ection of 1705, as he hoped, returned a majority in
favour of the war, his efforts brought about a coalition between the
moderate Tories who still clung to him and the Whig Junto, whose support
was purchased by making a Whig, William Cowper, Lord Keeper, and by
sending Lord Sunderland as envoy to Vienna.

[Sidenote: Ramillies.]

The bitter attacks of the peace party were entirely foiled by this
union, and Marlborough at last felt secure at home. But he had to bear
disappointment abroad. His plan of attack along the line of the Moselle
was defeated by the refusal of the Imperial army to join him. When he
transferred the war again to the Netherlands and entered the French
lines across the Dyle, the Dutch generals withdrew their troops; and his
proposal to attack the Duke of Villeroy in the field of Waterloo was
rejected in full council of war by the deputies of the States with cries
of "murder" and "massacre." Even Marlborough's composure broke into
bitterness at this last blow. "Had I the same power I had last year," he
wrote home, "I could have won a greater victory than that of Blenheim."
On his complaint indeed the States recalled their commissaries, but the
year was lost; nor had greater results been brought about in Italy or on
the Rhine. The spirits of the allies were only sustained by the
romantic exploits of Lord Peterborough in Spain. Profligate,
unprincipled, flighty as he was, Peterborough had a genius for war, and
his seizure of Barcelona with a handful of men, a step followed by his
recognition of the old liberties of Aragon, roused that province to
support the cause of the second son of the Emperor, who had been
acknowledged as King of Spain by the allies under the title of Charles
the Third. Catalonia and Valencia soon joined Aragon in declaring for
Charles: while Marlborough spent the winter of 1705 in negotiations at
Vienna, Berlin, Hanover, and the Hague, and in preparations for the
coming campaign. Eager for freedom of action and sick of the Imperial
generals as of the Dutch, he planned a march over the Alps and a
campaign in Italy; and though these designs were defeated by the
opposition of the allies, he found himself unfettered when he again
appeared in Flanders in 1706. Marshal Villeroy, the new French general,
was as eager as Marlborough for an engagement; and the two armies met on
the 23rd of May at the village of Ramillies on an undulating plain which
forms the highest ground in Brabant. The Fr