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Discovering Diverse Content Through
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 To face page 524
MALPLAQUET
Aug. 31st 1709.
Sep. 11th

Thus ended the battle of Malplaquet, one of the bloodiest ever

fought by mortal men. Little is known of the details of the fighting,
these being swallowed up in the shade of the forest of Taisnières,
where no man could see what was going forward. All that is certain
is that neither side gave quarter, and that the combat was not only
fierce but savage. The loss of the French was about twelve thousand
men, and the trophies taken from them, against which they could
show trophies of their own, were five hundred prisoners, fifty
standards and colours and sixteen guns. The loss of the Allies was
not less than twenty thousand men killed and wounded, due chiefly
to the mad onset of the Prince of Orange. The Dutch infantry out of
thirty battalions lost eight thousand men, or more than half of their
number; the British out of twenty battalions lost nineteen hundred
men,[370] the heaviest sufferers being the Coldstream Guards, Buffs,
Orrery's and Temple's.[371]
The more closely the battle is studied the more the conviction
grows that no action of Marlborough's was fought less in accordance
with his own plans. We have seen that he would have preferred to
fight it on either of the two preceding days, and that he deferred to
Eugene against his own judgment in suffering it to be postponed.
Then again there was the almost criminal folly of the Prince of
Orange, which upset all preconcerted arrangements, threw away
thousands of lives to no purpose, and not only permitted the French
to retreat unharmed at the close of the day but seriously imperilled
the success of the action at its beginning. Nevertheless there are still
not wanting men to believe the slanders of the contemptible faction
then rising to power in England, that Marlborough fought the battle
from pure lust of slaughter.
Still, in spite of all blunders, which were none of Marlborough's,
Malplaquet was a very grand action. The French were equal in
number to the Allies and occupied a position which was described at
the time as a fortified citadel. They were commanded by an able
general, whom they liked and trusted, they were in good heart, and
they looked forward confidently to victory. Yet they were driven back
and obliged to leave Mons to its fate; and though Villars with his
usual bluster described the victory as more disastrous than defeat,
yet French officers could not help asking themselves whether
resistance to Marlborough and Eugene were not hopeless.
Luxemburg with seventy-five thousand men against fifty thousand
had only with difficulty succeeded in forcing the faulty position of
Landen; yet the French had failed to hold the far more formidable
lines of Malplaquet against an army no stronger than their own. Say
Villars what he might, and beyond all doubt he fought a fine fight,
the inference could not be encouraging to France.

Sept. 28
Oct. 9.

It was not until the third day after the fight that the Allies
returned to the investment of Mons. Eugene was wounded, and
Marlborough not only worn out by fatigue but deeply distressed over
the enormous sacrifice of life. The siege was retarded by the marshy
nature of the ground and by heavy rain; but on the 9th of October
the garrison capitulated, and therewith the campaign came to an
end. Tournay had given the Allies firm foothold on the Upper
Scheldt, and Mons was of great value as covering the captured
towns in Flanders and Brabant. The season's operations had not
been without good fruit, despite the heavy losses at Malplaquet.
 CHAPTER IX
1708.

Once more I return to Spain, where the armies of the Bourbons had
recommenced operations in the winter of 1708. At the end of
October General d'Asfeld having first captured Denia after a short
siege had advanced against Alicante, which was garrisoned by eight
hundred British[372] and Huguenots, under Major-General John
Richards. The siege of Alicante is memorable chiefly for the manner
of Richards's death. The castle was built on the solid rock, and the
only possible method of destroying its defences was by means of
mining. After three months of incessant work d'Asfeld hewed a
gallery through the rock beneath the castle, charged it with seventy-
five tons of powder, and then summoned Richards to surrender,
inviting him at the same time to send two officers to inspect the
mine. Two officers accordingly were sent, who returned with the
report that the explosion of the mine would doubtless be destructive,
but not, in their judgment, fatal to further defence. Richards
therefore rejected the summons, nor, though d'Asfeld thrice repeated
it, would he return any other answer.

1709.
Feb. 20
March 3.

Immediately over the gallery were two guards, each of thirty

men, which could not be withdrawn without peril to the safety of the
castle. Early in the morning fixed for the springing of the mine, the
sentries were posted as usual, pacing up and down in the keen
morning air, when General Richards and all the senior officers of the
garrison who were off duty came and joined them. They were come
to stand by their men in the hour of trial. A little before six a thin
column of blue smoke came curling up the rock, and a corporal of
the guard reported that the match had been fired. Richards and his
officers remained immovable, the guard stood under arms, and the
sentries stuck to their posts. Presently the whole rock trembled
again; the ground beneath their feet was rent into vast clefts which
yawned for a moment with a hideous hollow roar and instantly
closed. When the rumbling had ceased there were still eighteen men
left on the rock, but Richards with eleven other officers and forty-
two of their comrades had been swallowed up like the company of
Korah. Yet Richards was right, for when Admiral Byng and General
Stanhope arrived six weeks later the garrison still remained
unconquered in the castle. But it was thought best to evacuate it, so
the little force was carried away to Mahon, leaving Richards and his
brave companions asleep in the womb of the rock. Among the
forgotten graves of British soldiers that are sown so thickly over the
world, one at least is safe from the ravages of time, the living tomb
over which John Richards and his comrades stood, waiting
undismayed till it should open to engulf them at Alicante.

April 26
May 7.

