watered by two rivers, the Deule and Marque, its natural position presented difficulties of no ordinary kind to a besieging force; and, in addition, it had been fortified by Vauban with his utmost skill. The garrison, which had been strengthened by Berwick, amounted to fifteen thousand men, under the command of brave old Marshal Boufflers, who had solicited the honour of defending the fortress. To the north, as we have seen, lay Vendôme, and to the south Berwick, with a joint force now amounting to about ninety-four thousand men.[1] It was for Marlborough and Eugene with an inferior strength of eighty-four thousand men[2] to hold them at bay and to take one of the strongest fortresses in the world before their eyes.
A detailed account even of so famous a siege would be wearisome, the more so since the proportion of British troops detailed for regular work in the trenches was but five battalions,[3] but there are a few salient features which cannot be omitted. The point selected for attack was the north side, the first advance to which was opened by a single English soldier, Sergeant Littler of the First Guards,[4] who swam across the Marquette to a French post, which commanded the passage of the stream, and let down the drawbridge.
Aug. 2/13. Two days later the town was fully invested, and Marlborough took post with the covering army at Helchin on the Scheldt.
- ↑ 135 battalions, 260 squadrons.
- ↑ 122 battalions, 230 squadrons.
- ↑ These were, according to a contemporary plan (Fricx), the 16th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 24th Foot.
- ↑ He is claimed as a Guardsman by General Hamilton (Hist. Grenadier Guards), though Millner assigns him to the 16th Foot. This is the only name of a man below the rank of a commissioned officer that I have encountered in any of the books on the wars of Marlborough, not excluding the works of Sergeants Deane and Millner. Littler was deservedly rewarded with a commission.
