Edward Marston - Drums of War

Early in the afternoon, the guns fired and the battle began. The extremities of the Allied line were called into play first. Attacking in the south, the Dutch Guards used their two cannon to smash a way through houses and walls. Within a couple of hours, they'd overrun both Taviers and Franquenee. Alarmed by this development, Villeroi launched a counter-attack, sending squadrons of dragoons and battalions of Swiss troops, supported by a Bavarian brigade. It was a calamitous exercise. When the dragoons dismounted among the marshes, they were at the mercy of an advancing Danish cavalry that swept quickly through them. The Swiss took to their heels in panic and most of the Bavarians joined in the retreat. There was now a serious threat to the French on their right wing.

Meanwhile, Marlborough was also probing on the other flank. Under the command of General Lord Orkney, a redoubtable Scot, the massed British battalions were dispatched in the direction of Offus, near which the enemy command post had been set up. Villeroi's judgement had failed him. Having believed the marshes on that flank to be impassable, he now watched with growing consternation as waves of British soldiers trudged through them over fascines. Every time the smoke of gunfire cleared, the lines could be seen getting ever closer, marching to the beat of the drums. With each new burst of cannon or musketry fire from the French, scores of redcoats toppled to the ground with fatal wounds or gruesome injuries. They were immediately used as stepping stones through the quagmire, dead bodies or stray limbs being gathered up indiscriminately and pressed into service as auxiliary fascines. French gunfire was unrelenting but the battalions kept surging on and the drums never faltered. Tom Hillier, Hugh Dobbs and the others kept their nerve in the hail of musket balls and maintained their line. In spite of the pounding it took, the advance continued with a sense of inevitability, climbing the slope to the ridgeline until it passed the outlying farms. It reached the very walls of Offus and Autre-Eglise, dispersing the garrisons in each village and hunting them from building to building.

Observing it all from a vantage point, Daniel was thrilled by the apparent success of the thrust on the right. He was therefore amazed when Marlborough handed him a dispatch for Orkney.

'They must withdraw immediately,' said Marlborough.

Daniel gaped. 'Withdraw?' he said. 'When they clearly have the advantage?'

'Deliver my orders, Daniel.'

'At once, Your Grace.'

'And please don't question them again.'

'No, Your Grace.'

Daniel spurred his horse into a gallop down the slope. Though he preferred to be in the thick of the fighting, he was given a taste of its ferocity as he sped across the plain. Cannon were still booming and muskets still popping. Smoke was everywhere. Wounded horses neighed in agony as they threshed about on the ground. Despairing cries of dying soldiers swelled the pandemonium. When he rode up the slope towards the main action, Daniel had to evade mounds of corpses. Lord Orkney's troops were outnumbered yet they still continued to advance, engaging in fierce hand-to-hand fighting against French and Walloon infantry. Locating the commander amid the fray, Daniel handed him the dispatch and waited for him to read it.

Orkney was outraged. 'Pray, what's this?' he yelled. 'His Grace wishes us to retire across the Gheete? I've no mind to give ground while we're giving no quarter.'

'Those are your orders, my lord,' said Daniel.

'And damn vexatious orders they are! We're on the point of occupying Offus. We fought our way here through a blizzard of bullets and round shot. Are we to abandon what we've gained?'

'I'm sure the decision has great merit.'

Daniel left him fuming and galloped off in the opposite direction. On his way back, deafened by the noise of battle, he recognised another of Marlborough's ADCs riding towards the right flank and he wondered if the orders he'd just delivered had been countermanded. In fact, they were being reinforced. To make sure that his commands were obeyed, Marlborough sent no fewer than ten consecutive dispatches to Orkney. He even sent Cadogan, to make sure that the withdrawal was swift and orderly. The attack was called off. Angry, bewildered and feeling let down, Orkney retired with exemplary skill, sustaining losses in doing so but beating off any attempts by the French to pursue them. In obedience to Marlborough's orders, the battalions drew up on the other side of the Gheete, wholly at a loss to understand why their incisive strike had been suddenly halted.

Villeroi, meanwhile, was congratulating himself on having repulsed a dangerous attack but, as a result, he'd had to withdraw substantial forces from the centre of his line. Rather than send them back, he kept them on his left flank to counter the menace of the British battalions lined up beyond the Gheete. Marlborough's bluff had worked. Because Orkney's attack was clearly not a feint, Villeroi had unbalanced his dispositions. In strengthening the left flank, he'd seriously weakened the centre. Solid lines of infantry and cavalry had been drastically thinned down across two miles of open plain between Taviers and Ramillies.

From their position on high ground between the two villages, Marlborough had an excellent view of the entire battlefield. When Daniel realised what their commander-in-chief had done, he regretted his temerity in questioning the decision. It was a brilliant strategy.

Ramillies itself now came under attack. A dozen battalions under the command of General Schultz advanced against heavy resistance until they reached the village itself, forcing the garrison to look to its own defence rather than being able to offer support elsewhere. The grand attack on the French centre was led by General Overkirk with Allied cavalry supported by Dutch, German and Swiss infantry in the pay of the Dutch. They moved inexorably forward in four dense ranks along a line that extended from Ramillies to the Mehaigne. The real test was now coming.

Daniel was able to look down on four miles of unremitting warfare. Smoke billowed, cannon roared, cavalry charged, sabres clashed, foot soldiers traded fire, drummers beat out their calls and all the unstinting savagery of battle was released amid the tumult. Longing to be involved in it all, Daniel was forced to be an onlooker, trying to decide at which point the fighting was most intense and where the Allies were gaining the upper hand. Hurling themselves against the French centre, the Allied cavalry crashed easily through the first line of enemy horse. When they tried to penetrate even further, however, the infantry which interleaved Villeroi's cavalry responded with such a sustained volley that they were stopped in their tracks.

Of more significance was a counter-charge by the Maison du Roi, the French household cavalry, 13 squadrons in all. It was so swift, controlled and powerful that Overkirk's cavalry wilted before it. Patently, the Allied centre needed much more support. Marlborough supplied it in person.

Are you ready for action, Daniel?' he said, taking out his sabre.

'Yes, Your Grace.'

'Then let's not miss the fun.'

'I'm with you,' shouted Daniel above the hullabaloo.

With the rest of his staff at his heels, Marlborough led the way. Having already anticipated heavy resistance in the centre, he had withdrawn some of the squadrons from the right flank to act as reinforcements to Overkirk. Because of the undulations in the terrain, the additional horse had departed from Orkney's force without being seen by Villeroi. Thinking he was still threatened by a sizeable army on his left flank, he kept several battalions away from the centre where they would have been far more use. Once again, Villeroi had been tricked by Marlborough, leaving a sector of his line vulnerable.