Shortly after the removal of the garrison from the castle Lord
Galway and the Portuguese opened the campaign on the side of
Portugal near Campo Mayor. Their total force consisted of about
fifteen thousand men, including barely three thousand British
infantry[373] and artillery; but its weakest point was that it was
commanded by a Portuguese officer, the Marquis de Fronteria.
Opposed to it were five thousand Spanish horse and ten thousand
Spanish foot under the Marquis de Bay, who advanced with his
cavalry only to the plain of Gudina on the left bank of the Caya, in
order to entice Fronteria across the river. Galway entreated Fronteria
not to think of attacking Bay, but the Portuguese commander,
disregarding his advice, sent the whole of his horse together with
the Fifth, Twentieth, Thirty-ninth and Paston's regiments of British
Foot across the Caya, and drew them up, rather less than five
thousand men in all, on the plain beyond.
 Bay at once sent for his infantry, but without waiting for them
boldly attacked the Portuguese horse on Fronteria's right wing.
Before the Spanish cavalry could reach them the Portuguese turned
and fled, leaving the flank of the British infantry uncovered. The four
regiments, however, stood firm, and having repulsed three charges
formed a hollow square and made a steady and orderly retreat.
Meanwhile Galway had sent forward Brigadier Sankey with the
Thirteenth, Stanwix's and a Catalan regiment in support, but before
they could reach their comrades Bay charged the other wing of
Portuguese horse, which fled as precipitately as the former, and
turning the whole of his force against Sankey's brigade isolated it
completely and compelled it to surrender. The whole of the loss, as
usual, fell on the British; and Galway, none too soon, vowed that
they would never fight in company with the Portuguese again.

1710.

The action on the Caya practically ended the campaign in

Portugal for 1709. The operations in Catalonia during the same year
call for little notice; nor was it until July of the following year that
Staremberg, reinforced by British[374] and Germans to a strength of
twenty thousand foot and five thousand horse, was able to take the
field with activity. He lay at the time at Agramont on the Segre, the
Spanish army under Villadarias, the unsuccessful besieger of
Gibraltar, being a couple of marches to south of him at Lerida.
Staremberg resolved to take the offensive forthwith and to carry the
war into Aragon.

July 16.
27

Crossing the Segre he sent forward General Stanhope with a

small force of dragoons and grenadiers to seize the pass of Alfaraz,
before the Spaniards could reach it. Stanhope executed his task with
his usual diligence; and the arrival of the Spanish army a few hours
after him led to a brilliant little combat of cavalry at Almenara. The
odds against the Allies were heavy, for they had but twenty-six
squadrons against forty-two of the enemy. Both sides, each drawn
up in two lines, observed each other inactive for some time,
Staremberg hesitating to permit Stanhope to charge. At length,
however, he let him go. The first line, wherein all the British were
posted, sprang forward with Generals Stanhope and Carpenter at
their head against the Spanish horse, and after a sharp engagement
drove them back. The second line followed and forced them back
still further upon their infantry. Panic set in among the Spaniards,
and presently the whole of the Spanish army was in full retreat to
Lerida. The loss of the enemy was thirteen hundred killed and
wounded; that of the Allies did not exceed four hundred, half of
whom were British.[375]

Aug. 7 .
18
Sept. 17.
28

After more than a fortnight's stay at Lerida King Philip

summoned Bay to supersede Villadarias, but finding it impossible to
advance in face of Staremberg retreated in the direction of
Saragossa. Staremberg at once started in pursuit, overtook Bay
under the walls of Saragossa and totally defeated him.[376] Contrary
to his own better judgment he then marched for Madrid, and led the
Archduke Charles for the second time into his capital. The bulk of
the army was quartered in the suburbs, but a strong detachment
was sent away under Stanhope to occupy Toledo, and, this done, to
follow the Tagus to the bridge of Almaraz, where it should join hands
with a force that was to advance from Portugal.

Sept.

The plan was hardly formed before it was broken to pieces. On

receiving the news of the defeat at Saragossa Lewis the Fourteenth
at once formed an army of his garrisons on the frontier and sent it
southward under the command of Vendôme. By the end of
September he had united his force with Bay's at Aranda on the
Douro and was drawing in fresh troops from all sides. The whole
population being in his favour kept him well supplied with
intelligence. Before either Stanhope or the Portuguese could reach
Almaraz, Vendôme had pounced upon it and destroyed the bridge.
Stanhope perforce retired to Toledo, and Vendôme, having by this
time collected a force superior to that of the Allies, moved up the
Tagus and encamped on the historic field of Talavera.

Nov. 22
Dec. 3.
Nov. 25
Dec. 6.
Nov. 27
Dec. 8.

Staremberg now found it necessary to evacuate Madrid. The

Archduke Charles had been coldly received, supplies were failing,
and the army was much weakened by sickness. Recalling Stanhope,
therefore, from Toledo, he retired up the left bank of the Tajuña; the
army, for convenience of forage and supplies, marching in five
columns of different nations—Germans, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese,
and British. The third day's march brought the first four columns to
Cifuentes, the British who formed the rearguard diverging across the
river to Brihuega some fourteen miles from the rest. Stanhope had
observed a large body of horse following close at his heels during
the march, and had reported the fact to Staremberg, but none the
less received orders to halt for another day and to collect provisions.
Next morning the enemy's horse appeared on the hill in force, and
was joined after a few hours, to the great astonishment of
Stanhope, by its infantry. His efforts to obtain intelligence had been
foiled by the hostility of the peasants, and neither he nor
Staremberg had the faintest idea that there was any infantry within
fifty miles of them. In truth this body of foot had, under Vendôme's
direction, covered one hundred and seventy miles in seven days, a
march of incredible speed, which, in Stanhope's own words, was his
undoing. By five o'clock in the evening Brihuega was fully invested
by nine thousand men, and the escape of the British was impossible.
 Stanhope's position was desperate. He had but eight battalions
and eight squadrons, all so much weakened as to number together
but two thousand five hundred men. The town, which was of
considerable extent, had no defences but an old Moorish wall, too
narrow in most places to afford a banquette for musketeers. Further,
the streets were narrow and commanded on all sides by hills within
range of artillery and even of musketry. Nevertheless he might hold
out till Staremberg came to his relief; so rejecting the summons to
surrender, he barricaded the gates, threw up entrenchments as well
as he could, and at nightfall sent away his aide-de-camp, who at
great risk passed through the enemy's lines, to Staremberg's camp.

