July he suddenly broke up from
Braine-le-Leude, and marching rapidly all night, advanced towards Hall
and Tubise, dispatching at the same time, parties towards such towns in
that quarter as had maintained a correspondence with him. One of these
parties, by the connivance of the watch, made itself master of Ghent. At
the same time Bruges was surrendered to another party under the Count de
la Motte; the small but important fort of Plassendael was carried by
storm, and a detachment sent to recover Ghent found the gates shut by
the inhabitants, who had now openly joined the enemy, and invested the
Allied garrison in the citadel.

Marlborough no sooner heard of this movement than he followed with his
army; but he arrived in the neighbourhood of Tubise in time only to
witness their passage of the Senne, near that place. Giving orders to
his troops to prepare for battle, he put himself in motion at one next
morning, intending to bring the enemy to an immediate action. The
activity of Vendome, however, baffled his design. He made his men, weary
as they were, march all night and cross the Dender at several points,
breaking down the bridges between Alort and Oerdegun, and the Allies
only arrived in time to make three hundred prisoners from the rearguard.
Scarcely had they recovered from this disappointment, when intelligence
arrived of the surprise of Ghent and Bruges; while, at the same time,
the ferment in Brussels, owing to the near approach of the French to
that capital, became so great, that there was every reason to apprehend
a similar disaster, from the disaffection of some of its inhabitants.
The most serious apprehensions also were entertained for Oudenarde, the
garrison of which was feeble, and its works dilapidated. Marlborough,
therefore, dispatched instant orders to Lord Chandos, who commanded at
Ath, to collect all the detachments he could from the garrisons in the
neighbourhood, and throw himself into that fortress, and with such
diligence were these orders executed that Oudenarde was secured against
a _coup-de-main_, before the French outposts appeared before it.
Vendome, however, felt himself strong enough to undertake its siege in
form. He drew his army round it; the investment was completed on the
evening of the 9th, and a train of heavy artillery ordered from Tournay,
to commence the siege,[18] while he himself with the covering army, took
post in a strong camp at Lessines, on the river Dender.

Such was the