CHAPTER 20.

1704.

Melancholy situation of affairs abroad.-Successes and plans of the french and bavarians.—Intended invasion of Austria. ·State of the confederate forces in Germany.— Grand design of Marlborough to lead an army into the empire. Secresy and address displayed in its execution.- His mission to Holland, and negociations with the States. Return to England.-Arrangements for the removal of Nottingham, and for the appointment of Harley and St. John to the offices of secretary of state and secretary at war.

In the preceding chapter we have seen that Marlborough quitted the continent with a determination to withdraw from the command; but on a calm and dispassionate consideration, the temporary ebullitions of spleen and vexation gave way to nobler sentiments; and the full conviction that his own presence and exertions could alone obviate the dangers which threatened the civilised world, induced him to sacrifice all personal feelings to the public cause.

Marlborough saw the year close with the most gloomy aspect. The change, occasioned by the accession of Portugal and Savoy, had suspended, not averted, the peril. The french monarch looked eagerly forward to the return of the season, in the

full confidence that a single campaign would reduce the emperor to submission, and break the bonds of that confederacy which had presumed to set bounds to his domination. In Hungary the insurrection assumed strength and consistency. Prince Ragotski, the leader of the malcontents, was joined by several powerful magnates, forced the imperial general, Sehlick, to retire to Presburg, and pouring his desultory hordes beyond the Mark, levied contributions in Moravia and Silesia, and spread alarm to the very gates of Vienna. By the possession of Landau and Brisach, the french had opened a passage over the Rhine, and secured the means of pushing an army through the Black Forest into the heart of the empire. The elector of Bavaria was master of Ratisbon, Kempten, Kaufleuren, and Gravenbach, which commanded the country between the Iller and the Inn; and of Augsburg, which afforded a passage over the Leck. He also occupied Ulm with a strong garrison, took Passau and Lintz, the keys of Upper Austria, and was prevented from reducing Nordlingen and Nuremberg, only by the advance of winter. He thus held the course of the Danube from its source to the frontier of Austria, established a communication with the french armies on the Rhine, and the rebels in Hungary, and by these advantages, joined to his central position, was enabled to awe the princes of the empire, and to penetrate almost without obstruction to the walls of Vienna. With an army of 45,000 men, he fixed his quarters in the vicinity of Ulm; from whence he could readily effect a junction with the french reinforcement,

which early in the spring was to penetrate through the rugged country bordering the sources of the Danube.

The french court had exerted their customary activity in collecting means for the accomplishment of this decisive enterprise. Besides the army in the Netherlands under Villeroy, Tallard with 45,000 men was posted on the Upper Rhine, in a situation which enabled him at once to menace the circles of Swabia, Franconia, and the Rhine, and open a passage into Bavaria. The Tyrol was exposed to the aggressions of the Italian army; and the most vigorous efforts were made to terminate the contest with the duke of Savoy, and clear the whole country between the frontier of Dauphinè and the Trentine Alps.

On the eve of so awful a crisis the defensive system of Germany was in the most deplorable state. Every exertion had been made to raise levies, and prepare Vienna for a siege; but with an impoverished country and an exhausted treasury every exertion was fruitless. Means and time were equally wanting to collect an army for the security of the austrian frontier; while the force which could be opposed to the elector of Bavaria, scarcely amounted to 20,000 men, and the army of the empire, which, under the command of the margrave of Baden, was employed to guard the lines of Stolhoffen, was equally incompetent to maintain so important a barrier of the empire. The avenues of the Black Forest were principally confided to militia and peasantry, supported by a few regulars under general Stirum. A small body of dutch

troops, amounting only to twelve battalions, was quartered at Rothweil, to cover Wirtemberg, and a few hessians and prussians were posted on the borders of the Rhine below Philipsburg.

Scarcely any hope remained of opposing the designs of France and Bavaria, and the fate of Europe appeared to depend on the first movement of their combined forces. Indeed we may with confidence assert, that if our great commander had executed his resolution of retiring from his irksome situation, the subversion of public and private liberty was inevitable.

Marlborough had duly appretiated the peril of the time, and before the close of the preceding campaign, had entered into a secret correspondence with Eugene, for the purpose of devising a remedy. He considered this as a crisis, which equally baffled the combinations of regular warfare, and the calculations of ordinary prudence; he was convinced that nothing but an effort bordering on rashness could save the emperor, and with him the members of the grand alliance, from inevitable ruin. Sensible that all which is dear to man was at stake, he not only vanquished his own irritated feelings, but infused a bolder spirit into the timid mind of Godolphin, and awakened the whigs to the dangerous consequences of their impolitic clamours for a defensive system. Having thus weakened the vexatious opposition with which he had been so long harassed, he formed the bold design of trusting the protection of Holland and Flanders to the dutch army, and leaving in his rear the numerous fortresses and forces of the enemy, to hasten with

all the disposable troops he could collect, to the quarter where the most pressing dangers were hourly accumulating.

In executing this extensive plan he had difficulties of no ordinary magnitude to encounter. He had not only to baffle the penetration of a vigilant enemy, who by a vigorous effort might have arrested his course, but to extort the consent of a divided cabinet to an enterprise of imminent peril and indefinite extent. He had also to vanquish the opposition of the dutch, and persuade them to confide in their own resources; while so large a part of the army, which had hitherto formed their protection, was detached on a perilous, a distant, and perhaps a fatal expedition.

His plan, however, was matured and carried into effect with astonishing celerity, address, and secresy. Having completed his arrangements with Eugene, he persuaded Godolphin to forward his views without disclosing their whole extent, and trusted to the chance of events for the sanction of the queen, and the acquiescence of the cabinet. The primary object was, to obtain from parliament the aids which would enable him to profit by the recent changes in Italy and Portugal, and above all to procure an augmentation of forces sufficient for the relief of Austria and the empire. In this object, by his own exertions and those of his friends, he fully succeeded. The commons, in compliance with the recommendation of the queen, not only granted subsidies to carry the alliances with Portugal and Savoy into effect, but also consented to an augmentation of 10,000 men in the Netherlands,