The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne

by William Makepeace Thackeray

  CHAPTER XIV.

  THE CAMPAIGN OF 1707, 1708.

  During the whole of the year which succeeded that in which the gloriousbattle of Ramillies had been fought, our army made no movement ofimportance, much to the disgust of very many of our officers remaininginactive in Flanders, who said that his Grace the Captain-General hadhad fighting enough, and was all for money now, and the enjoyment of hisfive thousand a year and his splendid palace at Woodstock, which wasnow being built. And his Grace had sufficient occupation fighting hisenemies at home this year, where it began to be whispered that his favorwas decreasing, and his duchess losing her hold on the Queen, who wastransferring her royal affections to the famous Mrs. Masham, and Mrs.Masham's humble servant, Mr. Harley. Against their intrigues, our Dukepassed a great part of his time intriguing. Mr. Harley was got outof office, and his Grace, in so far, had a victory. But her Majesty,convinced against her will, was of that opinion still, of which the poetsays people are when so convinced, and Mr. Harley before long had hisrevenge.

  Meanwhile the business of fighting did not go on any way to thesatisfaction of Marlborough's gallant lieutenants. During all 1707,with the French before us, we had never so much as a battle; our army inSpain was utterly routed at Almanza by the gallant Duke of Berwick; andwe of Webb's, which regiment the young Duke had commanded before hisfather's abdication, were a little proud to think that it was ourcolonel who had achieved this victory. "I think if I had had Galway'splace, and my Fusileers," says our General, "we would not have laid downour arms, even to our old colonel, as Galway did;" and Webb's officersswore if we had had Webb, at least we would not have been takenprisoners. Our dear old general talked incautiously of himself and ofothers; a braver or a more brilliant soldier never lived than he; buthe blew his honest trumpet rather more loudly than became a commander ofhis station, and, mighty man of valor as he was, shook his great spearand blustered before the army too fiercely.

  Mysterious Mr. Holtz went off on a secret expedition in the early partof 1708, with great elation of spirits and a prophecy to Esmond that awonderful something was about to take place. This secret came out onmy friend's return to the army, whither he brought a most rueful anddejected countenance, and owned that the great something he had beenengaged upon had failed utterly. He had been indeed with that lucklessexpedition of the Chevalier de St. George, who was sent by the Frenchking with ships and an army from Dunkirk, and was to have invadedand conquered Scotland. But that ill wind which ever opposed all theprojects upon which the Prince ever embarked, prevented the Chevalier'sinvasion of Scotland, as 'tis known, and blew poor Monsieur von Holtzback into our camp again, to scheme and foretell, and to pry about asusual. The Chevalier (the king of England, as some of us held him) wentfrom Dunkirk to the French army to make the campaign against us. TheDuke of Burgundy had the command this year, having the Duke of Berrywith him, and the famous Mareschal Vendosme and the Duke of Matignon toaid him in the campaign. Holtz, who knew everything that was passingin Flanders and France (and the Indies for what I know), insisted thatthere would be no more fighting in 1708 than there had been in theprevious year, and that our commander had reasons for keeping him quiet.Indeed, Esmond's general, who was known as a grumbler, and to have ahearty mistrust of the great Duke, and hundreds more officers besides,did not scruple to say that these private reasons came to the Dukein the shape of crown-pieces from the French King, by whom theGeneralissimo was bribed to avoid a battle. There were plenty of men inour lines, quidnuncs, to whom Mr. Webb listened only too willingly, whocould specify the exact sums the Duke got, how much fell to Cadogan'sshare, and what was the precise fee given to Doctor Hare.

  And the successes with which the French began the campaign of 1708served to give strength to these reports of treason, which were ineverybody's mouth. Our general allowed the enemy to get between us andGhent, and declined to attack him, though for eight and forty hours thearmies were in presence of each other. Ghent was taken, and on the sameday Monsieur de la Mothe summoned Bruges; and these two great citiesfell into the hands of the French without firing a shot. A few daysafterwards La Mothe seized upon the fort of Plashendall: and it beganto be supposed that all Spanish Flanders, as well as Brabant, would fallinto the hands of the French troops; when the Prince Eugene arrived fromthe Mozelle, and then there was no more shilly-shallying.

  The Prince of Savoy always signalized his arrival at the army by a greatfeast (my Lord Duke's entertainments were both seldom and shabby): andI remember our general returning from this dinner with the twocommanders-in-chief; his honest head a little excited by wine, whichwas dealt out much more liberally by the Austrian than by the Englishcommander:--"Now," says my general, slapping the table, with an oath,"he must fight; and when he is forced to it, d--- it, no man in Europecan stand up against Jack Churchill." Within a week the battle ofOudenarde was fought, when, hate each other as they might, Esmond'sgeneral and the Commander-in-Chief were forced to admire each other, sosplendid was the gallantry of each upon this day.

