which was fought August 15th, 1689, wherein the English troops distinguished themselves in so extraordinary a manner, that we find it both acknowledged and applauded even by the French historians. Towards the close of 1790, he proposed a scheme for reducing Cork, a place of great consequence in Ireland, and thought to be well fortified. He landed near Cork in the latter end of the month of September, and having observed that it was commanded by an adjacent eminence, upon his erecting a battery, the garrison capitulated, and were made prisoners of war. The very important post of Kinsale, and two strong forts that were erected to cover it, soon shared the same fate, all the troops in them being made prisoners.

The zeal which he displayed in the service of William, in opposition to his former master, has been charged on him as ingratitude; but of late years correspondence has been published, that he endeavoured to serve both, and was all the time in secret correspondence with King James, even to the extent of giving him military and naval information, and thereby betrayed the cause which he openly served.

The Earl being in waiting at court, as a lord of the bed-chamber, and having in that quality introduced to his Majesty Lord George Hamilton, and returned from court to his own house, without receiving from the King any marks of coldness or displeasure, was followed, not long after, by the same Lord George Hamilton, with a very short and surprising message, That the King had no further occasion for his services. As he had been named to attend the King in the next campaign, in quality of lieutenant-general of foot, Lionel Talmash, esq. was appointed in his stead; his troop of guards was given to the Lord Colchester; and Lord George Hamilton, who brought him the message, had his regiment of fusileers. This strange and unexpected blow was followed by one much stranger; for not long after, the Earl, by a warrant of Lord Viscount Sydney, then secretary of state, was committed to the Tower for high treason, which, at the time, was made out to be the effect of a conspiracy. His correspondence with James was doubtless suspected, but the proofs not being complete, it was thought politic to overlook his treachery.

After Queen Mary's death, King William thought fit to recal the Earl of Marlborough to his privy-council, and, on June 19th, 1698, appointed him governor to the Duke of Gloucester, with this extraordinary compliment, "My lord, make him but what you are, and my nephew will be all I wish to see him." His lordship continued from this time forward in his Majesty's favour, to the time of his death. As soon as it appeared that the death of Charles II. of Spain, would become the occasion of another general war, the King endeavoured to provide for it by sending over a body of troops to Holland, and on the 1st of June, 1700, he declared the Earl of Marlborough general of foot, and com

mander in chief of those forces, and also appointed him ambassador extraordinary, and minister plenipotentiary, to their high Mightinesses, upon which he went immediately over to Holland.

About a week after the King's death he was elected one of the order of the garter, and soon after declared captain general of all her Majesty's forces in England and abroad, and was immediately sent over to the Hague with the same character that he had the year before.

The campaign of 1702 was opened with indifferent success, but the Earl of Marlborough took the command on the 20th of June, and his presence and authority soon changed the face of affairs, and in this single campaign he made himself master of the castles of Gravenbroeck and Waerts, the towns of Velno, Ruremond, and Stevenswaert, together with the city and citadel of Liege, which last was taken sword in hand.

On his return to England, he received the highest testimonies of the sense that his sovereign and the nation had of his services, expressed in the thanks of the two houses, and in his being created a Duke.

The French had a great army in 1703, in Flanders, in the Low Countries, and in that part of Germany which the Elector of Cologne had put into their hands, and the Marshals Villeroy and Boufflers were sent to command there, assisted by Prince Tserclaes de Tilly, the Marquis de Bedmar, and other experienced officers in the Spanish service, who, depending entirely on that promptness with which the absolute power of the French King enabled him to execute all his projects, intended to act offensively, and to open the campaign with the siege of Liege, on the 18th of April, for which prodigious preparations were made, and all the necessary measures taken. Yet these were all broken by the vigilance and activity of the Duke of Marlborough, who, with the army of the allies, was in the field before them, and, on the 13th of April, invested Bonn, the usual residence of the Elector of Cologne. This siege was carried on with so much spirit, and with a train of artillery so much superior to any thing that had been seen, as advanced its progress beyond expectation. The French, in order to create a diversion, made a hasty march towards Maestricht, with a view to have surprised the army of the States, under Marshal D'Averquerque, and in their way surrounded two battalions that lay in Tongeren; but though these were made prisoners of war, yet it was after so obstinate a defence, that the Dutch army had all the time requisite to provide against a surprise, so that the enemy's design miscarried; and after the surrender of Bonn, on the 4th of May, the Duke of Marlborough rejoined the army of the allies, and obliged the enemy to retire before him, and to shelter themselves behind their lines, which were soon after forced in two places.

