ought favour at St. Germains by betraying the expedition to
Brest. Blenheim altered the relative position of the two men in the
eyes of the world. It was known that the day had been won, not by the
persistent slaughter of brave soldiers, but by an inspiration of
genius executed under heavy fire with all the perfection of art. In
the midst of the struggle Marlborough had suddenly changed his order
of battle, gathered his squadrons on a new line, and sent them against
the French centre, with infantry supports. He did what Napoleon was
vainly entreated to do in his last engagement. That is what suggested
the simile of the angel, and what Addison meant by the words:--

Rides on the whirlwind and directs the storm.

The great Eugene had done well, as he always did. The Englishman had
risen in a single day to the foremost rank of generals. And England
rose with him. There had not been such a defeat for sixty years,
since Conde, at Rocroy, established the military reputation of France.
The French retreated to the Rhine, and on that side Austria was safe.

In Spain the issue was very different. Philip was thoroughly safe
during three years of reign, and the archduke would have been glad to
content himself with what could be secured in Italy. But the English
felt that their trade interests would be safer in Spain and the Indies
under a Habsburg than under a Bourbon. They brought the archduke to
Lisbon in 1703, having concluded with the Portuguese that treaty which
made them commercial dependants on England, and which has been the
cause of much port wine and so much gout. It was a disastrous change
of policy. The English destroyed the French fleet at Vigo, with many
tons of American silver. They took Gibraltar and Minorca, without
understanding their importance. They failed to defend the one; and
they six times offered the other for an exchange. But on land they
were utterly defeated, at Almanza and Brihuega, and the archduke never
actually reigned over much more than Catalonia. There, having
restored the Aragonese Constitution, he succeeded in inspiring a
sentiment of loyalty, and repulsed his rival. He was never able to
maintain himself at Madrid. On that seat of war the French had much
the best of it. They lost Germany at Blenheim in 1704, and Italy at
Turin in 1706.

The deciding campaigns were in Belgium, where there were many
fortresses, and progress was necessarily slow. After Marlborough's
victory