tion of the fifth column, under the Arch-Duke Charles,
the heavy strain already imposed upon which, and the accumulating
difficulties it was about to encounter, largely determining the
unfortunate issue of the battle.

Kinsky got news on that Friday from the Arch-Duke at St Amand that it was
hardly possible for his great body of men to reach the appointed post of
Pont-a-Marcq at the arranged hour of daybreak the next morning. I have
already suggested that this delay cannot only have been due to the very
long march which had been imposed upon the Arch-Duke's command when it had
been hurriedly summoned up from the south to St Amand, forty-eight hours
before. It must also have been due to the fact that not all its units
reached St Amand by the evening of Thursday the 15th. It seemed certain
that there must have been stragglers or bad delays on the morning of the
16th, for it was not until long after nightfall--indeed not until ten
o'clock in the evening--of Friday the 16th that the Arch-Duke was able to
set out from St Amand and take the Pont-a-Marcq road. This unfortunate
body, therefore, the fifth column, which had all the hardest work before
it, which had but one road by which to march (although it was double any
of the others in size), was compelled, after the terrible fatigue of the
preceding days, to push forward sixteen miles through the night in a vain
attempt to reach Pont-a-Marcq, not indeed by daybreak, for that was
obviously impossible, but as soon after as haste and anxiety could
command. Kinsky was tied to Froidmont and unable to move forward until
that fifth column upon his left was at least approaching its goal. For he
had Bonnaud's 20,000 Frenchmen at Sainghin right in front of him, and
further, if he had moved, his left flank would have been exposed, and,
what is more, he would have failed in his purpose, which was to link up
the Arch-Duke on one side with the Duke of York upon the other.

This first mishap, then, must be carefully noted as one prime lack of
synchrony in the origins of the combined movement, and a first clear cause
of the misfortune that was to attend the whole affair. The delay of the
fifth column was the chief cause of the disaster.

Meanwhile, another failure to synchronise, and that a most grave one, was
taking place miles away in the north with Clerfayt's command beyond the
Lys.

It is self-evident that where one isolated and distant body is being asked
to co-operate with comrades