nd relying upon which towns as centres of supply,
an army may manoeuvre.

But between the system of the Rhine and that of the Danube there runs a
long sweep of very broken country, the Black Forest merging into the
Swabian Jura, which in a military sense cuts off the one basin from the
other.

At the opening of the eighteenth century, when that great stretch of
hills had but a score of roads, none of them well kept up, when no town of
any importance could be found in their valleys, and when no communication,
even of a verbal message, could proceed faster than a mounted man, this
sweep of hills was a very formidable obstacle indeed.

It was these hills, when Marlborough determined to strike across them, and
to engage himself in the valley of the Upper Danube, which formed the
chief physical factor of his hazard; for, once engaged in them, still more
when he had crossed them, his appeals for aid, his reception of advice,
perhaps eventually a reinforcement of men or supplies, must depend upon
the Rhine valley.

True he had, the one within a week of the Danube, the other within two
days of it, the couple of depots mentioned above, the principal one at
Nuremberg, the advanced one at Nordlingen. Nevertheless, so long as he was
upon the further or eastern side of the hills, his position would remain
one of great risk, unless, indeed, or until, he had had the good fortune
to destroy the forces of the enemy.

All this being before the reader, the progress of the great march may now
be briefly described.

In the winter between 1703 and 1704 domestic irritation and home
intrigues, with which we are not here concerned, almost persuaded
Marlborough to give up his great role upon the Continent of Europe.

Luckily for the alliance against Louis and for the history of British
arms, he returned upon this determination or phantasy, and with the very
beginning of the year began his plans for the coming campaign.

He crossed first to Holland in the middle of January 1704, persuaded the
Dutch Government to grant a subsidy to the German troops in the South,
pretended (since he knew how nervous the Dutch would be if they heard of
the plan for withdrawing a great army from their frontiers to the Danube)
that he intended operating upon the Moselle, returned to England, saw with
the utmost activity to the raising of recruits and to the domestic
organisation of the expedition, and reached Holland again to undertake the
most famous action