at Ramillies in 1706 the French lost ground, and when the
princes, as they were called, took the field together, no French
marshal had a chance. For Marlborough was now a prince of the empire;
and Eugene, having driven the enemy out of Germany and Italy, was
again by his side, thirsting for something to do. At Oudenarde, where
he was present, with no troops of his own, at a critical moment he led
a successful charge. Together they conquered Lille; and together they
defeated Villars at Malplaquet. There, in the summer of 1709, the
five years of constant victory which began at Blenheim came to an end.

After Turin and Ramillies Lewis had been willing to treat. He was
profoundly discouraged; and when Torcy came to The Hague in 1709 to
meet the Triumvirate, Heinsius, Eugene, and Marlborough, he gave up
almost every point. He even agreed that France should furnish men and
money to drive Philip V out of Spain, where he felt quite safe and
refused every summons. Lewis, in return, asked for Naples, and Naples
only, without Sicily. The allies could have everything else, and
could have compelled him to restore all the ill-gotten acquisitions of
his reign. They were unwilling to be at the trouble of one more
campaign in the Peninsula, where they had met with so much misfortune.
They required that Lewis should undo his own offending deed, and
himself compel his grandson to resign the Spanish throne.
Marlborough, holding a position such as no Englishman had ever
enjoyed, was preponderant in their councils. He aspired to be
captain-general for life, and rejected an enormous sum with which
France offered to repay his advocacy of peace. The attempt to prolong
war for his own private advantage is the deadliest of his crimes.
Lewis, in despair, made an appeal to his people, and a thrill of
genuine indignation ran through the unhappy country. The tide began
to turn. At Malplaquet, the greatest battle fought in modern Europe
before Napoleon, the allies lost 23,000 out of less than 100,000; and
the French not half so many.

A much graver change was coming over the spirit of the English
nation. As the Whigs offered nothing better than the continuation of
war, Toryism gained ground; and with Toryism, the Church. The
Duchess of Marlborough was supplanted in the queen's favour; the Whigs
went out of office; and the new ministers dismissed Marlborough and
appointed Ormonde to command in his stead. With the aid of an obscure
Fr