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diff --git a/32257.txt b/32257.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c4f666 --- /dev/null +++ b/32257.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2748 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Malplaquet, by Hilaire Belloc + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Malplaquet + +Author: Hilaire Belloc + +Release Date: May 5, 2010 [EBook #32257] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MALPLAQUET *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +MALPLAQUET + + + +[Illustration: _Malplaquet._ + +_Frontispiece._] + + + + + MALPLAQUET + + + BY + HILAIRE BELLOC + + + LONDON + STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD. + 10 JOHN STREET, ADELPHI + 1911 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I. THE POLITICAL MEANING OF MALPLAQUET 9 + + II. THE SIEGE OF TOURNAI 27 + + III. THE MANOEUVRING FOR POSITION 45 + + IV. THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE 52 + + V. THE ACTION 65 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + Sketch Map showing how the Lines of La Bassee + blocked the advance of the Allies on Paris, + and Marlborough's plan for turning them by + the successive capture of Tournai and Mons 19 + + Sketch Map showing how the Allies, holding + Lille, thrust the French back on to the + defensive line St Venant-Valenciennes, and + thus cut off the French garrisons of Ypres, + Tournai, and Mons 28 + + Sketch Map showing complete investment of + Tournai 34 + + Sketch Map showing the lines of woods behind + Mons, with the two gaps of Boussu and Aulnois 48 + + The Elements of the Action of Malplaquet, + September 11th, 1709 66 + + Sketch Map showing the peril the French centre + ran towards noon of being turned on its left 79 + + Sketch Map showing Marlborough bringing up + troops to the centre for the final and + successful attack upon the entrenchments 84 + + + + +MALPLAQUET + + + + +I + +THE POLITICAL MEANING OF MALPLAQUET + + +That political significance which we must seek in all military history, +and without which that history cannot be accurate even upon its technical +side, may be stated for the battle of Malplaquet in the following terms. + +Louis XIV. succeeding to a cautious and constructive period in the +national life of France, this in its turn succeeding to the long impotence +of the religious wars, found at his orders when his long minority was +ended a society not only eager and united, but beginning also to give +forth the fruit due to three active generations of discussion and combat. + +Every department of the national life manifested an extreme vitality, and, +while the orderly and therefore convincing scheme of French culture +imposed itself upon Western Europe, there followed in its wake the triumph +of French arms; the king in that triumph nearly perfected a realm which +would have had for its limits those of ancient Gaul. + +It would be too long a matter to describe, even in general terms, the +major issues depending upon Louis XIV.'s national ambitions and their +success or failure. + +In one aspect he stands for the maintenance of Catholic civilisation +against the Separatist and dissolving forces of the Protestant North; in +another he is the permanent antagonist of the Holy Roman Empire, or rather +of the House of Austria, which had attained to a permanent hegemony +therein. An extravagant judgment conceives his great successes as a menace +to the corporate independence of Europe, or--upon the other view--as the +opportunity for the founding of a real European unity. + +But all these general considerations may, for the purposes of military +history, be regarded in the single light of the final and decisive action +which Louis XIV. took when he determined in the year 1701 to support the +claims of his young grandson to the throne of Spain. This it was which +excited against him a universal coalition, and acts following upon that +main decision drew into the coalition the deciding factor of Great +Britain. + +The supremacy of French arms had endured in Europe for forty years when +the Spanish policy was decided on. Louis was growing old. That financial +exhaustion which almost invariably follows a generation of high national +activity, and which is almost invariably masked by pompous outward state, +was a reality already present though as yet undiscovered in the condition +of France. + +It was at the close of that year 1701 that the French king had determined +upon a union of the two crowns of France and Spain in his own family. His +forces occupied the Spanish Netherlands, which we now call the Kingdom of +Belgium; others of his armies were spread along the Rhine, or were acting +in Northern Italy--for the coalition at once began to make itself felt. +Two men of genius combined in an exact agreement, the qualities of each +complementing the defects of the other, to lead the main armies that were +operating against the French. These men were Prince Eugene of Savoy +(French by birth and training, a voluntary exile, and inspired throughout +his life by a determination to avenge himself upon Louis XIV.), and the +Englishman John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. + +The combination of such a pair was irresistible. Its fruit appeared almost +at the inception of the new situation in the great victory of Blenheim. + +This action, fought in August 1704, was the first great defeat French arms +had registered in that generation. Henceforward the forces commanded from +Versailles were compelled to stand upon the defensive. + +To Blenheim succeeded one blow after another. In 1706 the great battle of +Ramillies, in 1708 the crushing action of Oudenarde, confirmed the +supremacy of the allies and the abasement of France. By the opening of +1709 the final defeat of Louis and his readiness to sue for peace were +taken for granted. + +The financial exhaustion which I have said was already present, though +hardly suspected, in 1701, was grown by 1709 acute. The ordinary methods +of recruitment for the French army--which nominally, of course, was upon a +voluntary basis--had long reached and passed their limit. The failure of +the harvest in 1708, followed by a winter of terrible severity, had +completed the catastrophe, and with the ensuing spring of 1709 Louis had +no alternative but to approach the allies with terms of surrender. + +It seemed as though at last the way to Paris lay open. The forces of the +allies in the Netherlands were not only numerically greatly superior to +any which the exhausted French could now set against them, but in their +equipment, in their supplies, the nourishment of the men, and every +material detail, they were upon a footing wholly superior to the +corresponding units of the enemy, man for man. They had further the +incalculable advantage of prestige. Victory seemed normal to them, defeat +to their opponents; and so overwhelming were the chances of the coalition +against Louis that its leaders determined with judgment to demand from +that monarch the very fullest and most humiliating terms. + +Though various sections of the allies differed severally as to their +objects and requirements, their general purpose of completely destroying +the power of France for offence, of recapturing all her conquests, and in +particular of driving the Bourbons from the throne of Spain, was held in +common, and vigorously pursued. + +Marlborough was as active as any in pushing the demands to the furthest +possible point; Eugene, the ruling politicians of the English, the Dutch, +and the German princes were agreed. + +Louis naturally made every effort to lessen the blow, though he regarded +his acceptance of grave and permanent humiliation as inevitable. The +negotiations were undertaken at the Hague, and were protracted. They +occupied the late spring of 1709 and stretched into the beginning of +summer. The French king was prepared (as his instructions to his +negotiators show) to give up every point, though he strove to bargain for +what remained after each concession. He would lose the frontier +fortresses, which were the barrier of his kingdom in the north-east. He +would even consent to the abandonment of Spain to Austria. + +Had that peace been declared for which the captains of Europe were +confidently preparing, the future history of our civilisation would have +proved materially different from what it has become. It is to be presumed +that a complete breakdown of the strength of France would have followed; +that the monarchy at Versailles would have sunk immediately into such +disrepute that the eighteenth century would have seen France divided and +possibly a prey to civil war, and one may even conclude that the great +events of a century later, the Revolution and the campaigns of Napoleon, +could not have sprung from so enfeebled a society. + +It so happened, however, that one of those slight miscalculations which +are productive in history of its chief consequences, prevented the +complete humiliation of Louis XIV. The demands of the allies were pushed +in one last respect just beyond the line which it was worth the while of +the defeated party to accept, for it was required of the old king not only +that he should yield in every point, not only that he should abandon the +claims of his own grandson to the throne of Spain (which throne Louis +himself had now, after eight years of wise administration, singularly +strengthened), but himself take arms against that grandson and co-operate +in his proper shame by helping to oust him from it. It was stipulated that +Louis should so act (if his grandson should show resistance and still +clung to his throne) in company with those who had been for so many years +his bitter and successful foes. + +This last small item in the programme of the victors changed all. It +destroyed in the mind of Louis and of his subjects the advantages of the +disgraceful peace which they had thought themselves compelled to accept; +and, as Louis himself well put it, if he were still compelled to carry on +the war, it was better to fail in pursuing it against his enemies than +against his own household. + +The king issued to the authorities of his kingdom and to his people a +circular letter, which remains a model of statesmanlike appeal. Grave, +brief, and resolute, it exactly expressed the common mood of the moment. +It met with an enthusiastic response. The depleted countrysides just +managed to furnish the armies with a bare pittance of oats and rye (for +wheat was unobtainable). Recruits appeared in unexpected numbers; and +though none could believe that the issue could be other than disastrous, +the campaign of 1709 was undertaken by a united nation. + +Of French offensive action against the overwhelming forces of their +enemies there could be no question. Villars, who commanded the armies of +Louis XIV. upon the north-eastern frontier, opposing Marlborough and +Eugene, drew up a line of defence consisting of entrenchments, flooded +land, and the use of existing watercourses, a line running from the +neighbourhood of Douai away eastward to the Belgian frontier. Behind this +line, with his headquarters at La Bassee,[1] he waited the fatal assault. + +It was at the close of June that the enemy's great forces moved. Their +first action was not an attempt to penetrate the line but to take the +fortresses upon its right, which taken, the defence might be turned. They +therefore laid siege to Tournai, the first of the two fortresses guarding +the right of the French line. (Mons was the second.) + +Here the first material point in the campaign showed the power of +resistance that tradition and discipline yet maintained in the French +army. The long resistance of Tournai and its small garrison largely +determined what was to follow. Its siege had been undertaken in the hope +of its rapid termination, which the exiguity of its garrison and the +impossibility of its succour rendered probable. But though Marlborough had +established his headquarters before the place by the evening of the 27th +of June, and Eugene upon the next day, the 28th, though trenches were +opened in the first week of July and the first of the heavy fighting +began upon the 8th of that month, though the town itself was occupied +after a fortnight's struggle, yet it was not until the 3rd of September +that the citadel surrendered. + +This protracted resistance largely determined what was to follow. While it +lasted no action could be undertaken against Villars. Meanwhile the French +forces were growing stronger, and, most important of all, the first +results of the harvest began to be felt. + +Tournai once taken, it was the business of the allies to pierce the French +line of defence as soon as possible, and with that object to bring Villars +to battle and to defeat him. + +The plan chosen for this object was as follows:-- + +The allied army to march to the extreme right of the positions which the +French could hope to defend. There the allies would contain the little +garrison of Mons. Thither the mass of the French forces must march in +order to bar the enemy's advance upon Paris, and upon some point near Mons +the whole weight of the allies could fall upon them, destroy them, and +leave the way to the capital open. + + +[Illustration: Sketch Map showing how the Lines of La Bassee blocked the +advance of the Allies on Paris, and Marlborough's plan for turning them by +the successive capture of Tournai and Mons.] + + +The plan was strategically wise. The lines of La Bassee proper could not +be pierced, but this right extremity of the French positions was backed by +easy country; the swamps, canals, and entrenchments of the main line to +the north and west were absent. With the defeat of the inferior French +forces at this point all obstacle to an advance into the heart of France +would be removed. + +The plan was as rapidly executed as it was skilfully devised. Actually +before the capitulation of the citadel of Tournai, but when it was +perceived that that capitulation could only be a matter of hours, Lord +Orkney had begun to advance upon the neighbourhood of Mons. Upon the day +of the capitulation of Tournai, the Prince of Hesse-Cassel had started for +Mons, Cadogan following him with the cavalry. Less than twenty-four hours +after Tournai had yielded, the whole allied army was on the march +throughout the night. Never was a military operation performed with +organisation more exact, or with obedience more prompt. Three days later +Mons was contained, and by Monday the 9th of September Villars awaited, +some few miles to the west of that fortress, the assault of the allies. + +There followed