[Sidenote: 1704.]
[Sidenote:
May 29
------
June 9.
]
[Sidenote:
June 21
-------
July 2.
]
[Sidenote:
5-10
July -----.
16-21
]
[Sidenote:
July 23
--------
August 3.
]
We left Villeroy with his army in the Low Countries endeavouring
not very successfully to obey the orders which he had received, to
watch Marlborough. On the 29th of May, when the Duke had already
crossed the Neckar and fixed his quarters at Mondelheim, Villeroy
was still at Landau waiting for him to repass the Rhine. On the
following day, however, he took counsel with Tallard, with the
result that, while Marlborough was marching to the attack of the
Schellenberg the French armies were streaming across the Rhine
at Kehl. Tallard then moved south towards Fribourg, close to
which he received intelligence of the Elector's defeat. Thereupon
both he and Villeroy entered the defiles of the Black Forest,
uniting at Horneberg, from which point Tallard pushed on eastward
alone. Advancing to Villingen he wasted five precious days in an
unsuccessful effort to take that town, a mistake which was not
lost on Marlborough and Eugene. Called to his senses by an urgent
message from the Elector, Tallard at last marched on by the south
bank of the Danube, encamped before Augsburg on the 23rd of July,
and three days later effected his junction with the Elector and
Marsin a few miles to the north of the city.
[Sidenote:
July 26
--------
August 6.
]
Tallard was no sooner fairly on his way than Eugene, leaving a
small garrison to hold the lines of Stollhofen, hurried on parallel
with him along the north bank of the Danube, reaching Hochstädt on
the day of the enemy's junction at Augsburg. Marlborough meanwhile,
at the news of Tallard's arrival, had fallen back northward in the
direction of Neuburg on the Danube, and was lying at Schobenhausen
some twelve miles to the south of the river. Hither came Eugene
from Hochstädt to concert operations. The French and Bavarians
were united to the south of the Danube; the Allies were divided on
both sides of the river. If Marlborough fell back to Neuburg to
join Eugene, the enemy could pass the Lech and enter Bavaria; if
Eugene crossed the river to join Marlborough the enemy could pass
to the north of the river and cut them off from Franconia, their
only possible source of supplies. It was agreed that Prince Lewis
of Baden should be detached with fifteen thousand men for the siege
of Ingolstadt; and, as it was reported that the French were moving
towards the Danube, Marlborough advanced closer to the river, so as
to be able to cross it either at Neuburg or by the bridges which he
had thrown over it by the mouth of the Lech at Merxheim.
[Sidenote:
July 29
--------
August 9.
]
[Sidenote:
July 30
---------
August 10.
]
[Sidenote:
July 31
---------
August 11.
]
On the 9th of August Prince Lewis marched off to Ingolstadt, to the
unspeakable relief of his colleagues, and Eugene took his leave.
Two hours later, however, Eugene hurried back to report that the
French were in full march to the bridge of Dillingen, evidently
intending to cross the river and overwhelm his army. The Prince
hastened back and withdrew his army eastward from Hochstädt to the
Kessel. Marlborough, on his side, at midnight sent three thousand
cavalry over the Danube to reinforce him, while twenty battalions
under Churchill followed them as far as the bridge of Merxheim,
with orders to halt on the south bank of the river. Next morning
the Duke brought the whole of the army up to Rain, within a league
of the Danube, where he received fresh messages from Eugene urging
him to hasten to his assistance. At midnight Churchill received his
orders to pass the river and march for the Kessel, and two hours
later the whole army moved off in two columns, one to cross the
Danube at Merxheim, the other to traverse the Lech at Rain and the
Danube at Donauwörth. At five on the same afternoon the whole of
them were filing across the Wörnitz; by ten that night the junction
was complete, and the united armies encamped on the Kessel, their
right resting on Kessel-Ostheim, their left on the village of
Munster and the Danube. Row's brigade of British was pushed forward
to occupy Munster; and then the wearied troops lay down to rest.
The main body had been on foot for twenty hours, though it had
covered no more than twenty-four miles. Both columns had passed the
Danube and the Wörnitz, and the left column the Ach and the Lech
in addition. It is easy to imagine how long and how trying such a
march must have been; it is less easy to appreciate the foresight
and arrangement which enabled it to be performed at all.
