In the spring of 1705 he once more took the field, and menaced the French in Alsace. From the Moselle he proceeded to the Maese. Liege was relieved, Huy retaken, and the boasted impregnable French lines were forced at Helixem and Neer-Hespen; but his career of victory was again impeded by the opposition he met with from the Dutch generals. These difficulties were however removed. In the spring of 1706 another campaign opened,--when the discipline he had introduced, and the confidence he inspired, again proved invincible. He met, attacked, and triumphed over the French and Spaniards at Ramilies on the 23rd of May, 1706. This decisive victory was followed by the surrender of Louvain, Brussels, Malines, Liere, Ghent, Oudenarde, Antwerp, Damme, Bruges, and Courtray: in the meantime Ostend, Menin, Dendermond, and Aeth, were taken:--places which had resisted the greatest generals for months--for years:--provinces disputed for ages were the conquests of a summer. So great was the reputation of the armies of the allies, and of their distinguished commander, that throughout the campaign of 1707 the enemy avoided a general engagement; but in the following summer a gallant French army, led by the princes of the blood, was overcome at Oudenarde:--new armies and new generals appeared; but the career of MARLBOROUGH could not be stopped. The barriers of France on the side of the Low Countries, the work of half a century, were attacked. A numerous French army were spectators of the fall of Lisle,--the bulwark of their barriers. Every campaign added new conquests. Tournay was taken. The French army--posted near Malplaquet, in a position covered by thick woods, defended by treble entrenchments--was attacked. The battle was bloody--the event decisive. The woods were pierced. The fortifications were trampled down. The enemy fled. After this victory Mons was taken; and in the succeeding years, Douay, Bethune, Aire, St. Venant, Bouchain,--all underwent the same fate. Nothing availed against a general whose sagacity foresaw everything, whose vigilance attended to everything, whose constancy no labour could subdue, whose courage no danger could dismay, and whose intuitive glance always caught the decisive moment and insured victory; while the discipline he maintained and the confidence he inspired were equivalent to an army. The ambitious Louis XIV. saw his generals over-matched,--his armies beaten and dispirited,--his possessions wrested from him,--the barriers of his kingdom trampled down, and a powerful army ready to carry the horrors of war into the heart of his kingdom. The disasters of ten campaigns having proved that MARLBOROUGH was invincible, the French monarch sued for peace. The din and calamities of war were succeeded by the smile of plenty, tranquillity, and enjoyment: but, for some political cause, the gallant MARLBOROUGH was divested of all his offices dependent on the British crown. Continuing a