two days of delay, which will be discussed in detail +later. For the purposes of this introductory survey of the political +meaning of the battle, it is enough to fix the date, Wednesday, 11th +September 1709. A little before eight o'clock on the morning of that day +the first cannon-shot of the battle of Malplaquet was fired. To the +numerical superiority of the allies the French could oppose entrenchment +and that character in the locality of the fight, or "terrain," which will +be fully described on a later page. To the superior _moral_, equipment, +and subsistence of the allies, however, it was doubtful whether any factor +could be discovered on the French side. + +An unexpected enthusiasm lent something to the French resistance; the +delay of two days lent something more to their defensive power. As will be +seen in the sequel, certain errors (notably upon the left of Marlborough's +line) also contributed to the result, and the whole day was passed in a +series of attacks and counter-attacks which left the French forces intact, +and permitted them in the early afternoon to rely upon the exhaustion of +the enemy and to leave, in order and without loss, the field to the enemy. + +Marlborough's victory at Malplaquet was both honourable and great. The +French were compelled to withdraw; the allies occupied upon the evening +of the battle the ground upon which the struggle had taken place. It is +with justice that Malplaquet is counted as the fourth of those great +successful actions which distinguish the name of Marlborough, and it is +reckoned with justice the conclusion of the series whose three other terms +are Blenheim, Ramillies, and Oudenarde. So much might suffice did war +consist in scoring points as one does in a game. But when we consider war +as alone it should be considered for the serious purposes of history--that +is, in its political aspect; and when we ask what Malplaquet was in the +political sequence of European events, the withdrawal of the French from +the field in the early afternoon of September 11, 1709, has no +significance comparable to the fact that the allies could not pursue. + +Strategically the victory meant that an army which it was intended to +destroy had maintained itself intact; morally, the battle left the +defeated more elated than the victors; and for this reason, that the +result was so much more in their favour than the expectation had been. In +what is most important of all, the general fortunes of the campaign, the +victory of the allies at Malplaquet was as sure a signal that the advance +on Paris could not be made, and as sure a prevention of that advance as +though Marlborough and Eugene had registered, not a success, but a defeat. + +Situations of this sort, which render victories barren or actually +negative, paradoxical to the general reader, simple enough in their +military aspect, abound in the history of war. It is perhaps more +important to explain them if one is to make military history intelligible +than to describe the preliminaries and movements of the great decisive +action. + +The "block" of Malplaquet (to use the metaphor which is common in French +history), the unexpected power of resistance which this last of the French +armies displayed, and the moral effect of that resistance upon the allies, +have an historical meaning almost as high as that of Blenheim upon the +other side. It has been well said that one may win every battle and yet +lose a campaign; there is a sense in which it may be said that one may win +a campaign and suffer political loss as the result. + +Malplaquet was the turning-point after which it was evident that the +decline of the French position in Europe would go no further. As Blenheim +had marked the turn of the tide against Louis, so Malplaquet marked the +slack water when the tide was ready to turn in his favour. After Blenheim +it was certain that the ambition of Louis XIV. was checked, and probable +that it would wholly fail. After Malplaquet it was equally certain that +the total destruction of Louis' power was impossible, that the project of +a march on Paris might be abandoned, and that the last phases of the great +war would diminish the chances of the allies. + +The Dutch (whose troops in particular had been annihilated upon the left +of the field) did indeed maintain their uncompromising attitude, but no +longer with the old certitude of success; Austria also and her allies did +continue the war, but a war doomed to puerility, to a sort of stale-mate +bound to end in compromise. But it was in England that the effect of the +battle was most remarkable. + +In England, where opinion had but tardily accepted the necessity for war +nine years before, and where the fruits of that war were now regarded as +quite sufficient for the satisfaction of English demands, this negative +action, followed by no greater fruit than the capitulation of the little +garrison at Mons, began the agitation for peace. Look closely at that +agitation through its details, and personal motives will confuse you; the +motives of the queen, of Harley, of Marlborough's enemies. Look at it in +the general light of the national history and you will perceive that the +winter following Malplaquet, a winter of disillusionment and discontent, +bred in England an opinion that made peace certain at last. The accusation +against Marlborough that he fought the battle with an eye to his failing +political position is probably unjust. The accusation that he fought it +from a lust of bloodshed is certainly a stupid calumny. But the +unpopularity of so great a man succeeding upon so considerable a technical +success sufficiently proves at what a price the barrenness of that success +was estimated in England. It was the English Government that first opened +secret negotiations with Louis for peace in the following year; and when +the great instrument which closed the war was signed at Utrecht in 1713, +it was after the English troops had been withdrawn from their allies, +after Eugene, acting single-handed, had suffered serious check, and in +general the Peace of Utrecht was concluded under conditions far more +favourable to Louis than would have been any peace signed at the Hague in +1709. The Spanish Netherlands were ceded to Austria, but France kept +intact what is still her Belgian frontier. She preserved what she has +since lost on the frontier of the Rhine, and (most remarkable of all!) the +grandson of Louis was permitted to remain upon the Spanish throne. + +Such is the general political setting of this fierce action, one of the +most determined known in the history of European arms, and therefore one +of the most legitimately glorious; one in which men were most ready at the +call of duty and under the influences of discipline to sacrifice their +lives in the defence of a common cause; and one which, as all such +sacrifices must, illumines the history of the several national traditions +concerned, of the English as of the Dutch, of the German principalities as +of the French. + +No action better proves the historical worth of valour. + + + + +II + +THE SIEGE OF TOURNAI + + +When the negotiations for peace had failed, that is, with the opening of +June 1709, the King of France and his forces had particularly to dread an +invasion of the country and the march on Paris. + +The accompanying sketch map will show under what preoccupations the French +commander upon the north-eastern frontier lay. + +Lille was in the hands of the enemy. There was still a small French +garrison in Ypres, another in Tournai, and a third in Mons. These of +themselves (considering that Lille, the great town, was now occupied by +the allies, and considering also the width of the gap between Ypres and +Tournai) could not prevent the invasion and the advance on the capital. + +It was necessary to oppose some more formidable barrier to the line of +advance which topography marked out for the allies into the heart of +France. + + +[Illustration: Sketch Map showing how the Allies holding Lille thrust the +French back on to the defensive line St Venant-Valenciennes, and thus cut +off the French garrisons of Ypres, Tournai, and Mons.] + + +Some fear was indeed expressed lest a descent should be made on the coasts +and an advance attempted along the valley of the Somme. The fear was +groundless. To organise the transportation of troops thus by sea, to +disembark them, to bring and continue the enormous supply of provisions +and ammunition they would require, was far less practical than to use the +great forces already drawn up under Marlborough and Eugene in the Low +Countries. Of what size these forces were we shall see in a moment. + +The barrier, then, which Villars at the head of the French forces +proceeded to erect, and which is known in history as "The Lines of La +Bassee," are the first point upon which we must fix our attention in order +to understand the campaign of Malplaquet, and why that battle took place +where it did. + +It was upon the 3rd of June that Louis XIV. had written to Villars telling +him that a renewal of the war would now be undertaken. On the 14th, +Villars began to throw up earth for the formation of an entrenched camp +between the marshy ground of Hulluch and that of Cuinchy. Here he proposed +to concentrate the mass of his forces, with La Bassee just before him, +the town of Lens behind. He used the waterways and the swamped ground in +front and to the right for the formation of his defensive lines. These +followed the upper valley of the Deule, the line of its canal, and finally +reposed their right upon the river Scarpe. Though the regularly fortified +line went no further than the camp near La Bassee, he also threw up a +couple of entrenchments in front of Bethune and St Venant in order to +cover any march he might have to make towards his left should the enemy +attempt to turn him in that direction. + +It must further be noted that from the Scarpe eastward went the old "lines +of La Trouille" thrown up in a former campaign, and now largely useless, +but still covering, after a fashion, the neighbourhood of Mons. + +Toward the end of the month of June Villars awaited the advance of the +allies. His forces were inferior by 40,000 to those of his enemy. He had +but eight men to their twelve. The season of the year, immediately +preceding the harvest, made the victualling of his troops exceedingly +difficult, nor was it until the day before the final assault was expected +that the moneys necessary to their pay, and to the other purposes of the +army, reached him; but he had done what he could, and, acting upon a +national tradition which is as old as Rome, he had very wisely depended +upon fortification. + +The same conditions of the season which produced something like famine in +the French camp, though they did not press equally severely upon that of +the allies, rendered difficult the provisioning of their vast army also. + +It was the first intention of Marlborough and Eugene to attack the lines +at once, to force them, and to destroy the command of Villars. But these +lines had been carefully reconnoitred, notably by Cadogan, who, with a +party of English officers, and under a disguise, had made himself +acquainted with their strength. It was determined, therefore, at the last +moment, partly also from the fears of the Dutch, to whom the possession of +every fortress upon the frontier was of paramount importance, to make but +a "feint" upon Villars' lines and to direct the army upon Tournai as its +true object. The feint took the form of Eugene's marching towards the left +or western extremity of the line, Marlborough towards the eastern or right +extremity near Douai, and this general movement was effected on the night +of the 26th and 27th of June. In the midst of its execution, the feint +(which for the moment deceived Villars) was arrested. + +The 27th was passed without a movement, Villars refusing to leave his +entrenchments, and the commanders of the allies giving no hint of their +next intention. But during that same day Tilly with the Dutch had appeared +before Tournai. On the evening of the day Marlborough himself was before +the town. On the 28th Prince Eugene joined both the Dutch and Marlborough +before the town, taking up his headquarters at Froyennes, Marlborough +being at Willemeau, and the Dutch, under Tilly, already established on the +east of Tournai from Antoing to Constantin, just opposite Eugene, where +they threw a bridge across the Scheldt. By the evening of the 28th, +therefore, Tournai was invested on every side, and the great allied armies +of between 110,000 and 120,000 men had abandoned all hope of carrying +Villars' lines, and had sat down to the capture of the frontier +fortress.