made prisoners the small detachment of soldiers who accompanied them; but, ignorant of the inestimable prize within his grasp, allowed the remainder of the party, including Marlborough, to proceed on their way. On this occasion, it may truly be said, the boat carried Cæsar and his fortunes. He arrived in safety at the Hague, where the people, who regarded him as their guardian angel, and had heard of his narrow escape, received him with the most enthusiastic acclamations. From thence, having concerted the plan for the ensuing campaign with the Dutch government, he crossed over to London, where his reception by the queen and nation was of the most gratifying description. Her majesty conferred on him the title of Duke of Marlborough and Marquis of Blandford, and sent a message to the House of Commons suggesting a pension to him of £5000 a year, secured on the revenue of the post-office; but that house refused to consent to the alienation of so considerable a part of the public revenue. He was amply compensated, however, for this disappointment by the enthusiastic reception he met with from all classes of the nation, who, long unaccustomed to military success, at least in any cause in which they could sympathize, hailed with transports of joy this first revival of triumph in support of the Protestant faith, and over that power with which for centuries they had maintained so constant a rivalry.

Alliance with

campaign of

The campaign of 1703 was not fruitful of great events. Taught, by the untoward issue of the preceding one, 28. the quality of the general and army with whom Sweden, and he had to contend, the French general cautiously 1703. Capremained on the defensive, and ably carried into ture of Bonn. execution the plan of the French king, which was to remain on the defensive in Flanders, and reserve the weight of his strokes for the valley of the Danube, where a great effort threatening Vienna was to be made. So skillfully were the measures of Marshal Boufflers taken, that all the efforts of Marlborough to force him to a general action proved abortive. The war in Flanders was thus limited to one of posts and

G

sieges; but in that the superiority of the allied arms was successfully asserted, Parliament having been prevailed on to consent to an augmentation of the British contingent. But a treaty having been concluded with Sweden, and various reenforcements having been received from the lesser powers, preparations were made for the siege of Bonn, on the Rhine, a frontier town of Flanders, of great importance from its commanding the passage of that artery of Germany, and stopping, while in the enemy's hands, all transit of military stores or provisions for the use of the armies in Bavaria, or on the Upper Rhine. The batteries opened with seventy heavy guns and English mortars on the 14th of May, 1703; a vigorous sortie with a thousand foot was repulsed, after having at first gained some success, on the following day, and on the 16th, two breaches having been declared practicable, the garrison surrendered at discretion. After this success the army moved against Huys, which was taken, with its garrison of 900 men, on the 23d of August.

Marlborough and the English generals, after this success,

29.

paign con

cludes with the taking of

very

were decidedly of opinion that it would be advisaThe Dutch able at all hazard to attempt forcing the French prevent Marlborough from fighting, lines, which were strongly fortified between Meand the cam- haigne and Leuwe, and a strong opinion to that effect was transmitted to the Hague on the Limbourg. day after the fall of Huys.* They alleged, with reason, that the allies being superior in Flanders, and the French having the upper hand in Germany and Italy, it was of the utmost importance to follow up the present tide of success in the only quarter where it flowed in their favor, and counterbalance disasters elsewhere by decisive events in the quarter where it was most material to obtain it. The Dutch government, however, set on getting a barrier for themselves, could not be brought to agree to this course, how great soever the advantages which it promised, and insisted instead that Marlborough should undertake the siege of Limbourg,

* Memorial, 24th August, 1703.-Dispatches, i., 165.

which lay open to attack. This was accordingly done; the trenches were commenced in the middle of September, and the garrison capitulated on the 27th of the same month: a poor compensation for the total defeat of the French army, which would, in all probability, have ensued if the bolder plan of operation he had so earnestly counseled had been adopted.* This terminated the campaign of 1703, which, though successful, had led to very different results from what might have been anticipated if Marlborough's advice had been followed, and an earlier victory of Ramillies laid open the whole Flemish plains. Having dispatched eight battalions to re-enforce the Prince of Hesse, who had sustained serious disaster on the Moselle, he had an interview with the Archduke Charles, whom the allies had acknowledged as King of Spain, and by whom he was presented with a magnificent sword set with diamonds; he went next to the Hague, and from thence proceeded to London to concert measures for the ensuing campaign, and stimulate the British government to the efforts necessary for its successful prosecution.

30. Disasters on

the Upper

Rhine and in

Bavaria.

