faith, was to
humble the French monarch, who had shown himself its inveterate enemy by
the atrocious persecutions consequent on the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes; and that, if this were once done, the Emperor would be unable to
prevent any stipulations being inserted in favour of the Reformed faith
in the general peace which might follow. Charles was convinced by these
arguments, which, in truth, were well-founded, and even went so far as
to propose a secret convention with England for the promotion of the
Protestant interest; a proposal which, so embarrassing at the moment
when Great Britain was in close alliance with the Emperor, Marlborough
contrived to elude with admirable dexterity. Another matter of great
delicacy was the conduct to be observed towards the dethroned King of
Poland, Augustus, who was also at Dresden, and of course viewed with the
utmost jealousy the close intimacy between Marlborough and his
formidable enemy Charles. Here, however, the diplomatic skill of the
English general overcame all difficulties, and by skilfully taking
advantage of his pecuniary embarrassments, after his territories had
been ravaged and exhausted by the Swedish forces, and engaging that the
Emperor should take a large part of his troops into his pay, he
succeeded at once in gaining over the dethroned monarch, and securing a
considerable body of fresh troops for the service of the Allies. By
these means, aided by the judicious bestowing of considerable pensions
on Count Piper and the chief Swedish ministers, paid in advance,
Marlborough succeeded in entirely allaying the storm which had
threatened his rear, and left the Saxon capital, after a residence of
ten days, perfectly secure of the pacific intentions of the Swedish
monarch, and having fully divined the intended direction of his forces
toward Moscow.[13]

The brilliant success with which this delicate and important negotiation
terminated, naturally induced a hope that vigorous operations would be
undertaken by the Allied powers, and that the great successes of the
preceding campaign would be so far improved, as to compel the Court of
France to submit to such terms as the peace of Europe, and the
independence of the adjoining States, required. It was quite the
reverse, and Marlborough had again the indescribable mortification of
seeing month after month of the summer of 1707 glide away, without one
single measure conducive to the common cause, or worthy of the real