Nov. 28
Dec. 9.

At midnight King Philip and Vendôme arrived with the rest of the
army, horse, foot, and artillery, increasing the investing force to over
twenty thousand men. Before morning two batteries had already
been erected, which opened fire at nine o'clock. Two breaches were
speedily made in the wall, which the British could not repair except
under fire, and a mine was dug to make a third. At three o'clock in
the afternoon an assault was delivered at both breaches, and was
met by a vigorous resistance. While the combat was raging around
them, the mine was fired and a third breach was formed, through
which large bodies of the enemy effected an entrance before they
were perceived. The British however turned upon them and beat
them out again. Finally, the first attack was totally repulsed; and the
French entrenched themselves in the breaches to await
reinforcements. Again the assault was renewed and again it was
driven back with heavy loss by the deadly English fire. Ammunition
now began to fail, but the little garrison held its own with the
bayonet, contesting every inch of ground, horse and dragoons
fighting dismounted by the side of the foot, and every man doing his
utmost. Forced back at length from their entrenchments the British
set fire to the houses which had been gained by the enemy, and
after four hours of hard fighting still held the best part of the town.
But their ammunition by this time was almost exhausted, and there
was no sign of Staremberg's appearance; so at seven o'clock
Stanhope, unwilling uselessly to sacrifice the lives of his men,
capitulated, and he and his gallant little force became prisoners of
war. Never did British troops fight better than at Brihuega; but even
where all were so much distinguished Stanhope could not refrain
from giving special praise to the Scots Guards. The total loss of the
British was six hundred killed and wounded. That of the enemy was
nearly three times as great.

Nov. 29
Dec. 10.
Nov. 30
Dec. 9.

It was not until the morning of the next day that Staremberg
approached Brihuega, and meeting the advanced squadrons of
Vendôme's, drew up his army for battle in the plains of Villa Viciosa.
He had but thirteen thousand men against twenty thousand, but he
made skilful dispositions, posting his left behind a deep ravine and
strengthening his right, which lay on the open plain, by interlacing
the battalions with his few feeble squadrons of horse. The British
troops present, Lepell's dragoons, Dubourgay's and Richard's foot,
were stationed on the left. The action opened with a long
cannonade, after which Vendôme's horse of the right crossed the
ravine, and coming down with great spirit and in overwhelming
numbers on Staremberg's left swept it after a short resistance
completely away. The English dragoons were very heavily punished
and the two battalions were cut to pieces. The centre also was
broken; and the victorious Spaniards at once fell on the baggage
beyond it and began to plunder. But the right of the Allies had held
its own, and Staremberg, taking advantage of the disorder among
the Spaniards, contrived with great coolness and skill to convert the
action into a drawn battle. The whole engagement, indeed,
reproduces curiously the features of the early battles of our own Civil
War. On the next day, however, Staremberg was compelled to
retreat, leaving his artillery to the enemy; and though Barcelona,
Tarragona, and Balaguer were still kept for the Austrian side, the
campaign closed with the loss to the Allies of the whole of Spain.
I shall not trouble the reader with the petty operations of the
following year, for the war in the Peninsula was practically closed by
the battles of Brihuega and Villa Viciosa. The spasmodic nature of
the operations has made them difficult and, I fear, wearisome to the
reader to follow, quite apart from the dissatisfaction that necessarily
attends a long tale of failure. Disunion of purpose and the extreme
inefficiency of the Portuguese were the principal infirmities of the
Allies throughout the war; the long distance from their true bases at
Portsmouth and at Brill their principal disadvantage. Again and again
the French were able to retrieve a defeat by sending their garrisons
from the frontier-towns across the Pyrenees. Too late, on the
appointment of Staremberg, the Allies decided that it would be
better to fight the war in the Peninsula with Germans, who could
march over Italy and cross the Mediterranean to Catalonia, instead
of with English and Dutch, who must make the long and dangerous
passage across the Bay of Biscay and through the Straits. But the
true secret of the success of the Bourbons, as Lord Macaulay long
ago pointed out, lay in the fact that the general sentiment of Spain
was on their side, a force which, after another century, shall be seen
working to make the fame of a great English commander in another
and greater Peninsular war.
Unfortunately the disasters of the year 1710 were not confined
to Spain. Up to the autumn of 1709 it seemed that England was still
bent on prosecuting the war till the ends of the Grand Alliance
should have been attained. Seven new regiments[377] at any rate
had been formed during the year, which might be taken as an
earnest of serious intentions. But ever since 1707 Robert Harley,
who will be remembered as the proposer of the imbecile motion for
disbandment which nearly drove King William from England, had
been working with all the resources of a weak, crafty, and dishonest
nature to undermine the Government that had so far carried the
country triumphantly through the struggle. It was the misfortune of
Great Britain at this time to lie at the mercy principally of three
women, Queen Anne, the Duchess of Marlborough, and Mrs.
Masham. Of these the Duchess alone had any ability, which ability,
however, was greatly discounted by her meddlesome and imperious
disposition. So long as she retained her ascendency over Anne,
things went unpleasantly for the Queen but on the whole well for
the country; when her ungovernable temper drove Anne into the
arms of Mrs. Masham, the Queen led a quieter life, but the country
suffered. Marlborough, who was aware of his wife's waning influence
and foresaw the consequences, tried hard on his return from the
campaign of 1709 to assure himself a permanent station of power by
asking to be made commander-in-chief for life. The request was
tactless as well as unprecedented. Anne, greatly offended, replied by
a positive refusal, which Marlborough, for once forgetting his usual
serenity, received with culpably ill grace.
So far the Queen was undoubtedly right and Marlborough
undoubtedly wrong; but at the beginning of the new year the
situation was reversed. The colonelcy of a regiment fell vacant and
was filled up by the Queen on the nomination not of the
commander-in-chief but of Mrs. Masham by the appointment of her
brother, Colonel Hill. Marlborough naturally resolved to resign at
once, while the wise and sagacious Somers remonstrated most
strongly with the Queen against this foolish step, as subversive of all
discipline and injurious to the army. Unfortunately the Duke, instead
of insisting that either he or Mrs. Masham must go, was persuaded
to consent to a compromise, which the Queen regarded as a victory
for herself and rejoiced over with all the fervour of a weak nature. In
the intense personal bitterness of the struggle no one but Somers,
outside the military profession, paused for a moment to reflect on its
consequences to the Army.

