tleman; one, moreover, who had advanced by
favour rather than by intrigue. He lost the moment.

Marlborough's cavalry managed to form, struggling beyond the brook, and
the last final phase of the action was at hand--for Marlborough's cavalry
would reiterate that general lesson which the whole battle teaches, to
wit, that the horse of the allies was not only far stronger numerically,
but far better trained than the French cavalry before them, and, with
equal chances, must destroy it. Tallard, by missing his moment, had
permitted those equal chances to be restored. Even so, yet one other last
accident favoured the French. The hour was about five, or rather later in
the mid-afternoon. In order to be able to form his cavalry beyond the
Nebel, Marlborough wanted to have a clear right flank, and with that
object he had launched from 6000 to 7000 Hanoverians against Oberglauheim.
The excellent infantry of Blainville, less in numbers, emerged from the
village, threw the Hanoverians into gross disorder, and captured their
commander. At this point there was beginning to be a rout. This new French
success, properly followed up, would again have had a chance to break the
allied centre at its weakest point, just at the link where Marlborough
joined on to Eugene.

Marcin, inferior as was his command, gripped the opportunity, sent cavalry
at once to Oberglauheim, and that cavalry charged. But here the greatness
of Marlborough as a personal commander suddenly appeared. He seized the
whole character of the moment in a way that Tallard on his first chance
had wholly failed to do. He put himself in person at the head of the
Danish brigade that lay in reserve, brought it across the rivulet, and
came just in time to take the charge of the French cavalry. Even as that
charge was preparing, Marlborough sent to Eugene for cavalry at the
gallop. He (Marlborough) must hold fast with his Danes against the French
horse--five minutes, ten, fifteen at the most--till help should come from
the right.

Here, again, another factor in the success of the day appeared--that
Eugene and Marlborough understood each other.

Eugene had just suffered a sharp check upon the extreme right; he was
re-forming for a new attack when he got Marlborough's message. Without the
loss of a moment in weighing his own immediate necessities, he sent Fugger
thundering off, and Fugger, with the imperial cuirassiers, came galloping
full speed upon Marlborough's right flank jus