flank could be seen by the flashes of fire. Vendome, seeing the
immense danger in which his right and centre were placed,
endeavoured to bring up his left, hitherto intact; but the
increasing darkness, the thick enclosures, and the determined
resistance of Eugene's troops, prevented him from carrying out his
intention. So far were the British wings extended round the plain
of Diepenbech, that they completely enclosed it, and Eugene's and
Overkirk's men meeting fought fiercely, each believing the other to
be French. The mistake was discovered, and to prevent any further
mishap of this kind in the darkness, the whole army was ordered to
halt where it was and wait till morning. Had the daylight lasted
two hours longer, the whole of the French army would have been
slain or taken prisoners; as it was, the greater portion made their
way through the intervals of the allied army around them, and fled
to Ghent. Nevertheless, they lost 6,000 killed and wounded, and
9,000 prisoners, while many thousands of the fugitives made for the
French frontier. Thus the total loss to Vendome exceeded 20,000
men, while the allies lost in all 5000.

When morning broke, Marlborough dispatched forty squadrons of horse
in pursuit of the fugitives towards Ghent, sent off Count Lottum
with thirty battalions and fifty squadrons to carry the strong
lines which the enemy had constructed between Ypres and Warneton,
and employed the rest of his force in collecting and tending the
wounded of both armies.

A few days later the two armies, that of Eugene and that of the
Duke of Berwick, which had been marching with all speed parallel to
each other, came up and joined those of Marlborough and Vendome
respectively. The Duke of Berwick's corps was the more powerful,
numbering thirty-four battalions and fifty-five squadrons, and this
raised the Duke de Vendome's army to over 110,000, and placed him
again fairly on an equality with the allies. Marlborough, having by
his masterly movement forced Vendome to fight with his face to
Paris, and in his retreat to retire still farther from the
frontier, now had France open to him, and his counsel was that the
whole army should at once march for Paris, disregarding the
fortresses just as Wellington and Blucher did after Waterloo.

He was however, overruled, even Eugene considering such an attempt
to be altogether too dangerous, with Vendome's army, 110,000
strong, in the rear; and it must be admitted it would certai