When measures were properly settled at home, the Duke, on the 8th of April, 1704, embarked at Harwich for Holland, where he spent nearly

a month, in adjusting all the necessary steps for executing the greatest design that had been formed within this century; which he covered so effectually, that when, in the beginning of May, he began his march for Germany, the French imagined that he intended to act upon the Moselle. He prosecuted his first success with all the diligence imaginable, and laboured to bring the enemy to a decisive battle, which the elector of Bavaria declined, by retiring under the walls of Augsburgh. At length, being joined by a new French army, under the command of Marshal Tallard, he advanced to Hochstet, where, on the second of August, he was attacked by the Allies. Prince Lewis of Baden being detached with part of the army to make the siege of Ingoldstat, the remainder consisted of about fifty-two thousand men, commanded on the right by Prince Eugene, and on the left by the Duke of Marlborough; the French and Bavarians were about sixty thousand, commanded by Marshal Tallard on the right, and on the left by the elector of Bavaria and Marshal Marsin: the attack, though bold and hazardous, was conducted with all the caution imaginable. The dispute was for some hours bloody and doubtful; but at length victory declared on the side of the Allies, the enemy losing at least half, some accounts say two-thirds, of their army, of whom thirteen thousand, and among them Marshal Tallard, with twelve hundred officers, were made prisoners, and fourteen thousand killed or drowned, besides a vast number that were lost in their precipitate retreat. After this action, by which the empire was saved, and the whole electorate of Bavaria conquered, the Duke continued his pursuit till he forced the French to re-pass the Rhine, and then Prince Lewis of Baden laid siege to Landau, while the Duke and Prince Eugene covered it; and if, through the slownes of the Germans, that siege had not lasted too long, his grace had projected an expedition on the Moselle, in order to have forced a passage that way into France: as it was, he took possession of Homburgh, Treves, &c. and had the pleasure of seeing Laudau taken on the twelfth of November, after sixty-six days open trenches.

The States-General, upon his laying before them the great advantages that would follow from a successful campaign in 1705, on the Moselle, consented, without much difficulty, to his leading their troops thither; but the Germans failing in every thing, the Duke was able to do nothing. On the other hand, the French, instead of reinforcing the army that should have opposed the Duke of Marlborough, pursued their plan of operations in the Low Countries, recovered Huy, and laid siege to Liege. His Grace, upon this, decamped on the 6th of June, and made so quick a march with his cavalry, that he obliged the enemy to raise the siege of the citadel of Liege, and soon changed the face of affairs on that side. The Duke, having recovered Huy, resolved to foree the French lines, which some

of the Dutch Generals opposed; but Marshal D'Averquerque, and the present King of Sweden, declaring positively in favour of the Duke's proposition, it was carried into execution with all the ease imaginable; by which, exclusively of the glory of the action, the French suffered a very considerable loss, and the elector of Bavaria, and Marshal Villeroy, were obliged to retire with precipitation. Yet the Duke missed his principal design, which was recovering Lorrain, Brussels, and Antwerp, by the slowness of some of the Dutch Generals.

