the enemy in front; the timidity of the authorities at the Hague, the
nervousness and responsibility of the Dutch generals, were more to be
dreaded than Villeroi's redoubts. It required all the consummate
address of the English general, aided by the able co-operation of
General Overkirk, to get liberty from the Dutch authorities to engage
in any offensive undertaking. At length, however, after infinite
difficulty, a council of war, at headquarters, agreed to support any
undertaking which might be deemed advisable; and Marlborough instantly
set about putting his design in execution.

The better to conceal the real point of attack, he gave out that a
march to the Moselle was to be immediately undertaken; and to give a
colour to the report, the corps which had been employed in the siege
of Huys was not brought forward to the front. At the same time
Overkirk was detached to the Allied left towards Bourdine, and
Marlborough followed with a considerable force, ostensibly to support
him. So completely was Villeroi imposed upon, that he drew large
reinforcements from the centre to his extreme right; and soon forty
thousand men were grouped round the sources of the Little Gheet on his
extreme right. By this means the centre was seriously weakened; and
Marlborough instantly assembled, with every imaginable precaution to
avoid discovery, all his disposable forces to attack the weakened part
of the lines. The corps hitherto stationed on the Meuse was silently
brought up to the front; Marlborough put himself at the head of his
own English and German troops, whom he had carried with him from the
Moselle; and at eight at night, on the 17th July, the whole began to
march, all profoundly ignorant of the service on which they were to be
engaged. Each trooper was ordered to carry a truss of hay at his
saddle-bow, as if a long march was in contemplation. At the same
instant on which the columns under Marlborough's orders commenced
their march, Overkirk repassed the Mehaigne on the left, and, hid by
darkness, fell into the general line of the advance of the Allied
troops.

No fascines or gabions had been brought along to pass the ditch, for
fear of exciting alarm in the lines. The trusses of hay alone were
trusted to for that purpose, which would be equally effectual, and
less likely to awaken suspicion. At four in the morning, the heads of
the columns, wholly unperceived, were in front of the French works,
and, covered by a thick fog, t