[Sidenote:
1
August --.
12
]
The artillery, which had perforce been left to come up in the
rear of the army, was by great exertions brought up at dawn on
the following morning. A little later the Duke and Eugene rode
forward with a strong escort to reconnoitre the ground before
them, but perceiving the enemy's cavalry at a distance, ascended
the church-tower of Tapfheim, from whence they descried the
French quartermasters marking out a camp between Blenheim and
Lutzingen, some three or four miles away. This was the very ground
that they had designed to take up themselves, and it was with no
small satisfaction that they perceived it to be occupied by the
enemy. The French and Bavarian commanders had decided, after their
junction on the Lech, that their best policy would be to cross the
Danube, take up a strong position, and wait until want of supplies,
by which Marlborough had already been greatly embarrassed, should
compel the Allies to withdraw from the country. Tallard had no
idea of offering battle; Marlborough indeed did not expect it of
him, and had not dared to hope that the marshal would allow an
action to be forced on him. But now that he had the chance, the
Duke resolved not to let it slip. Men were not wanting to urge upon
him the dangers of an attack on a superior force. "I know the
difficulties," he answered, "but a battle is absolutely necessary,
and I rely on the discipline of my troops."
The two camps lay some five miles apart, the ground between them
consisting of a plain of varying breadth confined between a chain
of woods and the Danube. This plain is cut by a succession of
streams running down at right angles to the Danube, no fewer than
three crossing the line of the march between the Kessel and the
French position. The first of these, the Reichen, cuts a ravine
through which the road passed close to the village of Dapfheim;
and Marlborough, seeing that at this point the enemy could greatly
embarrass his advance, sent forward pioneers to level the ravine,
and occupied the village with two brigades of British and Hessian
infantry.
Meanwhile the enemy entered their camp, Tallard taking up his
quarters on the right, Marsin in the centre, and the Elector of
Bavaria on the left. Tallard's force consisted of thirty-six
battalions and forty-four squadrons of the best troops of France,
his colleague's of forty-six battalions and one hundred and eight
squadrons; yet notwithstanding this unequal distribution of the
cavalry, the force was encamped not as one army but as two. The
rule that infantry should be massed in the centre and the cavalry
divided on each wing was followed, not for the entire host, but
for each army independently. Thus the centre was made up of the
cavalry of both armies without unity of command; the infantry
was distributed on each flank of it; and on each flank of the
infantry was yet another body of cavalry. Yet it was an axiom in
those days that an army which ran the least risk of an engagement
should be encamped as nearly as possible according to the probable
disposition for action. This violation of rules was not unperceived
by Marlborough.
The camp itself was situated at the top of an almost imperceptible
slope, which descends for a mile, without affording the slightest
cover, to a brook called the Nebel. Its right rested on the
village of Blenheim, little more than a furlong from the Danube;
and here were Tallard's headquarters. The village having an
extended front, and being covered by hedges and palisades, could
easily be converted into a strong position. Half a mile above it a
little boggy rivulet, called the Maulweyer, which was destined to
play an important part in the next day's work, rises and flows down
through the village to the Danube. About two miles up the Nebel
from Blenheim, but on the opposite or left bank of the stream,
stands the village of Unterglau; and a mile above this, on the
same side of the stream as Blenheim, and about a hundred yards
from the water, is another village called Oberglau. This Oberglau
was the centre of the position, and Marsin's headquarters. A mile
upward from Oberglau is another village, Lutzingen, resting on
wooded country much broken by ravines. Here were the Elector's
headquarters and the extreme left of the enemy's position. The
Nebel, though no more than four yards broad at its mouth, was a
troublesome obstacle, its borders being marshy, especially between
Oberglau and Blenheim, and in many places impassable. Below
Unterglau this swampy margin extended for a considerable breadth,
while opposite Blenheim the stream parted in twain and flowed on
each side of a small boggy islet. At the head of this islet was
a stone bridge, over which ran the great road from Donauwörth to
Dillingen. This had been broken down, or at least damaged, by
Tallard; but herewith had ended his measures for obstructing the
passage of the Nebel.
