of June the march began, an English fleet sweeping the coast at the same moment. The enemy offered no resistance; and on the 26th of July, Eugene pitched his tents in the camp of Valette, in the immediate vicinity of the place. Had an assault been given that night, there is every reason to believe that Toulon would have fallen, for the fortifications were decayed, and the garrison intimidated; but Eugene, declining to adopt this course, attacked it in form, though unable, by reason of the paucity of his infantry, to complete the investment. The consequence was, that the French made haste to collect an army for the purpose of raising the siege; and towards the completion of it, Vendome received orders to detach thirteen battalions and twelve squadrons. Marlborough no sooner became acquainted with the march of this detachment, than he resolved to bring Vendome to battle; and the deputies being with difficulty persuaded to sanction the measure, he concentrated his army upon the Dyle.

The corps composing the allied army having been a good deal scattered, it was the evening of the Sth ere they made good their consolidation. On the 10th the river was passed, and on the 11th head-quarters were established at Genappe. Vendome was not left long in ignorance of this movement; and guessing the reason, he instantly put his columns in motion, and abandoned his lines at Gemblours. He pushed upon Seneff, Marlborough marching at the same time towards Nivelle; but the latter movement was no sooner communicated to him than he again ordered his people under arms. He retreated now with such precipitation, that, in spite of the efforts of count Tilly, whom Marlborough detached with a select corps to harass him, he gained, almost without firing a shot, the strong position of St. Denis, where, covered by the confluence of the Haine and one of its chief tributary streams, he ventured to make a short halt. Marlborough had scarcely begun to threaten, ere he again quitted his ground, never pausing till he had gained Chievres, whence a single day's journey would carry him beyond the Scheld, and into possession of the chain of forts which command it. Marlborough heard of this march with extreme regret. He could not interrupt it, being detained by showers, which rendered the roads impassable to artillery. Nevertheless, his quarters were fixed on the 14th at Soignies, where a succession of rainy weather kept him stationary for a fortnight. On 1st of September, however, he was again enabled to move. That night he was at Ath, on the 5th he crossed the Scheld above Oudenard, and on the 7th reached Helchin, the enemy retiring with the utmost celerity behind the Marque, where an entrenched camp was formed under the guns of Lille. In this attitude both parties remained for some time; the allies anxious to seize the slightest opening for battle, while the French were especially on their guard that no such opening should be afforded.

Things were in this state, when intelligence came in of the absolute failure of the attempt upon Toulon, and the return of the allies into Italy. The happy moment, which Eugene had permitted to pass by, never returned; and whether it was that he felt little interested in the operation, or that his means were shamefully inadequate, the siege, when formally begun, made no progress. At last the assembling of a large army in his rear compelled him to abandon the enterprise. He embarked his artillery and stores with all haste in the English fleet, and retreated, as he had advanced, by the Col di Tende. Having reduced Susa, and thus secured the avenue into Piedmont, he suddenly broke up his army; sending the imperialists into Lombardy, embarking the Palatines for Catalonia, and permitting the Hessians to return into Germany.

Though deeply mortified by the result of this expedition, of which he had been the prime mover, and from which he had anticipated so many advantages, Marlborough still continued to exert himself to restore, if possible, that good feeling between the courts of Vienna and Turin, to the absence of which he justly attributed the present misfortune. It was clear, indeed, that on the side of Provence nothing was now to be gained; still, if he could prevail upon the allies to nominate Eugene to the chief command in Spain, he looked forward to better things there; and to the accomplishment of this great end he directed all his diligence and ingenuity. It was not, however, an easy matter to overcome the jealousies of princes so proud and unreasonable as those with whom he had to deal. The negotiation was therefore still incomplete, when the approach of winter brought the campaign to an end; and it behoved him to make arrangements, previous to his own return to England, against the next. With this view, he met the elector of Hanover and count Wratislaw at Frankfort. He then visited the Hague, and held a conference with the statesgeneral, after which he returned for a short space to his army, still in position at Helchin. About the middle of October, however, the weather being fairly broken, both parties, as if by common consent, quitted the field; and the duke, leaving his lieutenants to dispose the several brigades in winter quarters, set out again in his travelling carriage for the Hague.

