55. Causes of the defeat of the arms of England. At Leipsic they were not beaten in a fair field, but overthrown by an overwhelming superiority of force. It is quite evident to what cause the overwhelming magnitude of this defeat of the French army was owing. The strength of the position consisted solely in the rivulets and marshy grounds in its front, and when French. they were passed, the error of Marshal Tallard's disposition of his troops was at once apparent. The infantry was accumulated in useless numbers in the villages. Of the twentyseven battalions in Blenheim, twenty were of no service, and could not get into action, while the long line of cavalry from thence to Oberglau was sustained only by a few battalions of foot, incapable of making any effective resistance. This was the more inexcusable, as the French, having sixteen battalions of infantry more than the allies, should at no point have shown themselves inferior in foot soldiers to their opponents. When the curtain of horse which stretched from Blenheim to Oberglau was broken through and driven off the field, the thirteen thousand infantry accumulated in the former of these villages could not escape falling into the enemy's hands; for they were pressed between Marlborough's victorious foot and horse on the one side, and the unfordable stream of the Danube on the other. But Marlborough, it is evident, evinced the capacity of a great general in the manner in which he surmounted these obstacles and took advantage of these faulty dispositions; resolutely, in the first instance, overcoming the numerous impediments which opposed the passage of the rivulets, and then accumulating his horse and foot for a grand attack on the enemy's center, which, besides destroying above half the troops assembled there, and driving thirty squadrons into the Danube, cut off and isolated the powerful body of infantry now ruinously crowded together in Blenheim, and compelled them to surrender. Immense were the results of this transcendent victory. The French army, lately so confident in its numbers 56. and rather fled," as Marl- the victory. prowess, retreated, " or Vast results of * borough says, through the Black Forest, abandoning the Elector of Bavaria and all the fortresses on the Danube to their fate. In the deepest dejection and the utmost disorder, they reached the Rhine, scarce twelve thousand strong, on the 25th of August, and immediately began defiling over by the bridge of Strasburg. How different from the triumphant army, forty-five thousand strong, which, with drums beating and colors flying, had crossed at the same place six weeks before! Marlborough, having detached part of his force to besiege Ulm, drew near with the bulk of his army to the Rhine, which he passed near Philipsburg on the 6th of September, and soon after commenced the siege of Landau, on the French side; Prince Louis, with twenty thousand men, forming the besieging force, and Eugene and Marlborough, with thirty thousand, the covering army. Villeroi, with the French army, abandoned an intrenched camp which he had constructed to cover the town. Marlborough followed, and made every effort to bring the French marshal to battle, but in vain. He fell back first behind the Lauter, and then behind the Molfer, abandoning a rugged wooded country, one of * The following letter, from an officer in the French army, paints the consternation which followed the battle of Blenheim: "Je vous dirai que Mercredi 13 Août il s'en donné la plus sanglante bataille qu'on ait vue de mémoire d'homme, et dans laquelle nous avons été entièrement defaits. M. de Tallard est blessé, et fait prisonnier avec beau coup d'autres généraux; MM. de Surlaube et Blainville morts; toute l'infanterie abimée ou faite prisonnière; M. de Tavanes, colonel, le Comte de Verne, général de la cavalerie, et le Marquis de Bellefonde tués sur le place. M. de Montperon, autre général de la cavalerie, blessé. Nous cou. rons à perdre haleine depuis deux jours, et nous ne sommes arrivés a Ulm (rendezvous au débris de l'armée) que tout à l'heure, y ayant neuf bonnes heures dela au champ de bataille. Nous etions derriere l'infanterie, qui a été repoussé six fois, et nous l'avions toujours soutenue: elle est entièrement defaite, tous les officiers tués ou blessés, hors M. de Precher, qui se porte aussi bien que moi, qui ai fait comme beaucoup d'autres, les généraux nous donnant l'example. Ce matin MM. de Courtebonne de Bourg, et D'Huricieres sont échappés, s'etant sauvés sur le chemin d'Ulm; enfin toute l'armée est dans une consternation terrible; nous avons perdus nos timbales et etendards."-Lettre Originale dans CAPEFIGUE, Histoire de Louis XIV., V., 321. the strongest in Europe, without firing a shot. The cannon of Blenheim still resounded in his ears. Ulm surrendered on the 16th of September, with two hundred and fifty pieces of cannon and twelve hundred barrels of powder, which gave the allies a solid foundation on the Danube, and effectually crushed the power of the Elector of Bavaria, who, isolated now in the midst of his enemies, had no alternative but to abandon his dominions and seek refuge in Brussels, where he arrived in the end of September. 