Chapter XVII: THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE (continued) (1)

Negotiations for Peace--The Ministry becomes
Whig--Harley--Marlborough and Charles of Sweden--The Allies in
Spain--Battle of Almanza--The French Triumphant in Spain--Attack
on Toulon--Destruction of Shovel's Fleet--Jacobitism in
Scotland--First Parliament of Great Britain--Abigail
Hill--The Gregg Affair--Retirement of Harley and St. John
from the Ministry--Attempted Invasion of Scotland--Campaign
of 1708--Battle of Oudenarde--Capture of Lille--Leake takes
Sardinia and Minorca--Death of Prince George of Denmark--The
Junto--Terrible Plight of France--Marlborough's Plans for
1709--Louis Negotiates with Holland--Torcy's Terms--Ultimatum
of the Allies--Rejection of the Terms--Patriotism of the French
Nation--Fall of Tournay--Battle of Malplaquet--Meeting of
Parliament--Dr. Sacheverell's Sermons--His Impeachment resolved
upon--Attitude of the Court--The Trial and Sacheverell's
Defence--The Riots--Dispersal of the Rabble--The Sentence--Bias
of the Queen--The Tories in Power--Renewed Overtures for
Peace--Their Failure--The Campaigns in the Netherlands and in
Spain--Brihuega and its Consequence--Marlborough's Reign at an
End--Unpopularity of Marlborough--Dismissal of the Duchess--Triumph
of the Tories--Guiscard's Attack on Harley--Popularity of
Harley--Marlborough's Last Campaign--Failure of the Attack on
Quebec--The Ministry determine to make Peace--Overtures to
the Pretender--He refuses to Change his Religion--Gualtier's
Mission to Versailles--Indignation of the Dutch--The Basis of
Negotiations--Signing of the Preliminaries--Excitement Abroad
and at Home--Prorogation of Parliament--Strengthening of the
Ministry--Debates in the two Houses--The Whigs adopt the Occasional
Conformity Bill--Creation of Peers--Dismissal of Marlborough from
his Employments--Walpole expelled the House.

The great event of the Union of the kingdoms has carried us somewhat past the course of general events. After the last disastrous campaign Louis XIV., humbled to a degree that he was hitherto unacquainted with, employed the Elector of Bavaria to propose a congress to the Duke of Marlborough and the States-General. He had already presented a memorial to the Dutch Government through the Marquis D'Alègre, and he besought the Pope to use his influence to this end. The terms which Louis offered in the moment of his alarm were such as well merited the attention of the Allies. He proposed to cede either Spain and the West Indies to King Charles, or Milan, Naples, and Sicily; to grant to the Dutch a barrier of fortified towns on the frontiers of the Spanish Netherlands; and to indemnify the Duke of Savoy for the ravages committed on his territories. Never since the commencement of the war had the Allies such an opportunity of closing the war triumphantly. They could thus balance the powers of France and Austria by dividing the Spanish monarchy, and give to the Dutch all they asked--a secure frontier. But the great doubt was whether Louis was in earnest, or only seeking to gain time during which he might continue to divide the Allies. And the Allies were by no means eager to accept Louis's offers. The Dutch were greatly elated by Marlborough's astonishing victories, and Marlborough himself was in no humour to stop in the mid-career of his glory. He is said to have induced the Grand Pensionary Heinsius--who was now as much devoted to him as he had formerly been to King William--to keep the Dutch high in their demands, whilst Marlborough induced the English Court to demand indemnity for the immense sums which England had expended in these wars. In these circumstances the offers of France were declined on the plea that England could not enter into any negotiations except in concert with the Allies. Had the English people known of the offers, there would have probably been a loud demand for peace; but they were kept secret, and the attention of the nation being then engrossed by the question of the Union, the matter was passed over,--not, however, without exciting fresh resentment against Marlborough amongst the Tory leaders.

During the Session of 1706-1707 the Ministry grew more completely Whig. Through the influence of Lady Marlborough rather than of the Duke, who was much averse from the free principles and free language of his son-in-law the Earl of Sunderland, that nobleman was made one of the Secretaries of State in the place of Sir Charles Hedges. This change was equally repugnant to Harley, the other Secretary, who was now the only Tory Minister left in the Cabinet. The three Tory Commissioners of the Board of Trade--Prior the poet being one--were removed, and three Whigs were introduced. Sir James Montague, the brother of the Earl of Halifax, was made Solicitor-General; and Sir George Rooke and the few remaining Tory Privy Councillors had their names erased. Harley was thus left, apparently without support, a Tory in a Cabinet all except himself Whig. But Harley was that kind of man that he not only managed to maintain his place, but eventually ruined and scattered the whole Whig party. He was by no means a man of genius, though he affected the company of such men. Pope, Swift, Bolingbroke, Arbuthnot, and Prior, were his friends and associates. His intellect was narrow and commonplace, but it was persevering; and though he was a wretched and confused speaker, yet he continually acquired more and more influence in the House of Commons, and ultimately raised himself to the peerage, and for many years to the chief direction of the national affairs. The secret of this was that he had made himself master of the laws and practices of Parliament, and on all disputed questions could clear up the point past dispute, so that he came to be regarded as far more profound than he was.

