308 THE FRENCH PASS THE DYLE. [1706. Dyle, and were posted at Tirlemont. In a letter of the next day to M. Hop, at the Hague, he says that this movement of the enemy "has quite broken the measures we were projecting at Maestricht. . . . We design to advance to gain the head of the Gheet, to come to the enemy if they keep their ground. For my part, I think nothing could be more happy for the Allies than a battle; since, I have good reason to hope, with the blessing of God we may have a complete victory." * There is nothing more remarkable than the unswerving confidence of Marlborough in his own happy fortune. Here were no particular circumstances to inspire him with this confidence. He had no superiority of numbers; for his English, Dutch, and Danes amounted to sixty thousand men, whilst Villeroy's army of French and Bavarians amounted to sixty-two thousand. He had no superiority in the distribution of his forces in his advance to battle; and in the same way as at Blenheim, he found the enemy in possession of the ground which he had hoped to take up. The famous novelist, who has described the men and manners of these times with a rare fidelity, has truly said, "The great duke always spoke of his victories with an extraordinary modesty, and as if it was not so much his own admirable genius and courage which achieved these amazing successes, but as if he was a special and fatal instrument in the hands of Providence, that willed irresistibly the enemy's overthrow. . . . And our army got to believe so, and the enemy learnt to think so too." † It was Whitsunday, the 23rd of May, when Marlborough began his march, at three o'clock in the morning, to gain the open space between the Mehaigne and the Great Gheet. That position was found to be occupied by the enemy. The Allies, in eight columns, passed the once formidable lines which had been demolished in the preceding year; and having cleared the village of Mierdorp, formed in order of battle in the plain of Jandrinouil. The enemy was posted in two lines on eminences above the marshes, stretching from the Little Gheet to the Mehaigue, having the village of Ramilies in the centre. It was a formidable position. From Mierdorp, near which the Allies crossed the lines, to Ramilies, was a distance of nearly three miles. The whole plain, about three miles in breadth, is bounded on the north by the Little Gheet, on the south by the Mehaigne. The plain narrows towards the west, being bounded by the rising ground through which the Little Gheet flows from its sources near Ramilies.§ Villeroy waited for the attack in his camp, on the rising ground of Mont St. André, a plain with gentle undulations and interspersed with coppices. Behind this rising ground is the Great Gheet. The Allies formed their order of battle in the plain, between the village of Boniffe, on the Mehaigne, and the village of Foulaz, on the Little Gheet,-having two lines, the infantry in the centre, the cavalry on the wings, with twenty squadrons of Danes to support the left of the infantry. In this order Marlborough advanced to the western extremity of the plain. Ramilies, an enclosed village, was defended by twenty battalions of French. Between Ramilies and the marshes of the Mehaigne, were posted nearly the whole of the French cavalry. Their centre and left, composed of infantry, extended from the village of Autre-église to the village of Offuy, and thence behind Thackeray, "Esmond," chap. xii. * Dispatches, vol. ii. p. 118. Letter to Eugene, "Dispatches," vol. ii. p. 525. § There is an excellent plan in the Atlas to Coxe; and another, not very dissimilar, in Tindal 1706.] BATTLE OF RAMILIES. 309 Ramilies. Marlborough determined to make a demonstration of attack upon the left of the French, at Autre-église and Offuy. Villeroy immediately drew his troops from the centre to support his left. Marlborough had the advantage of moving in a smaller space than the enemy, whose position formed an arc on the hills, while the Allies could traverse the chord of the plain. Directly Villeroy had weakened his centre, Marlborough ordered the second line of the troops that were advancing to Autre-église, to defile to the left, by a hollow way that concealed them. The first line of his right wing ascended the rising ground at Autre-église, and opened their fire. But the main brunt of the battle was on his left, where the French were attacked at Ramilies and at Tavieres, a village on the Mehaigne. The assault on Tavieres by the Dutch infantry was successful. But the French cavalry then came into conflict with the Dutch cavalry under Auverquerque, and repelled them in great disorder. This was the crisis of the battle. The vast body of French and Bavarian horse had every chance of taking in the rear the Allied infantry who were attacking Ramilies. Marlborough saw the danger. He put himself at the head of seventeen squadrons, and charged the French cavalry. This was indeed a fight of horse to horse, to be decided by main strength more than strategy. Marlborough, who was recognised, was surrounded and nearly made prisoner. He cut his way through; his charger fell; his equerry had his head shot off by a cannon ball as he held the stirrup for his general to mount another horse. But now a reserve of cavalry that Marlborough had sent for, came up ; and an irresistible charge determined the battle on the left. The Allies mounted the heights above Ramilies, and the shout of victory announced that the position had been gained which insured an ultimate success. The conflict was not over in and around the village of Ramilies. The fight amongst the cottages was long and doubtful. But the ever watchful general ordered up a reserve of infantry, and the Allied horse descending from the heights, their united force completed the triumph of the left and centre. Three hours had been occupied in these terrible encounters. But the changes of fortune had been so various the confusion of onset and retreat so great-the disorder attendant upon troops of all arms being mixed in one common effort so extreme, that Marlborough was compelled to form his forces again upon the ground they had won. Villeroy now endeavoured to take up a new line, but was impeded by his own baggage. Before he could get his battalions formed, Marlborough ordered a general advance to the sources of the Little Gheet; but before the morasses were crossed the French began to fly, and one headlong panic and slaughter closed