CHAP.

VIII.

1710.

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 rendered him scarcely equal. The Allied force was almost exactly equal in battalions and squadrons it consisted of one hundred and fifty-five battalions and Coxe,v.186. two hundred and sixty-one squadrons; but the number of men was less than that of the French, being only eighty thousand.1

1 Hist. de

Marib. iii.

195-198.

Rousset, ii.

291, 292.

36.

illustrative

of the chiv

alrous character of

the age.

During the progress of this siege, two events occurred Anecdotes singularly characteristic of the chivalric feelings which still lingered in the breasts of the warriors on either 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 partisan 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

Mém.

iv. 313-320. Hist. de Marlb, iii. 194-198.

d'Avrigny, 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! 2 Strange mixture of ferocity and

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.

Villars broke up from the vicinity of Cambray on the 21st May, and, moving by Artois across the Scarpe into the plain of Lens, advanced in great strength towards 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

lito" Villars, on his side, wrote to the Duke of Maine: "I am going to play a great game. I hope to find success 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 journey. If they do not do me that honour, I will seek them, and attack them, at they are not intrenched to the teeth. I will undertake noching contrary to the rules of good sense; but if I can Aqy my claws upon them, I shall not fail to do so.”1

Yer there was no battle The lustre of Blenheim and Nawas played round Marlborough's bayonets, and wave of Dain tripled the effective force of Villars advanced on the 1st June,

པར: ོག་ན་ནི ཙཱ

བར་ ' ཝེ, 'ཏེར། ཞ་དང་ ན་

ལལ སོ ་ ་ ་ ་ ད་ ་འ་ ་ །

CHAP.

VIII.

1710.

May 26,

and June

2, 1710.

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 I can't say I have the same prophetic spirit I used to have; for in all the former actions I never did doubt of success, we having had constantly the great blessing of being of one mind. I cannot say it is so now, for I fear some are run so far into villanous faction, that it 1 Marlborough to would more content them to see us beaten ; but if I live, Godolphin, I will be watchful that it shall not be in their power to do much hurt. The discourse of the Duke of Argyll is, Marlbothat when I please there will then be peace. I suppose Duchess, his friends speak the same language in England; so 1710. Coxe, that I must every summer venture my life in a battle, Berwick's and be found fault with in winter for not bringing home cd. Petitot. peace. No, I wish for it with all my heart and soul.” 1 Villars having retired without fighting, the operations of the siege were resumed with redoubled vigour. On Fall of the 16th June, signals of distress were sent up from the June 26. town, which the French marshal perceived, and he made in consequence a show of returning by the right bank of the Scarpe, to interrupt the siege; but his movements came to nothing. Marlborough, to counteract his manœuvres, repassed the Scarpe at Vitry, and took up a position directly barring the line of advance of the

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.

rough to the

June 12,

v. 197.

Mem. 161

39.

Douai,

CHAP.

VIII.

1710.

1 Marlborough to Godolphin, June 26, 1710. Des.

set, ii. 294. Hist. de Marlb. iii.

206.

French marshal, while Eugene prosecuted the siege. Villars again retired without fighting. On the 19th the Prince of Orange made an assault, under the eyes of Eugene and Marlborough, on two ravelins and a halfmoon; but, after a desperate struggle, he was repulsed with the loss of seven hundred men. The attack was renewed by the Prince on the 24th, and the breach carried in spite of the explosion of several mines, which blew up with terrific effect. The Prince of Anhalt, on the same day, carried another ravelin. On the 22d the fort of Scarpe was breached, and the sap was advanced to the counterscarp of the fortress, the walls of which were violently shaken; and on the 26th, Albergotti, who had no longer any hope of being relieved, and who saw prev. 54. Rous- parations made for a general assault, capitulated with the garrison, now reduced to four thousand five hundred men. This siege was the most bloody, next to that of Lille, of in the war, for it cost the Allies eight thousand men.1 On the surrender of Douai, the Allied generals The Allies intended to besiege Arras, the last of the triple line of fortresses which on that side covered France, and between which and Paris no fortified place remained to arrest the march of an invader. On the 10th July, Marlborough crossed the Scarpe at Vitry, and, joining Eugene, their united forces, nearly ninety thousand strong, advanced towards Arras. But Villars, who felt the extreme importance of this last stronghold, had exerted himself to the utmost for its defence. He had long employed his troops on the construction of new lines of great strength on the Crinchon, stretching from Arras to the Somme, and he had here collected nearly a hundred thousand men, and a hundred and thirty pieces of cannon. This position was selected with great

40.

are unable to reach Arras, but besiege Bethune, July 15.

any