Next morning he was joined at Ruremonde by Coehorn in a larger vessel, with sixty men, and they were moreover escorted by fifty troopers, who rode along the bank of the river.

The large boat outsailed the other, and the horsemen mistook their way in the dark.

A French partisan, with five-and-thirty men from Gueldres, who lurked among the rushes in wait for prey, seized the rope by which the boat was drawn, hauled it ashore, discharged their small arms and hand-grenades, then rushing into it, secured the soldiers before they could put themselves in a posture of defence.

The earl of Marlborough was accompanied by general Opdam, and mynheer Gueldermalsen, one of the deputies, who were provided with passports.

The earl had neglected this precaution; but recollecting he had an old passport for his brother general Churchill, he produced it without any emotion, and the partisan was in such confusion that he never examined the date.