ward the shore of the Mediterranean; forced the passage of the river Var; proceeded along the coast of Provence; and arrived, by a long and difficult march, before Toulon; while sir Cloudesly Shovel, with a formidable fleet, attended their motions, supplied the army with necessaries, and blocked up the town by

sea 1.

Unfortunately for the allies, only two hours before prince Eugene appeared with the van of the Imperialists, the French had found means to throw eight thousand men into Toulon. They had taken possession of all the eminences, that commanded the city; and the confederates, in attempting to gain these, were either repulsed with great slaughter, or obliged to acquire and maintain them at a still greater expense of blood. Discouraged by circumstances so adverse, by the bad condition of their army, and the want of concert in their operations,-and apprehensive of being surrounded by a superior force, as the French were in motion on every side,-the duke and the prince judged it. prudent to abandon their enterprise, though sensible that the hopes and fears of all Europe were suspended on its issue. But this expedition, though finally unsuccessful, was highly detrimental to France. The confederates, in their passage and return. through Provence, ruined a considerable extent of country. And the detachments drawn from the army of marechal Villars, in order to succour Toulon, obliged him to relinquish all his high projects in Germany, and to repass the Rhine, instead of advancing beyond the Danube 2.

The failure of the attempt upon Toulon however, the inactive campaign in Flanders, and the misfortunes of the confederates in Spain, furnished the enemies of the duke of Marlborough and of the lord-treasurer Godolphin with plausible pretexts for discrediting their measures; and intrigues were formed for overturning their administration. These intrigues were chiefly conducted by Mr. Secretary Harley, who had acquired a great share of the queen's confidence, by flattering her political prejudices; and who, in order to strengthen his interest, had secured the support of Mrs. Masham, a new female favourite, who had partly supplanted the duchess of Marlborough in the affections of the queen'; or rather in that ascendancy, though she did not usurp the same absolute dominion, which the duchess had long exercised over the mind of her timid mistress.

1 Voltaire, Siècle, chap. xx.-Burnet, book vii,

2 Barre.--Burnet.-Voltaire.

3 Burnet, book vii.

Apprised of the scheme that was formed for their ruin, Marlborough and Godolphin complained to Anne of Harley's intrigues : and not meeting with a satisfactory answer, they threatened to resign their places, and absented themselves from the A.D. cabinet. The council was struck with consternation. 1708. Even the secretary shrank from the load that was ready to fall on his shoulders. And the queen from fear, not regard, recalled her ministers, and dismissed Harley, whose fortune his friend St. John and others chose to follow, by resigning their places; yet not without hopes of having it one day in their power to direct the councils of their sovereign, by fostering her affection for the excluded branch of her family, and increasing her secret repugnance to the succession of the house of Hanover 1.

This division in the English cabinet, and the discontents in Scotland, occasioned by the union of the kingdoms, encouraged Louis to make an attempt in favour of the pretended prince of Wales, whom he had acknowledged by the title of James III., not doubting that he should be able, at least, to create such distractions in Great Britain as would weaken the efforts of the allies in Flanders. To that attempt he was farther incited by the eager solicitations of the Scottish Jacobites, who offered to raise and equip thirty thousand men, at their own expense, and to furnish them with provisions until they could march into England'.

In consequence of these magnificent promises, the pretender, under the name of the Chevalier de St. George, sailed from Dunkirk on board a French fleet, commanded by M. de Fourbin, with above five thousand soldiers, ten thousand musquets, and a supply of other implements of war. Their purpose was to enter the Frith of Forth, and land in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. But, through the ignorance or inattention of their pilots, they overshot their destination; and before they could repair their error, sir George Byng, with a superior English fleet, had taken possession of the frith. Seeing now no prospect of success, and afraid of the capture of his whole squadron, the French admiral returned to Dunkirk, with the loss of only one ship, but to the utter confusion of the hopes of the pretender and his adherents, both in France and Great Britain'.

1 Burnet, book vii.-See also Stuart Papers.

3 Burnet, book vii.-Duke of Berwick, vol. i.

2 Hooke's Negotiations.

♦ It is truly amusing to observe the extravagance of the Jacobite writers in speaking of this intended invasion. They confidently affirm, that if the pretender could

The English ministry, in concert with the parliament, took the most vigorous measures for repelling the intended invasion, as well as for continuing the war. And no sooner had all apprehensions of danger ceased, than the duke of Marlborough, the great pillar of the nation, and the chief support of the Grand Alliance, went over to Flanders, in order to command the confederate army, in conjunction with prince Eugene, who, in the beginning of the campaign, had headed a separate army upon the Rhine. The French army, commanded by the duke de Vendome in the name of the duke of Burgundy, though more numerous than that of the confederates, studiously avoided an action, or any hostile attempt; until by treachery, under the appearance of surprise, they gained possession of Ghent and Bruges. The duke of Marlborough, accused of being privy to this treachery, demonstrated by his conduct the injustice of the aspersion. Though not yet joined by prince Eugene's army, but assisted by the advice of that consummate general, he passed the Scheldt by a forced march, and came up with the enemy near Oudenarde. They could no longer decline a battle; and their situation and superiority in numbers seemed to ensure success to their efforts.

