the French right on the advancing left wing of the British. Marlborough ordered up some of his batteries to reply to it, and while the columns that were to form the allied left and centre deployed, and took up their proper stations in the line, a warm cannonade was kept up by the guns on both sides. The ground which Eugene's columns had to traverse was peculiarly difficult, especially for the passage of the artillery; and it was nearly mid-day before he could get his troops into line opposite to Lutzingen. During this interval, Marlborough ordered divine service to be performed by the chaplains at the head of each regiment, and then rode along the lines and found both officers and men in the highest spirits, and waited impatiently for the signal for the attack. At length an aide-de-camp galloped up from the right with the welcome news that Eugene was ready. Marlborough instantly sent Lord Curtis with a strong brigade of infantry to assault the village of Blenheim, while he himself led the main body down the eastward slope of the valley of Nebel, and prepared to effect the passage of the stream. The assault on Blenheim, though bravely made, was repulsed with severe loss; and Marlborough, finding how strongly that village was garrisoned, desisted from any further attempts to carry it, and bent all his energies to breaking the enemy's line between Blenheim and Oberglau. Some temporary bridges had been prepared, and planks and fascines had been collected; and by aid of these, and a little strong bridge which crossed the Nebel, near a hamlet called Uterglau, that lay in the centre of the valley, Marlborough succeeded in getting several squadrons across the Nebel, though it was divided into several branches, and the ground between them was soft, and, in places, little better than a mere marsh. But the French artillery was not idle. The cannon-balls plunged incessantly among the advancing squadrons of the allies; and bodies of French cavalry rode frequently down from the western ridge to charge them before they had time to form on the firm ground. It was only by supporting his men by fresh troops, and by bringing up infantry who checked the advance of the enemy's horse by their steady fire, that Marlborough was able to save his army in this quarter from a repulse, a repulse which, after the failure of the attack upon Blenheim, would have been fatal to the allies. By degrees, his cavalry struggled over the blood-stained streams; the infantry were also now brought across, so as to keep in check the French troops who held Blenheim, and who, when no longer assailed in front, had begun to attack the allies on their left with considerable effect. Marlborough thus succeeded in drawing up the whole left wing of his army beyond the Nebel, and was about to press forward with it when he was called away to another part of the field by a disaster that had befallen his centre. The Prince of Holstein, Beck, had, with eleven Hanoverian battalions, passed the Nebel opposite to Oberglau, when he was charged and utterly routed by the Irish brigade which held that village. The Irish drove the Hanoverians back with heavy slaughter, broke completely through the line of the allies, and nearly achieved a success as brilliant as that which the same brigade afterwards gained at Fontenoy. But at Blenheim their ardor in pursuit led them too far. Marlborough came up in person, and dashed in upon the exposed flank of the brigade with some squadrons of British cavalry. The Irish reeled back, and as they strove to regain the height of Oberglau, their column was raked through and through by the fire of three battalions of the allies which Marlborough had summoned up from the reserve. Marlborough having re-established the order and communications of the allies in this quarter, now, as he returned to his own left wing, sent to learn how his colleague fared against Marsin and the elector, and to inform Eugene of his own success. Eugene had hitherto not been equally fortunate. He had made three attacks on the enemy opposed to him, and had been thrice driven back. It was only by his own desperate personal exertions, and the remarkable steadiness of the regiments of Prussian infantry which were under him, that he was able to save his wing from being totally defeated. But it was on the southern part of the battle-field, on the ground which Marlborough had won beyond the Nebel with such difficulty, that the crisis of the battle was to be decided. won. Like Hannibal, Marlborough relied principally on his cavalry for achieving his decisive successes, and it was by his cavalry that Blenheim, the greatest of his victories, was The battle had lasted till five in the afternoon, Marlborough had now eight thousand horsemen drawn up in two lines, and in the most perfect order, for a general attack on the enemy's line along the space between Blenheim and Oberglau. The infantry was drawn up in battalions in their rear, so as to support them if repulsed, and to keep in check the large masses of the French that still occupied the village of Blenheim. Tallard now interlaced his squadrons of cavalry with battalions of infantry; and Marlborough, by a corresponding movement, and the allied cavalry, strengthened and supported by foot and guns, advanced slowly from the lower ground near the Nebel up the slope to where the French cavalry, ten thousand strong, awaited them. On riding over the summit of the acclivity, the allies were received with so hot a fire from the French artillery and small arms, that at first the cavalry recoiled, but without abandoning the high ground. The guns and the infantry which they had brought with them maintained the contest with spirit and effect. The French fire seemed to slacken. Marlborough instantly ordered a charge along the line. The allied cavalry galloped forward at the enemy's squadrons, and the hearts of the French horsemen failed them, Discharging their carbines at an idle distance, they wheeled round and spurred from the field, leaving the nine infantry battalions of their comrades to be ridden down by the tor rent of the allied cavalry. The battle was now won. Tallard and Marsin, severed from each other, thought only of retreat. Tallard drew up the squadrons of horse which he had left, in a line extended towards Blenheim, and sent orders to the infantry in that village to come and join him without delay. But long ere his orders could be obeyed, the conquering squadrons of Marlborough had wheeled to the left, and thundered down on the feeble array of the French marshal. Part of the force which Tallard had drawn up for this last effort was driven into the Danube; part fled with their general to the village of Sonderheim, where they were soon surrounded by the victorious allies, and compelled to surrender. Meanwhile, Eugene had renewed his attack upon the Gallo-Bavarian left, and Marsin, finding his colleague utterly routed, and his own right flank uncovered, prepared to retreat. He and the elector succeeded in withdrawing a considerable part of their troops in tolerable order to Dillengen; but the large body of the French who garrisoned Blenheim were left exposed to certain destruction. Marlborough speedily occupied all the outlets from the village with his victorious troops, and then, collecting his artillery round it, he commenced a cannonade that speedily would have destroyed Blenheim itself and all who were in it. After several gallant but unsuccessful attempts to cut their way through the allies, the French in Blenheim were at length compelled to surrender at discretion; and twenty-four battalions and twelve squadrons, with all their officers, laid down their arms, and became the captives of Marlborough. Creasy. WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. LET us endeavour to portray that extraordinary man, who at his outset was pitied for losing a cornetcy of horse*, and who within twenty years had made himself the first man in England, and England the first country in the world. He had received from nature a tall and striking figure, aquiline and noble features, and a glance of fire. Lord Waldegrave, after eulogising the clearness of his style, observes that his eye was as significant as his words. In debates a single look would sometimes disconcert an orator opposed to him. His voice most happily combined sweetness and strength. It was of silvery clearness, and even when it sank to a whisper it was distinctly heard; while its other tones, like the swell of some majestic organ, could peal and thrill above every other earthly sound. As to style, Demosthenes was his favorite study among the ancients; among the English, Bolingbroke and Barrow. But perhaps our best clue to Lord Chatham's own mental tasks, more especially in the field of oratory, is afforded by those which he afterwards so successfully enjoined to his favorite son. It may be stated, on the authority of the present Lord Stanhope, that Mr. Pitt being asked to what he principally ascribed the two qualities for which his eloquence was most conspicuous, namely, the lucid order of his reasonings and the ready choice of his words, swered that he believed he owed the former to an early study of the Aristotelian logic, and the latter to his father's practice in making him every day, after reading over to himself some passage in the classics, translate it aloud and continuously into English prose. - an Nor was Lord Chatham less solicitous as to his own ac * Chatham had been deprived of his commission in the army for voting in the House of Commons against Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister. |