are to find. Two hundred
years ago, the tangle of hills was far more deserted and far worse
provided.

By the time Marlborough should have effected his junction with his ally in
the upper valley of the Danube only two bases of supply would be within
any useful distance of the new and distant place to which he was
transferring his great force.

The most important of these, his chief base, and his only principal store
of munitions and every other requisite, was _Nuremberg_; and that town was
a good week from the plains upon the bank of the Danube where he proposed
to act. As an advanced base nearer to the river, he could only count upon
the lesser town of _Nordlingen_.

Therefore, even if he should successfully reach the field of action which
he proposed, cross the hills between the two river basins without loss or
delay, and be ready to act as he hoped upon the banks of the Danube before
the end of June, his stay could not be indefinitely prolonged there, and
his every movement would be undertaken under the anxiety which must ever
haunt a commander dependent on an insufficient or too distant base of
supply. This anxiety, be it noted, would rapidly increase with every march
he might have to take southward of the Danube, and with every day's
advance into Bavaria itself, if, as he hoped, the possibility of such an
advance should crown his efforts.

We have seen that the great hazard which Marlborough risked made it
necessary, as he advanced southward up the Rhine during the first half of
his march, to keep Villeroy and Tallard doubtful as to whether his
objective was the Moselle or, later, Alsace; and while they were still in
suspense, abruptly to leave the valley of the Rhine and make for the
crossing of the hills towards the Danube. So long as the French marshals
remained uncertain of his intentions, they would not dare to detach any
very large body of troops from the Rhine valley to the Elector's aid:
under the conditions of the time, the clever handling of movement and
information might create a gap of a week at least between his first
divergence from the Rhine and his enemy's full appreciation that he was
heading for the south-east.

He so concealed his information and so ordered his baffling movements as
to achieve that end.

So much for the general hazard which would have applied to any commander
undertaking such an advance.

But, as I have said, there were two other points peculiar to Marlborough's
politica