The Scheldt and several enclosures covered the left wing of the French. A morass lay along their front; and on a rising ground on their right, they had placed their cavalry, interlined July 11. with parties of foot. The infantry of the allies, advanN. S. ing across the morass, were received with great firmness by the French foot. But the British cavalry broke the French horse at the first shock, and the foot intermixed with the squadrons were cut in pieces on the spot. Meantime the French infantry behind the morass had stood their ground against all the efforts of the confederates. In order, however, to avoid being flanked by the British cavalry, now triumphant, they sheltered themselves in the enclosures on the banks of the Scheldt; and, although the approach of darkness prevented the defeat from becoming general, the fears and misconduct of the enemy yielded to the allies all the advantages of a complete victory. So great was the panic, that while the confederates expected nothing but a renewal of the action the next morning, the vanquished retreated by five different routes in the night;

have landed in Scotland, with only the appearance of an army, he would soon have been enabled to march into England, in spite of all opposition; and, by the junction of his English and Scottish adherents, to give law to a princess who was giving law to Europe!

and that disgraceful and disorderly flight, by breaking the spirit of the soldiers, rendered all the operations of the French timid, during the rest of the campaign. Though they preserved their cannon and baggage, their loss was great; for five thousand of their number were killed, nine thousand taken prisoners, and near six thousand deserted1.

Immediately after the battle of Oudenarde, the French were reinforced by a strong detachment, under the duke of Berwick, from the Rhine; and the confederates were joined by the prince's army, which escorted a grand convoy. This convoy the duke of Berwick, whose troops arrived first, proposed to attack; but that proposal, and every other which he made during the campaign, were rejected by the duke de Vendome, either from jealousy or timidity. In consequence of the safe arrival of the convoy, and the troops that guarded it, the siege of Lisle, the principal city in French Flanders, and the second in the dominions of Louis, the key of the kingdom, fortified with all the art of Vauban, was undertaken by the prince, while Marlborough lay encamped in the neighbourhood, to prevent the enemy from interrupting the operations, and forward the necessary supplies to the besiegers.

Few towns were ever, perhaps, more vigorously attacked or defended than Lisle; into which the marechal de Boufflers, an able and experienced officer, had thrown himself, with some of the best troops of France. The garrison consisted of about twelve thousand men; the besiegers of at least thirty thousand. None of the works were carried without an obstinate struggle; and scarcely were the assailants masters of one place, when they were driven from another, and in danger of losing all their former advantages, gained at a great expense of blood. Yet still they persevered, and by perseverance advanced their progress. Meanwhile Vendome endeavoured to distress them by cutting off their convoys. But in that service he most unaccountably failed, as well as in all his attempts to relieve the place; so that Boufflers, after a gallant defence of two months, was obliged to surrender Lisle. He retired into the citadel, which was also forced to capitulate; and Ghent and Bruges were recovered before the close of the campaign3.

1 Feuquieres.-Burnet.-Voltaire.-Duke of Berwick, vol. i.

2 Duke of Berwick, vol. i. As none of these proposals were embraced, it is impossible to say, what success might have attended them; but military men, in general, seem to be of opinion, that most of the measures suggested were highly worthy of being adopted.

3 Burnet, book vii. The duke of Berwick particularly investigates the causes of

No event of importance occurred in Germany during the summer. The electors of Hanover and Bavaria, who were opposed to each other on the upper Rhine, not being in a condition to act with effect in the field, employed themselves chiefly in fortifying their lines; a precaution suggested by a mutual consciousness of weakness'. On the side of Italy, where much was expected, some advantages were gained by the allies, but nothing signal was performed. The duke of Savoy, who, beside his native troops, had in his army twenty thousand men in the pay of Great Britain and the states, had formed great and extensive projects. He intended to pass through the territories of the Swiss, join the troops of the empire in Alsace, and penetrate into France on that side. But he was so vigorously opposed by Villars, that he was happy in having opened a passage into the enemy's country, and secured his own dominions against the future invasions of the French on the most exposed side, by making himself master of Exilles, La Perouse, and Fenestrelles 2.

The confederates were yet less successful in Spain. There the house of Bourbon had two armies in the field, on the side of Catalonia; one under the duke of Orléans, another led by the duke de Noailles, and a third army in Estremadura, commanded by the marquis de Bay. Though Charles III. had not a sufficient force to enable him to face the duke of Orléans in the field, the latter was prevented, by the unprovided condition of his army, from making such progress as might have been feared. He took, however, Tortosa in the summer; and Denia and Alicant, in the province of Valencia, also fell into the hands of the French. The duke de Noailles, opposed by the prince of Darmstadt, performed nothing of moment, except furnishing his troops with provisions at the expense of the Catalans; and the season of action, on the side of Portugal, was passed in a state of absolute inactivity3.

The operations by sea were attended with very considerable success on the part of the confederates. Sir John Leake, having carried to Catalonia the princess of Wolfenbuttel, whom

the capture of Lisle. And it appears, if his advice had been followed, that the convoys of the confederates would have been effectually cut off, and perhaps prince Eugene, and even the duke of Marlborough, defeated, by the assistance of troops that might have been drawn out of the neighbouring garrisons, without their knowledge, to reinforce an already strong army, by which they were surrounded; and which could with such reinforcement, have amused the one, while it gave battle to

the other.

-Burnet, book vii.

1 Barre, Ilist. d'Allemagne, tome x.—

2 Burnet, ubi sup.-State of Europe, 1708.

3 Hist. d'Espagne, tome ii. Mem. de Noailles, tome ii.