e guards, in a hollow
way leading up from the village to the plateau, and opposed so
vigorous a resistance that he not only checked the pursuit but
regained part of the village. But Marlborough, whose eye was every
where, no sooner saw this than he ordered up twenty battalions in
reserve behind the centre, and they speedily cleared the village; and
Maffei, with his gallant troops, being charged in flank by the
victorious horse at the very time that he was driven out of the
village by the infantry, was made prisoner, and almost all his men
taken or destroyed.

The victory was now decided on the British left and centre, where
alone the real attack had been made. But so vehement had been the
onset, so desperate the passage of arms which had taken place, that
though the battle had lasted little more than three hours, the victors
were nearly in as great disorder as the vanquished. Horse, foot, and
artillery, were blended together in wild confusion; especially between
Ramilies and the Mehaigne, and thence up to the tomb of Ottomond, in
consequence of the various charges of all arms which had so rapidly
succeeded each other on the same narrow space. Marlborough, seeing
this, halted his troops, before hazarding any thing further, on the
ground where they stood, which, in the left and centre, was where the
enemy had been at the commencement of the action. Villeroi skilfully
availed himself of this breathing-time to endeavour to re-form his
broken troops, and take up a new line from Geest-a-Gerompont, on his
right, through Offuz to Autre Eglise, still held by its original
garrison, on his left. But in making the retrograde movement so as to
get his men into this oblique position, he was even more impeded and
thrown into disorder by the baggage waggons and dismounted guns on the
heights, than the Allies had been in the plain below. Marlborough
seeing this, resolved to give the enemy no time to rally, but again
sounding the charge, ordered infantry and cavalry to advance. A strong
column passed the morass in which the Little Gheet takes its rise,
directing their steps towards Offuz; but the enemy, panic-struck as at
Waterloo, by the general advance of the victors, gave way on all
sides. Offuz was abandoned without firing a shot; the cavalry pursued
with headlong fury, and soon the plateau of Mont St Andre was covered
with a mass of fugitives. The troops in observation on the right,
seeing the victory gained on the left and centre,