Assailed at once by the fire from the Lillo batteries, and by the waters of the river, they were forced to a rapid retreat.

This they effected with great loss, but with signal courage; struggling breast high in the waves, and bearing off their field-pieces in their arms in the very face of the enemy.
Three weeks long Mondragon had been before Fort Lille, and two thousand of his soldiers had been slain in the trenches.

The attempt was now abandoned.

Parma directed permanent batteries to be established at Lillo-house, at Oordam, and at other places along the river, and proceeded quietly with his carefully-matured plan for closing the river.
His own camp was in the neighbourhood of the villages of Beveren, Kalloo, and Borght.

Of the ten thousand foot and seventeen hundred horse, which composed at the moment his whole army, about one-half lay with him, while the remainder were with Count Peter Ernest Mansfield, in the neighbourhood of Stabroek.