[Sidenote:
2
August --.
13
]
At two o'clock on the morrow morning, amid dense white mist,
the army of the Allies broke up its camp, and passed the Kessel
in eight columns, the two outermost on each flank consisting
of cavalry, the four innermost of infantry. For this day the
stereotyped formation was to be reversed; the cavalry was to form
the centre and the infantry the wings. On reaching Tapfheim the
army halted, and the two outlying brigades, reinforced by eleven
more battalions as well as by cavalry, formed a ninth column on
the extreme left, to cover the march of the artillery along the
great road and in due time to attack Blenheim. The new column was
conspicuous from the red-coats of fourteen British battalions, with
Cutts the Salamander at its head.
Then Marlborough, who commanded on the left, directed his generals
to occupy the ground from the Danube to Oberglau, while Eugene's
should prolong the line from Oberglau upwards to Lutzingen. The
columns resumed the advance, spreading out like the sticks of a
fan, wider and wider, as the Imperial troops streamed away to their
appointed positions on the right. Fifty-two thousand men in all
were tramping forward, and fifty-two guns groaning and creaking
after them. Far in advance of all Marlborough and Eugene pushed on
with a strong escort. At six o'clock they met and drove back the
French advanced posts, and at seven they were on high ground within
a mile of the Nebel and in full view of the enemy's camp.
Meanwhile Marshal Tallard was taking things at his ease, and had
dispersed his cavalry to gather forage. Even while his vedettes
were falling back before Marlborough's escort, he was calmly
writing that the enemy had turned out early and was almost
certainly on the march for Nördlingen. The morning was foggy, no
uncommon thing on the banks of great and marshy rivers, and a
dangerous enemy was within striking distance; yet no precautions
had been taken against surprise. Then at seven o'clock the fog
rolled away, and there, in great streaks of blue and white and
scarlet, were the allied columns in full view, preparing to deploy
on the other side of the Nebel. Presently the village of Unterglau
and two mills farther down the stream burst into smoke and flame,
and the outlying posts of the French came hurrying back across
the stream. Then all was hurry and confusion in the French camp.
Staff-officers flew off in all directions with orders, signal-guns
brought the foragers galloping back, drums beat the assembly from
end to end of the line, and the troops fell in hastily before their
tents.
Tallard's eyesight was very defective, but he had no difficulty in
making out the red coats of Cutts's column, and he knew by this
time that where the British were, there the heaviest fighting was
to be expected. He therefore lost no time in occupying Blenheim.
Four regiments of French dragoons trotted down to seal up the
space between the village and the Danube, and presently almost
the entire mass of the infantry faced to the right, and the white
coats began striding away towards Blenheim itself. Eight squadrons
of horse in scarlet, easily recognisable by Marlborough as the
Gendarmerie, began Tallard's first line leftward from the village,
and other squadrons presently prolonged it to Marsin's right wing.
More cavalry supported these in a second line, together with nine
battalions, which, being raw regiments, were not trusted to stand
in the first line. Then the artillery came forward into position,
ninety pieces in all, French and Bavarian. Four twenty-four
pounders were posted before Blenheim, while a chain of batteries
covered the line from end to end.
These dispositions completed, Tallard galloped off to the left,
for Marsin had never yet commanded more than five hundred men in
the field. Marsin's cavalry was already drawn up in two lines; his
infantry and the Elector's was in rear of Oberglau and to the left
of it, and the village itself was strongly occupied. Beyond this
the left wing of cavalry stood in front of Lutzingen, and beyond
them again a few battalions doubled back _en potence_ protected the
Elector's extreme left flank.
Marlborough on his side was equally busy. Blenheim and Oberglau
were, as he saw, too far apart to cover the whole of the
intervening ground with a cross-fire, and the French cavalry on
the slope above were too remote to bar the passage of the Nebel.
Officers were sent down to sound the stream, the stone bridge was
repaired, and five pontoon bridges were laid, one above Unterglau,
the rest below it. Cutts formed his column into six lines, the
first of Row's British brigade, the second of Hessians, the third
of Ferguson's British brigade, and the fourth of Hanoverians,
with two more lines in reserve. The four remaining columns of
Marlborough's army were deployed between Wilheim and Oberglau in
four lines, the first and fourth of infantry, with two lines of
cavalry between them. The French esteemed this a "bizarre"[310]
formation, but they understood its purport before the day was over.
