opposition. The only reason which Hamilton BOOK V. alleged for this extraordinary measure was, "that 1705. as it was impossible to prevent the bill from passing, it was politic to conciliate the favor of the queen, by complimenting her with the choice of the commissioners." A vote founded on the motion of the duke of Athol was however agreed upon, that no proceeding should be made in the treaty, till the act which declared the Scots aliens, &c. should be repealed. In the former session the Scottish parliament had passed a resolve, that the address of the house of lords in England to the queen, in relation to the succession of the crown of Scotland, and to the examination of the plot (i. e. Fraser's plot) in so far as concerns Scotsmen, was an undue intermeddling with the concerns of Scotland, and an encroachment upon the independance and sovereignty of the nation." And it was farther moved and carried, "that the lord high commissioner should in their name solicit her majesty to send down all the witnesses and papers relative to the plot." The principal papers being nevertheless withheld, the dukes of Hamilton and Athol in the present session were clamorous for a full and accurate investigation of the evidence. But very many persons, with whom it was necessary for the government to keep upon terms, being more or less involved in it, the two dukes themselves being of the number, 1705. BOOK V. the enquiry called for was eluded, and a handle was furnished to the cavaliers, to exclaim that the whole was a fiction, and a mere device to bring disgrace and ruin on the genuine friends of their country. The leaders of the court and country parties throughout this whole session seem perfectly well to have understood each other, and the conduct of the duke of Hamilton in particular was too gross to deceive any one*. The business of the session being at length adjusted, and the supplies granted, the parliament was adjourned by his grace the lord commissioner to the 20th December 1705. Early in April 1705, the duke of Marlborough again passed into Holland. He had now formed a real intention to execute the project, respecting *“The strange inconsistency," says a late historian, “ of the duke of Hamilton's conduct upon this occasion was not inferred barely from the general scope of those measures which he had espoused in every preceding debate, but from his having been at pains to inculcate both publicly and privately the impropriety and danger of that which he now suggested; nor was it possible to avoid the suspicion of his being guilty of deliberate treachery, when it was observed that he made this motion-i. e. the motion for vesting the nomination of commissioners in the queen-at a late hour of the night, after many of his old friends, who would have opposed it, had withdrawn, under the persuasion that the parliament was not then to proceed any farther in the business."-SOMERVILLE'S History of Queen Anne, 4to. p. 201. on the Mo which the French were so needlessly apprehen- BOOK V. sive the preceding year, viz. to penetrate into 1705. France on the side of the Moselle. Prince Louis of Baden, who commanded the army of the empire, and upon whose co-operation the success Campaign of the project depended, on being consulted in selle. the winter, expressed his entire approbation of it. But when all things were in readiness for opening the campaign, he sent an express to the duke, signifying his inability on account of ill health, and the weakness of his army, to fulfil his engagements. The English commander, who had already begun his march, proceeded in person as far as Rastadt, in order to confer with the prince, who at length, and with much difficulty, consented to resume the original plan of operations. M. Villars, who from the recesses of the Cevennes had been recalled to assume the command of the French army on the Moselle, at the approach of the allies, encamped in an inaccessible situation at Coningsmacheren, leaving by this means the way open to Saar Louis, which the duke proposed to besiege. But, after waiting in vain several successive weeks for the expected Inaction of junction of the Germans, his grace received ad- or Baden. vice that the prince of Baden was gone much indisposed to the baths of Schwalbach, and that neither horses nor artillery were provided. At the same time he had intelligence of the loss of the Prince BOOK V. Huy, and that the elector of Bavaria and M. 1705. ་ Villeroi had actually invested the city of Liege. The duke perceiving his schemes thus rendered abortive, resolved in a council of war immedirough's Re- ately to march back to the Maese, not without treat to the strong expressions of resentment against the Duke of Maese. biege of Tech). tures Huy. prince of Baden, who was believed to view the glorious successes of the duke in the last campaign with malignant and envious eyes, and whose ambiguous conduct was such as even to expose him to the suspicion and imputation of treachery; though in all probability without any just foundation-the debilitated state of the imperial army at this period sufficiently accounting for the non-performance of his engagements. On the arrival of the English general, the face of affairs was immediately changed in the NetherRaises the lands. He not only compelled the enemy to raise Liege, and the siege of Liege, and with little difficulty recaptured Huy, but, attacking the French, who had retired within their lines, forced them in their entrenchments, near Tirlemont, with the greatest vigor and success. In this action the duke of Marlborough distinguished himself by extraordinary exertions of personal valour. A Bavarian officer of cavalry aiming a furious blow with his sabre at the duke, was thrown from his horse, and presently killed. M. Villeroi and the elector continued their retreat along the banks of the 1705. Dyle, till, advancing through the difficult defiles BOOK V. of Hulden into a spacious plain, and being now separated from the allied army, which pressed upon their rear, only by the small river Ysche, the duke and M. Auverquerque commanded the troops to form in order of battle. But most unexpectedly the field deputies accompanying the Dutch army interposed their veto, and could not, by any persuasion or remonstrance, be induced to hazard a general engagement in these so favorable circumstances, "promising," to use the duke of Marlborough's own words, "all imaginable success *." On this occasion his grace wrote a warm expostulatory letter to their high mightinesses, complaining how much less he found his authority in Flanders than when he had the honor of commanding their troops the last year in Germany. In consequence of this remonstrance, general Schlangenburg, to whose advice the refractory conduct of the field deputies was attributed, received his dismission from the service t. The French and Bavarians having now made good their retreat to the strong camp of Parke, which covered Louvaine and Brussels, the projects of the duke were finally defeated both in * SOMERVILLE's Appendix. Letter to the duke of Shrewsbury. + LEDIARD'S History, p. 315-320. |