ment, that he said, on retiring from the field, "I am at this moment ten years older than I was four days ago." Next day, as Marlborough had foreseen, the enemy had Marlborough 25. strengthened their position with field-works, so that is obliged to it was utterly hopeless to attempt getting the Dutch forego his advantages. to agree to an attack which had now become hazardous, though it was not so the evening before. The case was now irremediable. The six days' bread which had been provided was on the point of being exhausted, and a protracted campaign without communication with the magazines was impracticable. With a heavy heart, therefore, the English general remeasured his steps to the ground he had left in front of the Dyle, and gave orders for destroying the lines of Leau, which he had carried with so much ability. His vexation was increased afterward by finding that the consternation of the French had been such on the 18th of August, when he was so urgent to attack them, that they intended only to have made a show of resistance, to gain time for their baggage and heavy guns being removed to Brussels. To all appearance, Marlborough, if he had not been so shamefully thwarted, would have signalized the forest of Soignies by a victory as decisive as that of Blenheim, and realized the triumphant entrance into Brussels which Napoleon anticipated from his attack on Wellington on the same ground a hundred and ten years afterward. against Marl borough. Nothing further, of any moment, was done in this cam26. paign, except capturing Leau, and leveling the enComplaints of the Dutch emy's lines on the Gheet. Marlborough wrote a formal letter to the States, in which he regretted the opportunity which had been lost, which General Overkirk had coincided with him in thinking promised a great and glorious victory; and he added, “My heart is so full that I can not forbear representing to your high mightinesses on this occasion that I find my authority here to be much less than when I had the honor to command your troops in Germany."* Marlborough to the States, Wavre, 19th of August, 1705. Disp., ii., 224. The counter-memorial which the Dutch generals transmitted at the same time contains a curious picture of their idea of the subordination and direction of an army, and furnishes a key to the jealousy which had proved so fatal to the common cause. They complained that the Duke of Marlborough, "without holding a council of war, made two or three marches for the execution of some design formed by his grace; and we can not conceal from your high mightinesses that all the generals of our army think it very strange that they should not have the least notice of the said marches.”* It has been already mentioned that Marlborough, like every other good general, kept his designs to himself, from the impossibility of otherwise keeping them from the enemy; and that he had the additional motive for this reserve, in the case of the Dutch deputies and generals, of being desirous to "cheat them into victory." 27. Vexation and conduct of Chagrined by disappointment, and fully convinced, as Wellington was after his campaign with Cuesta and the Spaniards at Talavera, that it was in vain to magnanimous attempt any thing further in the face of such im- Marlborough. pediments thrown in his way by the allies, Marlborough retired, in the beginning of September, to Tirlemont, the mineral waters of which had been recommended to him; and, in the end of October, the troops on both sides went into winter quarters. His vexation at the conduct of the Dutch at this time was strongly expressed in private letters to his intimate friends; but, though he exerted himself to the utmost during * Dutch Generals' Mem. Coxe, ii., 174. + "Several prisoners whom we have taken, as well as the deserters, assure us that they should have made no other defense but such as might have given them time to draw off their army to Brussels, where their baggage was already gone. By this you may imagine how I am vexed, seeing very plainly I am joined with people who will never do any thing."-Marlborough to Godolphin, August 24, 1705. "M. Overkirk et moi avons d'abord été reconnaitre les postes que nous voulions attaquer, et l'armée etant rangée en battaille sur le midi, nous avions tout d'esperer, avec la benediction du ciel, vu notre supériorité, et la bonté des troupes, une heureuse journée; mais MM. les deputés de l'état the suspension of operations in the field, both by memorials to his own government, and representations to the Dutch rulers, to get the direction of the army put upon a better footing, yet he had magnanimity and patriotism enough to sacrifice his private feelings to the public good. Instead of attempting, therefore, to inflame the resentment of the English cabinet at the conduct of the Dutch generals, he strove only to moderate it; and prevailed on them to suspend the sending of a formal remonstrance, which they had prepared, to the States General, till the effect of his own private representations in that quarter was first ascertained. The result proved that he had judged wisely, and his disinterested conduct met with its deserved reward. The patriotic party, both in England and at the Hague, was strongly roused in his favor; the factious accusations of the English Tories, like those of the Whigs a century after against Wellington, were silenced; the States General were compelled by the public indignation to withdraw from their commands the generals who had thwarted his measures; and, without endangering the union of the two powers, the factious, selfish men who had periled the object of their alliance, were forever deprived of the means of doing mischief. 