April 11.
22
June 15.
26
Aug. 17.
28
 The next object of the opposing faction was to get Marlborough
out of England to the Low Countries as soon as possible, which was
duly effected, at Harley's instance, by ordering him to take a part in
the negotiations for a peace. These negotiations coming to naught,
he opened the campaign in April by a rapid movement, which
brought him safely over the lines of La Bassée, and laid siege to
Douay. The town made a firm defence for two months, but fell on
the 26th of June; and Marlborough now proposed to himself either
to invest Arras or to advance further into France and cross the
Somme. Villars, however, though he had failed to relieve Douay, had
made excellent dispositions for the defence of the frontier, and was
lying unassailable behind a new series of lines, which he had drawn,
as he said later, to be the ne plus ultra of Marlborough. The Duke
therefore turned to the siege of Bethune, which surrendered on the
28th of August, and thereafter to the sieges of Aire and St. Venant
on the Upper Lys, which closed the campaign. Each one of these
fortresses was strong and made a spirited resistance, costing the
Allies altogether some fifteen thousand men killed and wounded.
The operations, though less brilliant than those of other campaigns,
completed the communication with Lille, opened the whole line of
the Lys, and increased the facilities for joint action with an
expedition by sea, landing at Calais or Abbeville. Another such blow
as Ramillies would have gone near to bring the Allies before the
walls of Paris. Throughout the campaign, however, Marlborough
acted always with extreme caution, abandoning the plans which he
had once favoured for concerted operations with the fleet. He knew
that the slightest failure would lay him open to overwhelming attack
from his enemies at home, whose triumph would mean not only his
own fall but, what he dreaded much more, the ascendency of
unscrupulous politicians who would sacrifice the whole fruits of the
war to factious ends, and bring disgrace, perhaps ruin, upon
England.
Meanwhile the Queen, with all the pettiness of a weak nature,
kept parading her power by foolish interference with matters which
she did not understand. Marlborough had submitted a list of colonels
for promotion to general's rank, but as the name of Colonel Hill was
not among them she insisted on promoting every colonel of this
year, regardless of expense, propriety, justice, or discipline, merely
for the sake of including him. In August came a heavier blow in the
dismissal of Godolphin and the appointment of Harley as Lord
Keeper in his place, which accomplished the long-threatened
downfall of the Government. By a refinement of insult the Duke's
Secretary-at-War, Adam Cardonnel, was also removed and replaced,
without the slightest reference to Marlborough, by Mr. Granville.
Finally, shortly after his return from the campaign the Queen,
despite his entreaties, definitely dismissed the Duchess from all her
posts, and even went the length of ordering the Duke to forbid the
moving of any vote of thanks for his services by Parliament.
The example thus set in high places was quickly followed. A few
even of the Duke's own officers, such as the Duke of Argyll, to the
huge disgust and contempt of the Army, turned against him. The
mouth of every libeller and slanderer was opened. Swift and St.
John, the only two Englishmen whose intellect entitled them to be
named in the same breath with Marlborough, vied with each other in
blackening his character. Nothing was too vile nor too extravagant to
be insinuated against the greatest soldier, statesman, and
diplomatist in Europe. He was prolonging the war for his own ends;
he could make peace if he would, but he would not; he delighted in
the wanton sacrifice of life; finally, he had neither personal courage
nor military talent. "I suppose," wrote Marlborough bitterly, "that I
must every summer venture my life in battle, and be found fault with
in the winter for not bringing home peace, though I wish for it with
all my heart and soul."
He would fain have resigned but for the remonstrances of
Godolphin and Eugene, who entreated him to hold the Grand
Alliance together for yet a little while, and gain for Europe a
permanent peace. They might have spared their prayers had they
known the secrets of the Cabinet, for Harley and his gang were
already opening the secret negotiations with Lewis which were to
dissolve the Alliance and grant to France all that Europe had fought
for ten years to withhold from her. For these men, who accused
Marlborough of wilful squandering of life, thought nothing of sending
brave soldiers forth to lose their lives for a cause which they had
made up their minds to betray. But it is idle to waste comment on
such creatures, long dead albeit unhanged; though the fact must not
be forgotten in the history of the relations of the House of Commons
towards the Army. It will be more profitable to accompany the great
Duke to his last campaign.
 CHAPTER X
1711.

