money be employed for any other use than that of the Franche Comté, so that I propose to him that the money should be lodged in such hands as should be named by her Majesty and the States. Whatever we can do for the strengthening the Duke of Lorraine is certainly right, for that is the barrier we ought to have on that side of France, but I apprehend the States will not so heartily engage as they ought, for they will not make any step that may make the negotiation of peace more difficult, at least these are my apprehensions.

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH TO THE EARL OF SUNDERLAND.

the

July the 26th, 1709.

I have had the favour of yours of the 5th, with copy of Lord Galway's letter of the 24th of the last month. I think his reasoning is very just. I am also of opinion with you, that the disturbances in France give a great occasion to the Duke of Savoy of doing good to his personal interest as well as to the public. As he is a Prince that knows very well what he does, I may own to you, that it gives me very uneasy thoughts, not that I think he has any dealings with France, but that he may think it his interest to lengthen the war.

You will see by what I write to Lord Treasurer, that it is a misfortune the Elector was not on the Rhine the beginning of this month, since that time

would have been the best time for the attempt of the Franche Comté; the enemy having no troops on that side, and the people as you know very well inclined for us. Not only on this occasion, but when we treat of peace, I should think it very much for the interest of the allies to strengthen the Duke of Lorraine, for that would be a good barrier on that side. As for our siege, the nearer we get to the fosse, the more difficulty we find, so that we must have patience. The Marshal de Villars having received the detachment from the Rhine, and knowing the impossibility of our being able to march till we are masters of the town, he is come with his army between the Scarpe and the Skell, having left ten thousand men in his lines of La Basseé, where the militia of the Boullonnois is expected.

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH TO LORD GODOLPHIN. July 30, 1709.

I gave you an account last night of the town of Tournay capitulating. The Prince of Savoy and I signed at ten o'clock last night, to-morrow night we are to begin the continuation of our attack against the citadel. My Lord Albemarle has the command of Tournay.

I am assured that Monsieur de Guichon, who was with Monsieur de Torcy at the Hague, came the 24th of this month to the Hague, and returned the next day for Paris. As I have received letters of

the same date from Lord Townshend and the Pensioner, which make no mention of him, I should not believe it, but that it comes from one I ought to believe; but I believe you may depend upon it, that the misery of France, and the inclinations of the Dutch are such, that if it be possible to find any expedient for the easing of the thirty-first article, it will be done, for they will have peace; but I fear it may be such a one as may occasion a very great expense for the next year, both to England and the Dutch. We are now told that the Elector of Hanover will be on the Rhine by the 8th of the next month. If they had begun to have acted sooner, it might have been of some use; but as the enemy have now drawn all the troops they think proper from thence, I suppose they have taken their resolution of letting him eat what forage he pleases. By the French letters of yesterday, we see that the Duke of Berwick is not as yet much alarmed at the motions of the Duke of Savoy's army.

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH TO LORD GODOLPHIN. Aug. 1, 1709.

We begun last night the construction of our attack against the citadel, and in three or four days we shall change our camp, which will be towards Orchies, by which we shall cover the siege and be nearer the French lines. We have no letters but what continue to speak of the misery in France. However, I do not yet hear that any answer is given

to the Pensioner's letters, by which I think it plain that nothing but the necessity of starving will oblige them to consent to the preliminaries. I should be glad to know what answer the Queen has received from the King of Spain, as to the barrier; for by the discourse the Count de Zinzendorff held when at Brussels, I have reason to believe there will be opposition in that matter, he being empowered and instructed from the King of Spain. I hope the Queen will approve of my having let Mr. Palmes know that I think it more for her Majesty's service that he should lose no time in joining the Duke of Savoy's army, in order to press them to enter on action, than to continue in this season at Milan. I have none of yours since my last.

LORD GODOLPHIN TO THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.

Aug. 4, 1709.

I have none of yours to acknowledge since my last, nor no hopes of them, as the wind is at present. My political reflections are all exhausted in my two last letters by Ostend and by Holland, so I write these two lines that you may not think me either negligent or lazy.

I wish you good success very heartily in the war, or in the peace, and I hope it will be in the latter; without it all will fall to pieces here next winter. If we can get it upon the foot of the preliminary treaty, everybody of all sides would really be pleased with it. But even, in that case, Harley and his

emissaries would say you might have what terms you would, as they did when they thought the preliminaries agreed to. And if it should prove, in

any one article, less to

our advantage, they would say you might have had better, but that you had a mind to protract the war.

In short, their language is all the same with a little French book which M. de Cardonnell did me the favour to send me over by the last post but one, and is, one or other, the most impudent as well as most impertinent thing that ever I saw in print, which is saying a proud word.

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH TO LORD GODOLPHIN.

Orchies, Aug. 6, 1709. Ostend, you desire to be

Though the winds were same date, by Holland,

In yours of the 15th, by informed which came first. very contrary, that of the came first; but there must have been some negligence or mistake in that of yours by Ostend, for that by Collins of the 22nd, I had one day sooner, though they both came by Ostend.

We marched to this place the day before yesterday, and by the uneasiness Monsieur de Villars seems to be in by his perpetual marches and countermarches, I hope he will find it very difficult to preserve his lines at La Bassée, and, at the same time, to hinder us from making the siege of Valenciennes, as he now pretends. I am going this morning to Tournay, to