On the question how he felt on the occasion, the world was not enlightened. But we can see in recent events both the depth of his sagacity and the extent of his disappointment, since he was on the track that carried the Germans to Paris in 1870. It was an occasion to bring out all the flexible powers of his character. He was not one of those who determine to take their adopted path, and call their stupid obstinacy firmness. Persons so gifted with an obstinacy, dignified in their nomenclature as firmness, conscious of fundamental weakness of purpose and unreadiness of action, nail, as it were, their resolution to the masthead, that their purpose may remain fixed beyond the influence of their reason. Marlborough was ever ready at once to change his adopted course of action when a better presented itself. He had a justification of many wailings from the Netherlands to come to the rescue. Whether he deliberated much or little on his projects, he was prompt in execution, for he had marched eighteen miles rearwards-a long day's march-ere Villars found that he was not facing him, and ready to attack Sierck. He had to leave much baggage and munitions at Saarbruck. They were put under a guard of auxiliaries, who were charged with many deficiencies for yielding them to the enemy. But Saarbruck, in a pit surrounded by steep hills, however powerful it might be in the hands of a large army, could not be held against such an army by a garrison in the town and its poor fortifications. Marlborough joined the force of Overkirk on the 20th of May 1706, and his sudden appearance compelled Villeroi to abandon the siege of the strong citadel of Liege. Villeroi

and the Elector of Bavaria had laid down a powerful line of defence through ground very susceptible of defence, because it was not commandable by heights, and yet, to a march, presented natural obstacles capable of being made difficult by defensive works. Another feature of the country was its reticulation by broad paved roads, giving to whoever had the command of them a mighty advantage. It passed chiefly through the marshy sources of small rivers, sometimes taking the rivers in their gentle current, between banks not many feet high, but in some places steep, and in others wet and slippery. The extreme right of the army was on the Maas, passing thence to another small water-course called the Mehaigne. It then stretched to the Little Gheet, passing it towards the Great Gheet-not a great river. Its course joins the Dauer; and from Acribot, reached along this river, works were raised uniting the whole articulation of the line of defence with the strong fortresses of Antwerp. On the 23d of May the hostile armies faced each other.

With an eye to the peculiar nature of the ground, Marlborough had given orders that each mounted. man should carry a truss of grass or hay at his saddlebow; it might serve for fodder if it were not employed in another purpose-a makeshift for hurdles in crossing morasses or shallow streams. It seems that, whether by some ingenious device of the assailants, or a mistake on his own part, Villeroi had left the centre of the line beyond the Little Gheet imperfectly protected, and there the allies charged, and broke the line, after a desperate struggle. This was a great achievement, and after some secondary operations it was followed by a great battle.

Ramillies is a village some eighteen miles southward of Louvain. The country around it may be called the Highlands of Brabant. The marshes supply the Gheets and other streams, small but important in their district; and over all is a low range of hills with a gentle and generally uniform ascent. This feature of uniformity had its influence on the battle that was to come. When hills are broken or abrupt, troops on the march cannot be sure that they are absolutely invisible to the enemy, or at least are to remain so, because an abrupt ascent or turning may make two parties visible to each other at once. But where there is a gradual ascent with a uniform curve, and two parties are so distant from each other that the diameter from the culmination of the curve to the base of the segment is greater than the height of a man, two bodies of infantry will be invisible to each other; and if both are marching at the same pace, and with the same conditions as to the curve, both will continue to be invisible to each other. The French were extended in a segment of a circle round the highest elevation, conspicuous by an ancient barrier of stone and turf, apparently about thirty feet high, called Ottmond's tomb.

The enemy being in the arc and the allies in the diameter, these had a shorter way to either end than their enemies. Marlborough- ostentatiously, as it was said-exhibited a powerful force on his right, opposite the French left; and to protect this the French brought a strong accession in that direction. from the centre. Marlborough, his force concealed by the ascending arc of the hill, marched along the cordon of the horizontal arc, passed the extremity of

the French right, and presented a preponderating force against their centre. Villeroi saw that it was there, and not where he was, that he and his force should have been at that moment; but it was too late for this discovery to be effective, since Marlborough had gained a superiority he would not be easily compelled to abandon.

From that moment the fighting on the side of the allies was with a superior force to that of the French. Still the affair was not like others of Marlborough's, where the nature of the country helped him to a tactic that enabled him to scatter his enemies. The enemy showed spirit and strength enough to make the contest hard and bloody, especially at the point where a splendid body of French troops, their Life Guards, made a furious charge. The French commander, finding his troops broken and demoralised, attempted by a diagonal retreat to find a spot where he could form them for a second attack. The ground he had passed over, however, was thickly strewn with the wounded and the dead, dismounted cannon with their shattered carriages, and baggagewaggons. Before he could effect his purpose, Marlborough was upon his unformed troops with a grand charge of all the cavalry and infantry at his disposal, and the effect was the instant dispersal of Villeroi's whole force. Six thousand prisoners were taken from the enemy, with abundant trophies, and their killed and wounded were counted at 7000. But the loss was heavy on the victor's side-of absolutely dead on the field 1060, and of wounded 2560. The political gain, however, was vast. The battle of Ramillies brought, or rather drove, to the cause of the Austrian, Brussels,

Louvain, Ghent, Bruges, Mechlin, and a group of inferior towns. This battle concludes an epoch in the branch of the great war fought in Germany and the Low Countries.

In a triumphant tone, unusual in diplomatic instructions, Stepney, the English ambassador, was instructed to make provisional arrangements for the new acquisitions of "the Crown of Spain," as they were appropriated by the creed and nomenclature of the Grand Alliance: "Whereas, since the victory obtained at Ramillies, by the blessing of God upon our arms and those of the States-General, the cities of Louvain, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and Ostend, with the greatest part of Brabant and Flanders, have owned King Charles III. for their lawful sovereign, and it will now be necessary to have a settled regular government in these countries," and as this cannot be immediately done “by reason of the great distance the King of Spain is at present," Stepney, as envoy extraordinary," is directed, in conference with the States-General, to take such steps, as may be found best for keeping the newly-acquired communities "in their allegiance to this king, and be most for the security and advantage of the common cause."1

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In continuing the history of the war, though we are still to follow victory after victory on our side, yet the significance of such events had changed, and the change was visible between the two great battles of Ramillies and Oudenarde. When the war began, it involved an attack by a mighty Power that had gradually reached a supremacy in Europe, 1 Stepney Papers, i. 1; Brit. Mus. MSS. 7058.