ing would be done during this
campaign, and began to insinuate that the duke could strike no stroke of
importance without the assistance of prince Eugene. They now endeavoured
to lessen the glory of his success; and even taxed him with having
removed his camp from a convenient situation to a place where the troops
were in danger of starving. Nothing could be more provoking than this
scandalous malevolence to a great man who had done so much honour to his
country, and was then actually exposing his life in her service.

BOUCHAIN REDUCED.

On the tenth day of August Bouchain was invested, and the duke of
Marlborough exerted himself to the utmost extent of his vigilance and
capacity, well knowing the difficulties of the undertaking, and how much
his reputation would depend upon his success. Villars had taken every
precaution that his skill and experience could suggest, to baffle the
endeavours of the English general. He had reinforced the garrison to
the number of six thousand chosen men, commanded by officers of known
courage and ability. He made some efforts to raise the siege; but they
were rendered ineffectual by the consummate prudence and activity of the
duke of Marlborough. Then he laid a scheme for surprising Douay, which
likewise miscarried. If we consider that the English general, in the
execution of his plan, was obliged to form lines, erect regular forts,
raise batteries, throw bridges over a river, make a causeway through a
deep morass, provide for the security of convoys against a numerous
army on the one side, and the garrisons of Conde and Valenciennes on the
other, we must allow this was the boldest enterprise of the whole war;
that it required all the fortitude, skill, and resolution of a great
general, and all the valour and intrepidity of the confederate troops,
who had scarce ever exhibited such amazing proofs of courage upon any
other occasion as they now displayed at the siege of Bouchain. In
twenty days after the trenches were opened, the garrison were obliged
to surrender themselves prisoners of war; and this conquest was the last
military exploit performed by the duke of Marlborough: the breaches
of Bouchain were no sooner repaired than the opposite armies began to
separate, and the allied forces were quartered in the frontier towns,
that they might be at hand to take the field early in the spring. They
were now in possession of the Maese, almost as far as the Sambre; of the
Schelde from To