only
large and permanent collection of stores. Marlborough and Baden are in
perpetual difficulty for food, for ammunition, and for forage--especially
for ammunition.

[Illustration: Map showing the situation when Eugene suddenly appeared at
Hochstadt, August 5-7, 1704.]

Since the whole object of Marlborough in marching to the Upper Danube was
to embarrass in this new seat of war the alliance of the French and
Bavarian forces, it is, conversely, the business of the French commander
to get him out of the valley of the Upper Danube and restore the liberty
of action of the French monarch and of his ally the Elector of Bavaria.

The surest way of getting Marlborough out of the Upper Danube is to
threaten his line of supply. He will then be compelled to fall back
northward upon his base. Further (though Tallard did not know it at the
moment), there is present the very real difficulty of friction between the
two commanders of the army opposing him. Marlborough and Baden are not
getting on well together. If it were possible for Marlborough to persuade
Baden to go off on some little expedition of his own, withdrawing but a
few soldiers, Marlborough would be well content, and Marlborough is by far
the more formidable of the two men. But though the opportunity for such a
riddance of divided command is open, for Prince Louis of Baden is anxious
to besiege Ingolstadt, Marlborough dares not weaken the combined forces,
even by a few battalions, now that Tallard has effected his junction with
the Elector and with Marcin, and that a formidable force is opposed to
him.

These elements in the situation, once clearly seized, the sequel follows
from them logically enough.

The above describes the situation on the 5th of August.

On the 6th, Wednesday, the united Franco-Bavarian force began its march
northward towards the Danube, a march parallel with Marlborough's line of
supply, and threatening that line all the way, ready to cut it when once
the northern bank of the Danube was reached. Marlborough was compelled,
in view of that march, to go back northward, step for step with his
opponents. The artery that fed him was in danger, and everything else must
be neglected.

In the evening of that Wednesday, August the 6th, Tallard and the Elector
were at Biberach, Marlborough and Baden at Schobenhausen, which, as the
map shows, lies also a day's march to the north from the last position
these troops had held, and was on the way to