"Meldert, June 13. I have had the happiness of yours of the 27th of the last month, by which I find you were still under the apprehensions of a battle. My former letters, as well as this, ought to put you at ease; but for the public good, it were to be wished it might be had, for our affairs go very ill in Germany as well as in Spain. For my own part, notwithstanding the noise the French have made, I think they would less care to venture a battle than our friends; for if they had a real mind to do it, it must have been decided before this time. In the army, I must do them right, that there is all the desire imaginable to venture their lives for the public good; but all other sorts of people on this side of the water are so very wise, that I am afraid at last they will bring us to a bad peace. For myself, I am old, and shall not live to see the misfortunes that must happen to Christendom, if the French be suffered to get the better of this war."

Then alluding to the building at Blenheim, he adds,

By the inclosed, which I received but yesterday, though it be of an old date, you will see the country takes notice that the work does not go on as they expected. Say nothing, but burn the letter; for when it is half-built, it may be enough for you and me; and I do from my heart assure you, that I should be much better pleased to live with you in a cottage, than in all the palaces this world has without you."

CHAP. LVII. - INACTIVITY AT MELDERT.

1707.

THE inactivity of the campaign gives but little interest to the letters of Marlborough on military transactions. On the contrary, his negotiation with foreign powers are of high importance; and the political intrigues which agitated the court and cabinet of England, form a prominent feature in his correspondence. As, therefore, the few military incidents are completely blended with diplomatic and domestic business, we shall present the letters in a continued series, prefixing such explanations, notices, and details, as appear necessary to connect the whole, and explain particular passages and allusions.

The ill-timed expedition to Naples was not the only subiect of contention with the imperial court; for the arrangements relative to the command of the German army produced delays and difficulties, which operated with a sinister effect, at a time when concert and decision were doubly necessary to retrieve the late disasters.

After a tedious illness the margrave of Baden closed his long and laborious career on the 4th of January. Although his dilatoriness or jealousy had repeatedly marred the splendid designs of the British commander, his death was peculiarly unfortunate at so critical a period as the opening of the campaign; for his high rank and eminent services gave him a degree of consideration in the empire, which it was difficult to supply. By a concordate among the German States, it had been stipulated that the direction of the army should be alternately vested in a Catholic and a Protestant; and, accordingly, after some delay, the choice fell on the margrave of Bareith, a prince of the house of Brandenburg. The new general was, however, more aged and inactive than his predecessor, and far inferior in influence and military skill. The petty states and princes taking advantage of the embarrassments arising from the change, withheld or withdrew their contingents; and the army was reduced to such a weak and disorganised condition, that the French were encouraged to depart from the defensive system which they had lately maintained on the Rhine. 22d of May, Villars attacked and forced the lines of Stolhoffen, destroyed the magazines, and ruined the dikes and sluices. Leaving a body of cavalry on the Lauter, he followed the margrave to Gemund, and after levying contributions, and spreading terror on every side, pushed his predatory parties as far as the plains of Hochstedt.

On the

The diet, which was then sitting at Ratisbon, was seized with a panic, and the most earnest appeals were made to the court of Vienna for protection against the impending danger. The two circles of Suabia and Franconia, as well as several of the imperial towns, even evinced a disposition to accept the neutrality which was offered by France.

Active measures were therefore adopted to awe the Bavarians, and collect the contingents of the circles; but the most obvious expedient was, to remove the margrave of Bareith from a situation to which he had proved himself incompetent. Marlborough turned his attention to the elector of Hanover, as the most proper person to succeed in the command; not only from a wish to throw lustre on the house next in succession to the British throne, but with the *Barre, Histoire de l'Empire, t. x. p. 510.

hope that a prince, in the prime of life, would retrieve th military honour of the Germans. The greatest difficulty, however, occurred in effecting this change; for the elector, though ambitious of military fame, was unwilling to accept a command, where the want of force, and the deficiency of money and supplies, as well as the jarring interests of the German States, afforded but little prospect of success. On the other hand, the margrave of Bareith laboured to avert the disgrace of a forced resignation, by attempting to interest the Prussian court in his cause, and ascribing his misfortune to the lamentable deficiency of his army. The emperor also was unwilling to transfer the command to another Protestant, and hoped to secure the direction of the war on the Rhine, by associating with the margrave one of his own generals of distinguished skill and activity. For this purpose he sent General Heister, who had signalised himself in the Hungarian war, and issued orders for the army to make a retrograde march through the mountains of Wirtemberg, with a view to join the troops from Westphalia and the northern circles, and compel Villars to retrace his steps towards the Rhine.