[2] + +A comprehension of this siege of Tournai, which so largely determined the +fortunes of the campaign of Malplaquet, will be aided by the accompanying +sketch map. Here it is apparent that Marlborough with his headquarters at +Willemeau, Eugene with his at Froyennes, the Dutch under Tilly in a +semicircle from Antoing to Constantin, completed the investment of the +fortress, and that the existing bridge at Antoing which the Dutch +commanded, the bridge at Constantin which they had constructed, giving +access over the river to the north and to the south, made the circle +complete. + + +[Illustration: Sketch Map showing complete investment of Tournai.] + + +The fortifications of Tournai were excellent. Vauban had superintended +that piece of engineering in person, and the scheme of the fortifications +was remarkable from the strength of the citadel which lay apart from the +town (though within its ring of earthworks) to the south. The traveller +can still recognise in its abandonment this enormous achievement of Louis +XIV.'s sappers, and the opposition it was about to offer to the great +hosts of Marlborough and Eugene does almost as much honour to the genius +of the French engineer as to the tenacity of the little garrison then +defending it. + +Two factors in the situation must first be appreciated by the reader. + +The first is that the inferiority of Villars' force made it impossible for +him to do more than demonstrate against the army of observation. He was +compelled to leave Tournai to its fate, and, indeed, the king in his first +instructions, Villars in his reply, had taken it for granted that either +that town or Ypres would be besieged and must fall. But the value of a +fortress depends not upon its inviolability (for that can never be +reckoned with), but upon the length of time during which it can hold out, +and in this respect Tournai was to give full measure. + +Secondly, it must be set down for the allies that their unexpectedly long +task was hampered by exceptional weather. Rain fell continually, and +though their command of the Scheldt lessened in some degree the problem of +transport, rain in those days upon such roads as the allies drew their +supplies by was a heavy handicap. The garrison of Tournai numbered +thirteen and a half battalions, five detached companies, the complement of +gunners necessary for the artillery, and a couple of Irish brigades--in +all, counting the depleted condition of the French units at the moment, +some six to seven thousand men. Perhaps, counting every combatant and +non-combatant attached to the garrison, a full seven thousand men. + +The command of this force was under Surville, in rank a +lieutenant-general. Ravignon and Dolet were his subordinates. There was no +lack of wheat for so small a force. Rationed, it was sufficient for four +months. Meat made default, and, what was important with a large civil +population encumbering the little garrison, money. Surville, the bishop, +and others melted down their plate; even that of the altars in the town +was sacrificed. + +The first trench was opened on the night of the 7th of July, and three +first attacks were delivered: one by the gate called Marvis, which looks +eastward, another by the gate of Valenciennes, the third at the gate known +as that of the Seven Springs. A sortie of the second of these was fairly +successful, and upon this model the operations continued for five days. + +By the end of that time a hundred heavy pieces had come up the Scheldt +from Ghent, and sixty mortars as well. Four great batteries were formed. +That to the south opened fire upon the 13th of July, and on the 14th the +three others joined it. + +The discipline maintained in the great camps of the besiegers was severe, +and the besieged experienced the unusual recruitment of five hundred to +six hundred deserters who penetrated within their lines. A considerable +body of deserters also betook themselves to Villars' lines, and the +operations in these first days were sufficiently violent to account for +some four thousand killed and wounded upon the side of the allies. +Villars, meanwhile, could do no more than demonstrate without effect. +Apart from the inferiority of his force, it was still impossible for him, +until the harvest was gathered, to establish a sufficient accumulation of +wheat to permit a forward movement. He never had four days' provision of +bread at any one time, nor, considering the length of his line, could he +concentrate it upon any one place. He was fed by driblets from day to day, +and lived from hand to mouth while the siege of Tournai proceeded to the +east of him. + +That siege was entering, with the close of the month, upon the end of its +first phase. + +It had been a desperate combat of mine and counter-mine even where the +general circumvallation of the town was concerned, though the worst, of +course, was to come when the citadel should be attacked. The batteries +against the place had been increased until they counted one hundred and +twelve heavy pieces and seventy mortars. On the night of the 24th of July +the covered way on the right of the Scheldt was taken at heavy loss; +forty-eight hours later the covered way on the left between the river and +the citadel. The horn work in front of the Gate of the Seven Springs was +carried on the 27th, and the isolated work between this point and the Gate +of Lille upon the following day. Surville in his report, in the true +French spirit of self-criticism, ascribed to the culpable failure of +their defenders the loss of these outworks. But the loss, whatever its +cause, determined the loss of the town. A few hours later practicable +breaches had been made in the walls, ways were filled in over the ditches, +and on the imminence of a general assault Surville upon the 28th demanded +terms. The capitulation was signed on the 29th, and with it the commander +sent a letter to Versailles detailing his motives for demanding terms for +the civilian population. Finally, upon the 30th,[3] Surville with 4000 +men, all that was left of his original force of 7000, retired into the +citadel and there disposed himself for as a long a resistance as might be. +As his good fortune decided, he was to be able to hold with this small +force for five full weeks. + +To Marlborough is due the honour of the capitulation. The besieging troops +were under his command, while Eugene directed the army of observation to +the west. Marlborough put some eight thousand men into the town under +Albemarle. A verbal understanding was given on both sides that the +citadel would not fire upon the civilian part, nor the allies make an +attack from it upon the citadel, and the siege of that stronghold began +upon the following day, the 21st, towards evening. The operations against +the citadel proved far more severe and a far greater trial to +Marlborough's troops than those against the general circumvallation of the +town. The subterranean struggle of mine and counter-mine particularly +affected the moral of the allies, and after a week a proposal appeared[4] +that the active fighting should cease, the siege be converted into a +blockade, and only the small number of men sufficient for such a blockade +be left before the citadel until the 5th of September, up to which date, a +month ahead, at the utmost, it was believed the garrison could hold out. +Louis was willing to accept the terms upon the condition that this month +should be one of general truce. The allies refused this condition, and +hostilities were resumed.[5] + +The force employed for containing the citadel and for prosecuting its +siege had no necessity to be very large. + +It was warfare of a terrible kind. Men met underground in the mines, were +burned alive when these were sprung, were exhausted, sometimes to death, +in the subterranean and perilous labour. The mass of the army was free to +menace Villars and his main body. + +But the admirable engineering which had instructed and completed the lines +of La Bassee still checked the allies, in spite of superior numbers and +provisionment still superior. + +The effect of the harvest was indeed just beginning to be felt, and the +French general was beginning to have a little more elbow-room, so to +speak, for the disposition of his men through the gradual replenishment of +his stores. But even so, Marlborough and Eugene had very greatly the +advantage of him in this respect. + +When the siege of the citadel of Tournai had been proceeding a little more +than a week, upon the 8th of August the main body of the allies fell +suddenly upon Marchiennes. Here the river Scarpe defended the main French +positions. The town itself lay upon the further bank like a bastion. The +attack was made under Tilly, and, consonantly to the strength of all +Villars' defensive positions, that attack failed. On the night of the 9th +Tilly retired from before Marchiennes, after having suffered the loss of +but a few of his men. + +This action, though but a detail in the campaign, is well worth noting, +because it exhibits in a sort of section, as it were, the causes of +Malplaquet. + +Malplaquet, as we shall see in a moment, was fought simply because it had +been impossible to pierce Villars' line, and Malplaquet, though a victory, +was a sterile victory, more useful to the defeated than to the victors, +because the defence had been kept up for such a length of time and was +able to choose its own terrain. + +Now all this character in the campaign preceding the battle is exemplified +in the attempt upon Marchiennes upon August 8th and 9th and its failure. +Had it succeeded, had the line been pierced, there would have been no +"block" at Malplaquet but an immediate invasion of France, just as there +would have been had the line been pierced in the first attempt of five +weeks before. + +In the next week and the next, Villars continually extended that line. He +brought it up solidly as far as St Venant on his left, as far as +Valenciennes on his right. He continually strengthened it, so that at no +one place should it need any considerable body of men to hold it, and that +the mass of the army should be free to move at will behind this strong +entrenchment and dyke, fortified as it was with careful inundation and the +use of two large rivers. + +Though the body of the allies again appeared in the neighbourhood of the +lines, no general attack was delivered, but on the 30th of August Villars +heard from deserters and spies that the citadel of Tournai was at the end +of its provisions. Though but a certain minority of the allied army was +necessary to contain that citadel, yet once it had fallen the whole of the +allied forces would be much freer to act. + +It was upon the 31st of August that Surville, finding himself at the end +of his provisionment of food, proposed capitulation. At first no +capitulation could be arrived at. Marlborough insisted upon the garrison's +complete surrender; Surville replied by threatening a destruction of the +place. It was not until the morning of the 3rd September that a +capitulation was signed in the form that the officers and soldiers of the +garrison should not be free to serve the king until after they had been +exchanged. The troops should march out with arms and colours, and should +have safe escort through the French lines to Douai. They reached that town +and camp upon the 4th, and an exchange of prisoners against their numbers +was soon effected. + +Thus after two months ended the siege of Tournai, a piece of resistance +which, as the reader will soon see, determined all that was to follow. Six +thousand four hundred men had held the place when it was first invested. +Of these, 1709 (nearly a third) had been killed; a number approximately +equal had been wounded. The figures are sufficient to show the desperate +character of the fighting, and how worthy this episode of war was on both +sides of the legends that arose from it. + + + + +III + +THE MANOEUVRING FOR POSITION + + +With the end of the siege of Tournai both armies were free, the one for +unfettered assault, the other to defend itself behind the lines as best it +might. + +To make a frontal attack upon Villars' lines at any point was justly +thought impossible after the past experience which Eugene and Marlborough +had of their strength. A different plan was determined on. Mons, with its +little garrison, should be invested, and the mass of the army should, on +that extreme right of the French position, attempt to break through the +old lines of the Trouille and invade France. + +Coincidently with the first negotiations for the capitulation of the +citadel of Tournai, this new plan was entered upon. Lord Orkney, with the +grenadiers of the army and between 2000 and 3000 mounted men, was sent +off on the march to the south-east just as the first negotiations of +Marlborough with Surville were opened. With this mobile force Orkney +attempted to pass the Haine at St Ghislain. He all but surprised that +point at one o'clock of the dark September night, but the French posts +were just in time. He was beaten off, and had to cross the river higher up +upon the eastern side of Mons, at Havre. + +The little check was not without its importance. It meant that the rapid +forward march of his vanguard had failed to force that extreme extension +of the French line, which was called "The Line of the Trouille" from the +name of the small river that falls into the Haine near Mons. In point of +time--which is everything in defensive warfare--the success of the defence +at St Ghislain meant that all action by the allies was retarded for pretty +well a week. Meanwhile, the weather had turned to persistent and harassing +rain, the allied army, "toiling through a sea of mud,"[6] had not invested +Mons even upon the eastern side until the evening of the 7th of September. +On the same day Villars took advantage of a natural feature, stronger for +purposes of defence than the line of the Trouille. This feature was the +belt of forest-land which lies south and a little west of Mons, between +that town and Bavai. He strengthened such forces as he had on the line of +the Trouille (the little posts which had checked the first advance upon +Mons, as I have said), concentrated the whole army just behind and west of +the forest barrier, and watching the two gaps of that barrier, whose +importance will be explained in a moment, he lay, upon the morning of +Sunday, September the 8th, in a line which stretched from the river Haine +at Montreuil to the bridge of Athis behind the woods; keeping watch upon +his right in case he should have to move the line down south suddenly to +meet an attack. As Villars so lay, he was in the position of a man who may +be attacked through one of two doors in a wall. Such a man would stand +between the two doors, watching both, and ready to spring upon that one +which might be attacked, and attempt to defend it. The wall was the wall +of wood, the two doors were the opening by Boussu and the other narrow +opening which is distinguished by the name of Aulnois, the principal +village at its mouth. It was this last which was to prove in the event the +battlefield. + +All this I must make plainer and elaborate in what follows, and close +this section by a mere statement of the manoeuvring for position. + + +[Illustration: Sketch Map showing the Lines of Woods behind Mons, with the +two gaps of Boussu and Aulnois.] + + +Villars lying, as I have said, with his right at Athis, his left on the +river Haine at Montreuil, Marlborough countered him by bringing the main +of his forces over the Trouille[7] so that they lay from Quevy to +Quaregnon. + +Eugene brought up his half, and drew it up as an extension of the Duke of +Marlborough's line, and by the evening of the Sunday and on the morning of +the Monday, all the troops who were at Tournai having been meanwhile +called up, the allied army lay opposite the second or southern of the two +openings in the forest wall. Villars during the Sunday shifted somewhat +to the left or the south in the course of the day to face the new position +of his enemy. It was evident upon that Monday morning the 9th of September +that the action, when it was forced, would be in the second and +southernmost of the two gaps. On that same Monday morning Villars brought +the whole of his army still further south and was now right in front of +the allies and barring the gap of Aulnois. By ten o'clock the centre of +the French forces was drawn up in front of the hamlet of Malplaquet, by +noon it had marched forward not quite a mile, stretched from wood to wood, +and awaited the onslaught. A few