won some of the greatest battles ever fought in Europe. In his final campaign, in the year 1710—when he was a man of sixty-he took town after town from the French, sometimes under the very eyes of a French army much larger than his own. There was no one who could move troops so skilfully as he, who had so keen an eye for the advantages of a position, or so quick a perception of the blunders of the generals on the other side.

ad-dress', manner of conducting one's el'-o-quence, ready power of speech.

Page, a boy who waits upon a person of rank.

Ensign was one of the lower officers in our army. He had to carry the flag or ensign. The office of ensign is now abolished, and its place is taken by a sub-lieutenancy.

28.-JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF

MARLBOROUGH.-II.

1650-1722.

1. Blenheim, 1704.-In the year 1704 the French and Bavarian armies had united, and were posted in Bavaria, on the line of the Upper Danube. Blenheim is only a small village on that river; but it happened to be the key of the position. Marlborough ordered the British army to advance. The village was barricaded by palisades made of the timber of trees, as well as of waggons, carts, and boards nailed upon the trees. General Rowe led his men right up to the barricade and stuck his sword into one of the trees before he gave the order to his men to fire.

The French too had waited, and replied through the loopholes with a volley; and, in a few minutes, one out of every three of the English was stretched upon the field. Rowe himself was mortally wounded. Some of our men climbed the barricades, and, clubbing their muskets and reaching over, struck at the French soldiers as they were loading and firing. Bodies of cavalry were thrown forward; cannon were brought up to play on the position; but the fortune of the day seemed to be against Marlborough. 2. Marlborough sees the Enemy's Blunder. At this crisis Marlborough noticed that the enemy had committed a great blunder. The united army had, in the heat of battle, become separated into two parts; and the great duke, observing this, at once threw his army between the two sections of the enemy. Then, turning upon each section, he first defeated the one, and then fell upon the other. The troops that held the village were cut off from all aid from their friends, and were obliged to surrender. . . . The day was Marlborough's; and he not only gained a great victory, but took prisoner Marshal Tallard, the commander-in-chief of the French army. A hundred victories had taught the world to look upon the French army as invincible, when the defeat of Blenheim broke the spell. From this time forth a magic halo surrounded the name of Marlborough upon the Continent; and the dreaded name of "Malbrook " became a name of fear and a bugbear to every child in France.

3. His Disgrace. The duchess quarrelled with Queen Anne, and was obliged to resign her place at Court. When the duke came home after his last campaign, he found himself out of favour with the people, the Court, and the Government. He was accused of many things— chiefly of putting into his own pocket money that ought

to have been paid to the troops. It was said that he had made more than half a million of money out of the nation. He was accused of having accepted £6000 a-year from the person who held the contract for the supply of bread to the English army. The duke was deprived of all his offices; and, with his wife, he retired to the Continent.

4. His Death. He did not return to England until the accession of George I. in 1714, when he was made Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. His death took place in the year 1722. He left an immense fortune. The love of wealth was, indeed, his ruling passion. He was willing to sell anything-his own honour, his country, his soldiers, everything almost-for money. His next strongest passion was the love of power. This he gratified chiefly through his wife, and through his daughter, whom he had married to Lord Godolphin, the Prime Minister. His wife ruled the queen; his daughter influenced the chief adviser of the State; and he himself ruled to a large extent his wife and daughter. Marlborough was not a good man; but he was a very great general, and an able statesman.

5. His Character as a General.-In the presence of the enemy Marlborough was the very "Genius of Victory." He never besieged a fortress he did not take, or fought a battle he did not win. He was as calm and cool in victory, disaster, danger, or in threatened defeat, as he was in a drawing-room or at his own table. In front of an

enemy's battery vomiting flame and death, while cannonballs ploughed the ground or strewed corpses around him, he was cold, impassive, unchanging in look, serene, and resolute. "Our duke," says one of his officers, " was as calm at the mouth of a cannon as at the door of a drawingroom." Men and officers had the most perfect and un

wavering confidence in him: they knew that he would do exactly the right thing, that he would make no blunders himself, but make the most of the blunders of the enemy. "As he rode along the lines of battle," says Thackeray, "or galloped up in the nick of time to a battalion reeling from before the enemy's charge or shot, the fainting men and officers got new courage as they saw the splendid calm of his face, and felt that his will made them irresistible."

post'-ed, placed or stationed. bar'-ri-cad-ed, barred up. pal'-i-sades, fences.

loop'-holes, small holes left or made

for the purpose of firing through. clubbed their muskets, took hold

of the barrel and used them as clubs. thrown forward, ordered to advance. cri'-sis, moment of the highest importance.

sur-ren'-der, give themselves up as prisoners.

in-vin'-ci-ble, that cannot be over

come.

ha'-lo, circle of light.

bug'-bear, cause of terror.
re-sign', give up.

dis-as-ter, very great misfortune.
se-rene', perfectly calm.

bat-tal'-ion, a body of men; portion
of a regiment.

ir-re-sist'-i-ble, not to be resisted or withstood.

Bavaria, a country in the south of Germany. The capital is Munich, on the Isar, which flows into the Danube. The King of Bavaria is an under-king of the Emperor of the Germans, and his army is therefore at the command of his overlord.

THE HOUSE OF

HANOVER.

29.-GEORGE THE FIRST.

1714-1727.—Reigned 13 years.

1. The Protestant Succession.-By the Act of Settlement, as we have already seen, no one who was not a Protestant could sit upon the English throne. The crown therefore went to a family of German princes, who were

descended from Elizabeth, the daughter of James I.—who had married a German ruler. This family was called the House of Hanover. Sophia, the Electress of Hanover, was to succeed; but she died a fortnight before Anne herself; and her son George became King of England, under the title of George I.

2. Who George I was.-George I. of England was Elector of Hanover; and, from his time to the beginning of the nineteenth century, the two crowns of England and Hanover were borne by one sovereign. George was called Elector, because he had a vote in the election of the Emperor of Germany.

. . No one in England loved him very much. But he was necessary- not only to the Whigs, who placed him on the

George I.

throne, but to all who dreaded the tyranny of the Stuarts, or the return to England of a Roman Catholic dynasty. George was fifty-four when he came to the throne; could not speak a word of English; was very shy and reserved; and in no English heart did he raise any feelings of loyalty and devotion. But this little foreign gentleman was the visible sign and token of the Protestant succession; he was, in fact, the standard of civil and religious liberty for the whole English nation.