Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/245

A.D. 1707.] and seaport on the shores of the Baltic, had pursued, with blind and inveterate hatred, Augustus, the elector of Saxony, who had presumed to allow himself, in spite of the Swedish king, to be elected king of Poland. He had succeeded in dethroning Augustus, and setting up Stanislaus in his stead. But not contented with this, he had now pursued Augustus into Saxony, and was laying that state under contributions. Such a firebrand in that quarter was only too sure to attract the attention of Louis of France. He was just the character to turn against the emperor, who had always favoured Augustus; and accordingly his agents were at work to turn the arms of this victorious Swede against Austria, which would be the most advantageous circumstance for Louis which at this time could be conceived. Marlborough determined, therefore, to visit the Swedish king, and endeavour to avert this evil. He carried with him a letter from queen Anne, and reached his camp on the 28th of April. The eccentric monarch was in the habit of refusing bluntly to see ambassadors sent to him, when he thought they were seeking to draw him from his own self-willed schemes; but he had a great curiosity to see the hero of Blenheim and Ramillies. It was immediately, however, evident to Marlborough that those about the king were already tampered with by the French. On arriving, he first demanded an audience of count Piper, Charles's chief counsellor, but he was suffered to wait half an hour before the count came down to him, on the plea that he was then engaged. This was not what Marlborough was accustomed to, even from crowned heads themselves, and therefore, when the great Piper did appear, the duke coolly put on his hat, walked past the count without saluting him, and after having taken a turn or two, came up and addressed him. He was soon issued into the presence of Charles, whom he found in that uncouth and even sordid dress, his huge jack boots and coarse coat with huge buttons, which he never changed. Marlborough, who rightly conceived that this "madman of the north" was most easily accessible on the side of his martial vanity, addressed him in a strain of high-flown adulation, which would have disgusted a less egotistic person. "Sire," he said, "I present to your majesty a letter, not from the chancery, but from the heart of the queen, my mistress, and written with her own hand. Had not her sex prevented her taking so long a journey, she would have crossed the sea to see a prince admired by the whole universe. I esteem myself more happy in this particular, of being able personally to assure your majesty of my regard, and I should think it a greater happiness, if my affairs would allow me, to learn under so great a general what I yet want to know in the art of war."

Marlborough's flattery appeared to produce the intended effect. The rough Swede assured him that he had a great regard for the queen of England, and for the objects of the grand alliance, and should do nothing contrary to it. That he detested the domineering spirit of the French, and that no good need be expected till they were reduced to the condition they were in at the peace of Westphalia. That he was come into Saxony to demand certain satisfaction, and that when he had obtained it he should go away, and not sooner. All this passed through interpreters, for Charles either could not speak French or refused to do it. Marlborough did not, however, depend on Charles's word, he kept his eyes and ears open, and found that he was beginning to think of chastising the Czar, from which the duke drew the most satisfaction, as it showed that his mind was not turned towards affairs in the south. Marlborough, also, perceiving that the chief ministers were very poor, and that all in the camp lived in a rude style, offered Piper, Hermelion, and Cjederholm, good English pensions. Piper made some difficulty in accepting his, but Marlborough succeeded better with his wife, and all the three councillors not only accepted the pensions, but received a year's in advance. To make all sure, however, Marlborough left an English diplomatist, Sir Jeffreys, to accompany the army, a rare favour, for Charles had always refused to allow any foreign minister to attend him in the field. By this means Marlborough was kept in constant knowledge of all that passed in the Swedish camp. But notwithstanding Charles's profession, he continued to harass and alarm the emperor, until he had obtained from him all that he chose to demand, when he marched away into Poland to encounter the Czar. Marlborough himself returned by way of the courts of Prussia and Hanover to the Hague, giving everywhere the utmost satisfaction by his arrangements with Charles XII., who had made every neighbouring court uneasy, lest he might turn his erratic arms against them.

But the campaign in the Netherlands this year bore no relation to the great expectations formed of it. Louis, in the very depth of his poverty and difficulties, had found the means of paralysing the allies. When the duke mustered the confederate allies at Andulach, near Brussels, about the middle of May, he found the French forces so far preponderating, that though he had advanced to Soignies, intending to come to an engagement with them much on the same ground, the plain of Fleurus, as he hoped to have met them upon in the previous autumn, he did not think it safe to fight. The French were commanded by the duke de Vendóme and the elector of Bavaria, and they had called out all the garrisons round to swell their army. Marlborough, therefore, fell back towards Brussels, and encamped at Mildert, and the French advanced to Gemblours. The two armies lay thus still till the duke found that the French had been obliged to send off a large detachment to oppose the attempts of the duke of Savoy and Eugene in Provence, when he determined to come to action. But the French were now no longer in the mind for fighting. They decamped, and continued to retreat from one post to another with such adroitness and celerity, that Marlborough could not come up with them till they were safely encamped under the cannon of Lisle, with the Scheldt before them, and their flanks well protected by intrenchments. Marlborough pitched his camp at Helchin, and foraged under the cannon of Tournay, within a league of the enemy, but found it impossible to draw them into action. The French plan was not to fight in the Netherlands this year, but to drive the allies out of Spain, and both armies went into winter quarters towards the end of October. Marlborough, thus compelled to pass a blank campaign, set off for Frankfort to confer with the electors of Maienz, Hanover, and the Palatinate, on their future plans, after which he returned to the Hague,