spirit, however, was not subdued: for they still rallied, and renewed the charge several times, though without making any considerable impression. Glowing with zeal to encounter an enemy worthy of their valour, the allied cavalry moved forward with redoubled ardour, equal in spirit, but superior in numbers, and drove this intrepid and distinguished body behind the rivulet of Camp Perdu.

Before this charge took place, the prince of Hesse had watched with eager impatience the proper moment to act. Observing Lord Orkney's advance, and Rantzau's manœuvre upon the flank of the French guards, he pushed forward in column, passed the redans, and wheeling to the left, took the right of the hostile infantry in flank. This daring manœuvre had the desired effect; the enemy crowded to their right, and were again attacked by the prince of Orange, who had reoccupied the intrenchments with little resistance.

While the Marquis de Valière and his noble comrades rallied the household troops, and the rest of the cavalry on the plain, Boufflers cast an anxious and scrutinising eye over the field of battle. He beheld his centre pierced, his right dislodged, the communication with his left cut off, and the ablest officers under his command killed or wounded. Still, however, his gallant spirit was unwilling to recede, till he received advice that Legal, who commanded the left, was in full retreat with his cavalry, and about 50 battalions under Puysegur; he, therefore, reluctantly ordered a general retreat in the direction of Bavai. D'Artagnan* marched off in close columns through the woods; Boufflers crossed the Hon at Taisniere and the neighbouring hamlet; Luxembourg covered the rear with the reserve. Beyond the woods, on the plain in front of Bavai, the infantry and cavalry rejoined, and after halting to collect the stragglers, and break down the bridges, passed the Honeau in the vicinity of that town. Their left withdrew towards Quevrain, and effected their retreat with

* This brave general, Pierre d'Artagnan, a veteran in the service of Louis XIV., had three horses killed under him in the battle, and was deservedly raised to the rank of marshal. Having, soon after this engagement, by the death of a relative, succeeded to the title of Montesquiou, he is from that time distinguished as marshal Montesquiou, a change of title which has occasioned some confusion in military annals. - Dubois, Dict. de la Noblesse Française — Art. " Montesquiou."

little loss, because the allies were too much exhausted and reduced to pursue them in force. They passed the Honeau at Audrignies and Quevrain, where a brigade of their infantry was posted. In the course of the night they traversed the Ronelle, and gradually re-assembled at a camp between Quesnoy and Valenciennes. This has been justly considered as a masterly retreat, and was applauded by Eugene and Marlborough themselves.

The allied forces, exhausted with fatigue, halted near the field of battle on the plain, stretching from Malplaquet beyond Taisniere. The engagement being so desperate, anl little quarter given on either side, not more than 500 prisoners were taken by the allies, except those who were left wounded on the field, and who amounted to about three thousand. Few cannon or colours were captured, and the victory was only manifested by the retreat of the French, and the subsequent investment of Mons.

The respective losses in this desperate engagement have been, as usual, erroneously stated. Villars, with his wonted exaggeration, estimates the number of killed and wounded at 35,000 on the side of the allies. The official accounts, however, return, of infantry alone, 5,544 killed, and 12,706 wounded and missing, making a total of 18,250; and among these 286 officers killed, and 762 wounded. But when we take into account the loss of the cavalry, and consider the obstinate resistance of the French behind their intrenchments, we may conclude that the killed and wounded on the side of the confederates did not fall short of 20,000 men.*

Of course the French endeavour to extenuate their loss. In one of his letters to the king, Villars limits it to 60C0 ment, and the highest estimate by other French writers gives

The battle of Waterloo was, in proportion to the number of the victors, still more destructive. According to Siborne, (Waterloo, ii. 352. 519.) there were in Wellington's army at Waterloo 69,686 men, and the loss was 22,469, or one in three nearly; at Malplaquet, it was one in five; at Talavera, one in four,- 5000 being killed and wounded out of 19,800 engaged.-ED.

We quote this passage from the valiant and skilful, but gasconading marshal: "Si Dieu nous fait la grace de perdre encore une pareille bataille, votre majesté peut compter que ses ennemis sont detruits: enfin, comme me le manda M. de Voisin, ce qui avoit paru une bataille perdue, devint une victoire glorieuse, après qu'on en eut connu les circonstances; puisque nous ne perdîmes pas six mille hommes."- Mém. de Villars,

only 8137 killed, wounded, and prisoners; but, from a comparison of their own authorities, we may reasonably calculate their loss at not less than 14,000 men, exclusive of deserters.

