and in that general struggle the campaign of 1704, and the battle of
Blenheim which was its climax, are at once of the highest historical
importance, and a singular example of military success.

For if the general political object be considered, which was the stemming
of the French tide of victory and the checking of the Bourbon power,
rather than the particular matter of the succession of the Spanish
throne, then it was undoubtedly the campaign of 1704 which turned the
tide; and Blenheim must always be remembered in history as the great
defeat from which dates the retreat of the military power of the French in
that epoch, and the gradual beating back of Louis XIV.'s forces to those
frontiers which may be regarded as the natural boundaries of France.

Not all the French conquests were lost, nor by any means was the whole
great effort of the reign destroyed. But the peril which the military
aptitude of the French under so great a man as Louis XIV. presented to the
minor States of Europe and to the Austrian empire was definitely checked
when the campaign of Blenheim was brought to its successful conclusion.
That battle was the first of the great defeats which exhausted the
resources of Louis, put him, for the first time in his long reign, upon a
close defensive, and restored the European balance which his years of
unquestioned international power had disturbed.

Blenheim, then, may justly rank among the decisive actions of European
history.

In connection with the campaign of which it formed a part, it gave to that
campaign all its meaning and all its complete success.

In connection with the general struggle against Louis, that campaign
formed the turning point between the flow and the ebb in the stream of
military power which Louis XIV. commanded and had set in motion.

From the day of Blenheim, August 13th, 1704, onwards, the whole French
effort was for seven years a desperate losing game, which, if its end was
saved from disaster by the high statesmanship of the king and the devotion
of his people, was none the less the ruin of that ambitious policy which
had coincided with the great days of Versailles.

* * * * *

The war was conducted, as I have said, by various allies. Its success
depended, therefore, upon various commanders regarded as coequal, acting
as colleagues rather than as principals and subordinates. But the story of
the great march to the Danube and its harvest at Ble