Scarcely had the messenger ridden into Eckeron, when a tremendous
roar of musketry broke out in all quarters, and the desperate
position into which the supineness of their general had suffered
them to fall, was apparent to all.
In a few minutes the confusion was terrible. Rupert and Hugh
hastily saddled their horses, and had just mounted when General
Obdam with twenty troopers rode past at full gallop.
"Where can he be going?" Rupert said. "He is not riding towards
either of the points attacked."
"It seems to me that he is bolting, Master Rupert, just flying by
some road the French have not yet occupied."
"Impossible!" Rupert said.
But it was so, and the next day the runaway general himself brought
the news of his defeat to the League, announcing that he had
escaped with thirty horse, and that the rest of his army was
destroyed. It is needless to say that General Obdam never
afterwards commanded a Dutch army in the field.
The second part of the news which he brought the Hague was not
correct. General Schlangenberg, the second in command, at once
assumed the command. The Dutch rallied speedily from their
surprise, and the advancing columns of the enemy were soon met with
a desperate resistance. In front General Boufflers attacked with
twenty battalions of French troops, headed by the grenadiers he had
brought with him, while a strong Spanish force barred the retreat.
Under such circumstances many troops would at once have laid down
their arms; but such a thought never occurred to the Dutchmen of
Schlangenberg's army.
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