In order to divide them, d'Auverquerque made a false motion, and passed the Mehaigne as if he had intended to attack the lines about Messelin.

The stratagem succeeded.

The French weakened the other parts by strengthening that which was on the side of the Gerbise towards Namur.

The duke of Marlborough having made the disposition, the army began to march in the night between the seventeenth and eighteenth of July, in order to force a passage of the French lines at Heylesem, the castle of Wauge, and the villages of Wauge, Neerhespen, and Oostmalen.

These posts were taken with very little difficulty; but before the infantry could come up, the enemy advanced with fifty squadrons and twenty battalions, and began to fire from eight pieces of cannon with triple barrels, which did considerable execution.