CHAP. VII. 1709. menced; on the 10th the battering train arrived, and the trenches were armed; repeated sallies of the enemy to interrupt the operations were repulsed, and several of the outworks were carried between that time and the 21st, on which last occasion the besiegers succeeded in establishing themselves in the covered-ways. The progress of the siege after that was impeded by the water in the great ditch, but at length the besiegers contrived to let it off. The breaching batteries continued to thunder with terrible effect upon the walls; and on the 27th a strong horn-work, called the Seven Fountains, was carried by the Duke of Argyll at the head of his Highland regiment, and the Allies were masters of nearly the whole line of the counterscarp. Meanwhile, Villars made no serious movement to interrupt the besiegers, contenting himself with making demonstrations between the Scarpe and the Scheldt to alarm the covering forces. Eugene, however, narrowly watched all his proceedings; and in truth the French marshal, far from really intending to disquiet the Allies in their operations, was rough to busied with an immense army of pioneers and labourers way, July in constructing a new set of lines from Douai along the and to the Scarpe to the Scheldt near Condé, in order to arrest 29, 1709. their progress in the direction they had now Seeing no prospect of being relieved, the governor on 8-13. Hist. the 29th surrendered the town, and retired with the iii. 67-71. remains of the garrison, still four thousand strong, into 279, 280. the citadel.1* 1 Marlbo Lord Gal 24, 1709; Queen, July Des. iv. taken. 530, 556. On the surrender of the town, no time was lost in * Marlborough's private letters to the Duchess, at this period, as indeed throughout all his campaigus, prove how tired he was of the war, and how ardently he sighed for repose at Blenheim. "The taking of the citadel of Tournay will, I fear, cost us more men and time than that of the town; but that which gives me the greatest prospect for the happiness of being with Coxe, v. de Marlb. Rousset, ii. VII. 1709. 31. its desper July 29. CHAP. prosecuting operations against the citadel, and the line of circumvallation was traced out that very evening. Thirty battalions and ten squadrons were employed in Siege of the the perilous enterprise the former under the command citadel, and of Count Lottum, the latter of Schulemberg. The batate chances. teries were opened on the night of the 31st July, and on the morning of the 2d August all the troops were in the posts assigned to them in the trenches. But the undertaking proved more difficult than had been expected, and several weeks elapsed before any material progress was made in the operations, during which Villars made good use of his time in completing his new lines to cover Valenciennes and Condé. The citadel itself, though not of great extent, was extremely strong. It had five large bastions, an excellent coveredway, and all the usual ravelins and lunettes in the outworks. But its great strength consisted in the mines and counter-mines with which it was environed in every direction, and the explosion of which threatened destruction to any assailants who might approach its walls. The garrison, though inadequate to the defence of the town of Tournay, was quite adequate to that of the citadel; and the vast mines with which the whole outworks and glacis were perforated, rendered the 1 Rousset, approaches in the highest degree perilous and difficult. The governor, M. de Surville, proposed, on the 5th August, to capitulate in a month if not relieved; and to this proposition Marlborough and Eugene, with praiseworthy humanity, at once agreed: but the King ii. 282, 283. Coxe, v. 13, 16. Hist. de Marlb. iii. 72-74. peace. you, is, that certainly the misery of France increases, which must bring us a The misery of the poor people we see is such that one must be a brute not to pity them. May you be ever happy, and I enjoy some few years of quiet with you, is what I daily pray for.”—Marlborough to the Duchess, July 30, 1709; Coxe, v. 12. of France refused to ratify the terms proposed, unless the suspension of arms was made general to the whole Netherlands, to which the allied general would not accede. The military operations consequently went on, and soon acquired a degree of horror hitherto unparalleled even in that long and bloody contest. CHAP. VII. 1709 32. the troops terraneous The art of countermining, and of counteracting the danger of mines exploding, was then very imperfectly Alarms of understood, though that of besieging above ground had at the subbeen brought to the very highest degree of perfection. warfare. The soldiers, in consequence, entertained a great and almost superstitious dread of the perils of that subterraneous warfare, where prowess and courage were alike unavailing, and the bravest, equally with the most pusillanimous, were liable to be at any moment blown into the air, or smothered under