h
the five columns advancing from the Scheldt valley northward were to find
themselves before dawn on the morning of Saturday the 17th of May. We are
already acquainted with them. They are Warcoing, Bailleul, Templeuve,
Froidmont, and Pont-a-Marcq respectively; while the point marked 6 is
Wervicq, from which Clerfayt was to start simultaneously with the five
southern columns with the object of meeting his fellows round Tourcoing.

The town of Courtrai will be perceived to lie in the north-eastern angle
of this inner oblong, the town of Lille rather below the middle of its
western side. In all the country round Courtrai, and especially to the
south of it, within the triangle X Y Z, lay the mass of Souham's command
of 40,000 men. There were many posts, of course, scattered outside that
triangle, and connecting Courtrai with Lille; but the links were weak, and
the main force was where I have indicated it to be.

A large body of French troops being encamped just under the walls of Lille
at B (by which letter I mark Sainghin camp), and that fortress also
possessing a garrison, the plan of cutting both these off from the 40,000
French that lay in the country near Courtrai involved getting the main
part of the allies up from these points of departure on the south, and
Clerfayt's body down from its point of departure on the north to meet upon
the line drawn between Lille and Courtrai. Upon this line (which also
roughly corresponds to the only main road between the two cities) may be
perceived, lying nearer Lille than the centre of such line, the small town
of Tourcoing and the village of Mouveaux. It was upon these two points
that four of the five southern columns were to converge northward, the
second and third column reaching them first, the fourth and fifth marching
up from the left in aid; and it was also, of course, upon these two points
that Clerfayt was to march southward from the post at Wervicq, that had
been given _him_ as _his_ point of departure before dawn upon that
Saturday morning. If everything went perfectly, the great mass of the
allied army should have found itself, by noon of Saturday the 17th, as I
have said, astraddle of the Lille-Courtrai road, and effectively cutting
off the French troops to the north.

What was the nature of the wide countryside over which these various
movements were to take place?

It was part of that great plain of Flanders which stretches from the River
Scheldt almost unbroken to