ineffective cannon-shots were exchanged, +but the expected attack was not delivered. Vastly to the advantage of the +French and to the inexplicable prejudice of the allies Marlborough and +Eugene wasted all that Monday and all the Tuesday following: the result we +shall see when we come to the battle, for Villars used every moment of his +respite to entrench and fortify without ceasing. + +With the drawing up of the French army across the gap, however, ends the +manoeuvring for position, and under the title of "The Preliminaries of +the Battle" I will next describe the arrival of Boufflers--a moral +advantage not to be despised--the terrain, the French defences, and the +full effect of the unexpected delay upon the part of the allies. + + + + +IV + +THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE + + +The arrival of Louis Francis, Duke of Boufflers, peer and marshal of +France, upon the frontier and before the army of defence, was one of those +intangible advantages which the civilian historian will tend to exaggerate +and the military to belittle, but which, though not susceptible of +calculation or measurement, may always prove of vast consequence to a +force, and have sometimes decided between victory and defeat. This +advantage did not lie in Boufflers' singular capacity for command, nor, as +will presently be seen, was he entrusted with the supreme direction of the +action that was to follow. He was a great general. His service under arms +had occupied the whole of his life and energies; he was to have a high and +worthy reputation in the particular province of his career. But much more +than this, the magic of his name and the just prestige which attached to +the integrity and valour of the man went before him with a spiritual +influence which every soldier felt, and which reanimated the whole body of +the defence. His record was peculiarly suited for the confirmation of men +who were fighting against odds, under disappointment, at the end of a long +series of defeats, and on a last line to which the national arms had been +thrust back after five years of almost uninterrupted failure. + +Boufflers at this moment was in his 66th year, and seemed older. His +masterful, prominent face, large, direct, humorous in expression, full of +command, was an index of a life well lived in the business of +organisation, of obedience, and at last of supreme direction. Years ago at +Namur his tenacity, under the pressure of a superior offensive, had earned +him the particular character which he now bore. Only the year before, his +conduct of the siege of Lille, when he had determinedly held out against +the certitude of ultimate surrender, had refused to yield the place even +after receiving orders from his sovereign, and had finally obtained, by +his unshakable determination, a capitulation of the most honourable kind, +was fresh in the minds of all. There is a story that on his arrival in the +French camp the cheers with which he was greeted reached the opposing +line, and that the allies were moved by the enormous rumour to expect an +instant assault. He was one of those leaders who, partly through their +legend, more through their real virtue, are a sort of flag and symbol to +the soldiery who have the good fortune to receive their command. + +Nine years the senior in age of Villars, of a military experience far +superior, in rank again possessed of the right to supreme command (for he +had received the grade of marshal long before), he none the less +determined to put himself wholly at Villars' orders, for he knew of what +importance was continuity of direction in the face of the enemy. At the +end of the last campaign, when he had expected peace, he had honourably +retired. His life was nearing its close; in two years he was to die. He +sacrificed both the pretension and the fact of superiority so dear to the +commander, and told Villars that he came simply as a volunteer to aid as +best he might, and to support the supreme command in the coming fight. + +He had arrived at Arras on the same day that Tournai had surrendered. Upon +the morrow he had reached Villars' headquarters near Douai, Sin le Noble, +in the centre of the defensive line. He had followed the easterly +movement of the mass of the French army along that line to their present +establishment between the two woods and to the terrain whereupon the +action would be decided. In that action he was set at the head of the +troops on the right, while Villars, attending in particular to the left, +retained the general command and ordered all the disposition of the French +force. + + * * * * * + +The landscape which lay before the French commanders when upon the Monday +morning their line was drawn up and immediate battle expected, has changed +hardly at all in the two hundred years between their day and ours. I will +describe it. + +From the valley of the Sambre (which great river lies a day's march to the +south of the French position) the land rises gradually upward in long +rolls of bare fields. At the head of this slope is a typical watershed +country, a country that is typical of watersheds in land neither hilly nor +mountainous; small, sluggish streams, lessening to mere trickles of water +as you rise, cut the clay; and the landscape, though at the watershed +itself one is standing at a height of 500 feet above the sea, has the +appearance of a plain. It is indeed difficult, without the aid of a map, +to decide when one has passed from the one to the other side of the water +parting, and the actual summit is, at this season of the year, a confused, +flat stretch of open stubble fallow, and here and there coarse, heathy, +untilled land. For two or three miles every way this level stretches, +hummocked by slight rolls between stream and stream, and upon the actual +watershed marked by one or two stagnant ponds. Seven miles behind you as +you stand upon the battlefield lies the little French market town of +Bavai, which was for centuries one of the great centres of Roman rule. It +was the capital of the Nervii. Seven great Roman roads still strike out +from it, to Rheims, to Cologne, to Utrecht, to Amiens, to the sea. Two in +particular, that to Treves and that to Cologne, spreading gradually apart +like the two neighbouring fingers of a hand, are the natural ways by which +an army advancing to such a field or retreating from it would communicate +with Bavai as a base.[8] + +The outstanding feature of this terrain is not that it is the summit of a +watershed; indeed, as I have said, but for a map one would not guess that +it bore this character, and to the eye it presents the appearance of a +plain; it is rather the symmetrical arrangement of it as a broad belt of +open land, flanked upon either side north and south by two great woods. +That upon the right is known as the wood of Laniere, that upon the left +bears several names in its various parts, and is easiest to remember under +the general title of "The Forest of Sars." The gap between these two woods +narrows to a line which is precisely 2000 yards in extent and runs from +north-west to south-east, the two nearest points where either wood +approaches the other being distant one from another by that distance and +bearing one to the other upon those points of the compass. The French +army, therefore, drawn up on the open land and stretching from wood to +wood, faced somewhat north of east. The allies, drawn up a mile and a +half away on the broad beginning of that gap, looked somewhat south of +west. Behind the latter at a day's march was Mons; behind the former some +seven miles was Bavai; and the modern frontier as well as the natural +topographical frontier of the watershed runs just in front of what was +then the emplacement of the French line. + +Upon the French side the bare fields are marked by no more than a few +hamlets, the chief of which is the little village of Malplaquet, a few +houses built along what is now the main road to Brussels. Certain of the +French reserve were posted in this village, accompanied by a few sections +of artillery, but the fields before it lay completely open to the action. + +Upon the Belgian side a string of considerable villages stretched; three +of them from right to left marked the principal position of the allies. +Their names from north to south, that is, from the left of the allies to +the right, are Aulnois, Blaregnies, and Sars. The first of these lies +right under the wood of Laniere; the second faces the gap between the +woods; the third lies behind the left-hand wood, and takes its name from +it, and is, as we have seen, called the forest of Sars.[9] + +The dispositions which the French army would take in such a defensive +position were evident enough. It must defend the gap by entrenchment; it +must put considerable forces into the woods upon the right and to the left +of the gap to prevent the entrenchments being turned. The character of +Villars and the French tradition of depending upon earth wherever that be +possible, was bound, if time were accorded, to make the entrenchment of +the open gap formidable. The large numbers engaged upon either side left a +considerable number at the disposal of either commander, to be used by the +one in holding the woods, by the other in attempting to force them; not +much more than half of the French force need stand to the defence of the +open gap. This gap was so suitable, with its bare fields after harvest, +the absence of hedges, the insignificance of the rivulets, for the action +of cavalry, that gates or gaps would be left in the French entrenchment +for the use of that arm in order to allow the mounted men to pass through +and charge as the necessity for such action might arise. In general, +therefore, we must conceive of the French position as strong entrenchments +thrown across the gap and lined with infantry, the cavalry drawn up behind +to pass through the infantry when occasion might demand, through the line +of entrenchment, and so to charge; the two woods upon either side thickly +filled with men, and the position taken up by these defended by felled +tree trunks and such earthwork as could be thrown up with difficulty in +the dense undergrowth. + +It would be the business of the allies to try and force this line, either +by carrying the central entrenchments across the gap or by turning the +French left flank in the forest of Sars or the French right flank in the +wood of Laniere, or by both of these attempts combined; for it must be +remembered that the numerical superiority of the allies gave them a choice +of action. Should either the stand on the left or that on the right be +forced, the French line would be turned and the destruction of the army +completed. Should the centre be pierced effectively and in time, the +Northern half of the army so severed would certainly be destroyed, for +there was no effective line of retreat; the Southern half might or might +not escape towards the valley of the Sambre. In either case a decisive +victory would destroy the last of the French bodies of defence and would +open the way for an almost uninterrupted march upon Paris. + +It will be self-evident to the reader that what with Villars' known +methods, his dependence upon his engineers, the tradition of the French +service in this respect, the inferior numbers of the French forces, and +the glaring necessities of the position, earthworks would be a deciding +factor in the result. + +Now the value of entrenchment is a matter of time, and before proceeding +to a description of the action we must, if we are to understand its +result, appreciate how great an advantage was conferred upon the French by +the delay in the attack of the allies. + +As I have said, it was upon the morning of Monday, September 9th, that the +two armies were drawn up facing each other, and there is no apparent +reason why the assault should not have been delivered upon that day. Had +it been delivered we can hardly doubt that a decisive defeat of the French +would have resulted, that the way to Paris would have been thrown open, +and that the ruin of the French monarchy would have immediately followed. +As it was, no attack was delivered upon that Monday. The whole of Tuesday +was allowed to pass without a movement. It was not until the Wednesday +morning that the allies moved. + +The problem of this delay is one which the historian must anxiously +consider, for the answer to it explains the barrenness and political +failure associated with the name of Malplaquet. But it is one which the +historian will not succeed in answering unless indeed further documents +should come to light. All that we now know is that in a council of war +held upon the Monday on the side of the allies, it was thought well to +wait until all the troops from Tournai should have come up (though these +were few in number), and necessary to send 9000 men to hold the bridge +across the Haine at St Ghislain in order to secure retreat in case of +disaster.