ot take, and never fought a battle
that he did not gain.

Prince Eugene joined to the highest order of personal bravery a
profound judgment for the grand movements of war, and a capacity
for the most minute of the minor details on which their successful
issue so often depends. United in the same cause, these two great
generals pursued their course without the least misunderstanding.
At the close of each of those successive campaigns, in which they
reaped such a full harvest of renown, they retired together to The
Hague, to arrange, in the profoundest secrecy, the plans for the
next year's operations, with one other person, who formed the great
point of union between them, and completed a triumvirate without
a parallel in the history of political affairs. This third was
Heinsius, one of those great men produced by the republic whose
names are tantamount to the most detailed eulogium for talent
and patriotism. Every enterprise projected by the confederates
was deliberately examined, rejected, or approved by these three
associates, whose strict union of purpose, disowning all petty
rivalry, formed the centre of counsels and the source of
circumstances finally so fatal to France.

Louis XIV., now sixty years of age, could no longer himself command
his armies, or probably did not wish to risk the reputation he
was conscious of having gained by the advice and services of
Turenne, Conde, and Luxemburg. Louvois, too, was dead; and Colbert
no longer managed his finances. A council of rash and ignorant
ministers hung like a dead weight on the talent of the generals
who succeeded the great men above mentioned. Favor and not merit
too often decided promotion, and lavished command. Vendome, Villars,
Boufflers, and Berwick were set aside, to make way for Villeroi,
Tallard, and Marsin, men every way inferior.

The war began in 1702 in Italy, and Marlborough opened his first
campaign in Brabant also in that year. For several succeeding
years the confederates pursued a career of brilliant success,
the details of which do not properly belong to this work. A mere
chronology of celebrated battles would be of little interest, and
the pages of English history abound in records of those deeds.
Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, are names that
speak for themselves, and tell their own tale of glory. The utter
humiliation of France was the result of events, in which the
undying fame of England for inflexible perseverance and un