as Marlborough's aim. But a
guess was not good enough to risk Alsace upon.

By the time it was certain Marlborough was marching for the Danube--June
4th and 5th--Tallard's force was much further from the Elector of Bavaria
than was Marlborough's, as a glance at the map will show. There was no
chance then for heading Marlborough off, and the chief object of the
English commander's strategy was accomplished. He had kept the enemy in
doubt[3] as to his intentions up to the moment when his forces were safe
from interference, and he could strike for the Danube quite unmolested.

[Illustration: Map illustrating Marlborough's march to the Danube.]

Villeroy at once came south in person, and joined Tallard at
Oberweidenthal. The two commanders met upon the 7th of June to confer upon
the next move, but at this point appeared that capital element of delay
which hampered the French forces throughout the campaign, namely, the
necessity of consulting with the King at Versailles. The next day, the
8th, Tallard and Villeroy, who had gone back to their respective commands
after their conference, sent separate reports to Versailles. It was not
until the 12th that Louis answered, leaving the initiative with his
generals at the front, but advising a strong offensive upon the Rhine in
order to immobilise there a great portion of the enemy's forces.

The advice was not unwise. It did, as a fact, immobilise Eugene for the
moment, and kept him upon the Rhine for some weeks, but, as we shall see
later, that General was able to escape when the worst pressure was put
upon him, to cross the Black Forest with excellent secrecy and speed, and
to effect his junction with Marlborough in time for the battle of
Blenheim.

But, meanwhile, Baden had chased the Elector of Bavaria out of the Black
Forest and down on to the Upper Danube. Marlborough might, at any moment,
join hands with Baden. The Elector sent urgent requests for yet more
reinforcements from the French, and Tallard, in a letter to Versailles of
the 16th of June, advised the capture and possession of such points in the
Black Forest as would give him free access across the mountains, the
proper provisioning of his line of supply when he should cross them, and
the accomplishment of full preparations for joining the Elector of Bavaria
in a campaign upon the Upper Danube.

Let the day when the French court received this letter be noted, for the
coincidence is curious. At the very moment