They, however, rallied, and made desperate efforts to penetrate the
wood, but they were over and over again driven back, and after two
hours' fighting they retired, leaving the convoy to pass on in
safety to the camp.
In this glorious action 8000 English defeated 20,000 French, and
inflicted on them a loss of 4000 killed and wounded. Several fresh
assaults were now made, and gradually the allies won ground, until,
on the eve of the grand assault, Marshal Boufflers surrendered the
town, and retired with the survivors of the defenders into the
citadel, which held out for another month, and then also
surrendered. In this memorable siege, the greatest--with the
exception of that of Sebastopol--that has ever taken place in
history, the allies lost 3632 men killed, 8322 wounded, in all
11,954; and over 7000 from sickness. Of the garrison, originally
15,000 strong, and reinforced by the 1800 horsemen who made their
way through the allied camp, but 4500 remained alive at the time of
the final capitulation.
Marshall Boufflers only surrendered the citadel on the express
order of Louis the 14th not to throw away any more lives of the
brave men under him. At the time of the surrender the last flask of
powder was exhausted, and the garrison had long been living on
horseflesh.
After Lille had fallen, Marlborough, by a feint of going into
winter quarters, threw the French generals off their guard; and
then by a rapid dash through their lines fell upon Ghent and
Bruges, and recaptured those cities before Vendome had time to
collect and bring up his army to save them.
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