On the eighteenth of May Lewis left Versailles; early in June he was under the walls of Namur.

The Princesses, who had accompanied him, held their court within the fortress.

He took under his immediate command the army of Boufflers, which was encamped at Gembloux.

Little more than a mile off lay the army of Luxemburg.

The force collected in that neighbourhood under the French lilies did not amount to less than a hundred and twenty thousand men.
Lewis had flattered himself that he should be able to repeat in 1693 the stratagem by which Mons had been taken in 1691 and Namur in 1692; and he had determined that either Liege or Brussels should be his prey.
But William had this year been able to assemble in good time a force, inferior indeed to that which was opposed to him, but still formidable.
With this force he took his post near Louvain, on the road between the two threatened cities, and watched every movement of the enemy.
Lewis was disappointed.