The French, fully aware of the political changes in England, had

during the winter made extraordinary exertions to prolong the war
for yet one more campaign, and to that end had covered the
northern frontier with a fortified barrier on a gigantic scale. Starting
from the coast of Picardy the lines followed the course of the river
Canche almost to its source. From thence across to the Gy or
southern fork of the Upper Scarpe ran a line of earthworks,
extending from Oppy to Montenancourt. From the latter point the Gy
and the Scarpe were dammed so as to form inundations as far as
Biache, at which place a canal led the line of defence from the
Scarpe to the Sensée. Here more inundations between the two rivers
carried the barrier to Bouchain, whence it followed the Scheldt to
Valenciennes. From thence more earthworks prolonged the lines to
the Sambre, which carried them at last to their end at Namur.
This was a formidable obstacle to the advance of the Allies, but
no lines had sufficed to stop Marlborough yet, and with Eugene by
his side the Duke did not despair. Before he could start for the
campaign, however, the news came that the Emperor Joseph was
dead of smallpox, an event which signified the almost certain
accession of the Archduke Charles to the Imperial crown and the
consequent withdrawal of his candidature for the throne of Spain.
Eugene was consequently detained at home; and worse than this, a
fine opportunity was afforded for making a breach in the Grand
Alliance. To render the Duke's difficulties still greater, though his
force was already weakened by the necessity of finding garrisons for
the towns captured in the previous year, the English Government
had withdrawn from him five battalions[378] for an useless
expedition to Newfoundland under the command of Mrs. Masham's
brother, General Hill; an expedition which may be dismissed for the
present without further mention than that it was dogged by
misfortune from first to last, suffered heavy loss through shipwreck,
and accomplished literally nothing.

April 20
May 1.
June 3 .
14

Nevertheless the Imperial army was present, though without

Eugene. The whole of the forces were assembled a little to the south
of Lille at Orchies, and on the 1st of May Marlborough moved
forward to a position parallel to that of Villars, who lay in rear of the
river Sensée with his left at Oisy and his right at Bouchain. There
both armies remained stationary and inactive for six weeks. Eugene
came, but presently received orders to return and to bring his army
with him. On the 14th of June Marlborough moved away one march
westward to the plain of Lens in order to conceal this enforced
diminution of his army. The position invited a battle, but Villars only
moved down within his lines parallel to the Duke; and once more
both armies remained inactive for five weeks. After the departure of
Eugene the French commander detached a portion of his force to
the Rhine, but even so he had one hundred and thirty-one battalions
against ninety-four, and one hundred and eighty-seven squadrons
against one hundred and forty-five of the Allies.

June 25
July 6.

We now approach what is perhaps the most remarkable and

certainly the most entertaining feat of the Duke during the whole
war. Villars, bound by his instructions, would not come out and fight;
his lines could not be forced by an army of inferior strength, and
they could therefore be passed only by stratagem. The inundation
on the Sensée between Arras and Bouchain could be traversed only
by two causeways, the larger of which was defended by a strong fort
at Arleux, the other being covered by a redoubt at Aubigny half a
mile below it. Marlborough knew that he could take the fort at
Arleux at any time and demolish it, but he knew also that Villars
would certainly retake it and rebuild as soon as his back was turned.
He therefore set himself to induce Villars to demolish it himself. With
this view he detached a strong force under General Rantzau to
capture the fort, which was done without difficulty. The Duke then
gave orders that the captured works should be greatly strengthened,
and for their further protection posted a large force under the
Prussian General Hompesch on the glacis of Douay, some three miles
distant from the fort.

June 28
July 9.
July 10.
21

As fate ordained it Hompesch, thinking himself secure under the

guns of Douay, neglected his outposts and even his sentries, and
was surprised two days later by a sudden attack from Villars, which
was only repulsed with considerable difficulty and not a little shame.
Villars was in ecstasies over his success, and Marlborough displayed
considerable annoyance. However, the Duke reinforced Hompesch,
as if to show the value which he attached to Arleux, and pushed
forward the new works with the greatest vigour. Finally, when all was
completed, he threw a weak garrison into the fort and led the rest of
the army away two marches westward, encamping opposite the lines
between the Canche and the Scarpe. Villars likewise moved
westward parallel to him; but before he started he detached a force
to attack Arleux. The commander of the fort sent a message to
Marlborough that he could not possibly hold it, and the Duke at once
despatched Cadogan with a strong force to relieve it. It was noticed,
however, that Cadogan made no such haste as the urgency of the
occasion would have seemed to require; and indeed before he had
gone half way he returned with the intelligence that Arleux had
surrendered.

July 15.
26
July 17.
28
 Villars was elated beyond measure; and Marlborough for the
first time in his life seemed to be greatly distressed and cast down.
Throwing off his usual serenity he declared in public with much
passion that he would be even with Villars yet, and would attack
him, come what might of it, where he lay. Then came the news that
Villars had razed the whole works of Arleux, over which he had spent
such pains, entirely to the ground. This increased the Duke's ill-
temper. He vowed that he would avenge this insult to his army, and
renewed his menace of a direct attack on the entrenchments. Villars
now detached a force to make a diversion in Brabant; and this step
seemed to drive Marlborough distracted. Vowing that he would
check its march he sent off ten thousand men under Lord Albemarle
to Bethune, and the whole of his baggage and heavy artillery to
Douay. Having thus weakened an army already inferior to that of the
French, he repaired the roads that led towards the enemy's
entrenchments, and with much display of vindictiveness, sulkiness,
and general vexation advanced one march nearer to the lines. His
army watched his proceedings with amazement, for it had never
expected such proceedings from Corporal John.

July 22
August 2.
July 23
August 3.
July 24
August 4.

