General Schlangenberg, the second in command, at once
assumed the command. The Dutch rallied speedily from their
surprise, and the advancing columns of the enemy were soon met with
a desperate resistance. In front General Boufflers attacked with
twenty battalions of French troops, headed by the grenadiers he had
brought with him, while a strong Spanish force barred the retreat.
Under such circumstances many troops would at once have laid down
their arms; but such a thought never occurred to the Dutchmen of
Schlangenberg's army.

While a portion of this force opposed Boufflers' troops pressing on
their front, the rest threw themselves against those who barred
their retreat to Fort Lille. Never was there more desperate
fighting. Nowhere could ground have been selected more unsuited for
a battlefield.

It was by the roads alone running upon the dykes above the general
level of the country the troops could advance or retreat, and it
was upon these that the heads of the heavy columns struggled for
victory.

There was little firing. The men in front had no time to reload,
those behind could not fire because their friends were before them.
It was a fierce hand-to-hand struggle, such as might have taken
place on the same ground in the middle ages, before gunpowder was
in use. Bayonets and clubbed muskets, these were the weapons on
both sides, while dismounted troopers--for horses were worse than
useless here, mixed up with the infantry--fought with swords. On
the roads, on the sides of the slopes, waist deep in the water of
the ditches, men fought hand-to-hand. Schlangenberg commanded at
the spot where the Dutchmen obstinately and stubbornly resisted the
fury of the French onslaught, and even the chosen grenadiers of
France failed to break down that desperate defence.

All day the battle raged. Rupert having no fixed duty rode
backwards and forwards along the roads, now watching how went the
defence against the French attack, now how the Dutch in vain tried
to press back the Spaniards and open a way of retreat. Late in the
afternoon he saw a party of the staff officers pressing towards the
rear on foot.

"We are going to try to get to the head of the column," one said to
Rupert. "We must force back the Spaniards, or we are all lost."

"I will join you," Rupert said, leaping from his horse.

"Hugh, give me my pistols and take your own; leave the horses, and
come with me."

It took upwards of an hour to make their way