At eight o'clock Tallard's batteries opened fire, though with
little effect. Eugene thereupon took leave of Marlborough and
hurried away to the right, while the Duke occupied himself with
the posting of his artillery, every gun of which was stationed
under his own eye. The chaplains came forward to the heads of
the regiments and read prayers; and then the Duke mounted and
rode down the whole length of his line. As he passed a round shot
struck the ground under his horse and covered him with dust. For
a moment every man held his breath, but in a few seconds the calm
figure with the red coat and the broad blue ribbon reappeared, the
horse moving slowly and quietly as before, and the handsome face
unchangeably serene.
The inspection over, the Duke dismounted and waited till Eugene
should be ready. The delay was long, and messenger after messenger
was despatched to ask the cause. The answer came that the ground on
the right was so much broken by wood and ravine that the columns
had been compelled to make a long detour, and that formation had
been hampered by the fire of the enemy's artillery as well as by
the necessity for altering preconcerted dispositions. Marlborough
waited with impatience, for, whether he hoped to carry Blenheim or
not, every hour served to place it in a better state of defence.
The French dragoons by the river had entrenched themselves
behind a leaguer of waggons, and the infantry in the village had
turned every wall and hedge and house to good account. Moreover
Marlborough had seen how strong the garrison of Blenheim was,
having probably counted every one of the twenty-seven battalions
into it, and identified them by their colours as the finest in the
French army.
At last, at half-past twelve, an aide-de-camp galloped up from
Eugene to say that all was ready. Cutts was instantly ordered to
attack Blenheim, while the Duke moved down towards the bridges
over the Nebel. By one o'clock Cutts's two leading lines were
crossing the stream by the ruins of the burnt mills under a heavy
fire of grape. On reaching the other side they halted to reform
under shelter of a slip of rising ground. There the Hessians
remained in reserve; and the First Guards, Tenth, Twenty-first,
Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth, with Brigadier Row on foot at
their head, advanced deliberately against Blenheim. They were
received at thirty paces distance by a deadly fire from the
French, but Row's orders were, that until he struck the palisades
not a shot must be fired, and that the village must be carried
with the steel. The British pressed resolutely on, Row struck his
sword into the palisades, and the men pouring in their volley
rushed forward, striving to drag down the pales by main strength
in the vain endeavour to force an entrance. In a few minutes a
third of the brigade had fallen, Row was mortally wounded, his
lieutenant-colonel and major were killed in the attempt to bring
him off, and the first line, shattered to pieces against a superior
force in a very strong position, fell back in disorder. As they
retired, three squadrons of the Gendarmerie swept down upon their
flank and seized the colours of the Twenty-first, but pursuing
their advantage too far were brought up by the Hessians, who
repulsed them with great gallantry and recaptured the colours.
Cutts observing more of the Gendarmerie preparing to renew the
attack asked for a reinforcement of cavalry to protect his flank,
whereupon five English squadrons were ordered by General Lumley to
cross the Nebel. Floundering with the greatest difficulty through
the swamp, these were immediately confronted by the Gendarmerie,
who, however, with astonishing feebleness opened a fire of
musketoons from the saddle. The English promptly charged them sword
in hand and put them to flight, but pursuing as usual too far were
galled by the flank fire from Blenheim and compelled to retire.
Cutts's two remaining lines now crossed the Nebel for a fresh
attack on Blenheim. The enemy had by this time brought forward
more artillery to sweep the fords with grape-shot, but the British
made good their footing on the opposite bank and compelled the
guns to retire. Then Ferguson's brigade advanced together with
Row's against the village once more, carried the outskirts, but
could penetrate no further in spite of several desperate attacks,
and were finally obliged to fall back with very heavy loss. The
subordinate generals would have thrown away more lives[311] had
not Marlborough given orders that the regiments should take up a
sheltered position and keep up a feigned attack by constant fire of
platoons. Then, withdrawing the Hanoverian brigade to the infantry
of the centre, the Duke turned the whole of his attention to that
quarter.