Villars meanwhile was in a transport of delight. He drew every

man not only from all parts of the lines but also from the
neighbouring garrisons towards the threatened point, and asked
nothing better than that Marlborough should attack. In the height of
exultation he actually wrote to Versailles that he had brought the
Duke to his ne plus ultra. Marlborough's strange manner still
remained the same. On the 2nd of August he advanced to within a
league of the lines, and during that day and the next set the whole
of his cavalry to work to collect fascines. At nightfall of the 3rd he
sent away all his light artillery, together with every wheeled vehicle,
under escort of a strong detachment, and next morning rode
forward with most of his generals to reconnoitre the lines. Captain
Parker of the Eighteenth Royal Irish, who had obtained permission to
ride with the Staff, was amazed at the Duke's behaviour. He had now
thrown off all his ill-temper and was calm and cool as usual,
indicating this point and that to his officers. "Your brigade, General,
will attack here, such and such brigades will be on your right and
left, such another in support, and you will be careful of this, that,
and other." The generals listened and stared; they understood the
instructions clearly enough, but they could not help regarding them
as madness. So the reconnaissance proceeded, drearily enough, and
was just concluding when General Cadogan turned his horse,
unnoticed, out of the crowd, struck in his spurs and galloped back to
camp at the top of his speed. Presently the Duke also turned, and
riding back very slowly issued orders to prepare for a general attack
on the morrow.
At this all ranks of the army, from the general to the drummer,
fell into the deepest depression. Not a man could fail to see that
direct attack on the lines was a hopeless enterprise at the best of
times, and doubly hopeless now that half of the army and the whole
of the artillery had been detached for other service. Again the violent
and unprecedented outburst of surliness and ill-temper was difficult
to explain; and the only possible explanation was that the Duke,
rendered desperate by failure and misfortunes, had thrown prudence
to the winds and did not care what he did. A few only clung faintly
to the hope that the chief who had led them so often to victory
might still have some surprise in store for them; but the most part
gave themselves up for lost, and lamented loudly that they should
ever have lived to see such a change come over the Old Corporal.
So passed the afternoon among the tents of the Allies; but
meanwhile Cadogan with forty hussars at his heels had long started
from the camp and was galloping hard across the plain of Lens to
Douay, five leagues away. There he found Hompesch ready with his
garrison, now strengthened by detachments from Bethune and
elsewhere to twelve thousand foot and two thousand horse, and told
him that the time was come. Hompesch thereupon issued his orders
for the troops to be ready to march that night. Still the main army
under Marlborough knew nothing of this, and passed the day in
dismal apprehension till the sun went down, and the drummers
came forward to beat tattoo. Then a column of cavalry trotted out
towards the Allied right, attracting every French eye and stirring
every French brain with curiosity as to the purport of the movement.
Then the drums began to roll; and the order ran quietly down the
line to strike tents and make ready to march immediately.
Never was command more welcome. Within an hour all was
ready and the army was formed into four columns. The cavalry
having done their work of distracting French vigilance to the wrong
quarter returned unseen by the enemy; and at nine o'clock the
whole army faced to its left and marched off eastward in utter
silence, with Marlborough himself at the head of the vanguard.

July 24-25
August 4-5.
July 25
August 5.

The night was fine, and under the radiant moonlight the men
swung forward bravely hour after hour over the plain of Lens. The
moon paled; the dawn crept up into the east throwing its ghastly
light on the host of weary, sleepless faces; and presently the
columns reached the Scarpe. So far the march had lasted eight
hours, and fifteen miles had been passed. Pontoon-bridges were
already laid across the river, and on the further bank, punctual to
appointment, stood Brigadier Sutton with the field-artillery. The river
was passed, and presently a messenger came spurring from the east
with a despatch for the Duke of Marlborough. He read it; and words
were passed down the columns of march which filled them with new
life. "Generals Cadogan and Hompesch" (such was their purport)
"crossed the causeway at Arleux unopposed at three o'clock this
morning, and are in possession of the enemy's lines. The Duke
desires that the infantry will step out." The right wing of horse
halted to form the rearguard and bring up stragglers, while a cloud
of dust in the van told that the Duke and fifty squadrons with him
were pushing forward at the trot. Then the infantry shook
themselves up and stepped out with a will.
Villars had received intelligence of Marlborough's march only
two hours after he had started, but he was so thoroughly bewildered
by the Duke's intricate manœuvres that he did not awake to the true
position until three hours later. Then, quite distracted, he put himself
at the head of the Household Cavalry and galloped off at full speed.
So furiously rode he that he wore down all but a hundred of his
troopers and pushed on with these alone. But even so Marlborough
was before him. At eight o'clock he crossed the lower causeway at
Aubanchoeuil-au-bac and passing his cavalry over the Scarpe barred
the road from the west by the village of Oisy. Presently Villars,
advancing reckless of all precautions, blundered into the middle of
the outposts. Before he could retire his whole escort was captured,
and he himself only by miracle escaped the same fate.
The Marshal now looked anxiously for the arrival of his main
body of horse; but the Allied infantry had caught sight of them on
the other side of the Sensée, and weary though they were had
braced themselves to race them for the goal. But now the severity of
the march and the burden of their packs began to tell heavily on the
foot. Hundreds dropped down unconscious and many died there and
then, but they were left where they lay to await the arrival of the
rearguard; for no halt was called, and each regiment pushed on as
cheerfully as possible with such men as still survived. Thus they
were still ahead of the French when they turned off to the causeway
at Arleux, and, Marlborough having thrown additional bridges over
the Scarpe, they came quickly into their positions. The right wing of
infantry crossed the river about four o'clock in the afternoon, having
covered close on forty miles in eighteen hours; and by five o'clock
the whole force was drawn up between Oisy and the Scheldt within
striking distance of Arras, Cambrai, and Bouchain. So vanished the
ne plus ultra of Villars, a warning to all generals who put their sole
trust in fortified lines.
 July 27
August 7.