[10] + +The English historians blame the Dutch, the Dutch the English, and the +Austrians and Prussians blame both. + +Perhaps there would have been an attack upon the Tuesday at least had not +Villars spent all the Monday and all the Monday night in exacting from +his men the most unexpected labours in constructing entrenchments of the +most formidable character. Marlborough and Eugene, riding out before their +lines to judge their chances on the Tuesday, were astonished at the work +that had been done in those twenty-four hours. Nine redans, that is, +openworks of peculiar strength, stretched across the gap to within about +600 yards of the wood of Laniere, and the remainder of the space was one +continuous line of entrenchment. What had been done in the woods could not +be judged from such a survey, but it might be guessed, and the forcing of +these became a very different problem from what it would have been had an +attack been delivered on the Monday. Behind this main line Villars drew up +another and yet another series of earthworks; even Malplaquet itself, with +the reserve in the rear, was defended, and the work was continued without +interruption even throughout the Tuesday night with relays of men. + +When at last, upon the Wednesday morning, the allies had arrived at their +tardy agreement and determined to force an action, their superiority in +numbers, such as it was (and this disputed point must be later +discussed), was quite negatived by having to meet fortifications so +formidable as to be called, in the exaggerated phrase of a witness, "a +citadel." + +One last point must be mentioned before the action itself is described: +the open gap across which the centre of the allies must advance to break +the French centre and encapture the entrenchments was cut in two by a +large copse or small wood, called "The Wood of Tiry." It was not defended, +lying too far in front of the French line, and was of no great consequence +save in this: that when the advance of the allies against the French +defence should begin, it was bound to canalise and cut off from support +for a moment the extreme left of that advance through the channel marked A +upon the map over page. As will be seen, the Dutch advanced too early and +in too great strength through this narrow gap, and the check they +suffered, which was of such effect upon the battle, would not have been +nearly so severe had not the little wood cut them off from the support of +the centre. + + + + +V + +THE ACTION + + +On the morning of Wednesday, the 11th of September, the allied army was +afoot long before dawn, and was ranged in order of battle earlier than +four o'clock. But a dense mist covered the ground, and nothing was done +until at about half-past seven this lifted and enabled the artillery of +the opposing forces to estimate the range and to open fire. In order to +understand what was to follow, the reader may, so to speak, utilise this +empty period of the early morning before the action joined, to grasp the +respective positions of the two hosts. + + +[Illustration: The Elements of the Action of Malplaquet, September 11th, +1709.] + + +The nature of the terrain has already been described. The plan upon the +part of the allies would naturally consist in an attempt to force both +woods which covered the French flank, and, while the pressure upon these +was at its strongest, the entrenched and fortified centre. Of course, if +either of the woods was forced before the French centre should break, +there would be no need to continue the central attack, for one or other of +the French flanks would then be turned. But the woods were so well +garnished by this time, and so strongly lined with fallen tree-trunks and +such entrenchments as the undergrowth permitted, that it seemed to both +Eugene and Marlborough more probable that the centre should be forced than +that either of the two flanks should first be turned, and the general plan +of the battle depended rather upon the holding and heavy engagement of the +forces in the two woods to the north and south than in any hope to clear +them out, and the final success was expected rather to take the form of +piercing the central line while the flanks were thus held and engaged. The +barren issue of the engagement led the commanders of the allies to excuse +themselves, of course, and the peculiar ill-success of their left against +the French right, which we shall detail in a moment, gave rise to the +thesis that only a "feint" was intended in that quarter. The thesis may +readily be dismissed. The left was intended to do serious work quite as +much as the right. The theory that it was intended to "feint" was only +produced after the action, and in order to explain its incomplete +results.[11] + +Upon the French side the plan was purely defensive, as their inferior +numbers and their reliance upon earthworks both necessitated and proved. +It was Villars' plan to hold every part of his line with a force +proportionate to its strength; to furnish the woods a little more heavily +than the entrenchments of the open gap, but everywhere to rely upon the +steadiness of his infantry and their artificial protections in the +repelling of the assault. His cavalry he drew up behind this long line of +infantry defence, prepared, as has already been said, to charge through +gaps whenever such action on their part might seem effective. + +It will be perceived that the plan upon either side was of a very simple +sort, and one easily grasped. On the side of the allies it was little more +than a "hammer-and-tongs" assault upon a difficult and well-guarded +position; on the side of the French, little more than a defence of the +same. + +Next must be described the nature of the troops engaged in the various +parts of the field. + +Upon the side of the allies we have:-- + +On their left--that is, to the south of their lines and over against the +wood of Laniere--one-third of the army under the Prince of Orange. The +bulk of this body consisted in Dutch troops, of whom thirty-one battalions +of infantry were present, and behind the infantry thus drawn up under the +Dutch commander were his cavalry, instructed to keep out of range during +the attack of the infantry upon the wood, and to charge and complete it +when it should be successful. Embodied among these troops the British +reader should note a corps of Highlanders, known as the Scottish +Brigade.[12] These did not form part of the British army, but were +specially enrolled in the Dutch service. The cavalry of this left wing was +under the command of the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, who was mentioned a few +pages back in the advance upon Mons. It numbered somewhat over 10,000 +sabres. + +The other end of the allied position consisted in two great forces of +infantry acting separately, and in the following fashion:-- + +First, a force under Schulemberg, which attacked the salient angle of the +forest of Sars on its northern face, and another body attacking the other +side of the same angle, to wit, its eastern face. In the first of these +great masses, that under Schulemberg, there were no English troops. In +strength it amounted alone to nearly 20,000 men. The second part, which +was to attack the eastern face, was commanded by Lottum, and was only +about half as strong, contained a certain small proportion of English. + +It may be asked when once these two great bodies of the left and the right +(each of which was to concern itself with one of the two woods in front of +the gap) are disposed of, what remained to furnish the centre of the +allies? To this the curious answer must be afforded that in the +arrangements of the allies at Malplaquet no true centre existed. The +battle must be regarded from their side as a battle fought by two isolated +wings, left and right, and ending in a central attack composed of men +drawn from either wing. If upon the following sketch map the section from +A to B be regarded as the special province of the Dutch or left wing, and +the section from C to D be regarded as the special province of the +Austro-Prussian or right wing, then the mid-section between B and C has no +large body of troops corresponding to it. When the time came for acting in +that mid-section, the troops necessary for the work were drawn from either +end of the line. There were, however, two elements in connection with this +mid-section which must be considered. + + +[Illustration] + + +First, a great battery of forty guns ready to support an attack upon the +entrenchments of the gap, whenever that time should come; and secondly, +far in the rear, about 6000 British troops under Lord Orkney were spread +out and linked the massed right of the army to its massed left. One +further corps must be mentioned. Quite separate from the rest of the army, +and right away on the left on the _French side_ of the forest of Sars, was +the small isolated corps under Withers, which was to hold and embarrass +the French rear near the group of farmsteads called La Folie, and when the +forest of Sars was forced was to join hands with the successful assault +of the Prussians and Austrians who should have forced it. + +The general command of the left, including Lord Orkney's battalions, also +including (though tactically they formed part of the right wing) the force +under Lottum, lay with the Duke of Marlborough. The command of the +right--that is, Schulemberg and the cavalry behind him--lay with Prince +Eugene. + +The French line of defence is, from its simplicity, quite easy to +describe. In the wood of Laniere, and in the open space just outside it, +as far as the fields in front of Malplaquet village, were the troops under +command of the French general D'Artagnan. Among the regiments holding this +part was that of the Bourbonnais, the famous brigade of Navarre (the best +in the service), and certain of the Swiss mercenaries. The last of this +body on the left was formed by the French Guards. The entrenchments in the +centre were held by the Irish Brigades of Lee and O'Brien, and by the +German mercenaries and allies of Bavaria and Cologne. These guarded the +redans which defended the left or northern part of the open gap. The +remainder of this gap, right up to the forest of Sars, was held by +Alsatians and by the Brigade of Laon, and the chief command in this part +lay with Steckenberg. The forest of Sars was full of French troops, +Picardy, the Marines, the Regiment of Champagne, and many others, with a +strong reserve of similar troops just behind the wood. The cavalry of the +army formed a long line behind this body of entrenched infantry; the +Household Cavalry being on the right near the wood of Laniere, the Gens +d'armes being in the centre, and the Carabiniers upon the left. These last +stretched so far northward and westward as to come at last opposite to +Withers. + + * * * * * + +Such was the disposition of the two armies when at half-past seven the sun +pierced the mist and the first cannon-shots were exchanged. Marlborough +and Eugene had decided that they would begin by pressing, as hard as might +be, the assault upon the forest of Sars. When this assault should have +proceeded for half an hour, the opposite end of the line, the left, under +the Prince of Orange,[13] should engage the French troops holding the wood +of Laniere. It was expected that the forest of Sars would be forced early +in the action; that the troops in the wood of Laniere would at least be +held fast by the attack of the Prince of Orange, and that the weakened +French centre could then be taken by assault with the use of the reserves, +of Orkney's men, and of detachments drawn from the two great masses upon +the wings. + +The reader may here pause to consider the excellence of this plan--very +probably Marlborough's own, and one the comparative ill-success of which +was due to the unexpected power of resistance displayed by the French +infantry upon that day. + +It was wise to put the greater part of the force into a double attack upon +the forest of Sars, for this forest, with its thick woods and heavy +entrenchments, was at once the strongest part of the French position in +its garnishing and artificial enforcement, yet weak in that the salient +angle it presented was one that could not, from the thickness of the +trees, be watched from any central point, as can the salient angle of a +fortification. Lottum on the one side, Schulemberg on the other, were +attacking forces numerically weaker than their own, and separate fronts +which could not support each other under the pressure of the attack. + +It was wise to engage the forces upon the French side opposite the allied +left in the wood of Laniere half an hour after the assault had begun upon +the forest of Sars, for it was legitimate to expect that at the end of +that half hour the pressure upon the forest of Sars would begin to be felt +by the French, and that they would call for troops from the right unless +the right were very busily occupied at that moment. + +Finally, it was wise not to burden the centre with any great body of +troops until one of the two flanks should be pressed or broken, for the +centre might, in this case, be compared to a funnel in which too great a +body of troops would be caught at a disadvantage against the strong +entrenchments which closed the mouth of the funnel. An historical +discussion has arisen upon the true role of the left in this plan. The +commander of the allies gave it out _after_ the action (as we have seen +above) that the left had only been intended to "feint." The better +conclusion is that they were intended to do their worst against the wood +of Laniere, although of course this "worst" could not be expected to +compare with the fundamental attack upon the forest of Sars, where all the +chief forces of the battle were concentrated. + +If by a "feint" is meant a subsidiary part of the general plan, the +expression might be allowed to pass, but it is not a legitimate use of +that expression, and if, as occurred at Malplaquet with the Dutch troops, +a subsidiary body in the general plan is badly commanded, the temptation +to call the original movement a "feint," which developed from breach of +orders into a true attack, though strong for the disappointed commanders, +must not be admitted by the accurate historian. In general, we may be +certain that the Dutch troops and their neighbours on the allied left were +intended to do all they could against the wood of Laniere, did all they +could, but suffered in the process a great deal more than Marlborough had +allowed for. + + * * * * * + +These dispositions once grasped, we may proceed to the nature and +development of the general attack which followed that opening cannonade of +half-past seven, which has already been described. + +The first movement of the allies was an advance of the left under the +Prince of Orange and of the right under Lottum. The first was halted out +of range; the second, after getting up as far as the eastern flank of the +forest of Sars, wheeled round so as to face the hedge lining that forest, +and formed into three lines. It was nine o'clock before the signal for +the attack was given by a general discharge of the great battery in the +centre opposite the French entrenchments in the gap. Coincidently with +that signal Schulemberg attacked the forest of Sars from his side, the +northern face, and he and Lottum pressed each upon that side of the +salient angle which faced him. Schulemberg's large force got into the +fringe of the wood, but no further. The resistance was furious; the +thickness of the trees aided it. Eugene was present upon this side; +meanwhile Marlborough himself was leading the troops of Lottum. He +advanced with them against a hot fire, passed the swampy rivulet which +here flanks the wood, and reached the entrenchments which had been drawn +up just within the outer boundary of it. + +This attack failed. Villars was present in person with the French troops +and directed the repulse. Almost at the same time the advance of +Schulemberg upon the other side of the wood, which Eugene was +superintending, suffered a check. Its reserves were called up. The +intervals of the first line were filled up from the second. One French +brigade lining the wood was beaten back, but the Picardy Regiment and the +Marines stood out against a mixed force of Danes, Saxons, and Hessians +opposing them. Schulemberg, therefore, in this second attack had failed +again, but Marlborough, leading Lottum's men upon the other side of the +wood to a second charge in his turn, had somewhat greater success. He had +by this time been joined by a British brigade under the Duke of Argyle +from the second line, and he did so far succeed with this extension of his +men as to get round the edge of the French entrenchments in the wood. + +The French began to be pressed from this eastern side of their salient +angle, right in among the trees. Schulemberg's command felt the advantage +of the pressure being exercised on the other side. The French weakened +before it, and in the neighbourhood of eleven o'clock a great part of the +forest of Sars was already filled with the allies, who were beating back +the French in individual combats from tree to tree. Close on noon the +battle upon this side stood much as the sketch map upon the opposite page +shows, and was as good as won, for it seemed to need only a continuation +of this victorious effort to clear the whole wood at last and to turn the +French line. + +This is undoubtedly the form which the battle would have taken--a complete +victory for the allied forces by their right turning the French +left--and the destruction of the French army would have followed, had not +the allied left been getting into grave difficulty at the other end of the +field of battle. + + +[Illustration: Sketch Map showing the peril the French centre ran towards +noon of being turned on its left.] + + +The plan of the allied generals, it will be remembered, was that the left +of their army under the Prince of Orange should attack the wood of Laniere +about half an hour after the right had begun to effect an entrance into +the opposing forest of Sars. When that half hour had elapsed, that is, +about half-past nine, the Prince of Orange, without receiving special +orders, it is true, but acting rightly enough upon his general orders, +advanced against the French right. Tullibardine with his Scottish brigade +took the worst of the fighting on the extreme left against the extreme of +the French right, and was the first to get engaged among the trees. The +great mass of the force advanced up the opening between the coppice called +the wood of Tiry and the main wood, with the object of carrying the +entrenchments which ran from the corner of the wood in front of Malplaquet +and covered this edge of the open gap. The nine foremost battalions were +led by the Prince of Orange in person; his courage and their tenacity, +though fatal to the issue of the fight, form perhaps the finest part of +our story. As they came near the French earthworks, a French battery right +upon their flank at the edge of the wood opened upon them, enfilading +whole ranks and doing, in the shortest time, terrible execution. The young +leader managed to reach the earthworks. The breastwork was forced, but +Boufflers brought up men from his left, that is, from the centre of the +gap, drove the Dutch back, and checked, at the height of its success, this +determined assault. Had not the wood of Tiry been there to separate the +main part of the Prince of Orange's command from its right, reinforcements +might have reached him and have saved the disaster. As it was, the wood of +Tiry had cut the advance into two streams, and neither could help the +other. The Dutch troops and the Highlanders rallied; the Prince of Orange +charged again with a personal bravery that made him conspicuous before the +whole field, and should make him famous in history, but the task was more +than men could accomplish. The best brigade at the disposal of the French, +that of Navarre, was brought up to meet this second onslaught, broke it, +and the French leapt from the earthworks to pursue the flight of their +assailants. Many of Orange's colours were taken in that rout, and the guns +of his advanced battery fell into French hands. Beyond the wood of Tiry +the extreme right of the Dutch charge had suffered no better fate. It had +carried the central entrenchment of the French, only to be beaten back as +the main body between the wood of Tiry and the wood of Laniere opened. + +At this moment, then, after eleven o'clock, which was coincident with the +success of Lottum and Schulemberg in the forest of Sars, upon the right, +the allied left had been hopelessly beaten back from the entrenchments in +the gap, and from the edge of the wood of Laniere. + +Marlborough was hurriedly summoned away from his personal command of +Lottum's victorious troops, and begged to do what he could for the broken +regiments of Orange. He galloped back over the battlefield, a mile or so +of open fields, and was appalled to see the havoc. Of the great force that +had advanced an hour and a half before against Boufflers and the French +right, fully a third was struck, and 2000 or more lay dead upon the +stubble and the coarse heath of that upland. The scattered corpses strewn +over half a mile of flight from the French entrenchments, almost back to +their original position, largely showed the severity of the blow. It was +impossible to attempt another attack upon the French right with any hope +of success. + +Marlborough, trusting that the forest of Sars would soon be finally +cleared, determined upon a change of plan. He ordered the advance upon the +centre of the position of Lord Orkney's fifteen battalions, reinforced +that advance by drafts of men from the shattered Dutch left, and prepared +with some deliberation to charge the line of earthworks which ran across +the open and the nine redans which we have seen were held by the French +allies and mercenaries from Bavaria and Cologne, and await his moment. +That moment came at about one o'clock; at this point in the action the +opposing forces stood somewhat as they are sketched on the map over page. + +The pressure upon the French in the wood of Sars, perpetually increasing, +had already caused Villars, who commanded there in person, to beg +Boufflers for aid; but the demand came when Boufflers was fighting his +hardest against the last Dutch attack, and no aid could be sent. + +Somewhat reluctantly, Villars had weakened his centre by withdrawing from +it the two Irish regiments, and continued to dispute foot by foot the +forest of Sars. But foot by foot and tree by tree, in a series of +individual engagements, his men were pressed back, and a larger area of +the woodland was held by the troops of Schulemberg and Lottum. Eugene was +wounded, but refused to leave the field. The loss had been appalling upon +either side, but especially severe (as might have been expected) among the +assailants, when, just before one o'clock, the last of the French soldiers +were driven from the wood. + + +[Illustration: Sketch Map showing Marlborough bringing up troops to the +centre for the final and successful attack upon the entrenchments about +one o'clock.] + + +All that main defence which the forest of Sars formed upon the French left +flank was lost, but the fight had been so exhausting to the assailants in +the confusion of the underwood, and the difficulty of forming them in the +trees was so great, that the French forces once outside the wood could +rally at leisure and draw up in line to receive any further movement on +the part of their opponents. It was while the French left were thus drawn +up in line behind the wood of Sars, with their redans at the centre +weakened by the withdrawal of the Irish brigade, that Marlborough ordered +the final central attack against those redans. The honour of carrying them +fell to Lord Orkney and his British battalions. His men flooded over the +earthworks at the first rush, breaking the depleted infantry behind them +(for these, after the withdrawal of the Irish, were no more than the men +of Bavaria and Cologne), and held the parapet. + +The French earthworks thus carried by the infantry in the centre, the +modern reader might well premise that a complete rout of the French forces +should have followed. But he would make this premise without counting for +the preponderant role that cavalry played in the wars of Marlborough. + +Facing the victorious English battalions of Orkney, now in possession of +the redans, stood the mile-long unbroken squadrons of the French horse. + +The allied cavalry, passing between gaps in its infantry line, began to +deploy for the charge, but even as they deployed they were charged by the +French mounted men, thrust back, and thrown into confusion. The short +remainder of the battle is no more than a melee of sabres, but the nature +of that melee must be clearly grasped, and the character of the French +cavalry resistance understood, for this it was which determined the issue +of the combat and saved the army of Louis XIV. + +A detailed account of the charges and counter-charges of the opposing +horse would be confusing to the reader, and is, as a fact, impossible of +narration, for no contemporary record of it remains in any form which can +be lucidly set forth. + +A rough outline of what happened is this:-- + +The first counter-charge of the French was successful, and the allied +cavalry, caught in the act of deployment, was thrust back in confusion, as +I have said, upon the British infantry who lined the captured earthworks. + +The great central battery of forty guns which Marlborough had kept all day +in the centre of the gap, split to the right and left, and, once clear of +its own troops, fired from either side upon the French horse. Shaken, +confused, and almost broken by this fire, the French horse were charged by +a new body of the allied horse led by Marlborough in person, composed of +British and Prussian units. But, just as Marlborough's charge was +succeeding, old Boufflers, bringing up the French Household Cavalry from +in front of Malplaquet village, charged right home into the flank of +Marlborough's mounted troops, bore back their first and second lines, and +destroyed the order of their third. + +Thereupon Eugene, with yet another body of fresh horse (of the Imperial +Service), charged in his turn, and the battle of Malplaquet ends in a +furious mix-up of mounted men, which gradually separated into two +undefeated lines, each retiring from the contest. + +It will be wondered why a conclusion so curiously impotent was permitted +to close the fighting of so famous a field. + +The answer to this query is that the effort upon either side had passed +the limits beyond which men are physically incapable of further action. +Any attempt of the French to advance in force after two o'clock would have +led to their certain disaster, for the allies were now in possession of +their long line of earthworks.[14] + +On the other hand, the allies could not advance, because the men upon whom +they could still count for action were reduced to insufficient numbers. +Something like one-third of their vast host had fallen in this most +murderous of battles; from an eighth to a sixth were dead. Of the +remainder, the great proportion suffered at this hour from an exhaustion +that forbade all effective effort. + +The horse upon either side might indeed have continued charge and +counter-charge to no purpose and with no final effect, but the action of +the cavalry in the repeated and abortive shocks, of which a list has just +been detailed, could lead neither commander to hope for any final result. +Boufflers ordered a retreat, screened by his yet unbroken lines of horse. +The infantry were withdrawn from the wood of Laniere, which they still +held, and from their positions behind the forest of Sars. They were +directed in two columns towards Bavai in their rear, and as that orderly +and unhurried retreat was accomplished, the cavalry filed in to follow the +line, and the French host, leaving the field in the possession of the +victors, marched back westward by the two Roman roads in as regular a +formation as though they had been advancing to action rather than +retreating from an abandoned position. + +It was not quite three o'clock in the afternoon. + +There was no pursuit, and there could be none. The allied army slept upon +the ground it had gained; rested, evacuated its wounded, and restored its +broken ranks through the whole of the morrow, Thursday. It was not until +the Friday that it was able to march back again from the field in which +it had triumphed at so terrible an expense of numbers, guns, and colours, +and with so null a strategic result, and to take up once more the siege of +Mons. Upon the 9th of October Mons capitulated, furnishing the sole fruit +of this most arduous of all the great series of Marlborough's campaigns. + +No battle has been contested with more valour or tenacity than the battle +of Malplaquet. The nature of the woodland fighting contributed to the +enormous losses sustained upon either side. The delay during which the +French had been permitted to entrench themselves so thoroughly naturally +threw the great balance of the loss upon the assailants. In no battle, +free, as Malplaquet was free, from all pursuit or a rout, or even the +breaking of any considerable body of troops (save the Dutch troops and +Highlanders on the left in the earlier part of the battle, and the +Bavarians and Cologne men in the redans at the close of it), has the +proportion of the killed and wounded been anything like so high. In none, +perhaps, were casualties so heavy accompanied by so small a proportion of +prisoners. + +The action will remain throughout history a standing example of the pitch +of excellence to which those highly trained professional armies of the +eighteenth century, with their savage discipline, their aristocratic +command, their close formations, and their extraordinary reliance upon +human daring, could arrive. + + +FINIS + + +PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH. + + + + +BRITISH BATTLE BOOKS + +_Illustrated with Coloured Maps_ + +BY HILAIRE BELLOC + +_F'cap 8vo, cloth, 1s. net; leather, 2s. 6d. net_ + +_HISTORY IN WARFARE_ + +The British Battle Series will consist of a number of monographs upon +actions in which British troops have taken part. Each battle will be the +subject of a separate booklet illustrated with coloured maps, illustrative +of the movements described in the text, together with a large number of +line maps showing the successive details of the action. In each case the +political circumstances which led to the battle will be explained; next, +the stages leading up to it; lastly, the action in detail. + + 1. BLENHEIM + 2. MALPLAQUET + 3. TOURCOING + 4. WATERLOO + +Later volumes will deal with Crecy, Poitiers, Corunna, Talaveras, Flodden, +The Siege of Valenciennes, Vittoria, Toulouse. