"Marshal Villars had been all the winter throwing up redoubts and all sorts of works along his lines, from Bouchain, on the Scheldt, which lay here"—Lance stooped down at this and drew an imaginary line on the floor, and George got off the bed, and taking the candle, sat down on the floor, the better to understand—"along the Sanset, which runs this way. Lord, Mr. Washington, I'll have to use the boot-jack to show you about Bouchain and Arras."
"And here are the snuffers," eagerly added George, "for Arras; and here is my pocket-rule and a piece of chalk."
Lance seized the chalk. "The very thing, sir!" And he drew a very fair map upon the floor, George watching him with bright, intelligent eyes, and afterwards taking the chalk, straightened up Lance's rude sketch.
"IT'S A PLEASURE TO SHOW A YOUNG GENTLEMAN LIKE YOU, SIR, HOW IT WAS DONE."
"That's right, sir," said Lance, getting down on the floor himself. "It's a pleasure to show a young gentleman like you, sir, how it was done, because you have the understanding of it, if I may make bold to say so.
"Old Villars, then, being a monstrous sharp general, said to himself, 'Aha! I'll beat the long roll on Marlborough now,' and he had the astonishing impudence to call his lines 'Marlborough's ne plus ultra,' whatever that is; I don't know myself, but it is some sort of impudence in French."
George laughed a little to himself at Lance's notion of the old Latin phrase, but he was too much interested in the story to interrupt.
"Marshal Villars had near sixty thousand men, and such a gang of ragamuffins, Mr. Washington, you never saw. But they'd rather fight than eat; and let an old soldier tell you, sir, whenever you meet the French, don't count on licking 'em because they are half starved and half naked; I believe they fight better the worse off they are for victuals and clothes. The Duke spent two or three weeks studying their works, and when he got through with it he knew more about them than Marshal Villars himself did. The summer had come, and the streams were no longer swollen, and the Duke begun to lay his plans to trap old Villars. The first thing he did was to have a lot of earth-works thrown up at the place where he did not intend to break through the French lines. The French, of course, got wind of this, and drew all their forces away from Vitry, where the Duke really meant to break through and cross the Sanset. All the Frenchmen were fooled, and Marshal Villars the worst of all. So when, one bright morning in July, the French scouts reported that Marlborough himself, with fifty squadrons of horse, was on the march for the earth-works he had made where he did not mean to cross, old Villars was cocksure he had him. The Duke with his fifty squadrons marched a good day's march away from Vitry, the French scampering off in his direction, and concentrating their troops just where the Duke wanted them. Meanwhile every mother's son of us was in marching order—the artillery ready, the pontoons ready, everybody and everything ready. About mid-day, seeing the French had been fooled, the order was given to march, and off we put for Vitry. As soon as we reached the river we laid the pontoons, and were drawn up on the bank just waiting for the word to cross. It was then late in the evening, but we had got news that the Duke had turned around, and was making for us as fast as the horses of his squadrons could lay their hoofs to the ground. About nine o'clock we saw the dust of the advance-guard down the highway; we heard the galloping of the horses long before. The instant the Duke appeared the crossing begun, and by sunrise thirty thousand men had crossed, and had joined General Hompesch's division of ten thousand between Oise and Estrum; and now we were within Villars's lines without striking a blow. 'Twas one of the greatest marches that ever was, Mr. Washington—ten leagues between nine in the evening and ten the next morning—thirty thousand infantry, artillery, cavalry, miners, and sappers.
"Villars found out what was in the wind about midnight, and at two o'clock in the morning he turned around, and the whole French army came in pursuit of us; and if you will believe it, sir, they marched better than we did, and by eleven o'clock in the morning the beggars were as near Bouchain as we; for Bouchain was what we were after. 'Twas a strong fortress, and the key to that part of France; and if we could get it we could walk to the heart of France any day we liked.