et A Company In The Campaign Of 1706

On Whit Sunday, the famous 23rd of May, 1706, my young lord first came
under the fire of the enemy, whom we found posted in order of battle,
their lines extending three miles or more, over the high ground behind the
little Gheet river, and having on his left the little village of Anderkirk
or Autre-eglise, and on his right Ramillies, which has given its name to
one of the most brilliant and disastrous days of battle that history ever
hath recorded.

Our duke here once more met his old enemy of Blenheim, the Bavarian
Elector and the Mareschal Villeroy, over whom the Prince of Savoy had
gained the famous victory of Chiari. What Englishman or Frenchman doth not
know the issue of that day? Having chosen his own ground, having a force
superior to the English, and besides the excellent Spanish and Bavarian
troops, the whole Maison-du-Roy with him, the most splendid body of horse
in the world,--in an hour (and in spite of the prodigious gallantry of the
French Royal Household, who charged through the centre of our line and
broke it), this magnificent army of Villeroy was utterly routed by troops
that had been marching for twelve hours, and by the intrepid skill of a
commander, who did, indeed, seem in the presence of the enemy to be the
very Genius of Victory.

I think it was more from conviction than policy, though that policy was
surely the most prudent in the world, that the great duke always spoke of
his victories with an extraordinary modesty, and as if it was not so much
his own admirable genius and courage which achieved these amazing
successes, but as if he was a special and fatal instrument in the hands of
Providence, that willed irresistibly the enemy's overthrow. Before his
actions he always had the church service read solemnly, and professed an
undoubting belief that our queen's arms were blessed and our victory sure.
All the letters which he writ after his battles show awe rather than
exultation; and he attributes the glory of these achievements, about which
I have heard mere petty officers and men bragging with a pardonable
vainglory, in no wise to his own bravery or skill, but to the
superintending protection of Heaven, which he ever seemed to think was our
especial ally. And our army got to believe so, and the enemy learnt to
think so too; for we never entered into a battle without a perfect
confidence that it was to end in a victory; nor did the French, after the
issue