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 barrie