ANNE.

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Marlborough then detailed his plan of operation in two successive councils of war, where it was generally approved, but still opposed as rash by some of the Dutch generals. The enemy had manned his lines with a hundred battalions and forty-six squadrons; the forces of the Confederates were something more than that in amount; and in order to weaken the enemy on the point where he contemplated his attack, the duke directed Overkirk to make a feint, as though he were about to attack the lines on the Mehaigne. The ruse succeeded. The French weakened their lines where Marlborough really contemplated the attack, in order to strengthen them in the direction of Namur. All being ready. Marlborough marched in the night between the 17th and 18th of July, to force the lines at Heyselem, the castle of Wauge, and the villages of Wauge, Neerhespen, and Oostmalen. This succeeded, and after some hard fighting the duke extended his forces within a portion of the French lines, capturing the Marquis D'Alègre, Count Horne, a major-general, two brigadier-generals, and many other officers, besides ten cannon and numerous standards and colours. In consequence of this defeat the Elector of Bavaria and Marshal Villeroi retreated across the Geete and the Dyle in all haste. Marlborough marched after them, capturing twelve hundred prisoners who could not keep up with the retreating force, and on the 15th was at Mildert, whence he marched the next day to Genappe, and thence to Fischermont, driving in the enemy's post as he advanced. He was now on ground destined to become much more famous in our time. On the 17th Overkirk had his headquarters at Waterloo, the enemy lying in their front across the roads to Brussels and Louvain, near the wood of Soignies. Here Marlborough proposed to come to a general engagement with them, but again he was thwarted by the Dutch officers and deputies, and most determinedly by General Schlangenburg. The duke, indignant at this dastardly obstruction of his operations, wrote very plainly to the States-General, complaining of the uselessness of pursuing the campaign if they had yet no confidence in his prudence and military talent. In order that the Dutch people should know of his complaints, he took care to have the letter published in the papers at the Hague, and that similar complaints should reach his own Court. These being made public, roused a storm of indignation against the meddling Dutch field-deputies, who presumed to justify their conduct to the States-General in several letters. But the anger of both England and Holland soon roused the States-General to a sense of their folly. Hearing that the queen was about to despatch the Earl of Pembroke, the President of the Council, as Envoy Extraordinary to the Hague, to remonstrate on their suicidal conduct, the States-General hastened to apologise to the duke, and to remove Schlangenburg from his command. The opportunity, however, of a decisive blow on the French had been missed, and little was achieved this campaign.

Meanwhile the Spaniards were making a desperate effort for the recovery of Gibraltar. Marshal Tessé laid siege to it, whilst De Pointes blockaded it by sea. These French officers pushed on the siege with vigour, and the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt sent a despatch to Lisbon, desiring Sir John Leake to hasten to his assistance. Sir John set sail at once with five ships of the line and a body of troops, and on the 10th of March came in sight of five ships of De Pointes, who was evidently aware of him and getting out of the way. Leake gave chase, took one, and drove the rest on shore to the west of Marbella. The rest of the French ships in the bay of Malaga made the best of their way to Toulon. Gibraltar being thus again open from the sea, the Marquis de Tessé withdrew the greater part of his forces, leaving only sufficient to maintain the blockade on land.

But a far more striking demonstration was made from another quarter. This was made on Valencia and Catalonia by the witty and accomplished, and equally unscrupulous, Earl of Peterborough, formerly known as Lord Mordaunt. This dashing nobleman, become Earl of Peterborough by the death of his uncle, was despatched with reinforcements amounting to five thousand soldiers and a strong fleet under command of Sir Cloudesley Shovel. On the 20th of June they arrived at Lisbon, where they were joined by Sir John Leake and the Dutch Admiral Allemonde. They proposed to put to sea with eight-and-forty ships of the line, and cruise between Cape Spartel and the Bay of Cadiz to prevent the junction of the Toulon and Brest fleets. But the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who had arrived from Gibraltar, assured them that the people of Catalonia and Valencia were strongly attached to King Charles, and only required the presence of a sufficient force to declare themselves. The adventure was just of the kind to charm the active spirit of Lord Peterborough. It was proposed that King Charles should sail with them on board the fleet, and that they should make a descent on Barcelona. On the 11th of August they anchored in the Bay of Altea, and issued a proclamation in the Spanish language, and found that the people flocked in to acknowledge King Charles. They took the town of Denia and garrisoned it for Charles with four hundred men under Major Ramos.

