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Marlborough directed his right to attack the enemy around the village of Anderkirk, backing up the assault with a contingent from his centre. Blackett and his friend were soon taking part in the gallop over the swampy ground in the neighbourhood of the village. A sharp encounter followed, the Frenchmen beginning to waver.
The famous Household Brigade fell back, and the village of Ramillies was taken. Then another fierce struggle, but a brief one, and the Tomb of Ottomond was secured, the position which commanded the whole field. The battle was almost at an end. There remained only the village of Anderkirk in its marshy hollow, and Marlborough called together his forces from the various parts of the confused field.
Hereupon Villeroy in alarm promptly sent from his centre a large number of men to support his staggering left at Anderkirk, thereby leaving his centre weak. All at once Marlborough withdrew his troops to the high ground opposite the hamlet of Offuz, as if for a fresh attack.
Next day the French generals perceiving the confederates so near them, took possession of a strong camp, the right extending to the tomb of Hautemont, on the side of the Mehaigne; their left to Anderkirk; and the village of Ramillies being near their centre.
On Whit-Sunday, the famous 23rd of May, 1706, my young lord first came under the fire of the enemy, whom we found posted in order of battle, their lines extending three miles or more, over the high ground behind the little Gheet river, and having on his left the little village of Anderkirk or Autre-eglise, and on his right Ramillies, which has given its name to one of the most brilliant and disastrous days of battle that history ever hath recorded.
The rest of the enemy's infantry began to retreat in tolerable order, under cover of the cavalry on their left wing, which formed themselves in three lines between Ossuz and Anderkirk; but the English horse having found means to pass the rivulet which divided them from the enemy, fell upon them with such impetuosity, that they abandoned their foot, and were terribly slaughtered in the village of Anderkirk.
It was a clever bit of strategy, and, before Villeroy realized the truth, Tavières had been rushed with a splendid charge. The fact that the attack on Anderkirk had been only a feint came to the French commander's understanding too late.
Lieutenants Fairburn and Blackett from their position on a bit of rising ground could take in the general dispositions of the respective forces, and the same thought passed through both their minds. The French and Bavarian troops were drawn up in the form of an arc, whose ends rested on the villages of Anderkirk, to the north, and Tavières, on the Mehaigne, to the south.
His centre, with the village of Ramillies and the Tomb of Ottomond commanding it, the really important positions of the day, was weakened by the loss of troops sent on a wild-goose chase. Ere Villeroy could repair the mischief and summon his men from Anderkirk, Marlborough had sent down upon the French centre a great body of cavalry under the command of Auerkerke, the Dutch general.
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