lliant operations on the defence line proved to be but the
prelude to Marlborough's second great life disappointment. He saw his
chance. He had but to follow up his success by a decisive victory over
Villeroy's forces, and the way lay open to Paris. His hopes ran high.

Alas! the Dutch had to be reckoned with. Eager to follow up his
advantage, Marlborough called for assistance, immediate and effective,
from them; in vain; the assistance did not come, or came too late.
With what help he could get from the Dutch, nevertheless, he went
forward to the Dyle. Here again the Dutch balked him, raising
objections to the crossing of that river. In despair the Duke gathered
his troops, as it happened, strangely enough, on the very spot where,
a hundred years later, another great Duke gained his most famous
victory over the French. Could Marlborough have but had his chance
with Villeroy in that spot, there is little doubt that Europe would
have seen an earlier Waterloo.

But it was not to be. Just as the Margrave of Baden had stopped his
advance along the Moselle into France the previous year, so now the
supineness and factious opposition of the Dutch prevented Marlborough
from dealing the French power a crushing blow. Deeply disgusted, he
threatened once more to resign his command. "Had I had the same power
I had last year," he wrote, "I could have won a greater victory than
that of Blenheim." It was a bitter trial for him.

The campaign of 1705 soon after came to a close, and the Duke set off
on what we may call a diplomatic tour among the allied states, his
travels and negotiations producing good results. It was not till the
beginning of 1706 that he went back to England, and thus it was late
in the spring of that year when the campaign was reopened.

Rejoining his army in the Netherlands, he proposed to make another of
his great marches, namely into Italy, there to join his friend Prince
Eugene in an invasion of France from the south-east. This plan was
made impossible by the crookedness of the kings of Prussia and
Denmark, and some others of the Allies. Swallowing this disappointment
also, as best he might, Marlborough started from the Dyle and advanced
on the great and important stronghold of Namur, at the junction of the
Sambre with the Meuse. Namur had always been greatly esteemed by the
French, and, in dread alarm, Louis ordered Villeroy to take immediate
action. The result was that the two hostile armies, each numberin