sed as mounted men.

[Illustration: The Elements of the Action of Blenheim.]

The village of Oberglauheim itself, and all that stretched to the left of
it up the Nebel as far as the base of the hills, was occupied by the army
of Marcin and the Elector of Bavaria. This force was forty-two battalions
and eighty-three squadrons strong. The cavalry in this second army, the
left of the whole force, had been less severely tried by disease, rapid
marching, and ill provisionment than that of Tallard. We may reckon it,
therefore, at its full or nearly its full strength, and say that Marcin
and the Elector commanded over 20,000 men and close upon 10,000 horse. In
a word, the total of the Franco-Bavarian forces, though we have no
documents by which to estimate their exact numbers, may be regarded, from
the indications we have of the losses of the cavalry, etc., as certainly
more than fifty and certainly less than fifty-three thousand men, infantry
and cavalry combined. To these we must add ninety guns, disposed along the
whole front after the fashion of the time, and these under the general and
separate command of Frezeliere.[10]

This disposition of the guns in a chain along the whole front of the line
the reader is begged especially to note.

The particular dispositions of the Franco-Bavarian forces must now be
seized, and to appreciate these let us first consider the importance of
the village of Blenheim.

Blenheim, a large scattered village, with the characteristic Bavarian
gardens round each house, lay so close to the course of the Danube as it
then ran that there was no possibility of an enemy's force passing between
it and the river. It formed a position easy to be defended, lying as it
did on a slight crest above the brook Nebel, where that brook joined the
main river.

Blenheim, therefore, if it were soundly held, blocked any attempt to turn
the French line upon that side; but if it were carried by the enemy, that
enemy would then be able to enfilade the whole French line, to take it in
flank and to roll it up. Tallard, therefore, with perfect judgment, posted
in the village a very strong force of his infantry. This force consisted
at first of nine battalions, shortly after, by reinforcement, of sixteen
battalions of foot, and further of four regiments of dragoons
_dismounted_.[11]

Not content with throwing into Blenheim between 8000 and 10,000 men,
Tallard placed behind the village and in its neighbourhood a