triumphant cause. It is seldom that the prosperous want friends.

The Dutch were clear, after the submission of Brabant, to levy
contributions in it as a conquered country, to relieve themselves of
part of the expenses of the war; and Godolphin, actuated by the same
short-sighted views, was eager to replenish the English exchequer from
the same source. But Marlborough, like Wellington in after days, had
magnanimity and wisdom enough to see the folly, as well as injustice,
of thus alienating infant allies at the moment of their conversion,
and he combated the project so successfully, that it was
abandoned.[13] At the same time, he preserved the strictest discipline
on the part of his troops, and took every imaginable precaution to
secure the affections and allay the apprehensions of the inhabitants
of the ceded provinces. The good effects of this wise and conciliatory
policy were soon apparent. Without firing a shot, the Allies gained
greater advantages during the remainder of the campaign, than they
could have done by a series of bloody sieges, and the sacrifice of
thirty thousand men. Nor was it less advantageous to the English
general than to the common cause; for it delivered him, for that
season at least, from the thraldom of a council of war, the invariable
resource of a weak, and bane of a lofty mind.[14]

The Estates of Brabant, assembled at Brussels, sent injunctions to
the governor of Antwerp, Ghent, and all the other fortresses within
their territories, to declare for Charles III., and admit these
troops. The effects of this, coupled with the discipline preserved by
the Allied troops, and the protection from contributions, was
incredible. No sooner were the orders from the States at Brussels
received at Antwerp, than a schism broke out between the French
regiments in the garrison and the Walloon guards, the latter declaring
for Charles III. The approach of Marlborough's army, and the
intelligence of the submission of the other cities of Brabant, brought
matters to a crisis; and after some altercation, it was agreed that
the French troops should march out with the honours of war, and be
escorted to Bouchain, within the frontier of their own country. On the
6th June this magnificent fortress, which it had cost the Prince of
Parma so vast an expenditure of blood and treasure to reduce, and
which Napoleon said was itself worth a kingdom, was gained without
firing a shot. Oudenarde, which had been in vain besiege