The Duke of Marlborough, relying on the support of the Whig Cabinet, which the influence of his contriving wife had created, set out in the month of April for the Continent. The condition to which his successes had reduced France was such that the Allies were in the highest spirits. The French Treasury was exhausted; and, in the absence of real money, Louis endeavoured to supply the deficiency by mint bills, in imitation of the Bank of England bills; but they were already at a discount of fifty-three per cent. The lands lay uncultivated, manufacturers were at a pause for want of capital, the people were perishing with famine, and nothing could be more deplorable than the state of France. Nothing could have saved Louis at this crisis but want of unity amongst the Allies, and already the artful Louis had contrived to get in the wedge of disunion. The Emperor, allured by the prospect of the evacuation of Italy, and of seizing Naples for himself, had come to a secret understanding with the French king, which was equally treacherous and suicidal; for the direct result, as any man but the stolid Emperor would have foreseen, was to liberate the French forces from the North of Italy to reinforce those in the Netherlands and those endeavouring to drive his brother Charles from Spain.

Marlborough, on his part, did everything that he could to keep the Allies together, and to combine them into a victorious strength; but it had always been his misfortune, as it had been that of William, to have to suffer from their regard to their own petty jealousies rather than to the grand object in view. He set out directly from the Hague to visit Hanover, and stimulate the young Elector to active assistance. He then set out to pay a visit to Charles XII. of Sweden, who was encamped at Alt Ranstadt, only a few marches from the Court of Hanover. The Swedish military madman, neglecting the Czar Peter, who was making continual inroads on his Finnish and Esthonian territories, and was now actually laying the foundations of a new capital and seaport on the shores of the Baltic, had pursued, with blind and inveterate hatred, Augustus, the Elector of Saxony, who had presumed to allow himself, in spite of the Swedish king, to be elected King of Poland. Marlborough's flattery appeared to produce the intended effect. The rough Swede assured him that he had a great regard for the Queen of England, and for the objects of the Grand Alliance, and should do nothing contrary to it; that he detested the domineering spirit of the French, and that no good need be expected till they were reduced to the condition they were in at the peace of Westphalia; that he had come into Saxony to demand certain satisfaction, and that when he had obtained it he should go away, and not sooner. But notwithstanding Charles's profession, he continued to harass and alarm the Emperor until he had obtained from him all that he chose to demand, when he marched away into Poland to encounter the Czar. Marlborough himself returned by way of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover to the Hague, giving everywhere the utmost satisfaction by his arrangements with Charles XII., who had made every neighbouring Court uneasy lest he might turn his erratic arms against them.

But the campaign in the Netherlands this year bore no relation to the great expectations formed of it. No grand action was fought there; and in Spain the adroit manœuvre of Louis, by which, through his treaty with the selfish and short-sighted Emperor, he had liberated his troops from Italy to throw them upon that country, and the want of unity between Charles and his auxiliaries, quite changed the face of affairs. The Whigs had studiously left the reinforcements in Spain insufficient, from the idea that it was better to continue to distract the attention of Louis in that direction than by a bold and vigorous effort to drive him from the country. They had a vain idea of conquering France, and thought this more easy to achieve while the French arms were demanded in various quarters. But the astute Louis was not so readily dealt with. He contrived, as we have seen, to amuse the Allies in Flanders without coming to blows. He coped without difficulty with the Germans on the Rhine; and, though fiercely attacked at Toulon by the Savoyards, he defeated the Allies in Spain, to the great astonishment of Europe.

By this time the opinion formed of King Charles when he was in England by those who had opportunity of observing him, was now become that of all who had come near him in Spain--that he was a very poor creature. The Earl of Peterborough, who had been travelling about with little success to borrow money for such a contest, and had returned to Spain, but without any command, did not hesitate to say that people were great fools to fight for such a couple of simpletons as Charles and Philip. Charles was surrounded by a set of Austrians who were utterly incapable of commanding, and who made it equally impossible for any one else to command. The great plan of the campaign was to march boldly on Madrid; but Charles was, as before, too timid to venture on such a step. He remained in Catalonia, and ordered the Earl of Galway with the Dutch and English forces, and Das Minas, with the Portuguese, to defend the frontiers of Aragon and Valencia; and thus he contrived to wait for fresh troops from England, or from Italy, where they were no longer wanted. Whilst Das Minas and Galway, who was only second in command, were laying siege to Velina, in Valencia, and were in want of almost everything--food, clothes, and ammunition--they heard that the Duke of Berwick was hastening, by forced marches, to attack them. They therefore drew off towards the town of Almanza, and there fell in with the enemy, who proved to be considerably stronger than themselves. They came to an engagement, however, on the 14th of April. The battle began about two in the afternoon, and the whole force of each army was engaged. The centre of the Allies, consisting of Dutch and English, fought most valiantly, and repeatedly threw back the forces of the Duke of Berwick. For six long and bloody hours they maintained the fight; but the two wings were beaten and dispersed; the Portuguese horse on the right at the first charge, but the Dutch and English on the left, only after a brave but unequal resistance. When the gallant centre was thus exposed on both flanks, they formed themselves into a square, and retired from the field, fighting doggedly as they went. But at length their ammunition was spent, they were worn out with fatigue, and they surrendered, to the extent of thirteen battalions. The Portuguese, part of the English horse, and the infantry who guarded the baggage, retreated to Alcira, where the Earl of Galway joined them with about two thousand five hundred horse, and they escaped. It was a complete triumph for the French and Spaniards. The Allies lost five thousand men, besides the wounded and the large force which surrendered.

