his great achievements, and in which he had always felt so deep an interest; but when he saw, in one of the few rooms which were finished, a picture of himself at the battle of Blenheim, he turned away with a mournful air, with the words, "Something then, but now-"

69.

and death,

On the 18th of November he was attacked by another stroke, more severe than the former, and his famiHis last years ly hastened to pay the last duties, as they conceivJune 16, 1722. ed, to their departing parent. The strength of his constitution, however, triumphed for a time even over this violent attack; but though he continued, contrary to his own wishes, in conformity with those of his friends, who needed the support of his great reputation, to hold office, and occasionally appeared in Parliament, yet his public career was at an end. A considerable addition was made to his fortune by the sagacity of the duchess, who persuaded him to embark part of his funds in the South Sea scheme; but, foreseeing the crash which was approaching, they sold out so opportunely, that instead of losing, she gained £100,000 by the transaction. On the 27th of November, 1721, he made his last appearance in the House of Lords; but in June, 1722, he was again attacked with paralysis so violently, that he lay for some days nearly motionless, though in perfect possession of his faculties. To a question from the duchess whether he heard the prayers read as usual at night, on the 15th of June, in his apartment, he replied, "Yes; and I joined in them." These were his last words. On the morning of the 16th he sank rapidly, and calmly breathed his last at four o'clock, in the 72d year of his age.*

70.

28th of June,

1722.

Envy is generally extinguished by death, because the object of it has ceased to stand in the way of those who And funeral, feel it. Marlborough's funeral obsequies were celebrated with uncommon magnificence, and all ranks and parties joined in doing him honor. His body lay in state for several days at Marlborough House, and crowds flocked together from all the three kingdoms to witness the imposing * LEDIARD, 496. Coxz, vi., 384, 385.

ceremony of his funeral, which was performed with the utmost magnificence, on the 28th of June. The procession was opened by a long array of military, among whom were General, now Lord Cadogan, and many other officers who had suffered and bled in his cause. Long files of heralds, officersat-arms, and pursuivants followed, bearing banners emblazoned with his armorial achievements, among which appeared, in uncommon luster, the standard of Woodstock exhibiting the arms of France on the cross of St. George. In the center of the cavalcade was a lofty car, drawn by eight horses, which bore the mortal remains of the hero, under a splendid canopy adorned by plumes, military trophies, and heraldic devices of conquest. Shields were affixed to the sides, bearing the names of the towns he had taken and the fields he had won. Blenheim was there, and Oudenarde, Ramillies and Malplaquet, Lille and Tournay, Bethune, Douay, and Ruremonde, Bouchain and Mons, Aire, St. Venant and Liege, Maestricht and Ghent. The number made the English blush for the manner in which they had treated their hero. On either side were five generals in military mourning, bearing aloft banderoles, on which were emblazoned the arms of the family. Eight dukes supported the pall; besides the relatives of the deceased, the noblest and proudest of England's nobility joined in the procession. Yet the most moving part of the ceremony was the number of old soldiers who had combated with the hero on his fields of fame, and who might now be known, in the dense crowds which thronged the streets, by their uncovered heads, gray hairs, and the tears which trickled down their cheeks. The body was deposited, with great solemnity, in Westminster Abbey, at the east end of the tomb of Henry VII.; but this was not its final resting-place in this world. It was soon after removed to the chapel at Blenheim, where it was deposited in a magnificent mausoleum, and there it still remains, surmounted by the noble pile which the genius of a Vanbrugh had conceived to express a nation's gratitude.* * CoxE, vi., 384-387.

CHAPTER VII.

MARLBOROUGH.-EUGENE.-FREDERIC.-NAPOLEON.-WEL

1.

Change in the

system of war

in Marlborough's time.

LINGTON.

