ching
upon Liege, occupied the town without much resistance, and laid siege
to the citadel. Overkirk, in his lines before Maestricht, was unable
even to keep the field. The utmost alarm seized upon the United
Provinces. They already in imagination saw Louis XIV. a second time at
the gates of Amsterdam. Courier after courier was dispatched to
Marlborough, soliciting relief in the most urgent terms; and it was
hinted, that if effectual protection were not immediately given,
Holland would be under the necessity of negotiating for a separate
peace. There was not a moment to be lost: the Dutch were now as hard
pressed as the Austrians had been in the preceding year, and in
greater alarm than the Emperor was before the battle of Blenheim. A
cross march like that into Bavaria could alone reinstate affairs.
Without a moment's hesitation, Marlborough took his determination.

On the 17th June, without communicating his designs to any one, or
even without saying a word of the alarming intelligence he had
received, he ordered the whole army to be under arms at midnight, and
setting out shortly after, he marched, without intermission, eighteen
miles to the rear. Having thus gained a march upon the enemy, so as to
avoid the risk of being pursued or harassed in his retreat, he left
General D'Aubach with eleven battalions and twelve squadrons to cover
the important magazines at Treves and Saarbruck; and himself, with the
remainder of the army, about thirty thousand strong, marched rapidly
in the direction of Maestricht. He was in hopes of being able, like
the Consul Nero, in the memorable cross march from Apulia to the
Metaurus in Roman story, to attack the enemy with his own army united
to that of Overkirk, before he was aware of his approach; but in this
he was disappointed. Villeroi got notice of his movement, and
instantly raising the siege of the citadel of Liege, withdrew, though
still superior in number to the united forces of the enemy, within the
shelter of the lines he had prepared and fortified with great care on
the Meuse. Marlborough instantly attacked and carried Huys on the 11th
July. But the satisfaction derived from having thus arrested the
progress of the enemy in Flanders, and wrested from him the only
conquest of the campaign, soon received a bitter alloy. Like Napoleon
in his later years, the successes he gained in person were almost
always overbalanced by the disasters sustained through the blunders or
treachery