Having spent about a fortnight here, Marlborough set sail for London, where he arrived on the 7th of November (old style). He found the feuds in the cabinet more bitter than ever, and a division among parties such as had never existed since the Revolution. Both whigs and tories, though fiercely opposed to one another, seemed to have united their efforts against himself and the lord treasurer; while they equally espoused the cause of Peterborough, and equally assailed the character of admiral Churchill. We cannot pause to describe, even shortly, the turbulent proceedings in both

houses during the first month of the session. Let it suffice to state, that the most insidious efforts were made to cast reflections on Marlborough himself; that it was seriously proposed to weaken the army in Flanders, by detaching from it 15,000 men for service in Spain; and that not the least active in these intrigues against the peace and honour of his patron was Mr. secretary Harley. The queen, moreover, with the obstinacy which characterised her, insisted on nominating her own friends to the vacant sees; nor could all the remonstrances of Marlborough and Godolphin prevail to effect a change in this determination. At last, however, the treachery of Harley became so palpable, that one course only remained for them to adopt. They formally resigned; refused to attend a cabinet council when summoned ; and Harley, incapable of conducting the affairs of the nation alone, solicited permission to retire. Great efforts were made to mix him up in the treason of his clerk, Gregg; but they failed; nevertheless, his retirement from office served as the signal for a renewal of perfect confidence between Marlborough and the whigs.

Unanimity was hardly established, when the nation at large became alarmed by the threat of an invasion from France, for the purpose of restoring the exiled family to the throne. The most energetic preparations were made to meet and repel the danger. Marlborough, by virtue of his authority as commander-in-chief, not only sent every disposable man to Scotland, but recalled ten battalions from Flanders; while the admiralty equipped a fleet, in a space of time unprecedentedly brief, against which the enemy could make no head. Numerous arrests, moreover, took place: the duke of Hamilton with other suspected persons were committed to the Tower; Edinburgh castle was strongly garrisoned; the habeas corpus act was suspended, and the nation declared to be in a state of war. These measures were attended with the most perfect success. The chevalier St. George, having with difficulty put to sea, found himself watched at every station by the English squadrons; and after vainly attempting to land both in the Forth and at Inverness, was compelled to return to Dunkirk. It needed but this to complete the triumph of Marlborough over all his enemies. In spite of the increased and increasing hostility between the queen and the duchess, the latter of whom treated her sovereign with very little delicacy, Marlborough, if he recovered not the confidence of the crown, obtained that of the people; and when the approaching dissolution of parliament set him free to resume his place at the head of the army, it appeared as if his influence were at least as extensive as it had been at any previous period.

On the 2d of April (O. S.), 1708, Marlborough reached the Hague, where, with prince Eugene, who had been recalled from Italy, and the pensionary Heinsius, he arranged the plan of the

campaign. It was agreed that a great effort should be made in the Low Countries, but that the design should be masked by the formation of two grand armies; one under Marlborough in Brabant, the other under Eugene on the Moselle: that while the elector of Hanover acted defensively on the Rhine, Eugene should march suddenly to the westward, and, forming a junction wita Marlborough, that they should force the enemy to a battle; the consequences of which, should it prove successful, they justly estimated at the highest. Many difficulties must, indeed, be sur mounted, ere the scheme could be realised; such as the persuading the elector of Hanover to act a secondary part; the obtaining of large suppins from the emperor and the elector palatine; and the keeping completely in the dark all the members of the Dutch government, except the pensionary. Nevertheless, by dint of great personal exertions, by visiting Hanover, yielding somewhat to the prejudices of its sovereign, and alternately flattering and curbing the petulance of the other parties, these illustrious warriors finally succeeded in bringing their project to bear. No doubt this success, on Marlborough's part at least, was not effected without the endurance of some alloy: he had scarcely quitted his native shores when feuds and dissensions again began; and his return was eagerly solicited, not by the duchess only, but by Godolphin and the heads of his own party. Yet, though fully sensible to the benefits which might have attended a compliance with thre request, be was also keenly alive to the dangers likely to fol low, should he, at such a crisis, abandon the seal of war. He, accordingly, sacrificed what may be termed party interests to the public good; and leaving the whigs to imagine what they pleased, and the tories to carry on their intrigues free from interruption, he continued at his post as generalissimo of the allied armies.

During this interval the French monarch, encouraged by the results of the last campaign, was straining every nerve to bring into the field a force superior, on all points, to that of the allies. In the Low Countries, Vendome still held the command, though there were joined to him in authority the dukes of Burgundy and Berri, with the chevalier de St. George, who acted as a volunteer, and was followed by a number of his chief adherents. His troops were recruited to the amount of 100,000 men; and he received instructions to assume the initiative, while other and not less prudent precautions were taken in order to give to him a decided superiority. It had long been ascertained, that with the government of the Dutch the people of the Netherlands were discontented; secret negotiations were, in consequence, opened with some of the most influential inhabitants of the great towns, and a plan for the betrayal of them into the hands of the French was arranged. So prudently, moreover, was the af fair managed, that of the full amount of their dan