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +THE PARTY SYSTEM + +BY HILAIRE BELLOC AND CECIL CHESTERTON + +_Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net_ + +_THE THOUGHTS OF THINKING MEN_ + +No book of the present season has been so much praised--and so much +reviled: reviled by most of the Party organs, praised by independent +papers. And yet mark the agreement of the following, as wide asunder as +the poles often in their views. + +"Embodies the silent thoughts of almost all thinking men of to-day."--_The +Evening Times._ + +The _Star_ says:--"Says in plain English what everybody in touch with +reality thinks." + +LORD ROBERT CECIL, in the _Morning Post_, says:--"So far the authors of +'The Party System' only say in plain terms what everyone who has been in +Parliament knows to be in substance true." + +"A complete proof of the necessity of restoring power to the +people."--_The Daily Express._ + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +GORDON AT KHARTOUM + +BY WILFRED SCAWEN BLUNT + +_15s. net_ + +_PRIVATE AND INTIMATE_ + +This book follows the lines of the author's works on Egypt and India, +consisting mainly of a private diary of a very intimate kind, and will +bring down his narrative of events to the end of 1885. + +The present volume is designed especially as an answer to Lord Cromer's +_Modern Egypt_, in so far as it concerned Gordon, and contains several +important and hitherto unpublished documents throwing new light upon a +case of perennial interest. + +It also includes an account of the author's relations with Lord Randolph +Churchill, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, Mr Gladstone, Mr Parnell, and other +political personages of the day, as well as of the General Election of +1885, in which the author stood as a Tory Home Ruler. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK + +BY JUVENAL + +_Crown 8vo. 5s. net_ + +_VIVID ORIGINALITY_ + +In these notes and studies on life in New York, Juvenal, by his vivid +originality and his masterly deductions, has surpassed all other writers +who have written on the same subject. + +Mr Eden Phillpotts writes of the Author: "The things seen are brilliantly +set down. He writes with great force and skill." + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +PRINCE AZREEL + +A Poem with Prose Notes + +BY ARTHUR LYNCH + +_Crown 8vo. 5s. net_ + +_DIRECT--INSPIRING--COMPELLING_ + +The cry for something new in literature, the indefinable, the unexpected, +has been answered. Prince Azreel comes to claim his place, not as one who +has sounded the depths and shoals of the current modes of the day, but as +one entirely careless of these things, discoursing freely of life, easily +throughout its whole purport and scope. + +The Devil comes into the action, but he also is new--rather the Spirit of +the World, "man's elder brother." His methods are those neither of _Faust_ +nor of _Paradise Regained_. His temptations are suasive, his lures less +material. + +In the search for the Ideal of statesmanship Azreel and the Devil come to +our own Parliament, Azreel filled with warm enthusiasm, high conceptions. +They see, they learn; they discover "types," and discuss them. We find the +Devil at length defending the Commons, supplying the corrective to +Azreel's strange disillusions. This part will not be the least piquant. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +POEMS + +BY CHARLES GRANVILLE + +_F'cap 4to. 5s. net._ + +_REAL POETIC TALENT_ + +The present volume is composed of a selection from the previous poetical +works of the Author, who is also well known as a writer of prose. The +distinctive feature of the poems in this collection--the feature, indeed, +that marks off and differentiates the work of this poet from the mass of +verse produced to-day--is their spiritual insight. Mr Granville is +concerned with the soul of man, with the eternal rather than the +transitory, and his perception, which is that of the seer, invests his +language with that quality of ecstasy that constitutes the indisputable +claim of poetry to rank in the forefront of literature. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +THE HUMOUR OF THE UNDERMAN + +And Other Essays + +BY FRANCIS GRIERSON + +_F'cap 8vo. 3s. 6d. net_ + +_CHARACTERISTICALLY INCISIVE_ + +This volume contains the latest work of the greatest Essayist of our time. +Maurice Maeterlinck has said of the Author, "He has, in his best moments, +that most rare gift of casting certain shafts of light, at once simple and +decisive, upon questions the most difficult, obscure, and unlooked for in +Art, Morals, and Psychology ... essays among the most subtle and +substantial that I know." + +This opinion has been endorsed by every critic of note in the British +Isles and in the United States of America. Indeed, in the latter country a +veritable Grierson cult has sprung into existence. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +LA VIE ET LES HOMMES + +BY FRANCIS GRIERSON + +_F'cap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net_ + +_PENSEES PIQUANTES, INDEPENDANTES_ + +SULLY PRUDHOMME (de l'Academie Francaise):--"J'ai trouve ces meditations +pleines d'apercus profonds et sagaces. J'ai ete frappe de l'originalite +puissante de la pensee de l'auteur." + +JULES CLARETIE (de l'Academie Francaise):--"J'ai ete charme par les idees +originales et justes." + +L'Abbe JOSEPH ROUX:--"Il y a la des vues originales, des appreciations +neuves et frappantes." + +FREDERIC MISTRAL:--"Ces pensees m'ont paru neuves et piquantes, et +independantes de cette ambiance de prejuges a laquelle il est si difficile +d'echapper." + +Le Pere P. V. DELAPORTE, S.J. (Redacteur des Etudes Religieuses):--"J'ai +admire dans ces pages delicates l'artiste, le penseur et l'ecrivain, et +j'ai ete singulierement touche de la facon dont vous appreciez le genie +francais. Vous avez su le comprendre et vous avez dit votre pensee +franchement, je pouvais ajouter _francaisement_." + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS + +Nature Essays + +BY G. G. DESMOND + +_Crown 8vo. Cloth. 5s. net_ + +_A NATURE BOOK FOR TOWN FOLK_ + +This book for all Nature-lovers appeals perhaps most strongly to those in +cities pent, for whom a word in season can call up visions of the open +moor, the forest, the meadow stream, the flowered lane, or the wild +sea-shore. The extreme penalty for reading one of these spring, summer, +autumn, or winter chapters is to be driven from one's chair into the +nearest field, there to forget town worries among the trees. The author +does not spare us for fog, rain, frost, or snow. Sometimes he makes us get +up by moonlight and watch the dawn come "cold as cold sea-shells" to the +fluting of blackbirds, or he takes us through the woods by night and shows +us invisible things by their sounds and scents. The spirit, even if the +body cannot go with it, comes back refreshed by these excursions to the +country. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +THE MASTERY OF LIFE + +BY G. T. WRENCH, M.D. LOND. + +_Demy 8vo. 15s. net_ + +_OLD VALUES RE-VALUED_ + +This book is a review of the history of civilisation with the object of +discovering where and under what conditions man has shown the most +positive attitude towards life. The review has been based not so much upon +scholarship as upon the direct evidence of the products and monuments of +the different peoples of history, and the author has consequently +travelled widely in order to collect his material. The author shows how +the patriarchal system and values have always been the foundation of +peoples, who have been distinguished for their joy in and power over life, +and have expressed their mastery in works of art, which have been their +peculiar glory and the object of admiration and wonder of other peoples. +In contrast to them has been the briefer history of civilisation in +Europe, in which the paternal and filial values of interdependence have +always been rivalled by the ideal of independence from one's fellow-man. +The consequences of this ideal of personal liberty in the destruction of +the art of life are forcibly delineated in the last chapters. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +TORY DEMOCRACY + +BY J. M. KENNEDY + +_Crown 8vo. Cloth. 3s. 6d. net_ + +_LORDS, GOVERNMENT, LIBERALISM_ + +There are unmistakable indications that the system of politics at present +pursued by the two chief political parties is not meeting with the +approval of the electorate as a whole, though this electorate, as a result +of the Caucus methods, finds it increasingly difficult to give expression +to its views. In his book on Tory Democracy, Mr J. M. Kennedy, who is +already favourably known through his books on modern philosophical and +sociological subjects, sets forth the principles underlying a system of +politics which was seriously studied by men so widely different as +Disraeli, Bismarck, and Lord Randolph Churchill. Mr Kennedy not only shows +the close connection still existing between the aristocracy and the +working classes, but he also has the distinction of being the first writer +to lay down a constructive Conservative policy which is independent of +Tariff Reform. Apart from this, the chapters of his work which deal with +Representative Government, the House of Lords, and "Liberalism at Work" +throw entirely new light on many vexed questions of modern politics. The +book, it may be added, is written in a style that spares neither parties +nor persons. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +PRINCIPLES OF A NEW SYSTEM OF PSYCHOLOGY + +BY ARTHUR LYNCH, + + M.A., C.E., L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S.E., M.P. + AUTHOR OF "HUMAN DOCUMENTS," ETC., ETC. + +_Two Vols. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net each_ + +_A BASIC WORK OF ANALYSIS_ + +This book is dynamic. It is new in the sense in which Schwann's Cell +Theory was new to Physiology, or Dalton's Atomic Theory to Chemistry. The +author has faced the problem in its widest extension: Can the entire realm +of knowledge, and the whole possible scope of mental acts, be so resolved +that we may formulate the unanalysable elements, the Fundamental Processes +of the mind? This problem is solved, and thence the manner of all +synthesis indicated. The argument is closely consecutive, but the severity +is relieved by abundant illustrations drawn from many sciences. The +principles established will afford criteria in regard to every position in +Psychology. New light will be thrown, for instance, on Kant's Categories, +Spencer's Hedonism, Fechner's Law, the foundation of Mathematics, Memory, +Association, Externality, Will, the Feeling of Effort, Brain +Localisations, and finally on the veritable nature of Reason. A philosophy +of Research is foreshadowed. The work offers a base on which all valid +studies may be co-ordinated, and developments are indicated. It +presupposes no technical knowledge, and the exposition is couched in +simple language. It will give a new impetus to Psychology. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +EIGHT CENTURIES OF PORTUGUESE MONARCHY + +BY V. de BRAGANCA CUNHA + +_Demy 8vo. 14 Pencil Portraits. 15s. net_ + +_THE TRUTH ABOUT PORTUGAL_ + +This book reveals the series of causes, both political and social, which +have brought Portugal to its present condition and affected the character +of its people. + +The entire history of Monarchical Portugal is reviewed in masterly +fashion, and the work is based on a thorough knowledge and critical +appreciation of all available sources. The author writes, not as an +outsider, but as one who knows his country from within, and the book +therefore constitutes a serious attempt to tell the English-speaking world +the truth about Portugal. + +The author knows that he treads "forbidden ground," but even where he +apportions the severest blame he does so in the conviction that adverse +criticism of any country, "however unpleasant it may be to all Chadbands +and Stigginses," cannot be considered abusive if it be made with the +intention of stirring up the forces of reform and of remedying the defects +which it discloses. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +SIR EDWARD + +A BRIEF MEMORIAL OF A NOBLE LIFE + +BY A FELLOW OF THE LITERARY SOCIETY + +_Crown 8vo. Cloth. 1s. net_ + +_AN IRRESISTIBLE SATIRE_ + +The humour of this remarkable satire is irresistible. The truth concerning +Sir Edward is gradually revealed by fantastic touches and sly suggestions, +and with a manner so correct as almost to put the reader off his guard. + +Although the subject of this AEsopian biography is drawn in such a way as +to suggest now one and now another familiar figure in modern life, yet +these fleeting and shadowy resemblances are in reality an indication of +the archetypal nature of Sir Edward; he is not a caricature but a symbol; +not any particular individual but a composite type--a materialisation into +one grotesque shape of the drifting ideas and false ideals of a muddled +civilisation. + +The narrative gathers into its net both big and little fishes--a heavy +haul. But people who regard Western civilisation as the final word in +social wisdom should not read this book: or perhaps they should. Anyway, +everyone else should. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +PARISIAN PORTRAITS + +BY FRANCIS GRIERSON + +_F'cap 8vo. 2s. 6d. net_ + +_AN APPRECIATION OF FRENCH GENIUS_ + +These profoundly sagacious studies and finely drawn portraits are of the +greatest interest, not only in virtue of the author's intimate knowledge +of Paris and Parisian life (dating from 1869), but also because Mr +Grierson is one of the few living Englishmen who thoroughly understand and +appreciate the French Genius. The book will be an enduring delight to all +lovers of fine literature. + +Mr RICHARD LE GALLIENNE says:--"Mr Francis Grierson, cosmopolite and +subtile critic of the arts, is one of those sudden new acquaintances that +assume immediate importance in one's world of thought.... Everywhere with +remarkable rectitude of perception, Mr Grierson puts his finger on the +real power, and it is always spiritual." + +_The Spectator_ says:--"Mr Grierson has a right to speak, for he uses with +success one of the most difficult of literary forms, the essay." + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +THE VALLEY OF SHADOWS + +BY FRANCIS GRIERSON + +_Second Edition. Demy 8vo. 6s. net_ + +_MEMORIES OF LINCOLN'S COUNTRY_ + +In this book Mr Grierson recalls in vivid memories the wonderful romance +of his life in Lincoln's country before the war. "_The Valley of the +Shadows_ is not a novel," says Mr W. L. Courtney in the _Daily Telegraph_, +"yet in the graphic portraiture of spiritual and intellectual movements it +possesses an attraction denied to all but the most significant kind of +fiction.... With a wonderful touch Mr Grierson depicts scene after scene, +drawing the simple, native characters with bold, impressive strokes." + +"Told with wonderful charm ... enthralling as any romance ... truth, +though often stranger than fiction, is almost always duller; Mr Grierson +has accomplished the rare feat of making it more interesting. There are +chapters in the book ... that haunt one afterwards like remembered music, +or like passages in the prose of Walter Pater."