All things being concerted for rendering the next campaign, of 1706, more successful than the former one, his Grace, in the beginning of April, embarked for Holland. On his arriving in the army, which was in the neighbourhood of Liege, he found new difficulties to struggle with. He had intelligence that the French army, under Marshal Villeroy, was perfectly complete, while, as to that of the Allies, the Danish horse absolutely insisted upon being paid their arrears before they left their winter quarters; and as for the Prussian troops, that were ordered to join them, they were at a great distance. While things were in this situation the French passed the Deulc, and relied upon the obstinacy of the Danes, which induced them to hurry on an action, and the elector of Bavaria was forced to ride post to it. They were deceived in their expectations, for the Danish horse joined the confederates on Saturday the 11th of May, and the next morning, being Whitsunday, was fought the battle of Ramillies. The French must be allowed the honour of having offered the Allies battle, which, if they had not done, the Duke would have forced them to an action the next day. It began about one, and the Duke soon observing that his right wing would not be able to act, on account of a morass, drew twenty squadrons from thence to the assistance of the left, where the Dutch cavalry had been broken by the French household troops; but the Danish horse, supported by this reinforcement, and encouraged by the presence of the Duke, broke them in their turn, and carried all before them. The Duke was twice in the ́utmost danger, once by a fall from his horse, and a second time by a cannon shot, that took off the head of Colonel Bringfield as he was holding the stirrup for his Grace to re-mount. The dispute was indeed but very short; some of the best accounts say not above half an hour, others two hours, and then the French began every where to give way; so that the rout soon became total, and their baggage being placed between the two lines of the army, not only rendered the day irrecoverable, but hindered all regularity in the retreat. The loss of the enemy was very great; about six thousand killed, nearly the same number taken, and not many fewer than these deserted: their whole train, consisting of fifty pieces of cannon, several kettle-drums, one hundred and twenty standards and colours, demonstrated the entireness of the victory. If

any further proof of this was necessary, it was given by their retreat, or rather by the precipitation of their, flight by which they abandoned a great part of Brabant without any apparent necessity; and this was so far improved by the vigilance and wisdom of the Duke, that Louvain, Brussels, Mechlin, and even Ghent and Bruges, submitted to King Charles III. of Spain without a stroke, and Oudenard surrendered upon the first summons. The city of Antwerp followed this example, and thus, in the short space of a fortnight, the duke reduced all Brabant, and the marquisate of the Holy Empire, to the obedience of King Charles.

The army of France was commanded, in 1707, by two great Princes, who were also great officers, the Elector of Bavaria, and the Duke of Vendosme. They were both esteemed enterprizing in their conduct, as they were indisputably very gallant in their persons; yet the highest honour to which they aspired, with a superior army, was to move about a little from camp to camp without being obliged to fight, to which the Duke of Vendosme would never consent.

The French, in 1708, under the Dukes of Burgundy and Vendosme, had a very fine army of one hundred thousand men; whereas, after draining all his garrisons, the Duke of Marlborough could not take the field with full fourscore. The enemy might have preserved this superiority through the campaign, if they had taken care to facilitate their junction with Marshal Berwick; but the Duke of Burgundy, misled by the advice of a few favourites, crossed the Duke of Vendosme in every thing, and having succeeded in his design of surprizing Ghent and Bruges, fancied he was able to act by his own lights, and thereupon caused the little town of Oudenard to be invested, which brought on a battle, contrary to that Prince's design, who, to avoid it, would have retired towards Ghent, and by this means the French army were attacked on the 30th of June, 1708, when they were in great disorder, and without any difficulty defeated, with the loss of four thousand killed, and seven thousand taken prisoners, and about one hundred standards and colours; and would have suffered still more in their retreat, if the Duke of Vendosme had not commanded the rear guard. But, as it was, the consequences of the defeat were very fatal, and made way for the siege of Lisle, which was invested by the Prince of Nassau, father to the late hereditary Stadtholder of the United Provinces, on the 2nd of August. This was by far the boldest undertaking of the kind during the war, and many have not scrupled to style it a very rash attempt. It is probable, that the Duke of Marlborough depended on the vigour and spirit with which Prince Engene would carry on the siege on one side, and the misunderstandings than reigned amongst the French Generals on the other, and the event shewed that he was not mistaken in his conjecture; for notwithstanding the French had, according to their own accounts, an