  The brigade commanded by Major-General Webb gave and received aboutas hard knocks as any that were delivered in that action, in which Mr.Esmond had the fortune to serve at the head of his own company in hisregiment, under the command of their own Colonel as Major-General; andit was his good luck to bring the regiment out of action as commanderof it, the four senior officers above him being killed in the prodigiousslaughter which happened on that day. I like to think that JackHaythorn, who sneered at me for being a bastard and a parasite ofWebb's, as he chose to call me, and with whom I had had words, shookhands with me the day before the battle began. Three days before, poorBrace, our Lieutenant-Colonel, had heard of his elder brother's death,and was heir to a baronetcy in Norfolk, and four thousand a year. Fate,that had left him harmless through a dozen campaigns, seized on him justas the world was worth living for, and he went into action knowing, ashe said, that the luck was going to turn against him. The Major had justjoined us--a creature of Lord Marlborough, put in much to the dislike ofthe other officers, and to be a spy upon us, as it was said. I knownot whether the truth was so, nor who took the tattle of our mess toheadquarters, but Webb's regiment, as its Colonel, was known to be inthe Commander-in-Chief's black books: "And if he did not dare to breakit up at home," our gallant old chief used to say, "he was determined todestroy it before the enemy;" so that poor Major Proudfoot was put intoa post of danger.

  Esmond's dear young Viscount, serving as aide-de-camp to my Lord Duke,received a wound, and won an honorable name for himself in the Gazette;and Captain Esmond's name was sent in for promotion by his General, too,whose favorite he was. It made his heart beat to think that certain eyesat home, the brightest in the world, might read the page on which hishumble services were recorded; but his mind was made up steadily to keepout of their dangerous influence, and to let time and absence conquerthat passion he had still lurking about him. Away from Beatrix, it didnot trouble him; but he knew as certain that if he returned home, hisfever would break out again, and avoided Walcote as a Lincolnshire manavoids returning to his fens, where he is sure that the ague is lying inwait for him.

  We of the English party in the army, who were inclined to sneer ateverything that came out of Hanover, and to treat as little better thanboors and savages the Elector's court and family, were yet forced toconfess that, on the day of Oudenarde, the young Electoral Prince, thenmaking his first campaign, conducted himself with the spirit and courageof an approved soldier. On this occasion his Electoral Highness hadbetter luck than the King of England, who was with his cousins in theenemy's camp, and had to run with them at the ignominious end of theday. With the most consummate generals in the world before them, andan admirable commander on their own side, they chose to neglect thecouncils, and to rush into a combat with the former, which would haveended in the utter annihilation of their army but for the great skilland bravery of the Duke of Vendosme, who remedied, as far as courage andgenius might, the disasters occasioned by the squabbles and follies ofhis kinsmen, the
legitimate princes of the blood royal.

  "If the Duke of Berwick had but been in the army, the fate of the daywould have been very different," was all that poor Mr. von Holtz couldsay; "and you would have seen that the hero of Almanza was fit tomeasure swords with the conqueror of Blenheim."

  The business relative to the exchange of prisoners was always going on,and was at least that ostensible one which kept Mr. Holtz perpetually onthe move between the forces of the French and the Allies. I can answerfor it, that he was once very near hanged as a spy by Major-GeneralWayne, when he was released and sent on to head-quarters by a specialorder of the Commander-in-Chief. He came and went, always favored,wherever he was, by some high though occult protection. He carriedmessages between the Duke of Berwick and his uncle, our Duke. He seemedto know as well what was taking place in the Prince's quarter as ourown: he brought the compliments of the King of England to some of ourofficers, the gentlemen of Webb's among the rest, for their behavior onthat great day; and after Wynendael, when our General was chafing at theneglect of our Commander-in-Chief, he said he knew how that actionwas regarded by the chiefs of the French army, and that the stand madebefore Wynendael wood was the passage by which the Allies entered Lille.

  "Ah!" says Holtz (and some folks were very willing to listen to him),"if the king came by his own, how changed the conduct of affairs wouldbe! His Majesty's very exile has this advantage, that he is enabled toread England impartially, and to judge honestly of all the eminent men.His sister is always in the hand of one greedy favorite or another,through whose eyes she sees, and to whose flattery or dependants shegives away everything. Do you suppose that his Majesty, knowing Englandso well as he does, would neglect such a man as General Webb? He oughtto be in the House of Peers as Lord Lydiard. The enemy and all Europeknow his merit; it is that very reputation which certain great people,who hate all equality and independence, can never pardon." It wasintended that these conversations should be carried to Mr. Webb. Theywere welcome to him, for great as his services were, no man could valuethem more than John Richmond Webb did himself, and the differencesbetween him and Marlborough being notorious, his Grace's enemies inthe army and at home began to court Webb, and set him up againstthe all-grasping, domineering chief. And soon after the victory ofOudenarde, a glorious opportunity fell into General Webb's way, whichthat gallant warrior did not neglect, and which gave him the means ofimmensely increasing his reputation at home.

