diminished numbers, took post on the plains of Lens. Villars was however far too closely bound by his instructions to hazard an engagement at this time. But he was on the watch to avail himself of any favorable opening for a slighter blow; and thus one day he surprised a British detachment at Arleux. Here he seems to have disregarded the courtesy, or rather the humanity, of modern warfare. For as in a letter hitherto unpublished Marlborough tells it to Godolphin : "I was so out of humour that I did not write to you by the last post. The Marshal de Villars took in our post at Arleux 400 men who were stripped naked. Notwithstanding his superiority, I hope yet this campaign to return him some of his men as naked as they came into this world.”6 Over-confidence was, amidst many merits, another and main fault of Villars. So much elated was he at this period, that in a letter to the King of France afterwards published he boasted that the lines constructed by him had brought his adversary to a NON PLUS ULTRA. In truth however, Marlborough was intent on a wide scheme of aggression. He had planned some masterly manoeuvres by which, deceiving the French Marshal and pressing through the French lines, he might in this campaign invest and reduce first Bouchain and secondly Le Quesnoy-take up his winter-quarters within the enemy's lines-and next spring, in conjunction with Eugene, march forward into the heart of France. On this the "grand project," as it was termed at the time, the Duke was now in close correspondence with Oxford and St. John. He appears after a short interval to have stifled his resent • Letter dated July 27, 1711. Coxe's Transcripts, Brit. Mus. He may even ment at the dismissal of the Duchess. have resumed his wish to join the Tories. When he set out from England it is stated by St. John that "he made us parting protestations of reconciliation and inviolable friendship." St. John, though mistrusting his motives, gave him fair words in return. "General Lumley will have been able to tell your Grace how sincerely I wish you established on that bottom which alone suits the merit and the character of a man like you. I hope never again to see the time when I shall be obliged to embark in a separate interest from you." 7 We turn with pleasure from Marlborough in the Cabinet to Marlborough in the field. Having by skilful movements drawn the attention of Villars to another quarter, he suddenly, late on the 4th of August, sent forth a vanguard under Cadogan and Hompesch, which marching all night seized a point left undefended in the enemy's lines; so that Marlborough following at the head of his whole army became possessed of this formidable barrier ere the French could interpose. Hence, throwing some pontoon bridges across the Scheldt, he passed that river, and disclosed his real object by commencing the investment of Bouchain. Prince Eugene, writing to the Duke to congratulate him on these brilliant manoeuvres, drily observes in reference to Villars's letter, "Your Highness has penetrated into the NON PLUS ULTRA.’ The reduction of Bouchain was indeed an enterprise requiring no little skill and patience, with a watchful enemy in the field and with a resolute garrison in the "Bolingbroke's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 79, 81, 87. place. To complete the circumvallation it was found necessary to construct an entrenched camp on either side of the Scheldt. "If"-so writes Marlborough to Godolphin-" we can succeed in this siege, we shall have the honor of having done it in the face of an army many thousand men stronger than we are." A different passage from his correspondence at this period shows by retrospect the vigilance and the success of his command in former years. "The Comte d'Arbach, a Lieutenant-General of the Dutch, was taken at their last forage; he is the first Lieutenant-General that has been taken of this army during the war." There is yet another transaction of this time tending greatly to the honor of Marlborough. He gave a signal proof of his reverence for men of genius and virtue, in the case of Fenélon, the Archbishop of Cambray and a still higher distinction-the author of Télémaque. The estates of the See being exposed to plunder by the presence of a hostile army, the Duke ordered a detachment of foot to guard the mazagines of corn at Cateau Cambresis, and subsequently sent them to Cambray with an escort of dragoons. How praiseworthy the contrast with the cruelty of the French chief to the prisoners at Arleux! Meanwhile, in spite of many obstacles, Marlborough was warmly pressing the siege of Bouchain. It cost him far more time than he could have wished. The batteries however began to play on the 30th of August, and on the 11th of September the troops of the garrison were dislodged from two bastions on the right and left of the lower town. Next morning they beat a parley, and after some demurs agreed to a capitulation by which they remained prisoners of war. They were still about 3,000 strong. The next step as planned by Marlborough would have been to invest Le Quesnoy. But from divers circumstances he found it impossible to proceed any further with his "grand project." There was lukewarmness in England arising from the prospect of a speedy and separate peace; there was resentment among the Dutch produced by the same cause; there was on the part of Austria the tardiness, or rather the entire absence, of its promised aid. As regards the last indeed, the Court of St. James's had for many months bitterly complained. Even at the beginning of this year St. John wrote: "We are almost tired of an ally who expects every thing and does nothing."9 In this manner shortly stated it happened that the Great Duke could neither proceed against Le Quesnoy, nor take up his winter-quarters in France. The achievements of this campaign were confined to the reduction of Bouchain. Twenty-four years later, as Bolingbroke was reviewing these transactions in the celebrated Letters on the Study of History which he addressed to Lord Cornbury, we find him urge that fact as an argument against the prosecution of the "The conquest of Bouchain being in fact the only one the Confederates made in 1712, Bouchain may be said properly and truly to have cost our nation very near seven millions sterling, for your Lordship will find, I believe, that the charge of the war for that year amounted to no less." war. In Catalonia the Duke of Noailles had prevailed so far by his sudden invasion of the province and investment of Gerona that the city yielded to his arms before the close of January, the troops of the garrison To Mr. Drummond, January 12, 1711. however not to remain prisoners of war. But with the secret hope of a separate peace the Court of Versailles resolved to run no further risk on this side, and to restrain the ardour both of Noailles and Vendome. As regards the Allies, their cause seemed to be revived by the arrival of some English regiments and of Argyle to command in Stanhope's place. Still Charles was by no means able to cope with his opponents in the open field; and the death of his brother gave a wholly new current to his hopes. Henceforth he looked to Vienna far more than to Madrid; nor was it long ere he embarked for Genoa, thence to proceed by land to his hereditary states, leaving however his Queen at Barcelona as a pledge to the Catalans of his promised return. Meanwhile his partisans at Frankfort had not been idle; and on the 12th of October, after the usual ceremonies, he was in due form elected Emperor of Germany and King of the Romans by the title of Charles the Sixth. War was waged also in a distant quarter of the globe. An expedition to reduce Quebec, which had been planned during the late administration, was carried out by the present with little vigour or success. Early in the year five regiments were withdrawn from the army in Flanders, much to Marlborough's chagrin, and with some other troops, about 5,000 in all, entrusted to Brigadier Hill, brother of the favorite. They embarked in transports with a strong squadron of ships of war commanded by Sir Hovenden Walker, and towards the middle of August entered the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Within a few days however they were assailed by a violent tempest and driven among rocks, where eight transports perished with several hundred men. Sir Hovenden at once sailed back to |