THE extraordinary merit of Marlborough's military talents will not be duly appreciated, unless the peculiar nature of the contest he was called on to direct, and the character which he assumed in his time, are taken into consideration. The feudal times had ceased, at least so far as the raising of a military force by its machinery was concerned. Louis XIV., indeed, when pressed for men, more than once summoned the ban and the arrière-ban of France to his standards, and he always had a gallant array of feudal nobility in his ante-chambers or around his headquarters. But war, both on his part and that of his antagonists, was carried on, generally speaking, with standing armies, and supported by the belligerent state. The vast, though generally tumultuary array which the Plantagenet or Valois sovereigns summoned to their support, but which, bound only to serve for forty days, generally disappeared before a few months of hostilities were over, could no longer be relied on. The modern system invented by revolutionary France, of making war maintain war, and sending forth starving multitudes with arms in their hands, to subsist by the plunder of the adjoining states, was unknown. The national passions had not been roused, which alone could bring it into operation. The decline of the feudal system forbade the hope that contests could be maintained by the chivalrous attachment of a faithful nobility the democratic spirit had not been so aroused as to supply its place by popular fervor. Religious passions, indeed, had been strongly excited; but they had prompted men rather to suffer than to act: the disputations of the pulpit were their

natural arena in the last extremity, they were more allied to the resignation of the martyr than the heroism of the soldier. Between the two, there extended a long period of above a century and a half, during which governments had acquired the force, and mainly relied on the power, of standing armies; but the resources at their disposal for their support were so limited, that the greatest economy in the husbanding both of men and money was indispensable.

were

Nature of the

Richard Cœur de Lion, Edward III., and Henry V. the models of feudal leaders, and their wars were a 2. faithful mirror of the feudal contests. Setting forth feudal wars. at the head of a force, which, if not formidable in point of numbers, was generally extremely so from equipment and the use of arms, the nobles around them were generally too proud and high-spirited to decline a combat, even on any possible terms of disadvantage. They took the field, as the knights went to a champ clos, to engage their adversaries in single conflict; and it was deemed equally dishonorable to retire without fighting from the one as the other. But they had no permanent force at their disposal to secure a lasting fruit, even from the greatest victories. The conquest of a petty prov ince, a diminutive fortress, was often their only result. Hence the desperate battles, so memorable in warlike annals, which they fought, and hence the miserable and almost nugatory results which almost invariably followed the greatest triumphs. Cressy, Poictiers, and Azincour, followed by the expulsion of the English from France; Methven and Dunbar, by their ignominious retreat from Scotland; Ascalon and Ptolemais, by their being driven from the Holy Land, must immediately occur to every reader. This state of war necessarily imprinted a corresponding character on the feudal generals. They were high-spirited and daring in action; often skillful in tactics; generally ignorant of strategy; covetous of military renown, but careless of national advancement; and often more solicitous to conquer an adversary in single conflict, than to reduce a fortress or win a province.

D D

3. Great change

But when armies were raised at the expense, not of nobles, but of kings-when their cost became a lasting and when armies heavy drain on the royal exchequer, and they were were paid by government. yet felt to be indispensable to national security— sovereigns grew desirous of a more durable and profitable result from their victories. Standing armies, though commonly powerful-often irresistible when accumulated in large bodies.

-were yet extremely expensive. Their expense was felt the more from the great difficulty of getting the people in every country, at that period, to submit to any considerable amount of direct taxation. More than one flourishing province had been lost, or powerful monarchy overturned, in the attempt to increase such burdens; as, for example, the loss of Holland to Spain, and the execution of Charles I. in England. In this dilemma, arising from the experienced necessity of raising standing armies on the one hand, and the extreme difficulty of permanently providing for them on the other, the only resource was to spare both the blood of the soldiers and the expenses of the government as much as possible. Durable conquests, acquisitions of towns and provinces which could yield revenues and furnish men, became the great object of ambition. The point of feudal honor was forgotten in the inanity of its consequences; the benefits of modern conquests were felt in the reality of their results. A methodical cautious system of war was thus made imperative upon generals by the necessities of their situation, and the objects expected from them by their respective governments. To risk little and gain much became the great object skill and stratagem gradually took the place of reckless daring; and the reputation of a general came to be measured rather by the permanent addition which his successes made to the revenues of his sovereign, than by the note with which the trumpet of Fame had proclaimed his own exploits.

Turenne was the first, and, in his day, the greatest general in this new and scientific system of war. He first applied to the military art the resources of prudent foresight, deep thought,