Nothing now could stop Berwick, who won great reputation by this decisive action. He marched into Valencia, taking town after town, whilst Saragossa at the same time surrendered, without a shot, to the Duke of Orleans. Berwick marched for the Ebro, which he crossed on the 4th of June, and at length pursued and shut up the flying confederates in Lerida. Charles was too inert or too dastardly to lead his troops thither, though they lay at no great distance; and the place was taken by storm, and given up to all the licence of the soldiery. After this Manilla surrendered so late as the 17th of December, and with that the campaign closed. The Duke of Orleans returned to Paris, and the Duke of Berwick remained with the army till towards spring, when Louis sent for him in haste into France, ordering him to quit Spain unknown to Philip, lest he should endeavour to detain him. The Earl of Galway and Das Minas embarked at Barcelona for Lisbon, leaving General Carpenter with the English forces remaining in Catalonia, the only portion of Spain now left to the pusillanimous Charles.

The operation, however, which most alarmed the French Court was that of the Duke of Savoy against Provence. This had been planned by Marlborough and Prince Eugene, and would undoubtedly have had a brilliant success had not the Emperor been secretly planning his attempt on Naples, instead of sending all his forces into Italy to the support of this enterprise. The Duke of Savoy and Prince Eugene, though abandoned by this selfish and small-souled Emperor, on whose account the great Powers of Europe were expending so much life and wealth, crossed the Alps by the Col de Tende with twenty thousand men, whilst Sir Cloudesley Shovel appeared on the coast of Provence with the united fleet of England and Holland to support them. Eugene crossed the Var on the 10th of July, Sir John Norris and his English sailors clearing the way for him in their gunboats. But the French were fast marching towards Toulon from various quarters, Villars having been despatched with a large force, as we have stated, from the army of Flanders. The Duke of Savoy, on the other hand, instead of pushing on to Toulon with all speed, halted his army to rest, and then marched leisurely forward. By this means, not only had the French been able to collect a very powerful army, but had had time to strengthen greatly the fortifications of Toulon. When the practised eye of Prince Eugene took a survey of the formidable heights of Toulon, and of the great force on the outworks, with the power of the batteries, he advised the duke not to attempt the siege of the place with the forces at his command. The duke, however, would persist, and an assault was made on the outworks on the hill of St. Catherine, and on two small forts near the harbour. These were carried, but at a great cost of life, including that of the gallant Prince of Saxe-Gotha. But fresh French troops kept pouring in; it was impossible to maintain even this advantage. On the 15th of August the hill of St. Catherine was recovered by the French, and the Savoyards were even attacked in their own camp. On this an order was given to bombard the place, both from sea and land, in retaliation for the ravages committed by the French on Turin; the bombardment, especially from the sea, was made with terrible effect. A great part of the city was demolished, and the English and Dutch sailors destroyed eight ships of the line in the harbours, and utterly ruined two batteries. In the night of the 25th of August the army of Savoy retired; on the 31st it crossed the Var without any pursuit of the French, and then laid siege to Susa, an old and strong town at the foot of the Alps, which surrendered after a fortnight's investment.

Sir Cloudesley Shovel, leaving a squadron with Sir Thomas Dilkes in the Mediterranean, sailed for England, and on the night of the 22nd of October, 1707, closed his career in a sudden and melancholy manner. By some miscalculation his vessels got amongst the rocks of Scilly. His own ship struck on a rock about eight o'clock at night, and went down, drowning him and every soul on board. Three other vessels shared the same fate, only the captain and twenty-four men of one of them escaping. Sir Cloudesley Shovel had risen from a humble origin in Suffolk, had raised himself to the head of the maritime service of his country by his bravery, skill, and integrity. His body, when cast ashore, was stripped by the wreckers and buried in the sand, but was afterwards discovered and interred in Westminster Abbey.

Meanwhile disaffection was rife in Scotland, where there had been for some time a very zealous emissary of the Court of St. Germains, one Colonel Hooke. Colonel Hooke transmitted to Chamillard, the Minister of Louis XIV., flaming accounts of this state of things in Scotland, and represented that never was there so auspicious an opportunity of introducing the king of England (the Pretender) again to his ancient throne of Scotland--a circumstance than which nothing could be more advantageous to France. A civil war created in Great Britain must completely prevent the English from longer impeding the affairs of Louis on the Continent. All the power of England would be needed at home; and on the Elder Pretender succeeding in establishing himself on the throne of the United Kingdom, France would be for ever relieved from the harassing antagonism of England--the only real obstacle to the amplest completion of all France's plans for Continental dominion. These accounts were very highly coloured, as from most quarters, particularly from the Duke of Hamilton, Hooke only met with discouragement. From others, however, Hooke received more encouragement. He obtained a memorial to Louis XIV., signed by the Lord High Constable the Earl of Errol, by the Lords Stormont, Panmure, Kinnaird, and Drummond, and by some men of smaller note. The leading men did not sign. They were not willing to endanger their necks without some nearer prospect of invasion. Hooke, indeed, pretended that the lords who did sign, signed as proxies for many others, such as the Earls of Caithness, Eglintoun, Aberdeen, and Buchan, Lord Saltoun, and others. With this memorial Hooke went back to St. Germains, and what the document wanted in weight he made up by verbal assurances of the impatience of all Scotland for the arrival of the king. But the truth appears to be that France expected a stronger demonstration on the part of Scotland, and Scotland on the part of France, and so the adventure hung fire. It was not till the following year that sufficient spirit could be aroused to send out an armament, and not till upwards of twenty of the Jacobite lords and gentlemen, including the Duke of Hamilton, in spite of all his caution, had been arrested.