The delay in the nomination of a new general augmented the fear and confusion which reigned throughout the empire, and aggravated the dissatisfaction which the impolitic conduct of the imperial cabinet had already excited in England and Holland. It likewise suspended the operations of the German army, till a great portion of the summer had elapsed. At length the sense of common danger operated on the fears of the German States; and even the Catholic princes, with the electors Palatine and Mentz at their head, concurred in urging the elector of Hanover to accept the command. But still the selfish views of the court of Vienna obstructed a definitive arrangement; and it was not till the season was considerably advanced, that Marlborough had the satisfaction of attaining an object for which he had so long laboured in vain.

Other causes of disquietude continued to arise in the intercourse with the court of Vienna. Though apprehensive of an attack from the king of Sweden, and though dreading his co-operation with the insurgents in Hungary, the emperor was so far transported by the impulse of personal resent

ment, as to listen to a project of the czar, for deposing Stanislaus, and giving a new king to Poland. To forward this chimerical scheme, Peter the Great had offered the crown to Prince Eugene, whose illustrious birth and military fame were calculated to captivate a chivalrous people, and whose influence was likely to sway the decision of his own sovereign. The prince himself was too prudent to give countenance to this chimerical project *; but the emperor did not so easily recede from a design, which he conceived likely to mortify and embarrass the king of Sweden. After in vain attempting to gain the concurrence of the allies, he declined announcing his refusal to the czar, until the long-pending negotiation at Alt Ranstadt was nearly brought to a conclusion.†

Although the Swedish monarch had yielded to the instances of Marlborough, in agreeing to conclude an arrangement with the emperor, and had even appeared inclined to recede from his demands relative to the Protestant religion in Silesia; yet his haughty tone and hostile threats of entering the Austrian dominions, deeply wounded the pride of the imperial court, and the dispute continued in a state of suspense. Appeals, on both sides, were made to the British chief, and his interposition was employed in soothing the contending parties, and endeavouring to restore cordiality. Above all, he laboured to impress the imperial court with a due sense of their weakness, and inforced the necessity of yielding, in points of formality and minor importance, to a monarch who held in his hands the fate of Germany. At length he succeeded in inducing the emperor again to depute his minister, Count Wratislaw, to the Swedish head-quarters; and the king to give ear to a proposal for a final settlement. When, however, Wratislaw arrived at Alt Ranstadt, Charles refused to admit him to his presence, either from motives of pride, or from resentment for the attention which the emperor had shown to the chimerical proposal of the czar. Instead of the demands relative to the affair of Count Zobor, the massacre of the Swedish officers at Breslau, and the escape of the Muscovites, which were now deemed the only * Letter from Eugene to Marlborough, Milan, May 11. 1707. † Count Wratislaw to the Duke of Marlborough, Vienna, May 23. 1707.

points in dispute, a 1ew series of complaints was brought forward, and urged in a manner the most ungracious towards the first sovereign in Europe. Charles required the emperor to ratify, without delay, the election of the prince of Holstein as bishop of Lubec, and insisted on an immediate acquittance for the contingent, which Sweden had neglected to furnish as a member of the empire, as well as an exemption during the continuance of his war with Russia. He also claimed the sequestration of the county of Hadelen, and the subsistence of the Swedish troops, in their intended passage through Silesia. At the instances of the Silesian Protestants, he renewed his demands for the restoration of their religious privileges, and even sent four regiments of horse, to take free quarters, for the protection of their worship.

*

These new and unexpected pretensions, as well as the aggravating mode in which they were urged, created the highest indignation in the breast of the emperor, and he resented with peculiar warmth the forcible interference in favour of the Silesian Protestants, which he regarded as a premeditated act of hostility. He importuned the British and Dutch plenipotentiaries to consider this aggression as a breach of the public peace; and would probably have been driven to act with the rashness of desperation, had not Marlborough soothed his wounded feelings, and pledged himself that the Swedish monarch would enter into no engagement with France. The British commander even found it necessary to check the vindictive spirit of Charles, by mixing firmness with conciliation, and hinting that England and Holland, though anxious for an accommodation, yet could not suffer the constitution of the empire to be violated, nor the dominions of the emperor to be endangered. By his discreet, yet dignified intervention, he thus soothed, without offending the haughty Swede, and at length effected an accommodation.

Charles accepted an apology for the escape of the Muscovites, on the condition that a similar number of his own captive troops should be liberated. The town of Breslau paid a compensation of 4000 crowns to the representatives of the officer who was killed; Count Zobor was delivered up, but, in virtue of a tacit promise, he was afterwards * Mr. Robinson to the Duke of Marlborough, August 31. 1707.