light continued for two hours longer, would
have been all taken or destroyed. Their gallant right was left to its
fate; while Eugene, by directing the drums of his regiments to beat the
French _assemblee_, made great numbers of their left and centre
prisoners. Some thousands of the right slipped unobserved to the
westward near the castle of Bevere, and made their way in a confused
body toward France, but the greater part of that wing were killed or
taken. Vendome with charateristic presence of mind formed a rearguard of
a few battalions and twenty-five squadrons, with which he covered the
retreat of the centre and left; but the remainder of those parts of the
army fell into total confusion, and fled headlong in wild disorder
towards Ghent.[24]

We have the authority of Marborough for the assertion, that "if he had
had two hours more of daylight the French army would have been
irretrievably routed, great part of it killed or taken, and the war
terminated on that day."[25] As it was, the blow struck was prodigious,
and entirely altered the character and issue of the campaign. The French
lost six thousand men in killed and wounded, besides nine thousand
prisoners and one hundred standards wrested from them in fair fight. The
Allied were weakened by five thousand men for the French were superior
in number and fought well, having been defeated solely by the superior
generalship of the Allied commanders.[26]

No sooner did daylight appear, than forty squadrons were detached
towards Ghent in pursuit of the enemy; while Marlborough himself, with
characteristic humanity, visited the field of battle, doing his utmost
to assuage the sufferings, and provide for the cure of the numerous
wounded--alike friend and foe--who encumbered its bloody expanse. Count
Lottnow was sent with thirty battalions and fifty squadrons, to possess
himself of the lines which the enemy had constructed between Ipres and
Warneton, which that officer did with vigour and success, making five
hundred prisoners. This was the more fortunate, as, at the moment they
were taken, the Duke of Berwick, with the French army from the Moselle,
was hastening up, and had exhorted the garrison to defend the lines to
the last extremity. At the same time, the corresponding Allied army,
commanded by Eugene, arrived at Brussels, so that both sides were
largely reinforced. Berwick's corps, which consisted of thirty-four
battalions and fifty-five squadrons, was so considerable,