e of Baden came up in good time upon the right (that is, from the
side of the town), poured almost unopposed over the deserted earthworks of
that side, and, five to one, overwhelmed the 12,000 Franco-Bavarians upon
the hill.

After one of those short stubborn and futile attempts at resistance which
such situations discover in all wars, the inevitable dissolution of
d'Arco's command came before the darkness. It was utterly routed; and we
may justly presume that not 4000--more probably but 3000--rejoined the
army of Marcin and of the Elector of Bavaria.

The loss of the Schellenberg had cost Marlborough's enemies, whose forces
were already gravely inferior to his own, eight guns and close upon
one-fifth of their effective numbers. The Franco-Bavarians hurried south
to entrench themselves under Augsburg, while Donauwoerth, and with it the
passage of the two great rivers and the entry into Bavaria, lay in the
possession of Marlborough and his ally.

The balance of military and historical opinion will decide that
Marlborough played for too high stakes in beginning the assault so late in
the evening and with so small a force. But he was playing for speed, and
he won the hazard.

It was a further reward of his daring that he could point after this first
engagement to the fine quality of his British contingent.[6]

It was upon the evening of July the 2nd, then, that this capital position
was stormed. It was upon the 5th that Marcin and the Elector lay hopeless
and immobile before Augsburg, while their enemies entered a now
defenceless Bavaria by its north-western gate. And this complete
achievement of Marlborough's plan was but the end of the first phase in
the campaign upon the Danube.

Meanwhile, a large French reinforcement under Tallard was already far up
on its way from the Rhine, across the Black Forest, to join Marcin and the
Elector of Bavaria and set back the tide of war, and, when it should have
effected its junction with those who awaited it at Augsburg, to oppose to
Marlborough and the Duke of Baden a total force greater than their own.

The French marshal, Tallard, was in command of the army thus rapidly
approaching in relief of the Franco-Bavarians. His arrival, if he came
without loss, disease, or mishap, promised a complete superiority over the
English and their allies, unless, indeed, by some accident or stroke of
genius, reinforcement should reach _them_ also before the day of the
battle.

This reinfo