Such was the enthusiasm of the inhabitants that Peterborough proposed to make a forced march right for Madrid at once, and set Charles on the throne without further delay, declaring that he was confident of taking the capital by a coup de main; and there is little doubt but he would have succeeded had he had the sole command. But such daring projects, the flashes of genius, only confound matter-of-fact men; the plan was looked on as little short of madness, the adventure was overruled, the fleet sailed, and on the 22nd arrived in the bay of Barcelona. There was a garrison of five thousand men within the town and castle of Barcelona, and the English force amounted to little more than six thousand. But the inhabitants displayed the utmost loyalty to the new king; they received him with acclamations, and the English landed and invested the town. Here again, however, the erratic genius of Lord Peterborough startled more orthodox commanders. By all the rules of war the town ought to be taken first, and the castle afterwards; but Peterborough saw that the castle commanded the town, and must be continually inflicting injury on them in the course of the siege. He determined, therefore, not by the laws of war, but of common sense, to take the castle first. None but the brave Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt held his view of the matter, and to him alone did he, therefore, communicate his plans; but he took a close survey of this strong castle of Montjuich, convinced himself that it was not so well garrisoned as was represented, and that it might be taken by address and promptitude. He instantly began to re-embark some of his troops, as if about to abandon the enterprise, so as to throw the Spaniards off their guard, and then suddenly, on the night of the 3rd of December, sent about fourteen hundred men by two different routes to attack the castle. He himself, accompanied by the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, led the first of these bodies, General Stanhope the other. It was not till about daybreak that the earl made his attack on the outworks of the castle, and established himself on a platform with a few small field-pieces and mortars. There they awaited the coming up of General Stanhope; but he had missed his way, and did not arrive in time. The governor of the castle, seeing the small number of the assailants, made a headlong sally from the castle, thinking to sweep the rash detachment down the hill, but he found himself mistaken; and whilst Lord Peterborough was in close engagement with him, General Stanhope came up, and the governor withdrew within the walls. The English then began to throw bombshells into the castle, and one of these speedily ignited a magazine, and blew it up with a tremendous explosion. The governor himself was killed by it, and the garrison in consternation surrendered.

Lord Peterborough could now not only invest the city without annoyance from the castle, but could turn the guns of the castle on the Spaniards, showing the correctness of his ideas in opposition to the red-tape of war. He pursued the siege with such effect that Velasquez, the governor, agreed to surrender in four days if he did not receive relief in that time; but he was not able to hold out even these four days, for the country swarmed with Miquelets, a sort of lawless Catalans, who declared for the Austrians. Numbers of these, who had assisted the seamen in throwing bombs from the ketches into the city, and in other operations against the town, now clambered over the walls, and began plundering the inhabitants and violating the women. The governor and his troops were unable to put them down. They threatened to throw open the gates and let in whole hordes of the like rabble, to massacre the people and sack the place. Velasquez was therefore compelled, before the expiration of the four days, to call in the assistance of the Earl of Peterborough himself, who rode into the city at the head of a body of troops with General Stanhope and other officers, and amid the random firing of the Miquelets, by his commands and by the occasional use of the flat of their swords, the marauders were reduced to quiet. Having quelled this frightful riot, Lord Peterborough and his attendants again quitted the city, and awaited the rest of the four days, much to the astonishment of the Spaniards, who had been taught to look on the English as a species of lawless and heretical barbarians. Barcelona surrendered on the day appointed, and immediately the whole of Catalonia, and every fortified place in it, except Rosas, declared for Charles.

The Earl of Peterborough did not, however, pause in his movements. He marched for San Matteo, at a distance of thirty leagues, to raise the siege carried on by the forces of King Philip. Through roads such as Spain has always been famous for down to the campaigns of Wellington, he plunged and dragged along his cannon, appeared before San Matteo in a week, raised the siege, and again set forward towards the city of Valencia, which he speedily reduced, and took in it the Marquis de Villagarcia, the Viceroy, and the Archbishop. Soon every place in Catalonia and Valencia acknowledged the authority of King Charles except the seaport of Alicante. The whole campaign resembled more a piece of romance than a reality. The earl's own officers could scarcely believe their senses; and as for the Spaniards, they said he had a devil in him, and was master of all magic and necromancy.

When the Parliament met on the 25th of October, it was found that a strong majority of Whigs had been returned; and, in the struggle for the Speakership, the nominee of the Tories, Mr. Bromley, was rejected, and the nominee of the Whigs, Mr. John Smith, chosen by a majority of two hundred and fifty to two hundred and seven. The speech of the queen was said to be the composition of the new Lord Keeper, Cowper, but to have undergone considerable revision in the Council. In this the Whig policy shone strongly forth. She expressed her determination to continue the war till the Bourbon prince was driven from the throne of Spain, and the Austrian prince established.