ed late; but
you must consider, that by throwing up intrenchments during the night,
the enemy will render their position far more difficult to force."
"Murder and massacre," replied Slangenberg. Marlborough, upon this,
offered him two English for every Dutch battalion; but this too the
Dutchman refused, on the plea that he did not understand English. Upon
this the Duke offered to give him German regiments; but this too was
declined, upon the pretence that the attack would be too hazardous.
Marlborough, upon this, turned to the deputies and said--"I disdain to
send troops to dangers which I will not myself encounter. I will lead
them where the peril is most imminent. I adjure you, gentlemen! for
the love of God and your country, do not let us neglect so favourable
an opportunity." But it was all in vain; and instead of acting, the
Dutch deputies and generals spent three hours in debating, until night
came on and it was too late to attempt any thing. Such was
Marlborough's chagrin at this disappointment, that he said, on
retiring from the field, "I am at this moment _ten years_ older than I
was four days ago."

Next day, as Marlborough had foreseen, the enemy had strengthened
their position with field-works; so that it was utterly hopeless to
get the Dutch to agree to an attack which _then_ would indeed have
been hazardous, though it was not so the evening before. The case was
now irremediable. The six days' bread he had taken with him was on the
point of being exhausted, and a protracted campaign without
communication with his magazines was impracticable. With a heavy
heart, therefore, Marlborough remeasured his steps to the ground he
had left in front of the Dyle, and gave orders for destroying the
lines of Leau, which he had carried with so much ability. His vexation
was increased afterwards, by finding that the consternation of the
French had been such on the 18th August, when he was so urgent to
attack them, that they intended only to have made a show of
resistance, in order to gain time for their baggage and heavy guns to
retire to Brussels. To all appearance Marlborough, if he had not been
so shamefully thwarted, would have illustrated the forest of Soignies
by a victory as decisive as that of Blenheim, and realized the
triumphant entrance to Brussels which Napoleon anticipated from his
attack on Wellington on the same ground a hundred years afterwards.

Nothing further, of any moment, was done in this campaign,