Bruges and Ghent had gone back to the French allegiance, and Louis determined to make an attempt to secure Oudenarde also, an important fortress lying between the French borders and Brabant.  The French army boasted two generals, the royal Duke of Burgundy, an incapable leader, and the Duke of Vendome, a most capable one.  A more unfortunate partnership could not well be imagined; Burgundy and Vendome were in everything the opposite of each other, and the quarrels between them were as numerous as they were bitter, so that the army of Louis XIV was handicapped at the very outset.

It was three in the afternoon of July 11.  The Allies were fagged out with the marchings and the heat of the day when they came in sight of the enemy’s forces near Oudenarde.

“Precious glad of a rest!” Matthew Blackett remarked when the signal to halt came.  To his surprise and dismay the order to form immediately followed.

“Just like the Duke,” commented his friend Fairburn.

Quickly the cavalry were got together for a charge.

“The old fellow doesn’t intend the Frenchmen to slip away without fighting,” the men remarked to one another.

Suddenly, almost before the whole body of horse was ready, Marlborough directed a charge to be made.  For the first time our lieutenants found themselves not in the Duke’s own division.  The commander of the right wing, a very strong force, was Prince Eugene, who, having now nothing to do in Italy, had hurried northwards to join his friend.  In such hot haste had the Prince travelled, indeed, that he had out-stripped his own army.  Here was Prince Eugene, but not Prince Eugene’s men.  His wing at Oudenarde consisted entirely of English troops, while Marlborough’s own wing was composed of men of various other nationalities.

Almost all writers on military tactics agree that the battle of Oudenarde was one of the most involved and intricate on record, and that it is well nigh impossible to give any detailed account of the puzzling movements.  The leading points were these.

Marlborough’s force crossed the Scheldt; then the opposing wing of the French left the high ground they occupied and swooped down upon him, endeavouring to force the Allies back into the river.  A terrible hand-to-hand encounter followed, bayonet and sword alone being used for the most part in such cramped quarters.  In the thick of it the Duke sent the Dutch general with a strong detachment to seize the vantage ground on the rise which the enemy had lately left.  The move was successful, and the French found themselves between two fires.

It was growing dusk.  Eugene and his men had forced back their opponents and were now following hard after them.  Suddenly shots came flying in, and in the dimness of the departing day an advancing column was observed to be moving towards them.  What could it mean?  Apparently that the enemy had rallied and were once more facing them.  It was an entirely unexpected change of front, but Eugene prepared to meet the shock once more.  George Fairburn took a long look, shading his eyes with his hands.