the frigid poetical praises of Congreve and Fenton are to be trusted, he was worthy of all esteem when he was living, and deserved to be lamented in better verses when he was dead.

Marlborough, however, was a man not likely to be turned aside from the pursuit of his public engagements, or his private interests, by any domestic misfortune, however severe. Accordingly, as soon as he could with decency return to his professional duties, he repaired to Holland, and on the 6th of March presented himself before the States-General at the Hague. The campaign was almost immediately opened; and, though distinguished by no action of extraordinary lustre, yet, by the masterly manner in which Marlborough conducted its various details, he added not a little to his military reputation; and, at the close of the year, returned to England to receive fresh favours from his sovereign and his countrymen.

373

CHAPTER III.

Resumption of the campaign against France. Marlborough joins Prince Eugene.-Battle of Blenheim.-Marlborough's letter to the Duchess on the occasion.-Anecdotes.-Fresh honours and emoluments reaped on the Duke.-Addison's Poem of "The Campaign."-Characteristic anecdotes of Marlborough by Lord Dartmouth and Evelyn.-His narrow escapes at the battle of Ramillies.-Great moral effects produced by the battle.-Marlborough's reckless daring at the siege of Ostend. He returns to London, and again receives the thanks of Parliament.-Battle of Oudenard.-The House of Commons orders the Speaker to transmit their thanks to Marlborough abroad. - Sanguinary battle of Malplaquet.— Description of the French army.-Dreadful havoc among the English troops. Decline of Marlborough's political influence with Queen Anne.-Curious unpublished letters addressed by him to Lord Coningsby.-Anne's determination to break with the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.--Singular interview between her and the Duchess.-The Duke's son-inlaw superseded in his office of Secretary of State.-Expulsion of the Whigs from office.-Marlborough's tenacity of place. -Extracts from his Correspondence at this period. His humiliating treatment by the Tories.-Anecdote related by Lord Dartmouth.-Letters from the Duke to Lord Coningsby.--The Duchess of Marlborough resigns all her offices in the Royal household.

ALTHOUGH it is foreign to the purpose of this work, to follow the Duke of Marlborough, with any minuteness, through the various details of his military career, it is, nevertheless, impossible to pass over in total silence the more promi

nent features of his professional history. It may be mentioned, therefore, that the following year, (1704,) the Duke joined his forces to those of Prince Eugene; and after an extraordinary march of fifty days, (in which he proceeded from the frontiers of Holland to the banks of the Danube,) obtained, in July, the victory of Shellenberg, and on the 13th of August won the celebrated battle of Blenheim. The army of the Allies amounted, on the latter occasion, to about fifty-two thousand men; the forces of the French and Bavarians to about sixty thousand. On the night preceding the battle, the Duke received the Sacrament, in his tent, and on the following morning divine service was performed at the head of each regiment. At the close of this solemn ceremony the conflict commenced; and after a doubtful and sanguinary contest of some hours, victory decided in favour of the Allies. This memorable engagement, according to Marlborough's own account, cost the French and Bavarians the immense loss of forty thousand men, of whom thirteen thousand seem to have been taken prisoners. Among these there were, according to Marlborough's further account, as many as fifteen hundred officers, and the greatest number of their generals,* of whom the most conspicuous was the gallant Marshal Tallard, who commanded the enemy's right wing:

Unfortunate Tallard! oh, who can name

The pangs

of rage, of sorrow, and of shame,

Marlborough's Original Letters. Coxe's Life of the Duke, vol. i. pp. 313, 315.

That with mixed tumult in thy bosom swelled,
When first thou saw'st thy bravest troops repelled;
Thine only son pierced with a deadly wound,
Choked in his blood, and gasping on the ground;
Thyself in bondage by the victor kept!

The chief, the father, and the captive wept.
The English muse is touched with generous woe,
And in th' unhappy man forgets the foe.*

The original document, wherein Marlborough announced the victory of Blenheim-the only communication on the subject which he despatched to England at the time-is, for many reasons, obviously curious. It was addressed to his Duchess, for the information of Queen Anne; was scribbled on a slip of paper, torn from his pocket-book; and, as he himself informs us in one of his subsequent letters, was written before "the battle was quite done."

"August 13, 1704.

"I have not time to say more, but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know her army has had a glorious victory. victory. Monsieur Tallard and two other generals are in my coach, and I am following the rest. The bearer, my aide-de-camp, Colonel Park, will give her an account of what has passed. I shall do it in a day or two more at large. "MARLBOROUGH."

A sister of the celebrated Bishop Burnet, in congratulating the Duchess of Marlborough on

* Addison's "Campaign."

the recent victory, observes," The Bishop said he could not sleep, his heart was so charged with joy he desires your grace would carefully lay up that little letter as a relic that cannot be valued enough." This "little letter" is still preserved among the treasures of Blenheim, and is not rendered the less remarkable from its being endorsed with a tavern bill of the Duke of Marlborough.

It appears by a journal kept by the Duke's chaplain, Mr. Hare, that after the battle of Blenheim, Marlborough selected as his headquarters a small water-mill near Hochstadt; a place, it may be remarked, which at one time gave the name to the victory. He, subsequently, paid a visit to his prisoner, Marshal Tallard, at the quarters of the Prince of Hesse, of which Hare gives rather a graphic account. Marlborough, he says, made the Marshal an offer of his own equipage and quarters, which the other very thankfully declined. At the same time, Hare describes the French generals as crowding about the Duke, expressing their admiration of his graceful person, and of his tender and generous disposition.

The victory of Blenheim,—the most splendid gained by the English over their hereditary enemies since the battle of Agincourt, raised the military reputation of the Duke to the highest pitch. Shortly before this period, he had

*Coxe's Life of the Duke of Marlborough, vol. i. p. 339.