But while success had thus attended all the operations of the allies in Flanders, where the English contingent acted, and Marlborough had the command, affairs had assumed a very different aspect in Germany and Italy, where the principal efforts of Louis had been made. The French were there superior alike in the number and quality of their troops, and, in Germany at least, in the

*

Marlborough was much chagrined at being interrupted in his meditated decisive operations by the States General on this occasion. On the 6th of September he wrote to them, "Vos Hautes Puissances jugeront bien par le camp que nous venons de prendre, qu'on n'a pas voulu se résoudre à tenter les lignes. J'a été convaincu de plus en plus, depuis l'honneur que j'ai eu de vous écrire, par les avis que j'ai reçu journellement de la situation des enemies, que cette entreprise n'était pas seulement practicable, mais même qu'on pourrait en espérer tout le succès que je m'étais proposé: enfin l'occasion en est perdue, et je souhaite de tout mon cœur qu'elle n'ait aucune fâcheuse suite, et qu'on n'ait pas lieu de s'en repentir quand il sera trop tard."― MARLBOROUGH aux Etats Généraux, 6 Septembre, 1703. Dispatches, i., 173.

Mar

skill with which they were commanded. Early in June, Marshal Tallard assumed the command of the French forces in Alsace, passed the Rhine at Strasburg on the 16th of July, took Prissac on the 7th of September, and invested Landau on the 16th of October. The allies, under the Prince of Hesse, attempted to raise the siege, but were defeated with considerable loss; and, soon after, Landau surrendered, thus terminating with disaster the campaign on the Upper Rhine. Still more considerable were the losses sustained in Bavaria. shal Villars commanded there, and, at the head of the French and Bavarians, defeated General Stirum, who headed the Imperialists, on the 20th of September. In December, Marshal Marsin, who had succeeded Villars in the command, made himself master of the important city of Augsburg, and in January, 1704, the Bavarians got possession of Passau. Meanwhile, a formidable insurrection had broken out in Hungary, which so distracted the cabinet of Vienna, that the capital seemed to be threatened by the combined forces of the French and Bavarians after the fall of Passau.

31.

Extreme danger of the empire from

these successes.

No event of importance took place in Italy during the campaign, Count Strahremberg, who commanded the Imperial forces, having with great ability forced the Duke de Vendôme, who was at the head of a superior body of French troops, to retire. But in Bavaria and on the Danube, it was evident that the allies were overmatched; and to the restoration of the balance in that quarter, the anxious attention of the confederates was turned during the winter of 1703-4. The dangerous state of the emperor and the empire awakened the greatest solicitude at the Hague, as well as unbounded terror at Vienna, from whence the most urgent representations were made on the necessity of re-enforcements being sent from Marlborough to their support. But, though this was agreed to by England and Holland, so straitened were the Dutch finances, that they were wholly unable to form the necessary magazines to enable the allies to commence operations. Marlborough, during

32. French plan

of the campaign in Ger

the whole of January and February, 1704, was indefatigable in his efforts to overcome these difficulties; and the preparations having at length been completed, it was agreed by the States, according to a plan of the campaign laid down by Marlborough, that he himself should proceed into Bavaria with the great body of the allied army in Flanders, leaving only a corps of observation in the Low Countries, to restrain any incursion which the French troops might attempt during his absence. The plan of the campaign which promised these brilliant results to France had been magnificently conceived by the cabinet of Versailles. The great genius of Louis XIV. in strategy there shone forth in full lus- many. ter. Instead of confining the war to one of posts and sieges in Flanders and Italy, it was resolved to throw the bulk of their forces at once into Bavaria, and operate against Austria from the heart of Germany, by pouring down the valley of the Danube. The advanced post held there by the Elector of Bavaria in front, forming a salient angle, penetrating, as it were, into the Imperial dominions, the menacing aspect of the Hungarian insurrection in the rear, promised the most successful issue to this decisive operation. For this purpose, Marshal Tallard, with the French army on the Upper Rhine, received orders to cross the Black Forest and advance into Swabia, and unite with the Elector of Bavaria, which he accordingly did at Donawerth, in the beginning of July. Marshal Villeroy, with forty battalions and thirty-nine squadrons, was to break off from the army in Flanders and support the advance by a movement on the Moselle, so as to be in a condition to join the main army on the Danube, of which it would form, as it were, the left wing; while Vendôme, with the army of Italy, was to penetrate into the Tyrol, and advance by Innspruck on Salzburg. The united armies, which it was calculated, after deducting all the losses of the campaign, would muster eighty thousand combatants, was then to move direct by Lintz and the valley of the Danube on Vienna, while a large detachment penetrated into Hungary to lend a hand