There he received intelligence that Hompesch had taken possession of the passes on the Sanset and Schelde without opposition, the enemy having withdrawn their detachments from that side just as he had imagined.

He himself, with his vanguard of fifty squadrons, hastened his march towards Arleux, and before eight of the clock arrived at Baca-Bachuel, where in two hours he was joined by the heads of the columns into which he hadj divided his infantry.
Villars being certified of his intention, about two in the morning decamped with his whole army, and putting himself at the head of the king's household troops, marched all night with such expedition, that about eleven in the forenoon he was in sight of the duke of Marlborough, who had by this time joined count Hompesch.

The French general immediately retreated to the main body of his army, which had advanced to the high road between Arras and Cambray, while the allies encamped upon the Schelde, between Oisy and Estrun, after a march of ten leagues without halting, scarce to be paralleled in history.

By this plan, so happily executed, the duke of Marlborough fairly outwitted Villars, and, without the loss of one man, entered the lines which he had pronounced impregnable.

This stroke of the English general was extolled as a masterpiece of military skill, while Villars was exposed to the ridicule even of his own officers.