Marlborough halted for the next day to give his troops rest and
to allow the stragglers to come in. Fully half the men of the infantry
had fallen out, and there were many who did not rejoin the army
until the third day. Villars on his side moved forward and offered
Marlborough battle under the walls of Cambrai; but the Duke would
not accept it, though the Dutch deputies, perverse and treacherous
to the last, tried hard to persuade him. Had the deputies marched in
the ranks of the infantry with muskets on their shoulders and a kit of
fifty pounds' weight on their backs, they would have been less eager
for the fray. Marlborough's own design, long matured in his own
mind, was the capture of Bouchain, and his only fear was lest Villars
should cross the Scheldt before him and prevent it. Then the
deputies, who had been so anxious to hurry the army into an
engagement under every possible disadvantage, shrank from the
peril of a siege carried on by an inferior under the eyes of a superior
force. But Marlborough, even if he had not been able to adduce Lille
as a precedent, was determined to have his own way, and carried
his point. At noon on the 7th of August he marched down almost
within cannon-shot of Cambrai, ready to fall on Villars should he
attempt to cross the Scheldt, halted until his pontoon-bridges had
been laid a few miles further down the stream, and then gradually
withdrawing his troops passed the whole of them across the river
unmolested.
It is hardly credible that a vast number of foolish civilians,
Dutch, Austrian, and even English, blamed Marlborough for declining
battle before Cambrai, and that he was actually obliged to explain
why he refused to sacrifice the fruit of his manœuvres by attacking a
superior force in a strong position with an army not only smaller in
numbers at its best, but much thinned by a forced march and
exhausted by fatigue. "I despair of being ever able to please all
men," he wrote. "Those who are capable of judging will be satisfied
with my endeavours: others I leave to their own reflections, and go
on with the discharge of my duty."
 Sept. 2 .
13

It is possible that Villars only refrained from hindering

Marlborough's passage of the Scheldt in deference to orders from
Versailles, of which the Duke was as well aware as himself; but it is
more than doubtful whether he ever intended him to capture
Bouchain. Though inferior in numbers, however, Marlborough
covered himself so skilfully with entrenchments that Villars could not
hinder him, and met all attempts at diversion so readily that not one
of them succeeded. Finally, the garrison surrendered as prisoners of
war under the very eyes of Villars. The Duke would have followed up
his success by the siege of Quesnoi, the town before which English
troops first came under the fire of cannon in the year of Creçy; but
by this time Lewis, with the help of the contemptible Harley, had
succeeded in detaching England from the Grand Alliance. Though,
therefore, the English ministers continued to encourage Marlborough
in his operations in order to conceal their own infamous conduct
from the Allies, yet they took good care that those operations should
proceed no further. So with the capture of Bouchain the last and not
the least remarkable of Marlborough's campaigns came, always
victoriously, to an end.

To face page 548

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1711.
 The most brilliant manifestation of military skill was, however,
powerless to help him against the virulence of faction in England.
The passage of the lines was described as the crossing of the
kennel, and the siege of Bouchain as a waste of lives. In May the
House of Commons had addressed the Queen for inquiry into abuses
in the public expenditure, and when the Duke arrived at the Hague
in November he found himself charged with fraud, extortion, and
embezzlement. The ground of the accusation was that he had
received in regular payment from the bread-contractors during his
command sums amounting to £63,000. Marlborough proved
conclusively that this was a perquisite regularly allowed to the
commander-in-chief in Flanders as a fund for secret service, and he
added of his own accord that he had also received a deduction of
two and a half per cent from the pay of the foreign troops, which
had been applied to the same object. But this defence, though
absolutely valid and sound, could avail him little. His reasons were
disregarded, and on the 31st of December he was dismissed from all
public employment.

1712.

