in Flanders was intrusted to
mareschal Villeroy, and Boufflers commanded a separate army though
subject to the other's orders. As the French king took it for granted
that the confederates would have a superiority of numbers in the field,
and was well acquainted with the enterprising genius of their chief, he
ordered a new line to be drawn between Lys and the Scheld; he caused a
disposition to be made for covering Dunkirk, Ypres, Tournay, and Namur;
and laid injunctions on his general to act solely on the defensive.
Meanwhile, the confederates formed two armies in the Netherlands.
The first consisted of seventy battalions of infantry, and eighty-two
squadrons of horse and dragoons, chiefly English and Scots, encamped
at AErseele, Caneghem, and Wouterghem, between Thield and Deynse, to
be commanded by the king in person, assisted by the old prince of
Vaudemont. The other army, composed of sixteen battalions of foot and
one hundred and thirty squadrons of horse, encamped at Zellich and
Hamme, on the road from Brussels to Dendermonde, under the command
of the elector of Bavaria, seconded by the duke of Holstein-Ploen.
Major-general Ellemberg was posted near Dixmuyde with twenty battalions
and ten squadrons; and another body of Brandenburg and Dutch troops,
with a reinforcement from Liege, lay encamped on the Mehaigne, under the
conduct of the baron de Heyden, Lieutenant-general of Brandenburgh, and
the count de Berlo, general of the Liege cavalry. King-William arrived
in the camp on the fifth clay of July, and remained eight days at
AErseele. Then he marched to Bekelar, while Villeroy retired behind his
lines between Menin and Ypres, after having detached ten thousand men
to reinforce Boufflers, who had advanced to Pont d'Espieres; but he too
retreating within his lines, the elector of Bavaria passed the Scheld
and took post at Kirkhoven; at the same time the body under Heyden
advanced towards Namur.

WILLIAM UNDERTAKES THE SIEGE OF NAMUR.

The king of England having by his motions drawn the forces of the enemy
on the side of Flanders, directed the baron de Heyden and the earl of
Athlone, who commanded forty squadrons from the camp of the elector of
Bavaria, to invest Namur, and this service was performed on the third
day of July; but as the place was not entirely surrounded, mareschal
Boufflers threw himself into it with such a reinforcement of dragoons
as augmented the garrison to the number of fifteen thousand cho