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light. If I had power to dispose of places,' said she, the firs rule should be, to have those that were proper for the business : the next, those that had deserved upon any occasion; and, whenever there was room without hurting the public, I think one would, with pleasure, give employments to those who were in so unhappy a condition as to want them.'

In May 1702, Marlborough, who had been appointed Ambassador-extraordinary to the United States, embarked from Margate to take the command. He parted from the countess at the waterside, and in a hasty note which he wrote to her from the ship, he says it was impossible to express with what a heavy heart. He would have given his life to come back, he said, though he durst not, knowing his own weakness, and that he could not have concealed it; and he told her, that for a long time he stood upon the deck looking toward the cliffs through a glass, in hopes of having one sight more of her. All his influence had been used to obtain the chief command for the Prince of Denmark, for, when the good of the general cause was concerned, never was any man more perfectly indifferent to his individual interests. The Dutch could not be induced to consent; they had little coufidence in the talents of the Prince, and, what perhaps weighed more with them, they thought he would not submit to the controul of the field-deputies whom they sent to the army for the purpose of inspecting and regulating the conduct of their generals. This post was also desired by the Archduke Charles, for whom Spain, to which he laid claim, was a fitter scene of action; by the Duke of Zell, by the King of Prussia, and by the Elector of Hanover, afterwards George I. There were objections to all these; and the Prince of Nassau Saarbruck and the Earl of Athlone withdrew their pretensions in favour of Marlborough, who was accordingly appointed Generalissimo, with a salary of £10,000 a year.

The principal army of the allies under Athlone was at this time in the vicinity of Cleves, to cover that part of the frontier between the Rhine and the Meuse, and to favour the Prince of Saarbruck who, with 25,000 men, was besieging Kayserswerth. Cohorn had 10,000 men near the mouth of the Scheldt to secure that quarter, and threaten the district of Bruges. On the part of the enemy, the Count de la Motte and the Marquis of Bedmar covered that side against Cohorn. Marshal Tallard was detached from the Upper Rhine with 15,000 men to interrupt the siege of Kayserswerth; and the powerful army of the French commanded by the Duke of Burgundy, with Marshal Boufflers to assist him, was assembled on the Meuse, and occupied the fortresses in the bishopric of Liege, which were of essential advantage to them. It

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was rightly supposed that the Duke of Burgundy would not have been sent to the army, unless there had been an expectation of some signal success; and before Marlborough could arrive to take the command, there was a danger that his operations would be confined to the defence of the Dutch frontiers. Athlone threw 12,000 men into Maestricht, and thus provided for the security of that important town; but Nimeguen was without a garrison, and even without a single cannon mounted on the ramparts: the duke was joined by Tallard, and made a sudden move against it. It was saved by the vigorous resistance of the burghers, and by Athlone, who entered at the very moment when the enemy had advanced within gunshot of the works. But the Dutch were frightened at the danger they had escaped, and would now have made self-defence the principle of their timid operations. When Marlborough arrived at the army, it was posted along the Waal between Nimeguen and Fort Schenk. Three plans were proposed, one to attack the French, who were on the right bank of the Meuse between Goch and Genep; this was at once rejected on account of the strength of their position: the second was to advance up the Rhine, cut off the enemy's communication, and reduce Rheinberg, as the commencement of an offensive system: the council of war referred this to the decision of the States; and upon the third, which was Marlborough's suggestion, that they should move upon Brabant, and thus draw the whole attention of the enemy to the Spanish Netherlands, it was determined, after two consultations, to apply to the Dutch government for instructions. The proverb, that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety, is not applicable to military affairs, where every thing depends upon decision and promptitude. No general was ever more crippled in his operations than Marlborough at this time.-The field-deputies, men entirely ignorant of war, always impeded him by their slow deliberations, and their fear of responsibility, and could at any time paralyze his movements. Too many of the generals regarded hini with an invidious feeling; Athlone in particular, a man cold and wary by nature, rendered by age more cautious and more phlegmatic than by his constitution and Dutch blood, and now soured by ill-will. Irretrievable time was lost, when every day was of value; and to add to the embarrassments and vexation of the commander, points of punctilio arose concerning the Hanoverian and Prussian allies. At length, after the loss of fourteen precious days, the States determined that they would determine nothing; but that the general officers, making the safety of Nimeguen and of the Rhine their first object, should determine for themselves. They resolved to pass the Meuse and march to the siege of Rheinberg.

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The reason for crossing the river was to alarm the French, and spare that part of the country from which they were to draw their subsistence during the siege. The plan was not what Marlborough would have chosen. He knew that if the enemy had good intelligence, they might so act as to compel the allies to change it. If the fear of Nimeguen and the Rhine,' said he, had not hindered us from marching into Brabant, they must then have had the disadvantage of governing themselves by our motions, whereas we are now obliged to mind them.'

