the great allied plan
the day before? The answer is, unfortunately, easily forthcoming. York had
left the bridges over the Marque unguarded. Why, we do not know. Whether
from sheer inadvertence, or because he hoped that Kinsky had detached men
for the purpose, for one reason or another he had left those passages
free, and, by the bridge of Hempempont against Lannoy, by that of Breuck
against Roubaix, Bonnaud's and Osten's men poured over.

As at Tourcoing, so at Mouveaux, a desperate attempt was made to hold the
position. Indeed it was clung to far too late, but the straits to which
Mouveaux was reduced at least afforded an opportunity for something of
which the British service should not be unmindful. Immediately between
Roubaix and the River Marque, Fox, with the English battalions of the
line, was desperately trying to hold the flank and to withstand the
pressure of the French, who were coming across the river more than twice
his superiors in number. He was supported by a couple of Austrian
battalions, and the two services dispute as to which half of this
defending force was first broken. But the dispute is idle. No troops could
have stood the pressure, and at any rate the defence broke down--with this
result: that the British troops holding Mouveaux, Abercrombie's Dragoons,
and the Brigade of Guards, were cut off from their comrades in Roubaix.
Meanwhile, Tourcoing having been carried and the Austrians driven out from
thence, the eastern and western forces of the French had come into touch
in the depression between Mouveaux and Roubaix, and it seemed as though
the surrender or destruction of that force was imminent. Abercrombie saved
it. A narrow gap appeared between certain forces of the French, eastward
of the position at Mouveaux, and leaving a way open round to Roubaix. He
took advantage of it and won through: the Guards keeping a perfect order,
the rear defended by the mobility and daring of the Dragoons. The village
of Roubaix, in those days, consisted in the main of one long straight
street, though what is now the great town had already then so far
increased in size as to have suburbs upon the north and south. The
skirmishers of the French were in these suburbs. (Fox's flank command had
long ago retired, keeping its order, however, and making across country as
best it could for Lannoy.) It was about half-past nine when Abercrombie's
force, which had been saved by so astonishing a mixture of chance, skill,
coo