to prosecute
the war with the vigour and perseverance which so eminently
distinguished his character, when he was carried off by the effects of a
fall from his horse, on the 19th March 1702. But that event made no
alteration in the part which England took in the war which was
commencing, and it augmented rather than diminished the influence which
Marlborough had in its direction. The Princess Anne, with whom, both
individually and through Lady Marlborough, he was so intimately
connected, mounted the throne without opposition; and one of her first
acts was to bestow on Marlborough the order of the Garter, confirm him
in his former offices, and appoint him, in addition, her plenipotentiary
at the Hague. War was declared on the 15th May 1702, and Marlborough
immediately went over to the Netherlands to take the command of the
Allied army, sixty thousand strong, then lying before Nimeguen, which
was threatened by a superior force on the part of the French.

It is at this period--time 1702--that the great and memorable, and
withal blameless period of Marlborough's life commenced; the next ten
years were one unbroken series of efforts, victories, and glory. He
arrived in the camp at Nimeguen on the evening of the 2d July, having
been a few weeks before at the Hague; and immediately assumed the
command. Lord Athlone, who had previously enjoyed that situation, at
first laid claim to an equal authority with him; but this ruinous
division, which never is safe, save with men so great as he and Eugene,
and would unquestionably have proved ruinous to the common cause if
shared with Athlone, was prevented by the States-General, who insisted
upon the undivided direction being conferred on Marlborough. Most
fortunately it is precisely at this period that the correspondence now
published commences, which, in the three volumes already published,
presents an unbroken series of his letters to persons of every
description down to May, 1708. They thus embrace the early successes in
Flanders, the cross march into Bavaria and battle of Blenheim, the
expulsion of the French from Germany, the battle of Ramillies, and
taking of Brussels and Antwerp, the mission to the King of Sweden at
Dresden, the battle of Almanza, in Spain, and all the important events
of the first six years of the war. More weighty and momentous materials
for history never were presented to the public; and their importance
will not be properly appreciated, if the previous cond