57. Capture of Landau and and conclu Traerbach, sion of the Meanwhile, as the siege of Landau was found to require more time than had been anticipated, owing to the extraordinary difficulties experienced in getting up supplies and forage for the troops, Marlborough repaired to Hanover and Berlin to stimulate the Prus- campaign. sian and Hanoverian cabinets to greater exertions in the common cause; and he succeeded in making arrangements for the addition of eight thousand Prussian troops to their valuable auxiliary force, to be added to the army of the Imperialists in Italy, which stood much in need of re-enforcement. The Electress of Bavaria, who had been left regent of that state in the absence of the elector in Flanders, had now no resource left but submission; and a treaty was accordingly concluded in the beginning of November, by which she agreed to disband all her troops. Trêves and Traerbach were taken in the end of December; the Hungarian insurrection was suppressed; Landau capitulated in the beginning of the same month; a diversion which the enemy attempted toward Trêves was defeated by Marlborough's activity and vigilance, and that city put in a sufficient posture of defense; and the campaign being now finished, that accomplished commander returned to the Hague and London to receive the honor due for his past services, and urge their respective cabinets to the efforts necessary to turn them to good account. Thus by the operations of one single campaign was Bavaria crushed, Austria saved, and Germany delivered. 58. Marlborough's cross march from Flanders to the ous results. Its marvel Danube had extricated the Imperialists from a state of the utmost peril, and elevated them at once to security, victory, and conquest. The decisive blow struck at Blenheim resounded through every part of Europe: it at once destroyed the vast fabric of power which it had taken Louis XIV., aided by the talents of Turenne and the genius of Vauban, so long to construct. Instead of proudly descending the valley of the Danube, and threatening Vienna, as Napoleon afterward did in 1805 and 1809, the French were driven in the utmost disorder across the Rhine. The surrender of Traerbach and Landau gave the allies a firm footing on the left bank of that river. The submission of Bavaria deprived the French of that great outwork, of which they have made such good use in their German wars; the Hungarian insurrection, disappointed of the expected aid from the armies of the Rhine, was pacified. Prussia was induced by this great triumph to co-operate in a more efficient manner in the common cause; the parsimony of the Dutch gave way before the joy of success; and the empire, delivered from invasion, was preparing to carry its victorious arms into the heart of France. Such achievements require no comment; they speak for themselves, and deservedly place Marlborough in the very highest rank of military commanders. The campaigns of Napoleon exhibit no more decisive or important results. Honors and emoluments of every description were showered on the English hero for this glorious success. He was created a prince of the Holy Roman empire,* and a tract of land * The holograph letter of the emperor, announcing this honor, said, with equal truth and justice, "I am induced to assign to your highness a place among the princes of the empire, in order that it may universally appear how much I acknowledge myself and the empire to be indebted to the Queen of Great Britain, who sent her arms as far as Bavaria at a time when the affairs of the empire, by the defection of the Bavarians to the French, most needed that assistance and support. And to your grace, likewise, to whose prudence and courage, together with the bravery of the forces fighting under your command, the two victories lately granted by Providence to the allies are principally attributed, not only by the voice of fame, but by the general officers in my army who had their share in your labor and your glory."-THE EMPEROR LEOPOLD TO MARLBOROUGH, 28th of August, 1704.-Disp., i., 538. 59. Honors and rewards be stowed on in Germany, at Mindelsheim, erected into a principality in his favor. His humanity to the wounded, alike of the enemy's army and his own, and his Marlborough. courtesy to the vanquished, were the theme of universal admiration. The coolness with which he gave his orders in the hottest of the fire, and the admirable presence of mind with which he carried succor to every part of the field which required it, were admitted by all to have caused the triumph. His reception at the courts of Berlin and Hanover resembled that of a sovereign prince; the acclamations of the people, in all the towns through which he passed, rent the air; at the Hague his influence was such that he was regarded as the real stadtholder. More substantial rewards awaited him in his own country. The munificence of the queen and the grat itude of Parliament conferred upon him the extensive honor and manor of Woodstock, long a royal palace, and once the scene of the loves of Henry II. and the Fair Rosamond. By order of the queen, not only was this noble estate settled on the duke and his heirs, but the royal controller commenced a magnificent palace for the duke on a scale worthy of his services and England's gratitude. From this origin the superb palace of Blenheim has taken its rise, which, although not built in the purest taste or after the most approved models, remains, and will long remain, a splendid monument of a nation's gratitude, and of the genius of Vanbrugh. But a yet more enduring monument was raised in the lines of the poet, which, even at this distance of time, are felt to be deserved : "'Twas then great Marlborough's mighty soul was proved, Amid confusion, horror, and despair, Examined all the dreadful scenes of war, In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed, |