CHAP. tremely doubtful, and thousands of men must, at all events, have been sacrificed.* VIII. 1710. 34. of Douai. Douai, which was immediately invested after this Description success, is a fortress of considerable strength, in the second line which covers the French province of Artois. Less populous than Lille, it embraces a wider circuit within its ample walls. Its principal defence consists in the marshes, which, on the side of Tournay, where the attack might be expected, render it extremely difficult of approach, especially in the rainy season. Access to it is defended by Fort Scarpe, a powerful outwork, capable of standing a separate siege. Douai was taken by Louis XIV. in 1667, and secured to him by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The walls are irregular, and several old towers are of ancient construction; but the ditch was deep and full of water, and the covered-way in excellent condition. The Scarpe, which takes its rise some leagues from Arras, flows through its walls, and augments the difficulty of attack, because its inundations are so extensive as to render very long lines of circumvallation necessary. The garrison consisted of 1 Hist. de eight thousand men under the command of the Marquis 191, 192. Albergotti, an officer of the highest talent and bravery; 185, 186. and under him were the renowned Valory, to direct the Rousset, ii. engineers, and the not less celebrated Chevalier de Marlb. iii. Coxe, v. 291. Jaucourt, to command the artillery.1 From a fortress of *"In my last I had but just time to tell you we had passed the lines. I hope this happy beginning will produce such success this campaign as must put an end to the war. I bless God for putting it into their heads not to defend their lines; for at Pont-à-Vendin, when I passed, the Marshal d'Artagnan was with twenty thousand men, which, if he had stayed, must have rendered the event very doubtful. But, God be praised, we are come without the loss of any men. The excuse the French make is, that we came four days before they expected us.”—Marlborough to the Duchess, 21st April 1710; CoxE, ix. 184. such strength, so defended, the most resolute resistance might be expected, and no efforts were spared on the part of the allied generals to overcome it. CHAP. VIII. 1710. 35. ment and Villars tries May 11. The investment was completed on the 4th, and the trenches opened on the 5th May. On the 7th, the Its investhead of the sap was advanced to within two hundred siege, which and fifty yards of the exterior palisades: but the to raise, besiegers that night experienced a severe check from a vigorous sally of the besieged with twelve hundred men, by which two English regiments were nearly cut to pieces. But, on the 9th, a great train of artillery, consisting of two hundred pieces, with a large supply of ammunition, arrived from Tournay; on the 11th, the advanced works were strongly armed, and the batteries were pushed up to the covered-way, where they thundered across the ditch against the rampart. The imminent danger of this important stronghold now seriously alarmed the French court; and Marshal Villars, who commanded their great army on the Flemish frontier, received the most positive orders to advance to its relief. By great exertions, he had now collected one hundred and fifty-three battalions and two hundred and sixty-two squadrons, which were pompously announced as mustering one hundred and sixty thousand combatants, and certainly amounted to more than ninety thousand. The best generals in France were under his orders. Marshal Berwick and Marshal Montesquieu aided him in his labours, to which the severe wound he had received at Malplaquet ren- 1 Hist. de dered him scarcely equal. The allied force was almost 195-198. exactly equal in battalions and squadrons: it consisted 186. Rousof one hundred and fifty-five battalions and two hun- 292. dred and sixty-one squadrons;1 but the number of men Marlb. iii. Coxe, v. set, ii. 291, CHAP. VIII. 1710. 36. illustrative racter of the age. was less than that of the French, being only eighty thousand. During the progress of this siege, two events occurred Anecdotes singularly characteristic of the chivalric feelings which of the chiv- still lingered in the breasts of the warriors on either alrous cha- side. The camp equipage of Prince Eugene, comprising his whole plate and presents recently received from the King of Prussia, valued at £10,000 sterling, fell into the hands of a French partizan from Namur, who brought the rich booty safe into that fortress. But as soon as Louis XIV. heard of the circumstance, he ordered the whole to be restored to Eugene, which was accordingly done. This act was the more magnanimous that Eugene was connected, by his mother's side, with the French court, and had only left the French king's service because he had been refused a regiment. And the Cardinal Bouillon, the nephew of Turenne, and friend of Fénélon, wearied of his long disgrace at the French court, set out from Arras, and sought refuge in Marlborough's camp, where he was met by his uncle, the Prince of Auvergne, at the head of five-and-twenty squadrons, and most hospitably received! Strange mixture of ferocity and d'Avrigny, courtesy, of determination to ruin, and yet anxiety to save, which in every age has distinguished the manners of chivalry, and softened the horrors of war by the graces and benevolence of peace.1 1 Mém. iv. 313-320. Hist. de Marlb. iii. 194-198. 