nst 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