The first Parliament of Great Britain met on the 23rd of October, 1707. The queen, in her speech, endeavoured to make the best of the last unfortunate summer's military operations. The retreat of the Imperialist troops on the Rhine was freely admitted, but it was considered an encouraging circumstance that the command there was now in the hands of the Elector of Hanover, and it was announced that measures were taken for strengthening the forces in that quarter. Little could be said of the proceedings in the Netherlands, and less of those in Spain, including the fatal battle of Almanza; but the most was made of the attack upon, and the bombardment of, Toulon. But the speech promised renewed vigour in every quarter, and called for augmented supplies. The deficiencies of military and naval action--for we had also suffered a considerable defeat at sea from the celebrated French Admiral, Du Guai Trouin, off the Lizard Point, in which two ships of the line were taken and a third was blown up--an endeavour was made to cover by allusions to the happy event of the Union. The Commons, in their Address, seized on this point of congratulation, and declared it a "mark of the Divine goodness that her Majesty had been made the glorious instrument of this happy Union, which would so strengthen the kingdom as to make it a terror to all its enemies." The Lords joined with the Commons in an affectionate Address to her Majesty, declaring that the only means of obtaining an honourable peace was the entire recovery of Spain. To support these assurances by deeds the Commons voted the enormous sum of six millions for the supplies.

Meanwhile the influence of the Marlboroughs at Court was on the wane, and that partly through their own shortsightedness. The Duchess of Marlborough had introduced into the palace, when she was Groom of the Stole, Mistress of the Robes, and more queen than the queen herself, a poor relation of her own, one Abigail Hill. Abigail, from whose position as a bedchamber woman, and from whose singular rise and fortunes all women of low degree and intriguing character have derived the name of Abigails, being placed so near the queen, soon caught her eye, took her fancy, and speedily became prime favourite. Harley, the Tory Minister, being also her cousin, as was the Duchess of Marlborough, with equal tact discovered her to be a useful tool for him. The Duchess of Marlborough, trusting to her long absolute sway over the mind of Queen Anne, begun when she was a princess; to the firm establishment of the Whig faction in power, her own work, because the Tories had opposed the five thousand pounds a year which the queen, at the instigation of the duchess, demanded for Marlborough before he had even won the battle of Blenheim; and finally, relying on the great services which Marlborough had now rendered, had become intolerable in her tyranny over the queen. The Marlboroughs all this time were making use, not only of their position to enjoy power, but to scrape up money with an insatiable and unblushing avarice. The time was now approaching, however, for the queen's liberation from the heavy yoke of Sarah Marlborough. The duchess, in the midst of power and pride, had still for some time felt the ground mysteriously gliding from under her feet.

She found that Abigail Hill was, in reality, no longer Abigail Hill; that she had for a whole year been privately married to Mr. Masham, Groom of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Denmark; and that the queen herself had honoured this secret marriage by her presence at Dr. Arbuthnot's lodgings, at which time Anne, the duchess now remembered, had called for a round sum from the privy purse. In short, the duchess herself tells us that in less than a week after the inquiries she discovered that her cousin "was become an absolute favourite."

At this crisis an unlucky incident for the cunning Harley occurred. He had in his office one William Gregg, a clerk, who was detected in a treasonable correspondence with Chamillard the French Minister. He was arrested and thrown into the Old Bailey. The Whigs hoped to be able to implicate Harley himself in this secret correspondence. There had just been an attempt to get Lord Godolphin dismissed from his office, and he, the Duke of Marlborough, Sunderland, and their party, now seized eagerly on this chance to expel Harley and his acute coadjutor, St. John, from the Cabinet. Seven lords, including these, and all Whigs, were deputed to examine Gregg in prison, and are said to have laboured hard to induce Gregg to accuse Harley; but they were disappointed. Gregg remained firm, was tried, condemned, and hanged. Alexander Valiere, John Bara, and Claude Baude, the secretary of the ambassador to the Duke of Savoy, with that Minister's consent, were also imprisoned on the charge of carrying Gregg's correspondence to the governor and commissioners of Calais and Boulogne. On the scaffold Gregg was said to have delivered a paper to the ordinary, clearing Harley altogether; but this was not produced till Harley was once more in the ascendant. The lords deputed to examine Gregg and the smugglers Bara and Valiere, declared that Gregg had informed them that Harley had employed these men to carry correspondence, and that all the papers in the office of Harley lay about so openly that any one might read them. Both these assertions, and the paper said to have been left by Gregg, had much that is doubtful about them. The one statement proceeded from the Whigs, evidently to destroy Harley; the Gregg paper, on the other hand, not being produced till Harley was out of danger, was quite as evidently the work of Harley to clear his character. The charges, however, were sufficient to drive Harley and St. John from office for the time. When the Council next met, the Duke of Somerset rose, and pointing to Harley said rudely to the queen that if she suffered that fellow to treat of affairs in the absence of Marlborough and Godolphin, he could not serve her. Marlborough and Godolphin continued to absent themselves from the Council, and the queen was compelled to dismiss Harley. With him went out St. John, the Secretary of War; and Mr. Robert Walpole, a young man whose name was destined to fill a large space of history under the Georges, was put into his place.

