clared themselves against the undertaking.
The enemy were posted along the lines, amounting to one hundred
battalions, and one hundred and forty-six squadrons. The allied army
did not much exceed that number. In order to divide them, d'Auverquerque
made a false motion, and passed the Mehaigne as if he had intended to
attack the lines about Messelin. The stratagem succeeded. The French
weakened the other parts by strengthening that which was on the side
of the Gerbise towards Namur. The duke of Marlborough having made
the disposition, the army began to march in the night between the
seventeenth and eighteenth of July, in order to force a passage of
the French lines at Heylesem, the castle of Wauge, and the villages
of Wauge, Neerhespen, and Oostmalen. These posts were taken with very
little difficulty; but before the infantry could come up, the enemy
advanced with fifty squadrons and twenty battalions, and began to fire
from eight pieces of cannon with triple barrels, which did considerable
execution. The duke perceiving that they were continually reinforced
from the other parts of the lines, ordered the horse to charge their
cavalry, which were soon broken and routed; but rallying behind their
infantry, interlined with foot, and joined by fresh squadrons, they
advanced again towards the allies, who were now sustained by their
infantry, and moved forward to renew the charge. After a warm though
short engagement, the enemy's horse were defeated with great slaughter.
The infantry, seeing themselves abandoned in the plain, retreated in
great disorder, between the villages of Heylesem and Golsteven, where
they were joined by the rest of their army, and formed again in order
of battle. Meanwhile the duke of Marlborough ordered all his troops to
enter the lines; and extended his right towards the great Geete before
Tirlemont, where the enemy had left the battalion of Montluc, which
surrendered at discretion. In this action the confederates took the
marquis d'Alegre and the count de Home, lieutenant-generals, one
major-general, two brigadier-generals, with many other officers, and
a great number of common soldiers; a large heap of standards, four
colours, one pair of kettle-drums, and ten pieces of cannon. In the
action, as the duke of Marlborough advanced to the charge at the head
of several squadrons, a Bavarian officer rode up to attack him sword in
hand; but in raising himself on his stirrups to strike with the greater
advan