Marlborough's measures were, however, well taken. Eugene, with
twenty-five battalions and thirty squadrons, moved parallel to the
convoy, which was fifteen miles in length; while the Prince of
Wurtemburg, General Wood, the Prince of Orange, each with a large
force, were so placed as to check any movement of the enemy.
The gigantic convoy left Brussels on the 6th of August, and reached
the camp near Lille on the 15th, without the loss of a single
wagon. Prince Eugene, with 53 battalions and 90 squadrons, in all
40,000 men, undertook the siege; while Marlborough, with the main
army of 60,000 men, took post at Heldun, where he alike prevented
Berwick and Vendome from effecting a junction, and covered the
passage of convoys from Brussels, Ath, and Oudenarde. No less than
eighty-one convoys, with food, stores, etc., passed safely along;
and the arrangements for their safety were so perfect that they
excited the lively admiration both of friends and foes.
Feuguieres, the French annalist, asks, "How was it possible to
believe that it was in the power of the enemy to convey to Lille
all that was necessary for the siege and supplies of the army, to
conduct there all the artillery and implements essential for such
an undertaking; and that these immense burdens should be
transported by land over a line of twenty-three leagues, under the
eyes of an army of 80,000 men, lying on the flank of a prodigious
convoy, which extended over five leagues of road? Nevertheless, all
that was done without a shot being fired or a chariot unharnessed.
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