I yet want to know in the art of war."[12]

This adroit compliment from so great and justly celebrated a commander,
produced an immediate effect on the Swedish monarch, who was
passionately desirous of military glory. His satisfaction was visible in
his countenance, and he returned a gracious answer in these terms:--"The
Queen of Great Britain's letter and your person are both very acceptable
to me, and I shall always have the utmost regard for the interposition
of her Britannic Majesty and the interests of the Grand Alliance. It is
much against my will that I have been obliged to give umbrage to any of
the parties engaged in it. I have had just cause to come into this
country with my troops; but you may assure the Queen, my sister, that my
design is to depart from hence as soon as I have obtained the
satisfaction I demand, but not till then. However, I shall do nothing
that can tend to the prejudice of the common cause in general, or of the
Protestant religion, of which I shall always glory to be a zealous
protector." This favourable answer was immediately followed by an
invitation to dine with the King, by whom he was placed on his right
hand, and honoured with the most flattering attention. In the course of
the evening the conversation turned chiefly on military matters, in
which Marlborough exerted himself with such skill and success, that he
had another long private audience of Charles; and before his departure,
that monarch even exceeded his views, and declared that there could be
no security for the peace of Europe till France was reduced to the rank
she held at the date of the treaty of Westphalia.

Though the address and abilities of Marlborough, however, had thus
removed the chief danger to be apprehended from the presence of the
Swedish monarch at Dresden, yet other matters of great delicacy remained
still for adjustment, which required all his prudence and skill to bring
to a satisfactory issue. Not the least of these difficulties arose from
the zeal of the King of Sweden for the protection of the Protestant
religion, and his desire to revive and secure the privileges granted to
the German Protestants by the treaty of Westphalia. As Marlborough
justly apprehended that the Court of Vienna might take umbrage at these
demands, and so be diverted from the objects of the Grand Alliance, he
exerted himself to the utmost to convince his Majesty that the great
object in the mean time, even as regarded the Protestant