advancing in two columns as far as St. Anthony, and
the left marching up within half a league of Crevelt. The prince having
viewed the position of the enemy from the steeple of St. Anthony,
procured guides, and having received all the necessary hints of
information, proceeded to the right, in order to charge the enemy's left
flank by the villages of Worst and Anrath; but, in order to divide their
attention, and keep them in suspense with respect to the nature of his
principal attack, he directed the generals Sporcken and Oberg to advance
against them by the way of Crevelt and St. Anthony, and, in particular,
to make the most of their artillery, that, being employed in three
different places at once, they might be prevented from sending any
reinforcement to the left, where the chief attack was intended. These
precautions being taken, prince Ferdinand, putting himself at the head
of the grenadiers of the right wing, continued his march in two columns
to the village of Anrath, where he fell in with an advanced party of the
French, which, after a few discharges of musketry, retired to their camp
and gave the alarm. In the meantime, both armies were drawn up in order
of battle; the troops of the allies in the plain between the villages
of Anrath and Willich, opposite to the French forces, whose left was
covered with a wood. The action began about one in the afternoon, with
a severe cannonading on the part of prince Ferdinand, which, though well
supported, proved ineffectual in drawing the enemy from their cover;
he therefore determined to dislodge them from the wood by dint of small
arms. The hereditary prince immediately advanced with the whole front,
and a very obstinate action ensued. Meanwhile, the cavalry on the right
in vain attempted to penetrate the wood on the other side, where the
enemy had raised two batteries, which were sustained by forty squadrons
of horse. After a terrible fire had been maintained on both sides till
five in the afternoon, the grenadiers forced the intrenchments in
the wood, which were lined by the French infantry. These giving way,
abandoned the wood in the utmost disorder; but the pursuit was
checked by the conduct and resolution of the enemy's cavalry, which,
notwithstanding a dreadful fire from the artillery of the allies,
maintained their ground, and covered the foot in their retreat to Nuys.
The success of the day was in a good measure owing to the artillery on
the left and in the centre,