ground, by the explosions of an unseen, and therefore appalling enemy. The Allies were inferior in regular sappers and miners to the besieged, who were singularly well supplied with that important arm of the service. The dangers of this species of service, at all times great, were here immensely aggravated by the extraordinary pains taken to make this subterranean warfare as formidable as possible. The miners frequently met, and fought with those of the enemy; and sometimes the troops, mistaking friend for foe, killed their fellow-soldiers: sometimes whole companies entered the mines at the very moment when they were ready primed for explosion. They were often. inundated with water, suffocated with smoke, or buried alive in cavities, where they were left to perish. Sometimes numbers were blown into the air, and their limbs Mil. Hist. scattered to a distance like burning stones from a vol- Coxe, v. 15. cano. The ordinary soldiers, how brave soever in the VOL. II. с 1 Dumont's ii. 104. VII. CHAP. field, evinced a repugnance at engaging in this novel and terrific species of warfare: and it was only by the officers 1709. personally visiting the trenches in the very hottest of the fire, and offering high rewards to the soldiers who would enter into the mines, that men could be got to venture on the perilous service. 33. Its real horrors, It was not surprising that even the bravest of the allied troops were appalled at the new and extraordiAug. 15-23. nary dangers which now awaited them, for they were truly of the most formidable description. What rendered them especially so, was, that the perils in a peculiar manner affected the bold and the forward. The first to mount a breach, to effect a lodgment in a horn-work, to penetrate into a mine, was sure to perish. First a hollow rumbling noise was heard, which froze the bravest hearts with horror: a violent rush as of a subterraneous cataract succeeded; and immediately the earth heaved, and whole companies, and even battalions, were scattered in a frightful explosion. On the 15th August, a sally by M. de Surville was bravely repulsed, and the besiegers, pursuing their advantage, effected a lodgment in the outwork: but immediately a mine was sprung, and a hundred and fifty men were blown into the air. In the night between the 16th and 17th, a long and furious conflict took place below ground and in utter darkness between the contending parties, which at length terminated to the advantage of the besiegers.* On the 20th, M. de Surville caused a wall to be blown * A very striking incident occurred in the siege, which shows to what a height the heroic spirit with which the troops were animated had risen. An officer commanding a detachment was sent by Lord Albemarle to occupy a certain lunette which had been captured from the enemy; and though it was concealed from the men, the commander told the officer he had every reason to believe the post was undermined, and that the party would be blown up. CHAP. VII. 1709. up which overhung a sap, and thereby smothered two officers, thirty soldiers, and five miners. On the 23d a mine was discovered, sixty feet long by twenty broad, which would have blown up a whole battalion of Hanoverian troops placed above it; but while the Allies were in the mine, congratulating themselves on the discovery, a mine below it was suddenly sprung, and all within the upper one were buried in the ruins. On the night of the 25th, three hundred men, posted in a large mine discovered to the Allies by an inhabitant of Tournay, were crushed in a similar manner by the explosion of another mine directly below; and on the same night, one hundred men posted in the town ditch were suddenly buried under a bastion blown out upon them. In Hist. Mil. resisting Lottum's attack alone, no less than thirty-eight Hist. de mines were sprung in twenty-six days, almost all with 85. fatal effect.1 1 Dumont's ii. 104. Marlb. iii. citadel is taken, Great was the dismay which these dreadful and un- 34. heard-of disasters produced among the allied troops. But the The miners of the confederates not being sufficiently at length numerous, it was necessary to employ the regular troops Sept. 3. to assist in the service; and many of those who had bravely faced the greatest visible dangers recoiled from the unknown dangers of this subterranean warfare. Such was their reluctance that Marlborough and Eugene visited the trenches in person, themselves braved the dangers of the explosions, and offered high rewards to stimulate the ardour of the troops. Eugene employed Knowing this, he proceeded with perfect calmness to the place of his destination; and when provisions and wine were served out to the men, he desired them to fill their calashes, and said, "Here is a health to those who die the death of the brave." The mine was immediately after sprung; but fortunately the explosion failed, and his comrades survived to relate their commander's noble conduct.-DUMONT, ii. 106. |