were not keeping close up,gave the command in French:

  "Close up! close up!"

  The captain of the guard caught the words, and suspectingsomething, ordered the party to halt; and then, as they still rodein, ordered the guard to fire. The discharge set fire to three ofthe powder bags, and the explosion spreading from one to another,sixty men and horses were killed. The portion of the troops stilloutside the gate fled, but the 800 who had passed in rode forwardthrough the allied camp and entered the town in safety, with 70,000pounds of powder!

  Another deed of gallantry, equal to anything ever told in fiction,was performed by a Captain Dubois of the French army. It was amatter of the highest importance for the French generals to learnthe exact state of things at Lille. Captain Dubois volunteered toenter the fortress by water. He accordingly left the French camp,and swimming through seven canals, entered the Dyle near the placewhere it entered the besiegers' lines. He then dived, and aided bythe current, swam under water for an incredibly long distance, soas entirely to elude the observation of the sentinels. He arrivedin safety in the town, exhausted with his great exertions.

  After having had dry clothes put on him, and having taken somerefreshment, he was conducted round the walls by Marshal Boufflers,who showed him all the defensive works, and explained to him thewhole circumstances of the position. The next night he again setout by the Dyle, carrying dispatches in an envelope of wax in hismouth, and after diving as before through the dangerous places, andrunning innumerable risks of detection, he arrived in safety in theFrench camp.

  But it was not the French alone who had run short of ammunition.Marlborough had also been greatly straitened, and there being nowno possibility of getting through convoys from Brussels, hepersuaded the home government to direct a considerable expedition,which had been collected for the purpose of exciting an alarm onthe coast of Normandy, and was now on board ship in the Downs, tobe sent to Ostend. It arrived there, to the number of fourteenbattalions and an abundant supply of ammunition, on the 23rd ofSeptember; and Marlborough detached 15,000 men from his army toprotect the convoy on its way up.

  On the 27th of September, the convoy started, crossed the canal ofNieuport at Leffinghen, and directed its course by Slype to defilethrough the woods of Wyndendale. General Webb, who commanded thetroops detached for its protection, took post with 8000 men todefend its passage through the wood, which was the most dangerousportion of the journey, while Cadogan with the rest of the forcewas stationed at Hoglede to cover the march farther on.

  Vendome had received information of the march of the column, anddetached Monsieur de la Mathe with 20,000 men to intercept theconvoy. At five in the evening the force approached the wood,through which the convoy was then filing. Webb posted his men inthe bushes, and when the French--confident in the great superiorityof numbers which they knew that they possessed--advanced boldly,they were received by such a terrible fire of musketry, poured inat a distance of a hundred yards, that they fell into confusion.They, however, rallied, and made desperate efforts to penetrate thewood, but they were over and over again driven back, and after twohours' fighting they retired, leaving the convoy to pass on insafety to the camp.

  In this glorious action 8000 English defeated 20,000 French, andinflicted on them a loss of 4000 killed and wounded. Several freshassaults were now made, and gradually the allies won ground, until,on the eve of the grand assault, Marshal Boufflers surrendered thetown, and retired with the survivors of the defenders into thecitadel, which held out for another month, and then alsosurrendered. In this memorable siege, the greatest--with theexception of that of Sebastopol--that has ever taken place inhistory, the allies lost 3632 men killed, 8322 wounded, in all11,954; and over 7000 from sickness. Of the garrison, originally15,000 strong, and reinforced by the 1800 horsemen who made theirway through the allied camp, but 4500 remained alive at the time ofthe final capitulation.

  Marshall Boufflers only surrendered the citadel on the expressorder of Louis the 14th not to throw away any more lives of thebrave men under him. At the time of the surrender the last flask ofpowder was exhausted, and the garrison had long been living onhorseflesh.

  After Lille had fallen, Marlborough, by a feint of going intowinter quarters, threw the French generals off their guard; andthen by a rapid dash through their lines fell upon Ghent andBruges, and recaptured those cities before Vendome had time tocollect and bring up his army to save them.

  Then ended one of the most remarkable campaigns in the annals ofour own or any other history.