A

Having received from prince Eugene a promise that he would join him ere the month expired, Marlborough repaired, on the 9th of May, to Ghent. He had reviewed the British division cantoned there, and issued orders that it should march to the place of general rendezvous near Brussels, when an accident opened out to him the particulars of a conspiracy, of which he had not, for some time past, been without suspicion. woman was detected in the act of putting a letter, under very peculiar circumstances, into the post-office she was seized, and the letter opened and read; when the whole details of a plot for the admission of a French force into the citadel of Antwerp became manifest. Marlborough lost no time in defeating a design which, had it been fully accomplished, must have seriously affected the issues of the war. He hastened to the camp, whither a continued and excessive drought hindered the more remote of the detachments from immediately following; and made such dispositions as the case would allow for opposing the threatened advance of the enemy.

Meanwhile Vendome, disconcerted by the failure of his attempt upon Antwerp, made a forward movement to Soignies, where, at the distance of three leagues from the English lines, be halted. A great and decisive action appeared inevitable; for the enemy considerably surpassed the allies in numbers, and it was well known that Marlborough had determined not to decline a battle, should such be offered. An excess of prudence, however, or the expectation that more might be effected by manoeuvring than by fighting, induced the enemy to keep aloof. They suddenly broke up their camp, and filed rapidly to the right through Bois Seigneur Isaac to Brain l'Allieu; where, in a position which placed them on the flank of Marlborough, and in some degree threatened both Brussels and Louvain, they again stood still. The duke received intelligence of their situation on the 31st. Doubtful of their intentions, yet justly apprehensive for the safety of Brussels, he fell back with all haste upon Anderlecht; where his tents were scarcely pitched ere further information came in, which indicated a design on their part to attack Louvain. The allies had lost several marches by their retrogression to Anderlecht; nevertheless Marlborough determined, if possible, to anticipate the enemy, and to save so important a place. He put his columns in motion that very night; and marching without a check through a perfect deluge of rain, he contrived, by noon on the second day, to reach the strong position of Parc: here he established himself, fixing his own head-quarters in the abbey of Terbank, while those of Overkirk

were in the suburbs; and so perfect was his triumph over the calculations of Vendome, that the latter resumed his ground at Brain l'Allieu without venturing to strike a blow.

From the 4th of June, the date of his arrival at Parc, up to the beginning of July, Marlborough was, by a chain of unlooked for disappointments, kept idle. Eugene, unable to control the unruly passions of the elector, found it impracticable to march, as he had promised; and without his assistance, Marlborough was in no condition to act on the offensive against a general so wary, yet so bold, as Vendome. It was to no purpose that he despatched courier after courier to hasten Eugene in his arrangements. That officer, harassed by the jealousies of his coadjutors, could only lament the necessity which restrained him; while, to use the expressive language of the duke himself, "the slowness of the Germans was such as so threaten the worst consequences." At last, however, it pleased the elector to become reconciled to the state of things under his own particular control. Eugene was thus set free to follow the bent of his own inclinations; and the long looked for movement of the army of the Moselle towards Brabant began. But, though conducted both with skill and rapidity, it came too late to hinder the occurrence of more than one untoward event, of which a few words will suffice to convey a sufficiently accurate idea.

Allusion has already been made to the general dissatisfaction of the Flemings under the harsh and oppressive government of the Dutch. There was scarce a town of any importance in which the French had not their agents; and all looked to the present crisis as offering peculiar facilities for the accomplishment of their wishes. Vendome entertained a similar opinion. He calculated that, could he make himself master of Ghent, which commanded the course of the Lys and the Scheld, as well as of Bruges, the very centre of Marlborough's water communications, a greater object would be accomplished than even a victory in the field might attain; whilst the reduction of Oudenard, which must without doubt follow, would entirely destroy the connecting link between Flanders and Brabant. Such were the projects which he carefully meditated during the protracted delay of his illustrious adversary at Louvain; and to their fulfilment, so soon as his arrangements were complete, he devoted all his strength and talents.

On the evening of the 4th of July the French army broke up from Brain l'Allieu, and marched rapidly upon Hall and Tubise, where it was intended to pass the Senne. At dawn on the 5th, several light corps fell off from the main body, one of which, proceeding quickly towards Ghent, took possession of the town and invested the citadel. Within six hours from the fall of this important place, Bruges likewise surrendered to a similar detachment acting under the orders of the count

de la Motte; while Damme, which the same officer immediately summoned, rejecting his offer, he attacked and took by storm the fort of Plassendael, on the canal. To these enterprises, an English division under general Murray, which lay at Mariekirk, could offer no effectual opposition; and even a body of cavalry, which Marlborough sent out to support it, arrived too late. Marlborough was not less chagrined than indignant at the manner in which these successes were obtained. Leaving useless complaints, and not less useless alarm, to be expressed and experienced by the authorities at Brussels, he determined to check the enemy at all hazards; and with this view put his columns in motion, at an early hour in the morning of the 5th.