By all the accounts, both of themselves and their opponents, the French displayed prodigious gallantry, and Marlborough himself allows that they fought with great spirit, and made a most obstinate resistance. Though we cannot say with Villars, that "the enemy would have been annihilated by such another victory," or with Boufflers, "that the French officers performed such wonders as even surpassed human nature," yet we do not wish to derogate from their valour and intrepidity. Nor ought we, on the other hand, to withhold a candid eulogium of the two confederate generals, and of the brave troops who acted under them, extracted from the letter of a French officer of distinction, written soon after the battle. "The Eugenes and Marlboroughs ought to be well satisfied with us during that day; since till then they had not met with resistance worthy of them. They may say, with justice, that nothing can stand before them; and, indeed, what shall be able to stem the rapid course of these two heroes, if an army of 100,000 of the best troops, posted between two woods trebly intrenched, and performing their duty as well as any brave men could do, were not able to stop them one day? Will you not then own with me, that they surpass all the heroes of former ages ? "

In considering the consequences of this eventful day, we cannot but applaud the foresight of Marlborough, who before the opening of the campaign had so earnestly pressed for a powerful augmentation of troops. He was conscious that the French were prepared to make their final effort in the Netherlands, and that he should have to contend with a far greater force than he had yet encountered. The battle

proved that his calculations were well founded, and that an additional number of 10,000 men would have more contributed to the advancement of peace, than all the efforts of the ablest negotiators in Europe. The allies, indeed, remained masters of the field; but the laurels of the two great commanders were deeply tinged in blood, and the result of the campaign was far from being commensurate with the sacrifice of so many valuable lives.

Marlborough and Eugene exposed themselves no less on

this than on all other occasions, leading the columns into the midst of the fire in the thickest of the danger. "Although," says a German officer, in his letter, "no appearance of jealousy was ever observable between these two accomplished generals, yet on this day it was remarked that each endeavoured to surpass the other in conduct and valour."

;

Among the persons of rank who shed their blood upon this occasion, the allies lamented Lieut.-general Baron Spaar, Count Oxenstiern, Week, Tettau, and General Goor Brigadier Lallo, and Colonel Lord Tullibardine. Among the wounded, besides Prince Eugene, we find Lieuts.-general Spaen and Webb, Majors-general Wackerbach and Hamilton; Brigadiers Cronstrom and Mey, and Colonel Sir John Pendergast.

Villars and Boufflers emulated their two great antagonists, and vied in exposing their persons. Villars was severely wounded in the front rank, and Boufflers, like Marlborough, miraculously escaped. The French lost the Marquis de Chemerault, Baron Pallavicini, Count de Beuil, Chevalier d'Ervi; Colonels Chardon and Moret of the guards; the Marquis de Charost, colonel of the regiment of Saillant d'Estain; Count Moncaut d'Autrey, colonel of La Sarre, and Colonel Steckemberg of Alsace. Among the wounded, besides Marshal Villars, were the young pretender, the Duke de Guiche, M. de Tournemine, Albergotti, Courcillon, Count Angeunes, the Duke de St. Agnan, the Marquis de Zele, and the Marquis de Gondrin.*

On

• Mr. Coxe has bestowed great pains in the composition of this chapter, and consulted, as appears from his list, every authority extant, for correct and complete information. It is not easy to make a great battle intelligible; but, in this instance, there is no ground for complaint of obscurity. Of all the conflicts in which Marlborough had been engaged, that of Malplaquet was most ably and obstinately contested; and of its various incidents, - preliminary, intermediate, and conclusive, — the historian has presented a faithful and masterly representation. both sides the generals were first rate in science, valour, and experience; and no blunders appear to have been committed, unless it were in the impetuous advance of the prince of Orange. But the results bore no proportion to the magnitude of the conflict; and Marlborough himself seems, from the details of the next chapter, to have sickened over the profitless waste of life. The French, though beaten and compelled to retire, suffered less than the allies, owing to the strength of the latter's position. In England there was no exultation over so equivocal and

CHAP. LXXXIII.—CAPTURE OF MONS. 1709.

We have found only two notes from the victorious general written on the field of battle, and in these we do not recognise that high tone of exultation which appeared in those announcing the victories of Blenheim, Ramilies, and Oudenard. The first of these forms part of a letter to the duchess, begun while his mind was occupied in those skilful manœuvres which brought on the engagement. It appears that his wife, in consequence of a violent quarrel with the queen, had importuned him to remonstrate with her majesty on her harsh behaviour, and that the duke, having declined this irksome office, from a conviction that it would be productive of no advantage, her importunities and bitter reproaches, for what she called his unkind refusal, drew from him this reply, which indicates great anxiety of mind. He seems, indeed, to have been more affected by this domestic misunderstanding, than by any apprehension of personal danger or risk of military fame.

66 * * *

I am obliged to you for the account you give of the building of Blenheim in yours of the 21st, and the farther account you intend me after the duke and duchess of Shrewsbury have seen what is done. You will see by my former letters, as well as by this, that I can take pleasure in nothing as long as you continue uneasy and think me unkind. I do assure you, upon my honour and salvation, that the only reason why I did not write was, that I am very sure it would have had no other effect than that of being shown to Mrs. Masham, by which she would have had an opportunity of turning it as she pleased; so that when I shall speak to the queen of her harsh behaviour to you, she would have been prepared. I beg you to be assured, that if ever I see the queen, I melancholy a triumph, especially when it was found that the capture of the paltry town of Mons would be the only prize of so costly a campaign. The victory, however, had one advantage in giving a more fixed desire for peace on both sides, from the hopelessness of entire conquest by either. France appeared exhaustless in resources: though repeatedly beaten, she could neither be subdued nor humbled; ard, after every reverse, was ready to renew the contest with undiminished force and spirit. All, therefore, became impressed with the futile character of the war, and with the desirableness of terminating the uncompensated slaughter of brave men, and the waste of the resources of every European nation. It followed that Malplaquet was the last of the great battles fought in the war of the suc cession.-ED.