--_Punch._ + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +MODERN MYSTICISM + +And Other Essays + +BY FRANCIS GRIERSON + +_F'cap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net_ + +_ORIGINAL, INCISIVE, SUBTLE, ACUTE_ + +This book embodies profound thinking expressed in an original and happy +style. + +Mr MAURICE MAETERLINCK says:--"This volume is full of thoughts and +meditations of the very highest order.... Mr Grierson has concentrated his +thought on the profound and simple questions of life and conscience.... +What unique and decisive things in 'Parsifalitis,' for example, what +strange clairvoyance in 'Beauty and Morals in Nature,' in the essay on +'Tolstoy,' in 'Authority and Individualism,' in 'The New Criticism'!" + +Mr JAMES DOUGLAS says:--"This little book is tremulous with originality +and palpitating with style." + +Mr A. B. WALKLEY says:--"A delectable book.... I shall keep it on the same +shelf as 'Wisdom and Destiny' and 'The Treasure of the Humble.'" + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +THE CELTIC TEMPERAMENT + +BY FRANCIS GRIERSON + +_F'cap 8vo. 2s. 6d. net_ + +_CHARMING AND FULL OF WISDOM_ + +The late Professor WILLIAM JAMES said:--"I find 'The Celtic Temperament' +charming and full of wisdom." + +The _Glasgow Herald_ says:--"A remarkable book, and by a remarkable +man.... This book will be read and re-read by all who recognise acuteness +of intellectual faculty, culture which has gained much from books, but +more from human intercourse, deep thinking, and a gift of literary +expression which at times it quite Gallic." + +Mr MAURICE MAETERLINCK says:--"In this volume I am privileged once more to +breathe the atmosphere of supreme spiritual aristocracy which emanates +from all Mr Grierson's work. He has, in his best moments, that most rare +gift of casting certain shafts of light, at once simple and decisive, upon +questions the most difficult, obscure, and unlooked-for in art, morals, +and psychology.... I place these essays among the most subtle and +substantial that I know." + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +SOME NEIGHBOURS + +STORIES, SKETCHES, AND STUDIES + +BY CHARLES GRANVILLE + +_Second edition. Crown 8vo. 6s._ + +_FULL OF CLEVER CHARACTERISATION_ + +A fine vein of poetic feeling runs through all these stories, sketches, +and studies, which are, without exception, highly entertaining and full of +clever characterisation. Mr Granville's style is by turns naive, +deliberate and restrained, but always attractive. + +_The Times._--"A pleasant book ... prettily conceived and told...." + +_The Scotsman._--"The stories are always interesting, both as studies of +odd aspects of humanity and for the curious modern reticence of their +art." + +CLEMENT K. SHORTER in _The Sphere_.--"'Some Neighbours' deserves the +highest commendation." + +_The Morning Leader._--"The treatment is invariably fresh and individual +... thoroughly readable." + +_Eastern Morning News._--"There can be nothing but praise--and that of a +high quality--for a man who writes with Mr Granville's sympathy and charm +... his art is so sure that he puts a world of life and reality into a few +pages." + +_Liverpool Daily Post._--"Mr Granville is a writer possessing literary +gifts very much above the average, and the versatility of his gifts is +very fully indicated in the book under notice." + +_Yorkshire Observer._--"The author certainly shows that love of humanity +which marks the creative mind." + +_Aberdeen Free Press._--"All of them are readable, and there are one or +two of _quite surprising excellence_.... These are characterised by real +literary power, and suffused with true poetic feeling." + +_Westminster Review._--"Mr Granville's humour is of that quality which +perceives the sense of tears in human things. To those capable of +appreciating fine literature we recommend 'Some Neighbours.'" + +_The Commentator._--"This clever writer's characteristic originality and +freshness both of thought and expression." + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +CIVIL WAR + +A Play in Four Acts + +BY ASHLEY DUKES + +_Crown 8vo. 2s. net_ + +_A DRAMA WITHOUT ARTIFICIALITY_ + +This play is that rarity, an English drama of ideas which is not in any +sense imitative of Mr Bernard Shaw. It presents an intellectual conflict +which is also a passionate conflict of individualities, and the theme is +treated with sympathy and humanity. The portrait of life in a colony of +revolutionists alone would make "Civil War" something of a dramatic +curiosity, but it is more than that. It is at once effective and original. +The play was given for the first time by the Incorporated Stage Society in +June 1910, with remarkable success, and it will shortly be revived by +several of our newer repertory theatres. It should be read as well as +seen, however, for it is dramatic without artificiality, and literary +without affectation. + +_The following is what some of the Press think of the play:_ + +_Pall Mall Gazette_:--"A very interesting, sincere, and artistic piece of +work." + +_Westminster Gazette_:--"In producing 'Civil War,' by Mr Ashley Dukes, the +Stage Society has rendered a real service to drama.... The play shows that +the dramatist possesses in a high degree the capacity for writing +dialogue--for finding phrases characteristic of the persons of the comedy, +useful for the situations, and exhibiting a certain style that is rare and +indefinable. There were scenes, notably one of great beauty between the +old Socialist and his daughter, where, apart from the dramatic effect, one +had real pleasure from the phrases, and this without there being any +obvious attempt to write in a literary style." + +_Times_:--"A piece of sound and promising work." + +_Daily News_:--"His 'Civil War' has a strong motive, and, best of all, +there is humanity and understanding in his treatment of it.... It is +rarely indeed that we are given a play in which the drama is made +inevitable by a clash of temperament and ideas." + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +THE MAID'S COMEDY + +A Chivalric Romance in Thirteen Chapters + +_Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net_ + +_UNIQUE_ + +I. In which, by favour and fortune, three gentle persons may interest at +least three others. + +II. Wherein is founded a new Order of Chivalry, and matters for simple and +wise alike may be discovered. + +III. Exhibiting a partner in an old-established business pursuing her +occupation. + +IV. Wherein one character is left in a delicate situation, another loses +her way, and a third is brought to a pretty pass. + +V. Containing the din of arms, thrust and parry and threat of slaughter, +but gently concluding with the first canon of feminine craft. + +VI. Displaying a standing example of feminine folly and a rally of heroes. + +VII. Concerning, mainly, the passions as toys for the great god, Chance, +to fool with. + +VIII. Wherein an oft-defeated, yet indestructible, ideal is realised. + +IX. Of matters for old and young, facts and fancies, aspirations and +exhortations, and chronicling a feat worthy the grand tradition of +chivalry. + +X. A magical chapter, of whose content those who doubt may likely believe +what should be doubted, and those who believe may doubt what is perfectly +true. + +XI. Confirming the adage that happy beginnings tend to happy endings, and +showing how Heaven will still preserve Virtue, even at the cost of working +a miracle. + +XII. Which relates the Happy Ending. + +XIII. Wherein the Romancer takes courteous leave of the Three Gentle +Readers. + +London: STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD., 10 John St., Adelphi + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] From which little place the lines as a whole take the name in history +of "Lines of La Bassee." + +[2] As is common in the history of military affairs, the advocates of +either party present these confused movements before the lines of La +Bassee upon the eve of the siege of Tournai in very different and indeed +contradictory lights. + +The classical work of Mr Fortescue, to which I must, here as elsewhere, +render homage, will have the whole movement, from its inception, to be +deliberately designed; no battle intended, the siege of Tournai to be the +only real object of the allies. + +The French apologists talk of quarrels between Eugene and Marlborough, +take for granted a plan of assault against Villars, and represent the +turning off of the army to the siege of Tournai as an afterthought. The +truth, of course, is contained in both versions, and lies between the two. +Eugene and Marlborough did intend a destructive assault upon Villars and +his line, but they were early persuaded--especially by the reconnoitring +of Cadogan--that the defensive skill of the French commander had proved +formidable, and we may take it that the determination to besiege Tournai +and to abandon an assault upon the main of the French forces had been +reached at least as early as the 26th. There is no positive evidence, +however, one way or the other, to decide these questions of motive. I rely +upon no more than the probable intention of the men, to be deduced from +their actions, and I do not believe that the Dutch would have had orders +to move as early as they did unless Marlborough had decided--not later +than the moment I have mentioned--to make Tournai the first objective of +the campaign. + +[3] Mr Fortescue in his work makes it the 23rd. I cannot conceive the +basis for such an error. The whole story of the 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, +28th, and 29th is in the French archives, together with full details of +the capitulation on the 29th and 30th. + +[4] As usual, there is a contradiction in the records. The French record +definitely ascribes the proposal to Marlborough. Marlborough, in a letter +to his wife of 5th August, as definitely ascribes it to Surville; and +there is no positive evidence one way or the other, though Louis' +rejection of the terms and the ability of calculation and the character of +the two men certainly make it more probable that Marlborough and not +Surville was the author of the proposition. + +[5] The dispute as to who was the author of the suggestion for an +armistice is further illumined by this refusal on the part of the allies. +The proposal to contain Tournai and yet to have free their vast forces in +operation elsewhere, if a trifle crude, was certainly to their advantage, +and as certainly to the disadvantage of the French. + +[6] This excellent phrase is Mr Fortescue's. + +[7] Technically the line of defence was forced, for the line of Trouille +was but a continuation of the lines of La Bassee--Douai--Valenciennes. So +far as strategical results were concerned, the withdrawal of Villars +behind the forest barrier was equivalent to the reconstruction of new +lines, and in the event the action of Malplaquet proved that new defensive +position to be strong enough to prevent the invasion of France. On the +other hand, there is little doubt that if Villars had been in a little +more strength he would have elected to fight on the old lines and not +behind the woods. + +It must further be remarked that if the operations had not been prolonged +as they were by the existence of the posts on the lines, notably at St +Ghislain, the defensive position of the French would probably have been +forced and their whole line broken as early as September 4th. + +[8] It is remarkable that these two roads, which are the chief feature +both of the landscape and the local military topography, and which are of +course as straight as taut strings, are represented upon Mr Fortescue's +map (vol. i. p. 424) as winding lanes, or, to speak more accurately, are +not represented at all. In this perhaps the learned historian of the +British army was misled by Coxe's atlas to Marlborough's campaign, a +picturesque but grossly inaccurate compilation. The student who desires to +study this action in detail will do well to consult the Belgian Ordnance +Map on the scale of 1/40,000 contours at 5 metres, section Roisin, and the +French General Staff Map, 1/80,000, section Maubeuge, south-western +quarter; the action being fought exactly on the frontier between Belgium +and France, both maps are necessary. For the general strategic position +the French 1/200,000 in colours, sheet Maubeuge, and the adjoining sheet, +Lille, are sufficient. + +[9] The reader who may compare this account of Malplaquet with others will +be the less confused if he remembers that the forest of Sars is called on +that extremity nearest to the gap the wood of Blaregnies, and that this +name is often extended, especially in English accounts, to the whole +forest. + +[10] These 9000 found at St Ghislain a belated post of 200 French, who +surrendered. Someone had forgotten them. + +[11] For the discussion of this see later on p. 75. + +[12] They were commanded by Hamilton and Tullibardine. It is to be +remarked that the command of the whole of the left of the Prince of +Orange's force, though it was not half Scotch, was under the command of +Hamilton and Douglas. The two regiments of Tullibardine and Hepburn were +under the personal command of the Marquis of Tullibardine, the heir of +Atholl. + +[13] Nominally under Tilly, but practically under the young Royal +commander. + +[14] Villars, wounded and fainting with pain, had been taken from the +field an hour or two before, and the whole command was now in the hands of +Boufflers. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The misprint "Schulenberg" has been corrected to "Schulemberg" (page 70). + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Malplaquet, by Hilaire Belloc + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MALPLAQUET *** + +***** This file should be named 32257.txt or 32257.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/5/32257/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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