Whilst things were on this footing, the nation was alarmed by an attempt at invasion. Louis XIV. had at length been persuaded that a diversion in Scotland would have a very advantageous effect by preventing England from sending so many troops and supplies against him to the Continent. Early in February, therefore, an emissary was sent over to Scotland in the person of Charles Fleming, brother of the Earl of Wigtown. He was to see the leading Jacobites, and assure them that their king was coming; and that as soon as the French fleet appeared in sight they were to proclaim the king everywhere, raise the country, seize arms, and open up again their previous communications with persons within the different forts and garrisons--thus proving that they had tampered with the troops and garrisons of Scotland, and that, as asserted by different historians, the regular troops in that country, about two thousand five hundred, were not to be trusted by the English. They were also to seize the equivalent money, which was still lying in the Castle of Edinburgh. On the earliest intimation of these designs, the suspected Scottish nobles, including the Duke of Hamilton and twenty-one others, lords or gentlemen, were secured. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended; the Pretender and his abettors were declared traitors; and all Popish recusants were ordered to remove ten miles from the cities of London and Westminster. The alarm was not an empty one. The Pretender, who had now assumed the name of the Chevalier de St. George, was furnished with a fleet and army, which assembled at Dunkirk. The fleet, under the command of Admiral Forbin, consisted of five ships of the line and twenty frigates. It was to carry over five thousand troops, under the command of General de Gace, afterwards known as Marshal de Matignon. Before the expedition, however, could sail, the Chevalier was taken ill of the measles, and the postponement of the expedition ruined its chances. A powerful fleet under the command of Admiral Sir George Byng, with squadrons under Sir John Leake and Lord Dursley, was sent to blockade the port of Dunkirk, and prevent the sailing of the French expedition. The French were astonished at the appearance of so large a fleet, imagining that Leake had gone to Lisbon with his squadron; and Count de Forbin represented to the French Court the improbability of their being able to sail. A storm, however, drove the English ships from their station. The French fleet then ventured out on the 17th of March, but was soon driven back by the same tempest. On the 19th, however, it again put out, and made for the coast of Scotland. But Sir George Byng had stretched his ships along the whole coast, to the very Firth of Forth; and on the French squadron approaching the Forth, it perceived the English ships there before it, and stood off again. Byng gave chase and took the _Salisbury_, a ship of the line, having on board old Lord Griffin, two sons of Lord Middleton, a French lieutenant-general, various other French and Irish officers, and five companies of French soldiers. In the night Forbin altered his course, and thus in the morning was out of the reach of the English. The Chevalier was impatient that Forbin should proceed to Inverness, and there land him and the troops; but the wind was so violent and dead against them that Forbin contended that they would all be lost if they continued the attempt, and the Chevalier, having entered the Firth of Forth, reluctantly returned to Dunkirk.

Such was the alarm in London owing to these circumstances that there was a heavy run on the Bank, increased to the utmost by all who were disaffected to the Government. The Commons also suspended the Habeas Corpus Act, and the country was alive with military preparations.

The Allies and France prepared for a vigorous campaign in the Netherlands. Notwithstanding the low state of Louis XIV.'s funds and a series of severe disasters which had attended his arms, he put forth wonderful energies for the maintenance of his designs. He assembled at least one hundred thousand men in the Netherlands, under the command of the Duke of Burgundy, the Duke of Vendôme, the Duke of Berwick--who had been so suddenly called from Spain--Marshal Boufflers, and the Old Pretender, who sought here to learn martial skill, which he might employ in attempting to regain his crown. On the other hand, Marlborough went to the Hague towards the end of March, where he was met by Prince Eugene, and the plan of the campaign was concerted between them, the Pensionary Heinsius, and the States-General. Eugene then returned to Vienna to bring up reinforcements, and Marlborough proceeded to Flanders to assemble the army, and be in readiness for the junction of Eugene. Before Eugene and Marlborough parted, however, they had gone together to Hanover, and persuaded the Elector to be contented with merely acting on the defensive, so that he might spare a part of his forces for the projected operations in Flanders. His son, the Electoral Prince--afterwards George II. of England--took a command of cavalry in the Imperial army under Marlborough.