The allies reached Tubise just in time to witness, without being able to prevent, the passage of the Senne by the enemy. A like issue attended the pursuit towards the Dender, of which Vendome likewise made good the passage, losing 300 men of his rear guard, and almost all his boats and pontoons. Serious apprehensions were now entertained for Oudenard, of which the works were imperfect, and the garrison feeble; nevertheless, that nothing might be omitted for its preservation, Marlborough instructed general Chanclos, who commanded at Ath, to draw what detachments he could from all the fortresses near, and to throw himself with these, and a squadron of dismounted dragoons, into the place. Chanclos obeyed his instructions with great alacrity, and Oudenard was rendered secure against a coup de main.

A variety of evolutions now took place, having for their common object the occupation of the strong position of Lessines on the Dender, by which the approaches to Oudenard may be said to be commanded. On one hand, Vendome, after investing Oudenard on two sides, and ordering up a train of heavy artillery from Tournay, quitted a post where for some days he had lain; on the other, Marlborough, leaving 4000 men to secure Brussels, broke up his camp at Ath, and pushed upon Herfelingen. The enemy had taken the initiative in these movements; the distance which they were required to traverse fell, moreover, considerably short of that which the allies behoved to compass; while the Dender lay between Marlborough and the ground in the occupation of which his safety was involved. Nothing daunted by these considerations, Marlborough, whom Eugene had joined, though without a single company or squadron in his train, began his march in four columns, at two o'clock in the morning of the 9th of July. He accomplished five leagues without making a pause; he gave his troops five hours to rest; and at the beating of the tattoo was again in full march, a strong advanced guard preceding him. This body, of which general Cadogan was at the head, made such despatch, that by midnight it crossed the Dender, on bridges

constructed by the troops themselves; thus se curing the camp of Lessines, just as the heads of the enemy's columns arrived in sight, and holding it till the main body was in a condition to take up the ground.

The consternation of Vendome, when informed that the allies had prevented him in his design, was great beyond conception. He had calculated certainly on the disinclination of Marlborough to expose the towns in his rear; and made no doubt of being able to press the siege of Oudenard at leisure, should he once establish the covering army at Lessines. He was petrified on learning that all his opinions had been formed on mistaken grounds. Marlborough was not only master of the defence of Oudenard, but had boldly thrown himself between the enemy and their own fromtier. It was a step on the possible occurrence of which no one had reckoned; and it produced a degree of alarm among the French, which Vendome found it impossible to restrain. Orders were promptly issued for a retrograde movement upon Gavre, where crossing the Scheld it was determined to restore the communications which had been thus unexpectedly cut off.

For some time back serious misunderstandings had existed between the dukes of Burgundy and Vendome. The state into which their affairs were thrown by the decisive manœuvre of Marlborough tended in no degree to restore harmony; and as the allied generals were not ignorant of the fact, they were not remiss in striving to take advantage of it. No sooner, therefore, was it ascertained that the enemy were moving towards Gavre, than Marlborough resolved to follow, with the double intention of delivering Oudenard from investment, and, should a favourable opportunity offer, forcing Vendome to give battle. With this view, a strong advanced guard, under general Cadogan, was ordered to march at day-break on the 15th. It was given them in charge to clear the roads, to construct bridges near Oudenard, and to establish themselves across the Scheld; and at eight o'clock on the same morning the main body was commanded to move, with the whole of the cavalry in front, and the artillery in the rear. Every thing was done with consummate skill and regu larity. At half past ten Cadogan reached the Scheld; by noon the bridges were complete ; and the whole of his cavalry, with twelve battalions of foot, took up a position along the high road that extends between Eyne and Bevere.

While the allies were thus striving to anticipate the enemy, the latter, in absolute ignorance that two leagues only divided them from Marlborough's advance, were leisurely crossing the river. They made good their passage about noon, after which they turned to the left, and somewhat disorderly, because in fancied security, began to move. No great while elapsed ere the heads of the columns, as well as several foraging parties which they had sent out, became visible to Cado

gan. He charged the latter with his cavalry, drove them back in confusion, and was himself charged in turn by a corps of French dragoons; upon which he retired again to his position, where he became an object of suspicion and dread to the enemy, who believed that the whole of the allied army stood before them. They accordingly halted; and observing at the moment a heavy column of horse in the act of crossing the river, drew in their patrols, in order to avoid exposing them to the attack of superior numbers.