The plan thus hesitatingly adopted was not pursued, and Marlborough was allowed to act upon his own judgment. Pointing to the enemy's camp, he said exultingly to the Dutch deputies, 'I shall soon deliver you from these troublesome neighbours!' The event justified his confidence, for no sooner had they heard that he had crossed the Meuse than they also passed the river, and hastened, by forced marches, in the direction of Peer and Bray. Marlborough was now assured that he should draw them entirely from the Meuse, be able to besiege Venloo, and to subsist in their territory during the remainder of the campaign. In these hopes he was not disappointed, though the timidity of the deputies prevented him from attacking the enemy in a position where, according to the undeniable testimony of Berwick, then in the French army, their defeat must have been inevitable. A second time he was prevented from attacking them and obtaining an easy victory, by the tardiness of the allied troops in executing his orders. The factious party in England complained that he had suffered the enemy to escape; in this they proceeded upon the half-information which they possessed, without any regard to justice, or any feeling of generosity; but the spirit of party went farther than this, and with its usual malignity accused him of endeavouring to prolong the war for the sake of his own interest. Meantime the soldiers did justice to their commander, and loudly exclaimed against those by whom his purposes and their eager hopes had been frustrated; and Marlborough, while he submitted patiently to the cruel calumnies with which he was assailed at home, had some difficulty to silence the discontent which the officers as well as the men expressed in his favour. His movements, however, had been so far successful that the Duke of Burgundy withdrew from the French army, lest he should have the mortification of witnessing conquests which there was little hope of preventing. Venloo, Stevenswaert and Ruremond were taken, notwithstanding the tardiness of the Dutch; the campaign was concluded by the capture of Liege. Boufflers attempted to storm this city by taking post under the walls, but Marlborough anticipated him by occupying the ground,

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and the French were a third time indebted for their safety to the Dutch deputies, always timid, and therefore always in the wrong. They now retired within their lines, and Marlborough distributed his troops into winter-quarters.

When the campaign was closed, an accident occurred which might have counterbalanced all its advantages, and given a fatal turn to the events of the war. Leaving Maestricht for the Hague, Marlborough embarked on the Meuse with the Dutch deputies and a guard of five and twenty men. The next day he was joined at Ruremond by Cohorn, with three score men in a larger boat, and fifty troopers escorted them along the banks of the river; but in the night the troopers lost their way, the larger boat went on without attending to its companion, and a French partisan from Guelder who, with thirty-five men, was lurking among the reeds and sedges, seized the tow-rope of Marlborough's boat, fired into it, boarded it and overpowered the guard. The deputies had provided themselves with French passes; it would have been beneath Marlborough's dignity to take the same precaution; and he was saved by his own coolness and the presence of mind of an attendant, named Gell, who having in his pocket a pass granted to General Churchill, slipt it into his hand unperceived. Marlborough presented it; the darkness, the confusion, perhaps the ignorance, perhaps the civility of the Frenchman, prevented a scrutiny of the passport; and after pillaging the boat, extorting the usual presents, which on this occasion were gladly given, and detaining the guard as prisoners, the partisan suffered Marlborough and the deputies to proceed. He rewarded Gell for this essential service with an annuity of £50. The alarm presently spread over the country. The Governor of Venloo prepared to attack Guelder, whither he supposed the prisoner had been conveyed; and the States, who were then assembled at the Hague, passed a vote by acclamation that all their troops should instantly march for the purpose of rescuing a commander, whose importance to the common cause was now instantaneously and instinctively acknowledged. The conduct of the Dutch on this occasion was highly honourable. The common people crowded to meet him when he landed at the Hague, all crying out welcome, and some pressing to take him by the hand, and many men as well as women weeping for joy at his escape. The pomp of a Roman triumph would have been less gratifying to a heart like Marlborough's than this reception, for he was as quick in feeling kindness as he was ready to bestow it. The success of the campaign, inferior as it was to what it might have been had not the masterly spirit of the commander been controuled, far exceeded the expectations and hopes of the

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States. They deputed the Pensionary Heinsius to congratulate him, and the orator, in alluding to his escape, said that no hope would have been left if France had retained in bondage the man whom they revered as the instrument of Providence for securing independence to the greater part of the Christian world. Athlone himself made the most honourable amends for his past conduct; he called him an incomparable general, and declared that the whole success was owing to him alone, since I confess,' said he, that I, serving as second in command, opposed, in all circumstances, his opinion and proposals.' The queen immediately acquainted his wife with her intention of raising him to a dukedom. This intelligence, though communicated in terms of the most affectionate friendship, gave no pleasure to the countess. That extraordinary woman was not ambitious of any higher rank; there is no advantage in it,' she said, "but in going in at a door, and when a rule is settled, I like as well to follow five hundred as one.' 'The title of duke,' she added, ' was a great burden in a family where there were many sons; and though she had then but one, she might have more, and there might be a great many in the next generation.' As far, therefore, as her inclination might weigh with the queen she declined the dignity, and she earnestly pressed her husband to do the same; their estate, she thought, was not sufficient to support the title, and she observed that his elevation to that rank might draw upon the queen solicitations which would greatly embarrass her. The queen, however, persisted in her purpose; Godolphin urged him to acquiesce, and his friend the Pensionary Heinsius represented to him in strong terms the good effect which it would have with the foreign princes. At any after-time, he said, such an elevation might look like the effect of favour, for it was not reasonable to expect that so much success would ever be obtained in any other campaign;-now it would appear, as it was meant to be, and as it was, an act of public justice, honourable to himself and his family, honourable to the queen, and for the good of the common cause. He acquiesced in these reasonable representations, and was created Marquis of Blandford and Duke of Marlborough. The queen conferred upon him at the same time £5000 out of the post-office for her own life, and requested Parliament to devise a proper mode for settling this grant on him and his successors in the title, but the proposal excited so much opposition that, at the duke's desire, it was withdrawn.

In less than three months after Marlborough had been rewarded with the highest title that an English subject can attain in his own country, he lost his only surviving son, a youth of seventeen, and of the highest promise, moral and intellectual. He died at

Cambridge,

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