The Duke of Vendôme, on the 25th of May, posted his army at Soignies, whilst Marlborough was encamped at Billinghen and Halle, only three leagues distant. The French then moved towards Braine-la-Leuvre, and Marlborough, supposing that they meant to occupy the banks of the Dyle and cut him off from Louvain, made a rapid night march, and on the 3rd of June was at Terbank, Overkirk occupying the suburbs of Louvain. There, as the Allies were yet far inferior in numbers, they imagined the French would give them battle; but such were not the French plans. They had advanced only to Genappe and Braine-la-Leuvre, and now sought by stratagem to regain the towns they had lost in Flanders. They knew that the Allies had drawn out all their forces, and that few of these towns had any competent garrisons. The inhabitants of many of these places had a leaning to France, from the heavy exactions of the Dutch, and the popularity of the Elector of Bavaria and the Count de Bergeyck, who was a warm adherent of the Bourbons. The French, therefore, resolving to profit by these circumstances, despatched troops to Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres, and were soon admitted to these places. They next invested Oudenarde; but Marlborough, being now joined by Eugene, made a rapid march to that town, and took up a strong position before it. The French, however, unwilling to come to an engagement, passed the Scheldt, and attempted to defeat the Allies by attacking them whilst they were in the act of passing it after them. The Allies, however, effected their transit, and came to an engagement with the enemy between the Scheldt and the Lys on the 11th of July. The French amounted to one hundred thousand, the Allies to little more than eighty thousand. The latter, however, had this great advantage--that the commanders of the Allies were united, those of the French were of contrary views. The Duke of Vendôme was prevented from attacking the Allies during their passage of the river by the remissness of the Duke of Burgundy. When it was already three o'clock in the afternoon, and the Allies were safe over, then Burgundy was eager for an attack, and the Duke of Vendôme as averse from it, the proper opportunity having been lost. The wiser general was eventually overruled, and Major-General Grimaldi was ordered to attack Count Rantzau, who was posted on a marshy plain near the village of Eyne, with a muddy rivulet in front of him, with the king's Household Troops. But these troops, when they saw the nature of the rivulet, would not charge, and filed off to the right. Rantzau then crossed the rivulet himself, and, whilst General Cadogan assaulted the village of Eyne, attacked and drove before him several squadrons of the enemy. In this attack the Electoral Prince of Hanover greatly distinguished himself by his gallant charge at the head of Bülow's dragoons. He had his horse killed under him, and Colonel Laschky killed at his side. Several French regiments were completely broken, and many officers and standards were taken by the Hanoverians. The general engagement, however, did not take place till about five o'clock, when the Duke of Argyll came up with the infantry. Overkirk and Tilly, who led on the left of the Allies, were the first to make the French give way, when they were attacked in flank by the Dutch infantry under the Prince of Orange and Count Oxenstjerna, and completely routed their right. After that the whole line gave way. In vain Vendôme exerted himself to check their flight and reform them; they fled in wild confusion along the road from Oudenarde towards Ghent, and Vendôme could do nothing but protect their rear. Their greatest protector, however, was the night, which stopped the pursuit of the Allies. As soon as it was light the pursuit was resumed; but this was checked by the French grenadiers, who were posted behind the hedges that skirted the road, and the French army reached Ghent at eight in the morning, and encamped on the canal on the other side of the city at Lovendegen, after one of the most thorough defeats that they had ever sustained. They lost three thousand men, were deserted by two thousand more, and had seven thousand taken, besides ten pieces of cannon, more than a hundred colours and standards, and four thousand horses. The loss of the Allies was not inconsiderable, amounting to nearly two thousand men.

After resting a couple of days on the field of battle, a detachment was sent to level the French lines between Ypres and the Lys; another to lay the country under contributions as far as Arras, which ravaged the country and greatly alarmed Paris itself by carrying the war into France. This alarm was heightened by the Allies next advancing upon the city of Lille, which was considered the key to Paris and to half of France. Lille was very strongly defended by batteries and entrenchments, and by a garrison of twenty-one battalions of the best troops in France, commanded by Boufflers. This daring act combined all the skill and chief leaders on each side for the attack or the defence. The Dukes of Burgundy, Vendôme, and Berwick hastened to the relief of the place. Marlborough, Eugene, the Prince of Orange, Augustus, King of Poland, and the Landgrave of Hesse, were engaged in the siege. All the art and valour on both sides were put forth. The French endeavoured to cut off the supplies of the Allies coming from Ostend; but Major-General Webbe, who guarded these supplies with a body of six thousand men, defeated an attacking party of twenty-two thousand French under the Count de la Motte, near Wynendale, killing six thousand of them, and accomplishing one of the most brilliant exploits of the whole war. After a stubborn and destructive defence Boufflers capitulated for the town on the 22nd of October, but contrived to hold the citadel till the 9th of December.

Lille, important as it was, was not won, it is said, without a loss of at least twelve thousand of the Allies, whilst Boufflers was reckoned to have lost half his garrison. During the siege Eugene had to hasten to the rescue of Brussels. After the fall of Lille the Allies reduced Ghent, Bruges, and all the towns they had lost; and the French, greatly humiliated, abandoned Flanders, and retired into their own territories, the French Court being filled with consternation at these terrible reverses. The Duke of Berwick was highly incensed at the management of the campaign by Vendôme and Burgundy. He states that during the siege of Lille Marlborough, through him, made propositions for peace, which were, however, haughtily rejected by the not yet sufficiently humbled Louis. Marlborough would probably have been glad to have procured peace now, that he might watch the critical state of affairs at home, where Harley and Mrs. Masham were steadily driving their mines beneath the feet of the Whigs, and where the whole body of Tories were constantly endeavouring to misrepresent his proceedings in the war, continually prognosticating defeats from alleged blunders, which, nevertheless, were as regularly refuted by the most brilliant successes.