During these futile attacks on Blenheim, the four lines of
Marlborough's main army were struggling with much difficulty across
the Nebel. The first line of infantry passed first, and drew up
at intervals to cover the passage of the cavalry; while eleven
battalions, under the Prince of Holstein-Beck, were detached to
carry the village of Oberglau. Then the cavalry filed down to the
stream, using fascines and every other means that they could devise
to help them through the treacherous miry ground. The British
cavalry had the hardest of the work, being on the extreme left,
and therefore not only confronted with the worst of the ground,
but exposed to the fire of the artillery at Blenheim. With immense
difficulty the squadrons extricated themselves and, with horses
blown and heated, was forming up in front of the infantry, when the
squadrons of the French right, fresh and favoured by the ground,
came down full upon them. The first line of the British was borne
back to the very edge of the stream, but the pursuit was checked
by the fire of the infantry. Then the Prussian General Bothmar
fell upon the disordered French with the second line of cavalry,
and drove them in confusion behind the Maulweyer. Reinforced by
additional squadrons he held the line of the rivulet and kept them
penned in behind it, for the French could not cross it, and dared
not pass round the head of it for fear of being charged in flank.
It was not until two battalions had been sent from Blenheim to ply
the allied squadrons with musketry that Bothmar retired, and some,
but not all, of the French cavalry on this side was released.
Meanwhile General Lumley had rallied his broken troops, and the
squadrons further to the right had successfully crossed the Nebel.
Still further up the water the Danish and Hanoverian cavalry had
been put to the same trial as the British, being exposed to the
fire from Oberglau and to the charges of Marsin's horse. While the
combat was still swaying at this point the Prince of Holstein-Beck
delivered his attack on Oberglau. He was instantly met by a fierce
counterattack from the Irish Brigade, which was stationed in
the village. His two foremost battalions were cut to pieces, he
himself was mortally wounded, and affairs would have gone ill had
not Marlborough hastened up with fresh infantry and artillery,
and forced the enemy back into Oberglau. Thus the passage for the
central line of the allied cavalry was secured.
It was now three o'clock; and Marlborough sent an aide-de-camp to
Eugene to ask how things fared with him. The Prince was holding
his own and no more. His infantry had behaved admirably, but his
horse had supported them but ill; and three consecutive attacks
though brilliantly begun had ended in failure. The fact was that
the Elector, with better judgment than Tallard, had moved his
troops down towards the water, and was straining every nerve to
prevent his enemy from crossing. Meanwhile Marlborough, having
at last brought the whole of his force across the Nebel, formed
the cavalry in two grand lines for the final attack, the infantry
being ranged at intervals to the left rear as rallying-points for
any broken squadron. Tallard, on his side, brought forward the
nine battalions of his centre from the second line to the first, a
disposition which was met by Marlborough by the advance of three
Hanoverian battalions and a battery of artillery. For a time these
young French infantry stood firm against the rain of great and
small shot, closing up their ranks as fast as they were broken; but
the trial was too severe for them. Tallard strove hard to relieve
them by a charge of the squadrons on their left, but his cavalry
would not move; and Marlborough's horse crashed into the hapless
battalions, cut them down by whole ranks, and swept them out of
existence.
Then Tallard's sins found him out. The cavalry of Marsin's right,
seeing their flank exposed, swerved back upon Marsin's centre; a
wide gap was cut in the French line; and Tallard's army was left
isolated and alone. The marshal sent urgent messages to Marsin
for reinforcements, and to Blenheim for the withdrawal of the
infantry; but Marsin could not spare a man, and the order reached
Blenheim too late. Marlborough was riding along the ranks of his
cavalry from right to left, and presently the trumpets sounded
the charge, and the two long lines swept sword in hand up the
slope. The French stood firm for a brief space, and then, after
a feeble volley from the saddle, they broke, wheeled round upon
their supports, and carried all away with them in confusion. Thirty
squadrons fled wildly in rear of Blenheim towards the river.
