Marlborough ordered the necessary goods to be shipped to Ostend and a large convoy of 700 slow wagons was organised there to travel further over land to Lille.

The convoy was protected by 6,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry under command of Major General John Richmond Webb and Brigadier Cornelis van Nassau-Woudenberg, the son of Lord Overkirk.

While Webb was deploying his troops, Prussian general Carl von Lottum, with only 150 cavalry, harassed the approaching French army, gaining valuable time, and preventing de la Mothe from gathering knowledge of the terrain and the plans of the allies.

The large French force was hampered by the narrow terrain and suffered badly from the fire of the allied first line, which held its ground.

Despite suffering heavy casualties, de la Mothe ordered a second attack, which initially pushed the allied first line back.

Winston Churchill claims that Marlborough deliberately slighted Webb and favoured Cadogan, a fellow Whig, but this view is challenged By Holmes.

According to Holmes, Marlborough wrote to Godolphin, the Lord Treasurer, on 1 October, shortly after the battle: "Webb and Cadogan have on this occasion, as they will always do, behaved themselves extremely well."

[8] But Webb continued to believe he had been poorly treated even though he subsequently received full credit and the thanks of Parliament for the action and kind words from Queen Anne, and the following year he was promoted as expected.