se, was the very worst course which could have been
adopted. The army should neither fall back, as the Dutch wished;
nor attack at once, as Marlborough desired. It was resolved not to
abandon the siege of Mons, and to attack the enemy if they would
not take the offensive; but to wait until Saint Ghislain, which
commanded a passage on the Haine, was taken; and until twenty-six
battalions on the march from Tournai arrived.

It was two days before these conditions were fulfilled; and Villars
had used these two precious days in throwing up a series of
immensely strong works. The heights he occupied formed a concave
semicircle, enfilading on all sides the little plain of Malplaquet,
and this semicircle now bristled with redoubts, palisades, abattis,
and stockades; while the two trouees, or openings, by which it was
presumed that the allies would endeavour to force an entrance, were
so enfiladed by cross batteries as to be well-nigh unassailable.
Half the French army by turns had laboured ceaselessly at the
works, during the two days which the cowardly folly of the Dutch
deputies had given them; and the result was the works resembled
rather the fortifications of a fortress, than ordinary field works.
Marlborough and Eugene had seen from hour to hour the progress of
these formidable works, and resolved to mask their front attack by
a strong demonstration on the enemy's rear. The troops coming up
from Tournai, under General Withers, were ordered not to join the
main army; but to cross the Haine at Saint Ghislain, and to attack
the extreme left of the enemy at the farm of La Folie. Baron
Schulemberg was to attack the left flank of the entrenchments in
the wood of Taisniere, with forty of Eugene's battalions, supported
by as many cannon; while Count Lottum was to attack the right flank
of the wood with twenty-two battalions. The rest of the army was to
attack in front; but it was from Eugene's attack in the wood of
Taisniere that success was chiefly hoped.

At three o'clock on the morning of the 11th the men were got under
arms, divine service was performed at the head of each regiment,
and then the troops marched to the posts assigned to them in the
attack. Both armies were confident, the French enthusiastic.

The allies relied on their unbroken series of victories. Never once
since the war begun had they suffered defeat; and with Eugene as
well as Marlborough with them, they felt confident of their power
to carry a position