Marlborough was half inclined to wait for Eugene's troops, for he knew that Vendome was no ordinary opponent, but Eugene counselled immediate action lest the French should escape, and relying on his own skill and on the well-known disunion in the French headquarters, Marlborough went forward. As he ap proached, the enemy gave up the siege of Oudenarde and took up a position at Gavre, 7 m. lower down the Scheldt. Here the dis sensions in the French headquarters became flagrant. VendOme began to place part of the army in position along the river while the duke of Burgundy was posting the rest much farther back as another line of defence. The allied main body, marching with all speed, crossed the Scheldt at all hazards. In the encounter battle which followed (see OUDENARDE) Marlborough separated, cut off and destroyed the French right wing. The French re treated in disorder on Ghent (July II) with a loss of 15,000 men. Marlborough was prevented from carrying out his desire for a prompt move on Paris after Oudenarde. For the moment Berwick, recalled from Alsace, manoeuvred about Douay, while VendOme remained near Ghent, and between them Marlborough's and Eu gene's armies devoted themselves to the siege of Lille. In this town, one of Vauban's masterpieces of fortification, the old Marshal Boufflers had undertaken the defence, and it offered a long and unusually gallant resistance to Eugene's army. Marl borough covered the siege. The French generals limited their efforts first to attempting to intercept a huge convoy of artillery and stores that the allies brought up from Brussels for the siege, and secondly to destroy another convoy that was brought up from Ostend by the General Webb known to readers of Esmond. The futile attack upon the second convoy is known as the action of Wynendael (Sept. 28).
On Dec. 8 the brave old marshal surrendered, Eugene compli menting him by allowing him to dictate the terms of capitulation. Ghent and Bruges were retaken by the allies without difficulty, and, to add to the disasters of Oudenarde and Lille, a terrible win ter almost completed the ruin of France. In despair Louis nego tiated for peace, but the coalition offered such hard terms that not only the king, but his people also, resolved to fight to the end. 1709, Malplaquet.—When spring came round Marlborough proposed to make a daring thrust toward Paris, masking the f or tresses, but this scheme was too bold even for Eugene, who pre ferred to reduce the strong places before going on. Lille having
been successfully besieged, Tournai was the next objective, and the allies suddenly and secretly left their camps before Lille as if for an attack on the Douai lines (June 26-27). But before noon on the 27th they had invested Tournai. A few days afterwards their siege guns came up from Menin by water (down the Lys and up the Scheldt) and the siege was pressed with intense vigour. But it was Sept. 3 before the citadel capitulated. Then Marl borough, free to move again, transferred his army secretly and by degrees to the river Haine, and burst through the French lines almost unopposed. Mons was weakly held, and Marlborough hoped by the rapidity of his operations to take it before Villars could interrupt him. But Villars also moved quickly, and his eager army was roused to enthusiasm by the arrival of Boufflers, who, senior as he was to Villars, had come forward again at the moment of danger to serve as his second in command. Thinking that the allies were somewhat farther to the east than they were in fact, the French marshal marched secretly, screened by the broken and wooded ground, to the south of the fortress, and occupied the gap of Aulnois-Malplaquet (Sept. 9) to work feverishly to entrench himself. Marlborough at once giving up the siege of Mons brought his army forward to attack as rapidly as his brigades came on the scene. At this crisis the duke submitted the question of battle— unwillingly, as one may imagine—to a council of war, and Eu gene himself was opposed to fighting an improvised battle when so much was at stake, and it was not until the iith that the duke delivered his attack on the now thoroughly entrenched position of the French. The battle of Malplaquet (q.v.) was by far the most desperately contested of the war. In the end Boufflers, who took command when Villars was wounded, acknowledged defeat and drew off in good order. Eugene was wounded, and Marl borough, after the most terrible experience in any soldier's life time, had only enough energy remaining to take Mons before he retired into winter quarters. The loss of the French is given vari ously as 7,000 and 12,000. The allies sacrificed no less, probably more, than 20,000 men.