The troops coming up
from Tournai, under General Withers, were ordered not to join the
main army; but to cross the Haine at Saint Ghislain, and to attack
the extreme left of the enemy at the farm of La Folie. Baron
Schulemberg was to attack the left flank of the entrenchments in
the wood of Taisniere, with forty of Eugene's battalions, supported
by as many cannon; while Count Lottum was to attack the right flank
of the wood with twenty-two battalions. The rest of the army was to
attack in front; but it was from Eugene's attack in the wood of
Taisniere that success was chiefly hoped.
At three o'clock on the morning of the 11th the men were got under
arms, divine service was performed at the head of each regiment,
and then the troops marched to the posts assigned to them in the
attack. Both armies were confident, the French enthusiastic.
The allies relied on their unbroken series of victories. Never once
since the war begun had they suffered defeat; and with Eugene as
well as Marlborough with them, they felt confident of their power
to carry a position which, even to the eye of the least instructed
soldier, was yet formidable in the extreme.
The French were confident in being commanded by their best and most
popular generals, Villars and Boufflers. They were strong in the
enthusiasm which the king's appeal had communicated to the whole
nation, and they considered it absolutely impossible for any enemy
to carry the wonderful series of works that they had erected.
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