The campaign in Catalonia had begun in favour of the French, but there, too, had ended decidedly in favour of the Allies. There the Earl of Galway was superseded by General Stanhope, an able and active officer; and Count Stahremberg, the Imperial general, was a man of like stamp. But before the Imperial troops had arrived in the English fleet commanded by Sir John Leake, the Duke of Orleans had besieged and taken Tortosa and Denia, the garrison of the latter place being detained prisoners, contrary to the articles of capitulation. No sooner, however, did Generals Stanhope and Stahremberg get into the scene of action than they put a stop to the progress of the French, and maintained the rest of the province intact. They soon, moreover, planned a striking enterprise. Sir John Leake carried over to Sardinia a small body of troops under the command of the Marquis D'Alconzel, assaulted and took Cagliari, and received the submission of the whole island, which acknowledged King Charles, and sent a very timely supply of thirty thousand sacks of corn to the army in Catalonia, where it was extremely needed. General Stanhope then, with the consent of Count Stahremberg, set sail for Minorca with a few battalions of Spaniards, Italians, and Portuguese, accompanied by a fine train of British artillery directed by Brigadier Wade and Colonel Petit. They landed on the 26th of August at Port Mahon, and invested St. Philip, its chief fortress. They so disposed their forces that the garrison, which consisted only of one thousand Spaniards and six hundred French marines, under Colonel Jonquiere, imagined that there were at least twenty thousand invaders, and, in consequence, surrendered after some sharp fighting, in which Brigadier Wade, at the head of a party of grenadiers, stormed a redoubt with such fury as amazed the garrison. On the 30th of September not only Port Mahon but the whole island was in the hands of the English, the garrison of Port Fornelles having also submitted to the attack of Admirals Leake and Whitaker. The inhabitants were delighted with the change, King Philip having so heavily oppressed them and deprived them of their privileges.

On the 28th of October the Prince of Denmark, the husband of the queen, died at Kensington Palace, in his fifty-fifth year. George of Denmark was a man not destitute of sense, but of no distinguished ability. He was a good-natured _bon-vivant_, who was, however, fond of the queen, who was very much attached to him. They lived together in great harmony and affection, having no jars or jealousies. They had several children, who all died early, their son, the Duke of Gloucester, arriving at the greatest age. Anne was supposed to have a strong conviction that the death of all her children was a judgment on her for her desertion of her father and the repudiation of her brother the Prince of Wales, whom, though she was the first to brand as a supposititious child, she came to recognise as her own brother.

On the death of the prince his offices were quickly divided amongst the expectant Whigs. The Earl of Pembroke took his office of Lord High Admiral, resigning the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland and the Presidency of the Council. But he soon found the business of the Admiralty too arduous for him, and it was put into commission, the Chief Commissioner being Lord Orford, that mercenary Russell whom the Whigs had so long been endeavouring to restore to that post. The post of Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle was separated from that of Admiral to accommodate Lord Dorset. Lord Somers was again brought into the Cabinet as President of the Council. Even the witty and wicked Lord Wharton was promoted to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland. As Marlborough and Godolphin had a great fear and distrust of Wharton, this astonished many, but was accounted for by those more in the secrets of Court by Wharton being in possession of an autograph letter of Godolphin's to the Court of St. Germains, by which that Minister, and probably Marlborough, too, was greatly in his power.

But though the Whig Junto, as it was called, were now apparently omnipotent in the Government, that was far from being the case. Harley and Mrs. Masham had the ear of the queen as much or more than ever. They were continually closeted with her, and laboured hard to disconcert all the measures of the Whigs; the fierce and implacable Duchess of Marlborough, raging with jealousy of the influence of Mrs. Masham, who had supplanted her, did perhaps still more than Harley himself, by her impolitic anger and insolence, to render the queen only the more desirous to be rid of the Marlborough pest. Nothing but the duke's continued victories made the countenance of the duchess at Court possible.

Dreadful as was the condition to which the fiendish ambition of Louis XIV. had reduced Flanders, Spain, the North of Italy, and many parts of Germany, that of his own country and subjects was still more deplorable. Trade, agriculture, everything had been shrivelled up by the perpetual demands of these incessant wars. The wealthy classes were become as poor as the rest; the middle classes were ruined; the common people were drained off to the army if men, and sank into beggary if women, children, or old people. All credit was at an end; the Treasury of the king was empty; and his chief banker, Bernard, was bankrupt, as were hundreds of the same class of men. The most violent and spasmodic exertions had been made to raise the supplies for the armies in the different fields, and still of late nothing had come but tidings after tidings of disastrous and murderous defeats. The farmers of the taxes were out in all parts of France endeavouring to extort those levies which the ordinary tax-gatherers had demanded and distrained for in vain. The people of France were under a perpetual visitation of these officers; and though they were ill prepared to pay once, had frequently to pay more than once, the same taxes being demanded by different officers, the regular tax-collector, or the agents of those to whom they were farmed out. The Ministers themselves, Chamillard, Pontchartrain, and others of the proud servants of the Grand Monarque, were compelled to make journeys through the provinces to raise money for the necessities of the State in any way that could be devised. Such was the terrible condition of France: the people starving, ruined, and hopeless, and yet the daily victims of an incessant visitation of tax-gatherers, who, whilst they failed to procure the necessary sums for the war, were actively plundering and embezzling on their own account. Nothing but the immeasurable pride of the haughty but now defeated king could cause him to hold out; and even this chance seemed scarcely left him, for the enemy was on the frontiers of France--had, in fact, already crossed them, and laid the country under contribution in Picardy, and another campaign might see them in full march on Paris.

