"There is going to be hot work for us, that is plain," the two
lieutenants said to each other, "and, if we have luck, we shall get
the promotion we have been waiting so long for."
Bruges and Ghent had gone back to the French allegiance, and Louis
determined to make an attempt to secure Oudenarde also, an important
fortress lying between the French borders and Brabant. The French army
boasted two generals, the royal Duke of Burgundy, an incapable leader,
and the Duke of Vendome, a most capable one. A more unfortunate
partnership could not well be imagined; Burgundy and Vendome were in
everything the opposite of each other, and the quarrels between them
were as numerous as they were bitter, so that the army of Louis XIV
was handicapped at the very outset.
It was three in the afternoon of July 11. The Allies were fagged out
with the marchings and the heat of the day when they came in sight of
the enemy's forces near Oudenarde.
"Precious glad of a rest!" Matthew Blackett remarked when the signal
to halt came. To his surprise and dismay the order to form immediately
followed.
"Just like the Duke," commented his friend Fairburn.
Quickly the cavalry were got together for a charge.
"The old fellow doesn't intend the Frenchmen to slip away without
fighting," the men remarked to one another.
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