General Hompesch's division of horse by the Duke's order brought up
their right shoulders and galloped after them; and the fugitives
in panic madness plunged down the slope towards the Danube. The
great river was before them, another stream and a swamp to their
right; and there was no escape. Some dashed into the water and
tried to swim away, others crept along the bank and over the morass
towards Hochstädt, others again broke back over the slope towards
Morselingen; but the relentless Hompesch left them no rest. Those
that reached Hochstädt found themselves cut off, for another
division of fugitives had fled thither straight from the field with
Marlborough himself hard at their heels. Hundreds were drowned,
hundreds were cut down, and a vast number taken prisoners. A few
only preserving some semblance of order made good their retreat.
Meanwhile Marsin and the Elector, seeing the collapse of Tallard's
army, set fire to Oberglau and Lutzingen, and began their retreat,
with Eugene in full march after them. Marlborough thereupon
recalled Hompesch and prepared to break up this army also by a
flank attack; but in the dusk Eugene's troops were mistaken for the
enemy, so Marsin was permitted to escape, though with an army much
shaken and demoralised. But there were still the French battalions
in Blenheim, which Churchill, after the defeat of Tallard's
cavalry, had made haste to envelope with his infantry and dragoons.
Tallard had been captured while on his way to them, and the finest
troops of France were locked up in the village without orders of
any kind, helpless and inactive, and too much crowded together for
effective action. At last they tried to break out to the rear of
the village, but were headed back by the Scots Greys; they made
another attempt on the other side, and were checked by the Irish
Dragoons. Churchill was just about to attack them with infantry and
artillery in overwhelming force, when the French proposed a parley.
Churchill would hear of nothing but unconditional surrender.
Regiment Navarre in shame and indignation burnt its colours rather
than yield them, but there was no help for it; and twenty-four
battalions of infantry together with four regiments of dragoons
laid down their arms, many of them not having fired a shot. The
officers were stupefied by their misfortune, and could only
ejaculate "Oh, que dira le Roi, que dira le Roi!" Seldom has harder
fate overtaken brave men.
The day was closing when Marlborough borrowed a leaf from a
commissary's pocket-book and wrote a note in pencil to his wife,
the message and the handwriting both those of a man who is quite
tired out.
"_13th August 1704._
"I have not time to say more, but to beg you will give my duty to
the queen, and let her know her army has had a glorious victory,
Monsr. Tallard and two other generals are in my coach and I am
following the rest. The bearer, my aide-de-camp, Colonel Parke,
will give her an account of what has pass'd. I shall doe it in a
day or two by another more at large.
"MARLBOROUGH."
So Colonel Parke galloped away with the news to England, and the
broad Danube bore the same tale to the east as it rolled the
white-coated corpses in silence towards the sea.
[Illustration: BLENHEIM
2^{nd}
Aug. ------ 1704
13^{th}
_To face page 442_
]
The total loss of the Allies amounted to four thousand five
hundred killed and seven thousand five hundred wounded, of which
the British numbered six hundred and seventy killed and over
fifteen hundred wounded. No regimental list of the casualties
seems to exist, but judging from their loss in officers the Tenth,
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-sixth regiments
of Foot, and the Third, Sixth, and Seventh Dragoon Guards were
the corps that suffered most severely--the Twenty-sixth in
particular losing twenty officers, the Carabiniers ten officers and
seventy-four horses, and the Seventh Dragoon Guards six officers
and seventy-five horses. But most remarkable, and perhaps most
splendid of all, is the record of the regiments which had been
so terribly shattered at the Schellenberg. The Guards lost
their colonel and seven other officers; the two battalions of
the Royal Scots lost twelve, and the Twenty-third nine officers,
notwithstanding that the former had already lost thirty and the
latter sixteen little more than a month before. Troops that will
stand such punishment as this twice within a few weeks are not to
be found in every army.
The losses of the French and their allies in killed, wounded, and
prisoners, on the day of the battle and during the subsequent
pursuit, fell little short of forty thousand men. Marlborough
and Eugene divided eleven thousand prisoners, while the trophies
included one hundred guns of various calibres, twenty-four mortars,
one hundred and twenty-nine colours, one hundred and seventy-one
standards and other less important items, together, of course, with
the whole of the French camp.
[Sidenote:
3
August --.