37. Villars broke up from the vicinity of Cambray on the Both armies 21st May, and, moving by Artois across the Scarpe into other battle. the plain of Lens, advanced in great strength towards expect an Douai. The soldiers were all provided with bread for four days; and in his letters to his friends he expressed his determination to give battle rather than see Douai fall. Marlborough and Eugene immediately made the most vigorous preparations to receive him. Thirty battalions only were left to prosecute the siege; twelve squadrons were placed in observation at Pont-à-Rache; and the remainder of the army, about sixty thousand strong, was concentrated in a strong position on the left bank of the Scarpe, extending from Vitry on the left to Montigny on the right, so as to cover the siege, on which all the resources of art, so far as the short time would admit, had been lavished. Everything was prepared for a mighty struggle. The whole guns were mounted on batteries four hundred paces from each other; the infantry was drawn up in a single line along the intrenchment, and filled up the entire interval between the artillery; the cavalry were arranged in two lines, seven hundred paces in rear of the foot-soldiers. It seemed another Malplaquet, in which the relative position of the two armies was reversed, and the French were to storm the intrenched position of the Allies. Every man in both armies expected a decisive battle; and Marlborough, who was heartily tired of the war, wrote to the Duchess that he hoped for victory, which should at once end the war, and restore him to private life.* Villars, on his side, wrote to the Duke of Maine : "I am going to play a great game. I hope to find suc * "I hope God will so bless our efforts, that if the Queen should not be so happy as to have a prospect of peace before the opening of the next session of parliament, she and all her subjects may be convinced we do our best here in the army to put a speedy and good period to this bloody war."-Marlborough to the Duchess, May 12, 1710; Desp. "I hear of so many disagreeable things, that make it very reasonable, both for myself and you, to take no steps but what may lead to a quiet life. This being the case, am I not to be pitied that am every day in danger of exposing my life for the good of those who are seeking my ruin? God's will be done. If I can be so blessed as to end this campaign with success, things must very much alter to persuade me to come again at the head of the army.”—Marlborough to the Duchess, 19th May 1710; CoxE, v. 191, 192. CHAP. VIII. 1710. CHAP. VIII. 1710. 1 Villars' cess in the heel, since I have it not in the hand. The newspapers give the enemy forty thousand men more than us, so that I hope they will spare us the half of the Mem. ii. journey. If they do not do me that honour, I will seek them, and attack them, if they are not intrenched to the teeth. I will undertake nothing contrary to the rules of Rousset, ii. good sense; but if I can lay my claws upon them, I 111, 112. Hist. de Marlb. iii. 203-205. 292-294. 38. tires with shall not fail to do so."1 Yet there was no battle. The lustre of Blenheim Villars re- and Ramilies played round Marlborough's bayonets, and out fighting. the recollection of Turin tripled the effective force of Eugene's squadrons. Villars advanced on the 1st June, with all the pomp and circumstance of war, to within musket-shot of the allied position; and he had not only the authority, but the recommendation, of Louis to hazard a battle. He boasted that his force amounted to a hundred and sixty thousand men. But he did not venture to make the attack. Berwick concurred with Villars in thinking that the allied position was impregnable, and that nothing could be done but to prevent the enemy from making other conquests after the fall of Douai. To Marlborough's great regret, the French retired without fighting; and the English general, at the age of threescore, was left to pursue the fatigues and the labours of a protracted campaign, in which, for the first time in his life, he was doubtful of success, from knowing the malignant eyes with which he was regarded by the ruling faction in his own country. "I long," said he, "for an end of the war, so God's will be done. Whatever the event may be, I shall have nothing to reproach myself with, having with all my heart done my duty, and being hitherto blessed with more success than was ever known before. My wishes and duty are the same; but '' |