On the twenty-fifth day of May, the duke having passed the river Jecker in order to give battle to the enemy, they marched with precipitation to Boekwren, and abandoned Tongeren, after having blown up the walls of the place with gunpowder.
The duke continued to follow them to Thys, where he encamped, while they retreated to Hannye, retiring as he advanced.

Then he resolved to force their lines: this service was effectually performed by Coehorn, at the point of Callo, and by baron Spaar, in the county of Waes, near Stoken.
The duke had formed the design of reducing Antwerp, which was garrisoned by Spanish troops under the command of the marquis de Bedmar.

He intended with the grand army to attack the enemy's lines on the side of Louvaine and Mechlin: he detached Coehorn with his flying camp on the right of the Scheldt towards Dutch Flanders, to amuse the marquis de Bed-mar on that side; and he ordered the baron Opdam, with twelve thousand men, to take post between Eckeren and Capelle, near Antwerp, that he might act against that part of the lines which was guarded by the Spanish forces.
{ANNE, 1701--1714} BATTLE OF ECKEREN.
The French generals, in order to frustrate the scheme of Marlborough, resolved to cut off the retreat of Opdam.

Boufflers, with a detachment of twenty thousand men from Villeroy's army, surprised him at Eckeren, where the Dutch were put in disorder; and Opdam, believing all was lost, fled to Breda.

Nevertheless, the troops rallying under general Schlangenburg, maintained their ground with the most obstinate valour till night, when the enemy was obliged to retire, and left the communication free with fort Lillo, to which place the confederates marched without further molestation, having lost about fifteen hundred men in the engagement.