Dominique Vandamme was brought up via Haarlem and occupied a line between Alkmaar and the sea. Brune directed Daendels to come forward to Oudkarspel and Sint Pancras. General Jean-Baptiste Dumonceau brought up two-thirds of his 2nd Batavian division in forced marches from Friesland and he arrived on September 8 to take on a position in the center of the Franco-Batavian front, around Alkmaar. He was then reinforced with the 7th Demi-brigade of Daendels' division. By September 9 the forces under General Brune had therefore reached a numerical superiority of about 25,000 troops over about 23,000 for General Abercromby (who had by that time only been reinforced with about 500 men of the 11th Light Dragoons). As it was known that soon strong Russian and British reinforcements would be landed, Brune decided to attack on the 10th, while he still had this advantage. The battle Brune's plan of battle was simple: he would have the Batavian divisions attack the villages of Eenigenburg and Krabbendam, as these commanded two roads that led into the Zijpe polder and hence two of the few points of ingress. The main role would be performed by the French division of Vandamme, who would attempt to turn Abercromby's right flank by advancing along the subsidiary dike near Petten. The plan can therefore be characterised as an attempt at "single envelopment." Because of the haste to get the attack underway, the preparations were apparently sloppy on the part of Brune's staff. The march routes of the columns of Daendels from St. Pancras and one of the columns of Dumonceau were mistakenly assigned to the same road, because a canal was mistakenly taken for a road due to inexpert map-reading by Brune's staff. This could only have happened because a proper reconnaissance apparently had not been performed. As a consequence, Daendels was forced to take a more easterly route and concentrate on the alternate objective of the village of Sint Maarten, which he duly took. Dumonceau's right-hand column, under General Bonhomme, then attacked Daendels' original objective, the village of Eenigenburg. The attempt to storm the British defenses at this point was, however, frustrated by the circular canal in front of the dike and the well-aimed fire of the defenders. A second attempt likewise failed and Bonhomme remained in his position until both he and Daendels retreated that evening after the retreat of the Franco-Batavian left wing at the same