e in starting; the troops of the Elector of Bavaria harassed his
march. "I shouldn't like to say a word against Prince Eugene," said
Marlborough, "but he will arrive at the appointed spot on the Moselle ten
days too late." The English were by themselves when they encountered the
French army in front of Audernarde. The engagement began. Vendome, who
commanded the right wing, sent word to the Duke of Burgundy. The latter
hesitated and delayed; the generals about him did not approve of
Vendome's movement. He fought single-handed, and was beaten. The excess
of confidence of one leader, and the inertness of the other, caused
failure in all the operations of the campaign; Prince Eugene and the Duke
of Marlborough laid siege to Lille, which was defended by old Marshal
Boufflers, the bravest and the most respected of all the king's servants.
Lille was not relieved, and fell on the 25th of October; the citadel held
out until the 9th of December; the king heaped rewards on Marshal
Bouffers: at the march out from Lille, Prince Eugene had ordered all his
army to pay him the same honors as to himself. Ghent and Bruges were
abandoned to the imperialists. "We had made blunder upon blunder in this
campaign," says Marshal Berwick, in his Memoires, "and, in spite of all
that if somebody had not made the last in giving up Ghent and Bruges,
there would have been a fine game the year after." The Low Countries
were lost, and the French frontier was encroached upon by the capture of
Lille. For the first time, in a letter addressed to Marshal Berwick,
Marlborough let a glimpse be seen of a desire to make peace; the king
still hoped for the mediation of Holland, and he neglected the overtures
of Marlborough: "the army of the allies is, without doubt, in evil
plight," said Chamillard.

The campaign in Spain had not been successful; the Duke of Orleans, weary
of his powerlessness, and under suspicion at the court of Philip V., had
given up the command of the troops; the English admiral, Leake, had taken
possession of Sardinia, of the Island of Minorca, and of Port Mahon; the
archduke was master of the isles and of the sea. The destitution in
France was fearful, and the winter so severe that the poor were in want
of everything; riots multiplied in the towns; the king sent his plate to
the mint, and put his jewels in pawn; he likewise took a resolution which
cost him even more; he determined to ask for peace.

"Although his courage appe