It was well for Cadogan and his little corps that a difference of opinion among the French generals kept them from either falling on more boldly towards their front, or hazarding an attempt upon the bridge. Had either step been taken, the advanced guard must have perished; for the main body was far in the rear, and not all the exertions of Marlborough and Eugene succeeded in bringing it into the line for a space of two hours. With the cavalry, indeed, which led the way, Marlborough pressed forward so soon as the perilous situation of Cadogan became known, and by traversing no inconsiderable portion of the way at full gallop, he succeeded in coming up just as the enemy appeared in order. But the infantry, wearied with past exertions, and encumbered with knapsacks and blankets, marched more slowly; indeed, the leading companies succeeded not in gaining the bridge till past three in the afternoon. Each corps, however, as it arrived, whether horse or foot, was moved promptly into position; and six guns being planted in battery on a commanding eminence, the whole assumed, by degrees, an imposing attitude.

The tract of country about to become the site of one of the most obstinate battles in modern times, is not only remarkable for its great military strength, but for its picturesque beauty and high state of cultivation. It has been described by one of the most classical of Marlborough's biographers, and on the authority of an eye-witness, in terms which we cannot pretend to alter but for the worse. "At the distance of a mile north of Oudenard," says Dr. Coxe, "is the village of Eyne. Here the ground rises into a species of low but capacious amphitheatre. It sweeps along a moderately sized plain, southward, to near the glacis of Oudenard, where it is crowned by the village of Bevere, and numerous windmills. Turning westward, it then rises into another broad hill, under the name of the Boser Couter; and the highest point is near a tilleul or lime-tree, and a windmill overlooking the village of Oycke. From thence the ground curves towards Marolen; and the eye glancing over the narrow valley watered by the Norken, is arrested by another upland plain, which trends by Huyse, gradually sinking till it terminates near Asper. A line representing the chord of this semicircle would commence about a league from the confluence of the Norken with the Scheld, and traverse the plain of Heurne,

which is nearly as high as the amphitheatre itself. Within this space, two scanty rivulets, gushing from the base of the hill of Oycke, at a small distance asunder, embrace a low tongue of land, the middle of which rises into a gentle elevation. The borders of these rivulets, and a part of the intervening surface, are intersected with enclosures, surrounding the farms and hamlets of Barwaen, Chobon, and Diepenbeck. At the source of one is the castellated mansion of Bevere or Brian, at that of the other the hamlet of Rhetelhoeck, situated in a woody and steep recess. These streams uniting near a public house, called Schaerken, proceed partly in a double channel along a marshy bed to the Scheld, near Eyne. The Norken, rising near Morlehem, beyond Oycke, runs for some distance almost parallel to the Scheld; then passing by Lede, Mullem, and Asper, it meets another streamlet from the west, and terminates in a species of canal, skirting the Scheld to a considerable distance below Gavre. The borders of the Norken, like those of the other rivulets, are fringed with underwood, coppices, and thickets; and from Mullem to Herlehem the woods are skirted with avenues. Behind, are enclosures surrounding a small plain, which terminates beyond the mill of Royeghem. Between these is a hollow road, which leads up to the hill of Oycke." Such was the arena on which Marlborough and Vendome were destined at length to try their skill: the former taking post, as fast as his brigades came up, along the high grounds between Bevere and Mooreghem mill; the latter stretching across the plain from the hill of Asper on the left almost to Wanneghem on the right.

While their line was forming in the order just described, the enemy kept a corps both of infantry and cavalry in Eyne, of which they had taken possession when they drove back Cadogan's horse. Marlborough had no sooner brought an adequate force into position, than he gave orders to attack the village; and the service was gallantly execut ed by Cadogan's division. The infantry descend ed the hill, crossed the rivulet near Eyne, while the cavalry passed a little higher up, and penetrating to the rear, cut off all communication between the troops within the village and those without. A sharp contest ensued; but it ended in the totai defeat of the enemy, three entire battalions of whom laid down their arms, while eight squadrons were broken and cut to pieces as they strove to escape across the Norken. This blow served to convince the French leaders that a general action was unavoidable; and they resolved, in opposition to the opinion of Vendome, to give rather than receive the charge.

Had any thing like unity of purpose existed even now between the dukes of Burgundy and Vendome, the issue of this great battle might have been different; but to the last they continued to thwart one another. Burgundy commanded a strong corps to pass the Norken, and to occupy