e 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 eart