that fearful evening. Onward went the pursued and the pursuers towards Louvain. Marlborough did not halt till he had reached Mildert, thirteen miles from the battle-field. The elector of Bavaria and Villeroy reached Louvain at two o'clock on the morning of the 24th; held a council in the market-place by torchlight; and determined to abandon their fortified towns, and save the remnant of their force by a hurried retreat. The French and Bavarians lost seven thousand men, killed and wounded, and six thousand prisoners. The Allies lost nearly four thousand men. The artillery, baggage, and eighty standards, were the spoil of the victors. On the 3rd of June Marlborough wrote to St. John, "it is very astonishing that the enemy should give up a whole country, with so many strong places, without the least resistance." He had entered Louvain without meeting any 310 RESULTS OF THE VICTORY. [1700. obstacle. Malines, Alost, and other places had submitted. The Estates of Brabant assembled at Brussels had acknowledged the authority of king Charles III., and they sent out their commands to other fortified towns to make a like submission. Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and Oudenarde were surrendered without a shot being fired. In his exultation Marlborough exclaimed in his letters home, "now is the time, certainly, to reduce France to reason." St. Simon says, "with the exception of Namur, Mons, and a very few other places, all the Spanish Low Countries were lost." The king, he tells us, felt this misfortune to the quick, however tranquilly he appeared to sustain it. But there was work still to do, before that campaign was ended. Ostend was besieged by a powerful land force and by nine ships of the line. The garrison of five thousand men capitulated on the 7th of July. Menin, one of the greatest fortresses of Vauban, was carried by assault, with immense loss, on the 22nd of August. Dendermonde surrendered on the 5th of September. It might long have held out, had there not been seven weeks of excessive drought, which enabled the besiegers to approach, without being held back by the inundation which the besieged could command in ordinary seasons. Ath was the last fortress to fall on the 4th of October. Marlborough returned home to receive the thanks of Parliament, and to take part in the great event of the Session of 1706-7,—the union of England and Scotiand into one kingdom. But the victor at Ramilies had already done far more for this object than anything he could do by his political influence. "If it were to be asked what one man did most for the accomplishment of the Union, it would not be unreasonable to say it was the duke of Marlborough." At the precise juncture when the campaign of 1706 had inflicted a blow upon France that left her in dread of her own dismemberment, instead of holding the fate of Europe in her hands, the Jacobites of both kingdoms, and some not so honest as the Jacobites, were looking to the aid of the great Louis to prevent the ruin of Scotland, by preventing her entering upon an equal partnership in the liberties, the power, and the glory of England. The king of France was invited to invade Scotland. The invitation was not responded to, for the very obvious reason that the policy of William III., and the victories of the duke of Marlborough, had saved England from being a tributary of France, and now stood between Scotland and the real degradation which some of her children would have regarded as independence. * Burton, "History of Scotland," vol. i. p. 438. : Scotland-New Parliament assembled in 1703-Irritation against England-Proposal for a Treaty of Union-Meeting of Commissioners of each nation-Articles agreed upon by the Commissioners-Charges of Corruption-Demonstrations against the Union-Debates in the Scottish Parliament-Lord Belhaven's oration-Material interests of Scotland-Views of the Union by Seton of Pitmedden-Provision for the Church of Scotland-RiotsDemonstration of the Cameronians-The Act of Union passed in Scotland-The Act passed in England. "It may be done, but not yet," said King William to Defoe, speaking of that Union which he so fervently desired.* When Commissioners were appointed in 1702 by an Act of the English Parliament, and the Scottish Parliament responded by also appointing Commissioners, each body being empowered to negotiate for a Union, the difficulties of accomplishing this great measure were, probably, not correctly estimated. The "not yet" was not sufficiently manifest. These Commissioners debated for six months, without any result. The demands of the Scotch for a participation in the colonial trade were treated with indifference, as well as the demand for other commercial privileges that were to rest upon a perfect equality. The Scottish Parliament, or Convention of Estates, had sat from the time of the Revolution. A new Parliament was assembled in May, 1703. All the old feudal usages were strictly observed in the procession on this occasion called a "Riding." Every member was on horseback,-the Commons in dark mantles, the Nobles in splendid robes. Lackeys walked by the side of every horse, numerous in proportion to the rank of the rider. The regalia of Scotland were borne in solemn state, amidst a cluster of heralds, and pursuivants, and trumpeters, guarding the crown, the sceptre, and the sword.t This wondrous pageantry was not without its significance at this period. "History of the Union," p. 64. + Burton, "History of Scotland," vol. i. p. 348. 312 NEW SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT. [1703. This Parliament of 1703 was not in a temper of conciliation towards England. Glencoe and Darien were still watchwords of strife. The failure of the negotiations for Union necessarily produced exasperation. Whilst Marlborough was fighting the battles of the Allies, the Scottish Parliament manifested a decided inclination to the name a successor Sceptres of Scotland. freedom and trade of the nation from English or any foreign influence." For four months this matter was vehemently debated in the Scottish Parliament. The Act of Security was carried, but the Lord High Commissioner refused his assent. Following this legislative commotion came what was called in England the Scottish plot-a most complicated affair of intrigue and official treachery, with some real treason at the bottom of it. The House of Lords in England took cognizance of the matter, which provoked tho |