of Ant of Marlborough remarked in his letter to the BOOK V. H 1706. BOOK V. the drooping courage of the French, The governor of Dendermond had the merit, in the midst of the general consternation, to declare, in answer to the summons which he received, that he hoped to deserve the esteem of the English commander by discharging his duty, and the trust reposed in him; and after sustaining a blockade of three months, he did not at last surrender till besieged in form and reduced to extremity. Capture of At the latter end of June, Ostend was invested by veldt-maréchal Auverquerque, and at the same time attacked on the side of the ocean by an English squadron commanded by sir Stafford Fairborne. It held out not more than ten days, and four days only after the batteries were opened, under the pusillanimous direction of M. de la Mothe. On the other hand, the town of Menin disputed all the efforts of the besiegers with extraordinary vigor. The saps being advanced as far as the salient angles of the counterscarp, a most fierce and bloody action took place on the 18th of August, in an attempt to storm the covered way. Several mines were sprung on each side with dreadful slaughter, but a lodgement was at length made. The fortification being now reduced to a heap of ruins, and the garrison diminished to a third of their original number, the place finally capitulated, after an investment of twenty-two days, the brave defenders of it being allowed to march with the honors of war through BOOK V. the breach. The campaign closed with the siege and capture of Aeth, which surrendered on the 1st of October, the duke of Marlborough in person commanding the covering army. It was supposed to be in contemplation of the English general to attack Mons or Charleroi ; but the duc de Vendome had provided both those places so amply against a siege, that it was deemed advisable at this advanced season of the year, to avoid engaging the troops, harassed and wearied with service, in any new and hazardous enterprise and leaving the army under the command of M. Auverquerque, at the latter end of October the duke of Marlborough repaired by the route of Brussels and Antwerp to the Hague, and thence to London; being in every place received with triumph and acclamation. The inaction of the duc de Vendome had been highly distasteful to the elector of Bavaria, who was impatient again to tempt the decision of fortune, though to him she had been almost uniformly adverse; but the wisdom of the new general displayed itself in his assiduous and successful endeavours to restore the spirit of subordination and discipline, to infuse an w into the troops of France that confidence and courage, which, except under accidental circumstances of depression, had ever distinguished the soldiery of that 1706. BOOK V. great and gallant nation; and he prepared with firmness and in silence the means of arresting the farther progress of the confederate arms. 1706. Siege of Philip: Pursuant to the general plan of vigorous offensive war concerted between the courts of Versailles and Madrid, king Philip assembled a great by King army early in the spring, with which, on being joined by the French auxiliaries under M. de Tessé, he appeared suddenly before Barcelona, where the rival monarch kept his court, and in a short time formed the investment of that important place by land, while the count de Toulouse blockaded it by sea. The earl of Peterborough, who flew from Valencia to its relief, made incredible efforts to save this capital. He maintained his post upon the hills for a considerable time with about 2500 men, never above a league or two from the enemy, whom he kept in perpetual alarm. But this was merely the irregular warfare of a daring partisan; and all his exertions would have been found ultimately unavailing, had it not been for the critical arrival of the English fleet under sir John Leake, May the 8th, raised by 1706; on the first appearance of which the count de Toulouse retired to Toulon: and M. de Tessé, raising the siege in much disorder, retreated with his dispirited and well-nigh ruined army beyond the mountains. An almost total eclipse of the sun, which happened on that day, afforded occasion the Eng lish. 1706. for much sarcastic and much superstitious reflec- BOOK V. tion-the sun being the chosen device of the French monarch, whose ostentatious motto was "Nec pluribus impar." of the Arch The earl of Peterborough now urged the necessity of immediately proceeding to Madrid, in order to form a junction with the Portuguese army under the marquis Das Minas and the earl Inactivity of Galway, who finding, in the absence of the duke. king and his brave Castilians, few obstacles in their way from the small force left under the duke of Berwick, after capturing the towns of Alcantara and Cividad Rodrigo, had marched to that capital, of which on the 24th of June they took quiet and peaceable possession. The decisive counsels of the English general, happily for Spain, were disregarded by the archduke. For reasons which doubtless appeared to him very important, though it is now difficult to ascertain them with precision, Charles lingered near three months in Catalonia and Arragon-thus allowing his rival full time to recruit his shattered forces, and to receive additional succours from France: and on his re-approach to the capital, the Portuguese army, dispirited by inaction, suspense, and disappointment, retreated towards Arragon, where they at length formed a tardy and ineffectual junction with the imperialists. The earl of Peterborough, enraged to perceive his expostula |