Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/199

.] and it was assaulted from three different quarters at once; on one side by the forces under the hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel, on another by those under Cohorn, and on the third by lieutenant-general Fagel. The city capitulated on the 15th, and the commander, the marquis of D'Allegré, and his garrison were conducted to Luxembourg. During the siege continually arrived the news of the successes of the elector of Bavaria and the failures of the imperial troops: and Villeroi and Boufflers advanced, took Tongres, and menaced the allies from that quarter with forty thousand men.

No sooner was Bonn reduced than Marlborough determined to prosecute his original plan of driving the French from Flanders. He now dispatched Cohorn, Spaar, and Opdam to commence operations at Bergen-op-Zoom, whilst he addressed himself to dislodge Villeroi and Boufflers from Tongres. In order to divide the energies of the French, a part of his plan was that the powerful English and Dutch fleet was to keep the coast of that country in alarm from Calais to Dieppe, and actually to make a descent on the land near the latter port.

Marlborough without delay crossed the river Yaar, close under the walls of Maestricht, and near the heights of Hautain, between the Yaar and the Meuse, and came so suddenly on the French army that it retired in confusion. Villeroi and Boufflers fled precipitately from Tongres, after first blowing up the walls with gunpowder. They did not halt till they were three leagues beyond Thys. Marlborough pursued them to Thys, and only waited for the coming up of Cohorn, who, instead of keeping Marlborough's great object, the reduction of Antwerp and Ostend, in view, diverged into the country of the Waes, and employed himself in forcing the French lines there. Marlborough, who was himself as fond of plunder as any one, attributed this object to Cohorn; for, being governor of West Flanders, he said he received the tenths of all the contributions. At length, however, Cohorn had forced the lines at the point of Callo, and baron Spaar in the country of Waes, near Stoken, and Marlborough then advanced his design against Antwerp. That city was garrisoned by Spanish troops under the marquis de Bedmar, and Marlborough intending to attack the enemy's lines with his main army on the side of Louvain and Mechlin, he detached Cohorn with his flying squadrons to amuse Bedmar on the right of the Scheldt towards Dutch Flanders, and he ordered baron Opdam to put himself, with twelve thousand men, near Antwerp, between Eckeren and Capelle, where the lines were held by the Spanish forces.

But the French resolved to cut off the division of Opdam from the main army. Boufflers, with twenty thousand men, surprised him, and the Dutch falling into confusion, Opdam believed the day lost, and fled to Breda. It was a conduct which could not have been expected from a general who displayed a long career of courage and ability. His panic, however, was groundless, and the next in command, general Schlangenburg, rallied the troops and maintained his ground through the whole day, forcing the French eventually to retire. The Dutch lost about one thousand five hundred men, but the French lost more. Both Opdam and Boufflers reaped only disgrace from the action. Opdam presented to the States-General a justification of his conduct, which, however, was not deemed satisfactory; and although Louis XIV. ordered a Te Deum as for a victory, Boufflers was censured for his conduct, and never recovered again the confidence of the king. Schlangenburg received the thanks of the States-General, but, having ventured to blame Marlborough for sending only so small a number of troops to the dangerous post of Eckeren, he was, at the instigation of Marlborough, afterwards dismissed from the service.

This miscarriage of Opdam's had greatly deranged Marlborough's plan of attack on Antwerp. Spaar and Cohorn were already near Antwerp with their united forces, but the check received by Opdam's division delayed the simultaneous advance. Villeroi lay in the path of Marlborough near St. Job, and declared that he would wait for him; but the moment the duke advanced to Hoogstraat to give him battle, he set fire to his camp and retreated within his lines with all haste. Boufflers had joined Bedmar in Antwerp, and Marlborough advanced and laid siege to Huy, which surrendered on the 27th of August. He now called a council of war to decide the plan of attack on Antwerp, and was well supported by the Danish, Hanoverian, and Hessian generals, but again found opposition from the Dutch officers and the deputies of the States, who deemed the attempt too dangerous. They recommended him to attempt the reduction of Limburg, by which they would acquire a whole province; and despairing now of accomplishing his great object, the reduction of Antwerp, this campaign—having the Dutch officers, the Dutch deputies, and the Dutch Louvestein faction all working against him—he turned aside to Limburg, and reduced it in a couple of days. This acquisition put into the power of the allies the whole country from Cologne, including Liege; and Guelders being afterwards stormed by the Prussian general Lottum, the whole of Spanish Guelderland remained theirs. There is little doubt that Antwerp might have been added too, completing a most brilliant campaign, but Marlborough's attention was distracted by affairs going on at home, where lady Marlborough was moving heaven and earth to effect a coalition between the whigs and her husband. She was doing all in her power to drive lord Nottingham from office, and to bring in whigs in the place of himself and colleagues.

When it is recollected how determinedly tory was the queen, we may conceive the arduousuess of the enterprise; but lady Marlborough knew that she could still lead the queen contrary to her own wishes. Godolphin was the strong ally of Marlborough in the cabinet, but when he ventured to recommend whigs to the queen, he was met by the bitterest reproaches. Betwixt the plans of the Marlboroughs and the prejudices of Anne, the situation of Godolphin was such as frequently drove him to the point of resigning.

Whilst this political campaign was raging in England that of the allies continued in Germany and on the upper Rhine. If Marlborough had failed of his grand aim, the reduction of Antwerp, the king of France had equally failed in his, which was to penetrate into the very heart of the empire, and make himself master of Vienna. For this purpose he ordered Vendome to march from the Milanese through the Tyrol, and co-operate with the elector of