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208 The duke, thus deceived, was unable to carry out his enterprise, and fell back instead of attacking Villars. In his contempt of the prince of Baden, before retreating he sent a trumpet to Villars, saying, "Do me the justice to believe that my retreat is entirely owing to the failure of the prince of Baden; but my esteem for you is still greater than my resentment of his conduct." But though forced to this mortifying expedient, Marlborough saw that he could quickly vindicate his reputation by uniting with the army of the Netherlands, and carrying operations against the enemy there. General Auverquerque had not been able to stand his ground. The French had invested and taken Huy, and Villars had commenced the siege of Liege. Marlborough marched to Triers, where he called a council of war, and it was resolved to drive Villars from the walls of Liege. On the 19th of June the army commenced its march, and proceeded with such expedition that it passed the Meuse on the 1st of July. Villars, on Marlborough's approach, abandoned Liege and retired to Tongres, and thence retreated behind his lines, which extended to Marche aux Dames on the Meuse, along the Mehaigne as far as Lenuève. No sooner did Marlborough come up with Auverquerque than he determined to recover Huy, and sent general Scholten, who reduced it in a few days. To wipe out as quickly the impression of his retreat from the Moselle, he dispatched general Hompesch to the States-General, to demand permission to attack the French lines, which was granted him.

Marlborough then detailed his plan of operation in two successive councils of war, where it was generally approved, but still opposed as rash by some of the Dutch generals. The enemy had manned his lines with a hundred battalions and forty-six squadrons; the forces of the confederates were something more than that in amount, and in order to weaken the enemy on the point where he contemplated his attack, the duke directed Auverquerque to make a feint, as though he were about to attack the lines on the Mehaigne. The ruse succeeded. The French weakened their lines where Marlborough really contemplated the attack, in order to strengthen them in the direction of Namur. All being ready, Marlborough marched in the night betwixt the 17th and 18th of July, to force the lines at Heyselem, the castle of Wauge, and the villages of Wauge, Neerhespen, and Oostmalen. This succeeded, and after some hard fighting, the duke extended his forces within the French lines as far as Tiylemont, capturing the marquis D'Alegre, count Horne, a major-general, two brigadier-generals, and many other officers, besides ten cannon, and numerous standards and colours. In consequence of this defeat, the elector of Bavaria and marshal Villeroi retreated across the Geete and the Dyle in all haste. Marlborough marched after them, capturing twelve hundred prisoners who could not keep up with the retreating force, and on the 15th was at Mildert, whence he marched the next day to Genappe, and thence to Fischermont, driving in the enemy's post as he advanced. He was now on ground destined to become much more famous in our time. On the 17th Auverquerque had his headquarters at Waterloo, the enemy lying in their front across the roads to Brussels and Louvain, near the wood of Soignies. Here Marlborough proposed to come to a general engagement with them, which would probably have given Waterloo a great name before the duke of Wellington knew it, but here again he was thwarted by the Dutch officers and deputies, and most determinedly by general Schlangenburg. The duke, indignant at this dastardly obstruction of his operations, wrote very plainly to the States-General, complaining of the uselessness of pursuing the campaign if they had yet no confidence in his prudence and military talent. To secure his complaints reaching the Dutch people, he took care that the letter was published in the papers at the Hague, and that similar complaints reached his own court and government. These being made public, roused a storm of indignation against the meddling Dutch field-deputies, who presumed to justify their conduct to the States-General in several letters. But the indignation of both England and Holland soon roused the States-General to a sense of their folly. Hearing that the queen was about to dispatch the earl of Pembroke, the president of the council, an envoy extraordinary to the Hague, to remonstrate on their suicidal conduct, the States-General hastened to apologise to the duke, and to remove Schlangenburg from his command. The opportunity, however, of a decisive blow on the French had been missed, and little was achieved this campaign.

Marlborough, at the earnest entreaty of the emperor, made a journey to Vienna, to concert fresh plans for the war. On his way he was received with great honour by the elector palatine, the authorities of Triers, the magistrates of Frankfort, where he also met the recreant prince of Baden. He was most cordially received at Vienna, where his son-in-law, the earl of Sunderland, was ambassador; and the emperor, receiving hopes of a substantial loan from England, the determination was made to continue the war with vigour. The emperor now conferred on Marlborough the lordship of Mindelheim in Suabia, which was erected into a principality of the empire. Marlborough obtained a promise that prince Eugene should be better supported in Savoy, otherwise he was very poorly supplied with means of defence, much less of aggressive action. In returning the duke again visited Berlin and Hanover, where he endeavoured to excite a more active interest in the great contest; and on the 14th of December he reached the Hague, where the States-General endeavoured to make up their past deficiencies by high personal honours, and promised to furnish an additional ten thousand men to the army of Eugene in Savoy.

On the Upper Rhine, the prince of Baden this summer had the opportunity of showing whether he was a Marlborough or not. Villars passed the Rhine at Strasburg in August, besieged and took Homburg, in the face of the great imperial army under the prince. The prince compelled him to retire, and forced his lines at Hagenau, took Hagenau and Drusenheim, but there his operations ceased, though he had a force amply capable of coping with Villars, and though the emperor endeavoured to arouse him by severe expostulations to the endeavours that were expected from him. The Marborough that he envied in another was not in himself.

In Italy prince Eugene was left to struggle with a handful of men against numerous French forces under the duke