The Duke of Marlborough had not, as usual, visited England at the end of the campaign in 1708, which did not terminate till actual winter. He continued at the Hague, his enemies said, merely to look after his own interests; for, by various modes which we have already mentioned, he was making immense sums by his command. But although we may be quite satisfied that Marlborough would never neglect his own interests, these interests equally, or perhaps more pressingly, demanded his presence in England. Harley and the Tories, he knew, were actively though secretly engaged in ruining his credit with the queen, and the conduct of his wife was not of a kind to counteract these efforts. But Marlborough's interests were inseparably linked to his reputation, and that reputation now demanded his most vigilant attention at the Hague. He saw the triumphant position of the Allies, and the miserable condition of France. It is asserted, therefore, that he and Prince Eugene had planned boldly to march, on the opening of the next campaign, into France, and carry the war to the gates of Paris. There is no more doubt that they could have done this than that the Allies did it in 1814, and again in 1815. The whole of the wars against France had been too timidly carried on. With the forces which were at William's command, the war might have been made offensive instead of defensive, and Louis have found his own territories subjected to the ravages which he had committed on those of the States and the German Empire. Now there was nothing to prevent the victorious arms of Marlborough from penetrating to the French capital and humbling the troubler of Europe, or to prevent the Allies from there dictating their own terms of peace. Nothing, indeed, but the subtle acts of Louis, and the timid policy of the Dutch.

And already Marlborough was aware that Louis, compelled to open his eyes to his critical situation, was beginning to tamper with the Dutch for a separate peace. Some of his own nearest kinsmen, and especially his grandson the Duke of Burgundy, had spoken very plainly to Louis. They had asked him whether he meant irretrievably to ruin France in order to establish his grandson on the throne of Spain. They had laid fully before him the wasted condition of France, and the rapidly-growing ascendency of the Allies. The pride of the old king was forced to stoop, and he consented to sue for peace. He could not, however, bring himself to seek this of the Allies all together, but from Holland, whom he hoped by his arts to detach from the Confederation. He despatched Bouillé, the President of the Council, to Holland, who met Buys and Vanderdussen, the Pensionaries of Amsterdam and Gouda, at Woerden, between Leyden and Utrecht, and Bouillé offered to make terms with the Dutch very advantageous to them. Vanderdussen and Buys replied that he must first of all put into their hands certain fortified towns necessary for the security of their frontier. To this Bouillé would not listen. The Dutch communicated the French proposals to their Allies, and told the French Minister that they could enter into no negotiations without them. Prince Eugene hastened from Vienna to the Hague, and he and Marlborough consulted on the propositions with Heinsius, Buys, and Vanderdussen; and it was unanimously decided that they could not be accepted.

It was now near the end of April, and the Allies saw that it would not do to allow Louis to amuse them with offers which came to nothing, when they should be marching towards his capital. Whilst, therefore, Bouillé despatched the news of the rejection of his offers to Versailles, Marlborough made a hasty journey to England, to take the opinion of his Government as to the terms of the treaty. The receipt of Bouillé's despatch at the French Court produced the utmost consternation. The king was fixed in his proud determination to offer no ampler terms; his Minister represented that it was impossible to carry on the war. There was no alternative, and at length Bouillé was instructed to amuse the Allies with the proposal to repurchase Lille and to yield up Tournay, till the Marquis de Torcy could arrive to his assistance. De Torcy, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, set off for the Hague, not openly as the French Plenipotentiary, but merely furnished with a courier's passport, and ran many risks of being seized on the way. At Brussels he had a narrow escape, but he reached the Hague late at night on the 6th of May. De Torcy now offered much more enlarged terms. Louis was willing to destroy the fortifications of Dunkirk at the instance of the Allies; to engage to send the Pretender out of France, and also not to aid him in any attempt on the throne of Great Britain, provided that provision was made for his security and maintenance. He would give up Sicily, but would retain Naples--a country entirely gone out of his power for more than two years, and in possession of Austria. He even proposed that Philip should resign Spain and the Indies; but his allies, the Electors of Bavaria and Cologne, must be provided for, as they had sacrificed their own territories in his alliance. The main difficulties appeared to be the frontier towns of Lille, New Brisac, and Hermingen, in Flanders, De Torcy contending that the surrender of Ypres, Menin, Condé, and a few inferior fortresses, would be sufficient for frontier defences. As they would give up Spain, the only obstacle in the south appeared the demand on Naples. These terms would have been received with exultation by the Allies some time ago, but they were now in a different position, and their demands were proportionate.