Three weeks later the House of Commons voted that his

acceptance of these two perquisites was unwarrantable and illegal,
and directed that he should be prosecuted by the Attorney-General.
This done, the Ministry appointed the Duke of Ormonde to be
commander-in-chief in Marlborough's place, and confirmed to him
the very perquisites which the House had just declared to be
unwarrantable and illegal. Effrontery and folly such as this are
nothing new in representative assemblies, but it is significant of the
general attitude of English civilians towards English soldiers, that not
one of Harley's gang seems to have realised that this vindictive
persecution of Marlborough was an insult to a brave army as well as
a shameful injustice to a great man, nor to have foreseen that the
insult might be resented by the means that always lie ready to the
hand of armed and disciplined men.
 It is not necessary to dwell on the operations, if such they may
be called, of the Duke of Ormonde. He did indeed take the field with
Eugene, but under instructions to engage neither in a battle nor a
siege, but virtually to open communications with Villars. By July the
subservience of the British Ministry to Lewis the Fourteenth had
been so far matured that Ormonde was directed to suspend
hostilities for two months, and to withdraw his forces from Eugene.
Then the troubles began. The auxiliary troops in the pay of England
flatly refused to obey the order to leave Eugene, and Ormonde was
compelled to march away with the British troops only. Even so the
feelings of anger ran so high that a dangerous riot was only with
difficulty averted. The British and the auxiliaries were not permitted
to speak to each other, lest recrimination should lead either to a
refusal of the British to leave their old comrades or to a free fight on
both sides. The parting was one of the most remarkable scenes ever
witnessed. The British fell in, silent, shamefaced, and miserable; the
auxiliaries gathered in knots opposite to them, and both parties
gazed at each other mournfully without saying a word. Then the
drums beat the march and regiment after regiment tramped away
with full hearts and downcast eyes, till at length the whole column
was under way, and the mass of scarlet grew slowly less and less till
it vanished out of sight.
At the end of the first day's march Ormonde announced the
suspension of hostilities with France at the head of each regiment.
He had expected the news to be received with cheers: to his infinite
disgust it was greeted with one continuous storm of hisses and
groans. Finally, when the men were dismissed they lost all self-
control. They tore their hair and rent their clothes with impotent
rage, cursing Ormonde with an energy only possible in an army that
had learned to swear in the heat of fifty actions. The officers retired
to their tents, ashamed to show themselves to their men. Many
transferred themselves to foreign regiments, many more resigned
their commissions; and it is said, doubtless with truth, that they
fairly cried when they thought of Corporal John.
 More serious consequences followed. The march was
troublesome, for the Dutch would not permit the retiring British to
pass through their towns, and the troops were consequently obliged
to cross every river that barred their way on their own pontoons.
Again, all the old contracts for bread had been upset by Harley and
his followers through their prosecution of Marlborough: it was
nothing to them that an army should be ill-fed, so long as they
gained power and place. St. John, it must be noted, was a principal
accomplice in this rascality—St. John, who alone of living Englishmen
had intellect sufficient to measure the gigantic genius of
Marlborough; who, moreover, as Secretary-at-War during the
greatest of the Duke's campaigns, had gained some insight into
those prosaic details of supplies and transport which are all in all to
the organisation of victory. Ormonde, a thoroughly mediocre officer,
was not a man to grapple with such difficulties. Bad bread
heightened the ill-feeling of the soldiers towards him. Agitators
insinuated to the worst characters in the army that they would lose
all the arrears of pay that were due to them; and the story found
ready and reasonable credence from recollection of the scandals that
had followed the Peace of Ryswick. The good soldiers, then as
always a great majority, refused to have anything to do with a
movement so discreditable, and reported what was going forward to
their officers; but either their tale was disbelieved or, as is more
likely, apathy and general disorganisation prevented the nipping of
the evil in the bud. Finally, three thousand malcontents slipped away
from the camp, barricaded themselves in a defensive position, and
sent a threatening message to the commander-in-chief demanding
good bread and payment of arrears. Then discipline speedily
reasserted itself. The mutineers were surrounded and compelled to
surrender. A court-martial was held; ten of the ringleaders were
executed on the spot and the mutiny was quelled once for all.
Fortunate it was that the outbreak took place while the troops were
still abroad, or the House of Commons might have learned by a
second bitter experience that the patience of the British soldier,
though very great, is not inexhaustible.[379]
 1713.
March 31
April 11.

The negotiations so infamously begun with King Lewis shortly

after found as infamous an end in the Peace of Utrecht, which not
only sacrificed every object for which the war had been fought, but
branded England with indelible disgrace. Five months earlier
Marlborough had left England, to all intent a banished man. Before
his departure he had endured incredible insults in the House of
Lords, the worst and falsest of them from one of his own officers,
the Duke of Argyll. The defection and ingratitude of Argyll, however,
only brought out the more strongly the general loyalty of the Army
towards its great chief. Marlborough's most prominent officers were
of course subjected to the same degradation as himself. Cadogan,
for instance, was removed from the Lieutenancy of the Tower to
make room for Brigadier Hill; and even the Duke's humble secretary,
Adam Cardonnel, was not too small an object for the malignant spite
of the House of Commons. But honourable men, such as Lord Stair,
the colonel of the Scots Greys, threw up their commissions in
disgust; and plain, honest officers, such as Kane and Parker, have
left on record the immense contempt wherein Argyll, brave soldier
though he was, was held in the Army. The Dutch also rose, though
too late, to the occasion. When Marlborough sailed into Ostend at
the end of November, 1712, the whole garrison was under arms to
receive him, and when he left it, it was under a salute of artillery. At
Antwerp, in spite of his protests, his reception was the same; the
cannon thundered in his honour, and all ranks of the people turned
out to meet him with joyful acclamations. He took the most secluded
road to Maestricht, but go whither he would, fresh parties of horse
always appeared to escort him. Above all, he was comforted by the
unchanging confidence and sympathy of Eugene.
There for the present we must leave him till the time, not far
distant, shall come to tell of his restoration. That the welcome given
to him by the Dutch may have been a consolation to him we can
hardly doubt, and yet he cannot but have felt that these same Dutch
had been his undoing. For, despite the shameful perfidy of the
English politicians who drove Marlborough from England and
concluded the Treaty of Utrecht, the main responsibility for the
catastrophe rests not with them but with those unspeakable Dutch
deputies who, by wrecking the Duke's earlier campaigns, prolonged
beyond the limits of the patience of the House of Commons the War
of the Spanish Succession.

Authorities.—The literature of the War of the Spanish Succession is, as

may be guessed, not slender. On the English side there are the lives of
Marlborough by Lediard and Coxe, as well as the French life, in three
volumes, which was written by Napoleon's order. There are also the journals
of Archdeacon Hare for the campaign of Blenheim, and a valuable letter from
him respecting Oudenarde; the narratives of General Stearne, of Kane,
Parker, and Sergeant Millner, all unfortunately of one regiment, the 18th Royal
Irish; and, for the campaign of 1708 only, the journal of Private John Deane
of the 1st Guards (privately printed 1846). Dumont's Histoire Militaire gives
admirable maps and plans. Many curious items are also to be found in
Lamberti. I have not failed to study the archives of the War Office preserved
at the Record Office, with results that will be seen in the next chapter, and I
have been carefully through the contemporary newspapers. Minor authorities,
such as Tindal's History and the like, are hardly worth mention. Marlborough's
Despatches, though decried by Lord Mahon (Preface to History of England), I
have found most valuable. On the French side Quincy remains the chief
authority, together with the Archives Militaires in the printed collection. The
Mémoires of St. Simon, Villars, Millot, and others have also been consulted,
and good and pertinent comment is always to be found in Feuquières.
For the war in Spain see at the close of Chapter VI.
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