28. the cabinet of Vienna and the Ger But while the danger was thus abated in one quarter, it only became more serious in another. The Dutch Jealousies of had been protected, and hindered from breaking off from the alliance, only by endangering the fidelity man powers. of the Austrians; and it had now become indispensable, at all hazards, to do something to appease their jealousies. The Imperial cabinet, in addition to the war in Italy, ayant voulu consulter leurs généraux, et les trouvant de differentes sentiments d'avec M. Overkirk et moi, ils n'ont pas voulu passer outre. De sorte que tout notre dessein, après l'avoir méné jusque là, a échoué, et nous avons rebroussé chemin pour aller commencer la démolition des Lignes, et prendre Leau. Vous pouvez bien croire, Monsieur, que je suis au désespoir d'être obligé d'essuyer encore ce contretemps; mais je vois bien qu'il ne faut pas plus songer à agir offensivement avec ces messieurs, puisqu'ils ne veulent rien risquer quand même ils ont tout l'avantage de leur côte."-Marlborough au Comte de Wartenberg, Wavre, 20 Août, 1705. Dispatches, ii., 226. on the Upper Rhine, and in the Low Countries, had become involved in serious hostilities in Hungary; and they felt the difficulty, or rather impossibility, of maintaining the contest at once in so many different quarters. The cross-march of Marlborough from the Moselle to Flanders, however loudly called for by the danger and necessities of the States, had been viewed with a jealous eye by the emperor, as tending to lead the war away from the side of Lorraine, with which the German interests were wound up; and his demands were loud and frequent, now that the interests of the Dutch were sufficiently provided for, that the duke should return with the English contingent to this, the proper theater of offensive operations. But Marlborough's experience had taught him that as little reliance was to be placed on the co-operation of the Margrave of Baden, and the lesser German powers, as on that of the Dutch; and he felt that it was altogether in vain to attempt another campaign, either in Germany or Flanders, unless some more effectual measures were taken to appease the jealousies, and secure the co-operation of this discordant alliance, than had hitherto been adopted. With this view, after having arranged matters to his satisfaction at the Hague, and after Slangenberg had been removed from the command, he repaired to Vienna in November, and thence soon after to Berlin. them at Vi Marlborough's extraordinary address and powers of persua sion did not desert him on this critical occasion. 29. ExtraordinaNever was more strongly exemplified the truth of ry success of Marlborough Chesterfield's remark, that manner had as much in appeasing weight as matter in procuring him success, and enna. that he was elevated to greatness as much on the wings of the Graces as by the strength of Minerva. Great as were the difficulties which attended the holding together the grand alliance, they all yielded to the magic of his name and the fascination of his manner. At Bernsberg he succeeded in obtaining from the elector a promise for the increase of his contingent, and leave for sending it into Italy, where its co-operation was required; at Frankfort he overcame, by persuasion and address, the difficulties of the Margrave of Baden; and at Vienna he was magnificently received, and soon acquired unbounded credit with the emperor. Besides being raised to the rank of a prince of the empire, with the most flattering assurances of esteem, he was fêted by the nobles, who vied with each other in demonstrations of respect to the illustrious conqueror of Blenheim. During his short sojourn of a fortnight there, he succeeded in allaying the suspicions and quieting the apprehensions of the emperor, which no other man could have done; and, having arranged the plan of the next campaign, and raised, on his own credit, a loan from the bankers, for the Imperial court, of 100,000 crowns, as well as the promise of another of £250,000, which he afterward obtained in London, he set out for Berlin, where his presence was not less necessary to stimulate the exertions and appease the complaints of the King of Prussia. And at Ber over. He arrived there on the 30th of November, and on the 30. same evening had an audience of the king, to whose lin and Han strange and capricious temper he so completely accommodated himself, that he allayed all his discontents, and brought him over completely to his views. He prevailed on him to renew the treaty for the furnishing of eight thousand men to aid the common cause, and to repair the chasms in their ranks produced by the campaign, as well as to revoke the orders which had been issued for the return of the troops from Italy, where their removal would have proved of essential detriment. This concession, in the words of the prime minister who announced it, was granted as a mark of respect to the queen, and of particular friendship to the duke." From Berlin he proceeded, loaded with honors and presents, to Hanover, where jealousies of a different kind, but not less dangerous, had arisen in consequence of the apprehensions there entertained that the Whigs were endeavoring to thwart the eventual succession of the house of Hanover to the throne of England. Here also Marlborough's address |