placed himself at the head of the Dutch and
Hanoverian battalions, and led them back against the French, who
were advancing with shouts of victory, and desperate struggles
ensued. Alison in his history says:

"The ground on which the hostile lines met was so broken, that the
battle in that quarter turned almost into a series of partial
conflicts and even personal encounters. Every bridge, every ditch,
every wood, every hamlet, every enclosure, was obstinately
contested, and so incessant was the roll of musketry, and so
intermingled did the hostile lines become, that the field, seen
from a distance, appeared an unbroken line of flame. A warmer fire,
a more desperate series of combats, was never witnessed in modern
warfare. It was in great part conducted hand to hand, like the
battles of antiquity, of which Livy and Homer have left such
graphic descriptions. The cavalry could not act, from the multitude
of hedges and copses which intersected the theatre of conflict.
Breast to breast, knee to knee, bayonet to bayonet, they maintained
the fight on both sides with the most desperate resolution. If the
resistance, however, was obstinate, the attack was no less
vigorous, and at length the enthusiastic ardour of the French
yielded to the steady valour of the Germans. Gradually they were
driven back, literally at the bayonet's point; and at length,
resisting at every point, they yielded all the ground they had won
at the commencement of the action. So, gradually they were pushed
back as far as the village of Diepenbech, where so stubborn a stand
was made that the allies could no longer advance."

Overkirk had now got the rear of the army across the river, and the
duke, seeing that the Hill of Oycke, which flanked the enemy's
position, was unoccupied by them, directed the veteran general with
his twenty Dutch and Danish battalions to advance and occupy it.
Arrived there, he swung round the left of his line, and so pressed
the French right, which was advanced beyond their outer bounds into
the little plain of Diepenbech. The duke commanded Overkirk to
press round still further to his left by the passes of Mullem and
the mill of Royeghem, by which the French sustained their
communication with the force still on the plateau beyond the
Norken; and Prince Eugene to further extend his right so as to
encompass the mass of French crowded in the plain of Diepenbech.

The night was falling now, and the progress of the allies on either