with Otto and York isolated at the central
meeting-place round Tourcoing-Mouveaux, which they alone had reached; with
the Arch-Duke Charles and Kinsky bivouacked miles away to the south on
either side of the Bridge of Bouvines; and with Clerfayt still, as to the
bulk of his force, on the wrong side of the Lys.

It was no wonder that the next day, Sunday, was to see the beginning of
disaster.

SUNDAY, MAY THE 18TH, 1794.

I have said that, considering the isolated position in which York and Otto
found themselves, with no more than perhaps 18,000 in the six positions of
Leers, Wattrelos, and Tourcoing, Lannoy, Roubaix, and Mouveaux, the French
had only to wake up to the situation, and Otto and York would be
overwhelmed.

The French did wake up. How thoroughly taken by surprise they had been by
the prompt and exact advance of Otto and York the day before, the reader
has already been told. Throughout Saturday they remained in some confusion
as to the intention of the enemy; and indeed it was not easy to grasp a
movement which was at once of such great size, and whose very miscarriage
rendered it the more baffling of comprehension. But by the evening of the
day, Souham, calling a council of his generals at Menin, came to a
decision as rapid as it was wise. Reynier, Moreau, and Macdonald, the
generals of divisions that were under his orders, all took part in the
brief discussion and the united resolve to which it led. "It was," in the
words of a contemporary, "one of those rare occasions in which the
decision of several men in council has proved as effective as the decision
of a single will."

Of the troops which were, it will be remembered, dispersed to the north of
the Lys, only one brigade was left upon the wrong side of the river to
keep an eye on Clerfayt; all the rest were recalled across the stream and
sent forward to take up positions north of Otto's and Kinsky's columns.
Meanwhile the bulk of the French troops lying between Courtrai and
Tourcoing were disposed in such fashion as to attack from the north and
east, south and westward. Some 40,000 men all told were ready to close in
with the first light from both sides upon the two isolated bodies of the
allies. To complete their discomfiture, word was sent to Bonnaud and
Osten, the generals of divisions who commanded the 20,000 about Lille,
ordering them to march north and east, and to attack simultaneously with
their comrades upon that third exposed side where