  After Oudenarde, and against the counsels of Marlborough, it wassaid, the Prince of Savoy sat down before Lille, the capital of FrenchFlanders, and commenced that siege, the most celebrated of our time,and almost as famous as the siege of Troy itself, for the feats of valorperformed in the assault and the defence. The enmity of the Prince ofSavoy against the French king was a furious personal hate, quite unlikethe calm hostility of our great English general, who was no more movedby the game of war than that of billiards, and pushed forward hissquadrons, and drove his red battalions hither and thither as calmly ashe would combine a stroke or make a cannon with the balls. The gameover (and he played it so as to be pretty sure to win it), not theleast animosity against the other party remained in the breast of thisconsummate tactician. Whereas between the Prince of Savoy and the Frenchit was guerre a mort. Beaten off in one quarter, as he had been atToulon in the last year, he was back again on another frontier ofFrance, assailing it with his indefatigable fury. When the Prince cameto the army, the smouldering fires of war were lighted up and burstout into a flame. Our phlegmatic Dutch allies were made to advance at aquick march--our calm Duke forced into action. The Prince was an armyin himself against the French; the energy of his hatred, prodigious,indefatigable--infectious over hundreds of thousands of men. TheEmperor's general was repaying, and with a vengeance, the slight theFrench King had put upon the fiery little Abbe of Savoy. Brilliant andfamous as a leader himself, and beyond all measure daring and intrepid,and enabled to cope with almost the best of those famous men of war whocommanded the armies of the French King, Eugene had a weapon, the equalof which could not be found in France, since the cannon-shot of Sasbachlaid low the noble Turenne, and could hurl Marlborough at the headsof the French host, and crush them as with a rock, under which all thegathered strength of their strongest captains must go down.

  The English Duke took little part in that vast siege of Lille, whichthe Imperial Generalissimo pursued with all his force and vigor, furtherthan to cover the besieging lines from the Duke of Burgundy's army,between which and the Imperialists our Duke lay. Once, when PrinceEugene was wounded, our Duke took his Highness's place in the trenches;but the siege was with the Imperialists, not with us. A division underWebb and Rantzau was detached into Artois and Picardy upon the mostpainful and odious service that Mr. Esmond ever saw in the course of hismilitary life. The wretched towns of the defenceless provinces, whoseyoung men had been drafted away into the French armies, which year afteryear the insatiable war devoured, were left at our mercy; and our orderswere to show them none. We found places garrisoned by invalids,and children and women; poor as they were, and as the costs of thismiserable war had made them, our commission was to rob these almoststarving wretches--to tear the food out of their granaries, and stripthem of their rags. 'Twas an expedition of rapine and murder we weresent on: our soldiers did deeds such as an honest man must blush toremember. We brought back money and provisions in quantity to the Duke'scamp; there had been no one to resist us, and yet who dares to tell withwhat murder and violence, with what brutal cruelty, outrage, insult,that ignoble booty had been ravished from the innocent and miserablevictims of the war?

  Meanwhile, gallantly as the operations before Lille had been conducted,the Allies had made but little progress, and 'twas said when we returnedto the Duke of Marlborough's camp, that the siege would never be broughtto a satisfactory end, and that the Prince of Savoy would be forced toraise it. My Lord Marlborough gave this as his opinion openly; those whomistrusted him, and Mr. Esmond owns himself to be of the number, hintedthat the Duke had his reasons why Lille should not be taken, and that hewas paid to that end by the French King. If this was so, and I believeit, General Webb had now a remarkable opportunity of gratifying hishatred of the Commander-in-Chief, of balking that shameful avarice,which was one of the basest and most notorious qualities of the famousDuke, and of showing his own consummate skill as a commander. And whenI consider all the circumstances preceding the event which will nowbe related, that my Lord Duke was actually offered certain millionsof crowns provided that the siege of Lille should be raised: that theImperial army before it was without provisions and ammunition, and musthave decamped but for the supplies that they received; that the marchof the convoy destined to relieve the siege was accurately known to theFrench; and that the force covering it was shamefully inadequate to thatend, and by six times inferior to Count de la Mothe's army, whichwas sent to intercept the convoy; when 'tis certain that the Duke ofBerwick, De la Mothe's chief, was in constant correspondence with hisuncle, the English Generalissimo: I believe on my conscience that 'twasmy Lord Marlborough's intention to prevent those supplies, of which thePrince of Savoy stood in absolute need, from ever reaching his Highness;that he meant to sacrifice the little army which covered this convoy,and to betray it as he had betrayed Tollemache at Brest; as he hadbetrayed every friend he had, to further his own schemes of avarice orambition. But for the miraculous victory which Esmond's general won overan army six or seven times greater than his own, the siege of Lillemust have been raised; and it must be remembered that our gallant littleforce was under the command of a general whom Marlborough hated, that hewas furious with the conqueror, and tried by the most open and shamelessinjustice afterwards to rob him of the credit of his victory.