movements. But, instead of such usage, has he not been supplied with all possible vigour? was not a young general sent off[1], that the duke of Marlborough might have no occasion of discontent, nor appearance for complaint? were not his soldiers, flushed with many victories, eager and impatient to be led on to more? did he not very well know, as I have said before, that monsieur Villars durst not fight him, though he had greater numbers than the duke, since the king had forbidden his venturing his army without evident advantages? are not the French dispirited and overawed by the superiour genius of the English, by whom they have been so often vanquished? is it then such a wonder, after all the glorious victories the duke of Marlborough has obtained, that, with the same fortune, the same cause, the same army, and against the same enemy, his grace has added one inferiour fortress to his greater conquests? are the Senset and the Scheldt more formidable rivers than the Danube or the Rhine? are only passing the lines near Bouchain more wonderful than beating the French in their lines near Brabant? or have our former campaigns been so barren of great actions, that we need so much cry up the passing of two rivers and one morass, where none durst oppose them; as if the general's glory were never consummate till now; or as if indeed he could have done less, except he had been resolved to do nothing, which could scarce
- ↑ The duke of Ormond; who had been sent to France at ten years of age, and on his return was admitted of Christ Church, Oxford; of which university he was afterward chancellor. He died Nov. 16, N. S. 1745, in his eighty-first year.
