ed the French, their united armies defeated the army of
the Empire and opened the line of the Danube to a French advance. It was
in this quarter that Lewis resolved to push his fortunes in the coming
year. In the spring of 1703 a French army under Marshal Villars again
relieved the Bavarian Elector from the pressure of the Austrian forces,
and only a strife which arose between the two commanders hindered their
joint armies from marching on Vienna. Meanwhile the timidity of the
Dutch deputies served Lewis well in the Low Countries. The hopes of
Marlborough, who had been raised to a dukedom for his services in the
previous year, were again foiled by the deputies of the States-General.
Serene as his temper was, it broke down before their refusal to
co-operate in an attack on Antwerp and French Flanders; and the prayers
of Godolphin and of the Pensionary Heinsius alone induced him to
withdraw his offer of resignation. In spite of his victories on the
Danube, indeed, of the blunders of his adversaries on the Rhine, and the
sudden aid of an insurrection against the Court of Vienna which broke
out in Hungary, the difficulties of Lewis were hourly increasing. The
accession of Savoy to the Grand Alliance threatened his armies in Italy
with destruction. That of Portugal gave the allies a base of operations
against Spain. The French king's energy however rose with the pressure;
and while the Duke of Berwick, a natural son of James the Second, was
despatched against Portugal, and three small armies closed round Savoy,
the flower of the French troops joined the army of Bavaria on the
Danube, for the bold plan of Lewis was to decide the fortunes of the war
by a victory which would wrest peace from the Empire under the walls of
Vienna.

[Sidenote: Marlborough in Germany.]

The master-stroke of Lewis roused Marlborough at the opening of 1704 to
a master-stroke in return; but the secrecy and boldness of the Duke's
plans deceived both his enemies and his allies. The French army in
Flanders saw in his march from the Netherlands upon Maintz only a design
to transfer the war into Elsass. The Dutch on the other hand were lured
into suffering their troops to be drawn as far from Flanders as Coblentz
by the Duke's proposals for an imaginary campaign on the Moselle. It was
only when Marlborough crossed the Neckar and struck through the centre
of Germany for the Danube that the true aim of his operations was
revealed to both. After struggling t