e Duke of York's, it
suffered a similar and parallel misfortune. As the English had found
Lannoy occupied upon their line of retreat, so Otto's column had found
Wattrelos. As the English column had broken at Lannoy, so the Austrian at
Leers. And the second column came drifting back dispersed to camp,
precisely as the third had done. When the fragments were mustered and the
defeat acknowledged, it was about three o'clock in the afternoon.

For the rest of the allied army there is no tale to tell, save with regard
to Clerfayt's command; the fourth and the fifth columns, miles away behind
the scene of the disaster, did not come into action. Long before they
could have broken up after the breakdown through exhaustion of the day
before, the French were over the Marque and between them and York. When a
move was made at noon, it was not to relieve the second and third columns,
for that was impossible, though, perhaps, if they had marched earlier, the
pressure they would have brought to bear upon Bonnaud's men might have
done something to lessen the disaster. It is doubtful, for the Marque
stood in between and the French did not leave it unguarded.

Bussche, true to his conduct of the day before, held his positions all day
and maintained his cannonade with the enemy. It is true that there was no
severe pressure upon him, but still he held his own even when the rout
upon his left might have tempted him to withdraw his little force.

As for Clerfayt, he had not all his men across the Lys until that very
hour of seven in the morning when York at Mouveaux was beginning to suffer
the intolerable pressure of the French, and Otto's men at Tourcoing were
in a similar plight.

By the time he had got all his men over, he found Vandamme holding
positions, hastily prepared but sufficiently well chosen, and blocking his
way to the south. With a defensive thus organised, though only half as
strong as the attack, Vandamme was capable of a prolonged resistance; and
while it was in progress, reinforcements, summoned from the northern parts
of the French line beyond Lille, had had time to appear towards the west.
He must have heard from eight o'clock till noon the fire of his retreating
comrades falling back in their disastrous retreat, and, rightly judging
that he would have after mid-day the whole French army to face, he
withdrew to the river, and had the luck to cross it the next day without
loss: a thing that the French now free from the e