14
]
The Allies lay on their arms on the field during the night after
the battle, moved on for a short march on the morrow, and then
halted for four days. The troops were very greatly fatigued, and
Marlborough was much embarrassed by the multitude of his prisoners,
so the pursuit, if pursuit it can be called, was left to the
hussars of the Imperial Army. The Elector, however, needed no spur.
On the night of the battle he crossed the Danube at Lavingen, and
destroying the bridge behind him hurried back toward Ulm. Then,
without pausing for a moment or attempting to obtain aid from
Villeroy, he hastened on by forced marches, rather in flight than
retreat, through the Black Forest to the Rhine. The sufferings
of his troops were terrible. He had carried with him a thousand
wounded officers and six thousand wounded men; and there was not
a village on the line of march that had not its churchyard choked
with the graves of those that had succumbed. The Imperial hussars
too hung restlessly round his skirts, cutting off every straggler
and bringing back multitudes of prisoners and deserters. Altogether
it was a disastrous retreat.
[Sidenote:
8
August --.
19
]
[Sidenote:
August 28
---------
Sept. 8.
]
On the 19th of August Marlborough resumed his march up the Danube,
having first recalled Prince Lewis of Baden from Ingolstadt, and
occupied Augsburg. On arrival at Ulm a force was detached to
besiege the town, while the main army marched back in three columns
by the line of its original advance. By the 8th of September the
whole force, strengthened by a reinforcement from Stollhofen, had
crossed the Rhine and was concentrated at Philipsburg.
[Sidenote:
5
Sept. --.
16
]
[Sidenote:
12
Nov. --.
23
]
Villeroy, who with his own army and the remains of the Elector's
had taken post in the Queich to cover Landau, now fell back without
pausing to the Lauter, very much to the relief of Marlborough, who
found it difficult to understand such feebleness even after such
a defeat as that of Blenheim. Landau was accordingly invested by
Prince Lewis of Baden, while Marlborough and Eugene covered the
operations. The siege lasted long, and in October Marlborough,
weary of such slow work, made a sudden spring upon Treves, gave
orders for the siege of Trarbach, and so secured his winter
quarters on the Moselle. The fall of Trarbach and the capture of
Landau closed the campaign; and the occupation of Consaarbrück at
the confluence of the Moselle and Saar showed what was to be the
starting-point for the next year. A full week before the fall of
Landau the English troops, so much weakened that their fourteen
battalions had been temporarily reorganised into seven, were sent
into winter quarters for the rest that they had earned so well.
Thus ended the famous campaign of Blenheim, a name which is
rightly grouped with Creçy, Poitiers, Agincourt, and Waterloo.
For well-nigh forty years the French arms had triumphed in every
quarter of Europe, checked indeed by an occasional reverse, such as
that of Namur, but by no failure that could be counted against the
long succession of victories. But now an English general had rudely
broken the chain of successes by a crushing defeat, with every
circumstance of humiliation. First, the French marshals had been
wholly outwitted by Marlborough's march to the Danube. Next, when
they approached him it was without an idea of offering battle, but
in full confidence that their manœuvres, added to their superior
numbers, would compel him to withdraw. Yet to their astonishment
the despised enemy had attacked them without hesitation, utterly
destroyed one complete army and driven the relics of another in
headlong flight to the Rhine. The dismay in Paris was profound;
but mighty was the exultation in England, for the nation felt that
the old traditions were right after all, and that the English were
still better men than the French.[312] "Welcome to England, Sir,"
said an English butcher to Tallard, as the captured marshal was
escorted with every mark of respect into Nottingham. "Welcome to
England. I hope to see your master here next year." It was the
revival of this feeling in all its old intensity, after a pause of
nearly three centuries, that was to win for England her empire in
East and West.
Yet amid all the noise of triumph and jubilation there were two men
who preserved their modesty and tranquillity unmoved; and these
were Marlborough and Eugene. Each quietly disclaimed credit for
himself, each eagerly welcomed praise for the other. The French
prisoners were comforted by Eugene's testimony to their gallant
resistance to his own army, while even the unfortunate officers
who had been swept into the net in the village of Blenheim found
consolation in the thoughtful and generous courtesy of the great
Duke.