them. And it
is in the power of overcoming these difficulties, and allaying those
jealousies, that one of the most important qualities of the general of
an alliance is to be found.

Marlborough sailed for the Continent, to take the command of the
armies in the Low Countries, on the 20th April 1706. His design was to
have transferred the seat of war into Italy, as affairs had become so
unpromising in that quarter as to be well-nigh desperate. The
Imperialists had been surprised by the French general, Vendome, in
their quarters near Como, and driven into the mountains behind that
town with the loss of three thousand men; so that all hold of the
plain of Lombardy was lost. The Duke of Savoy was even threatened with
a siege in his capital of Turin. The Margrave of Baden was displaying
his usual fractious and impracticable disposition on the Upper Rhine:
it seemed, in Marlborough's words, "as if he had no other object in
view but to cover his own capital and residence." In Flanders, the
habitual procrastination and tardiness of the Dutch had so thrown back
the preparations, that it was impossible to begin the campaign so
early as he had intended; and the jealousies of the cabinets of Berlin
and Copenhagen had again revived to such a degree, that no aid was to
be expected either from the Prussian or Danish contingents. It was
chiefly to get beyond the reach of such troublesome and inconstant
neighbours, that Marlborough was so desirous of transferring the seat
of war to Italy, where he would have been beyond their reach. But all
his efforts failed in inducing the States-general to allow any part of
their troops to be employed to the south of the Alps; nor, indeed,
could it reasonably have been expected that they would consent to
hazard their forces, in an expedition not immediately connected with
their interests, to so distant a quarter. The umbrage of the Elector
of Hanover at the conduct of Queen Anne, had become so excessive, that
he positively refused to let his contingent march. The Danes and
Hessians excused themselves on various pretences from moving their
troops to the south; and the Emperor, instead of contributing any
thing to the war in Flanders, was urgent that succour should be sent,
and that the English general should, in person, take the command on
the Moselle. Marlborough was thus reduced to the English troops, and
those in the pay of Holland; but they amounted to nearly sixty
thousand men; and, on the 19th