1. When William died, in 1702, he was preparing for a new war, with his old enemy, Louis XIV., to prevent the union of the Crowns of France and Spain. It is known as the _War of the Spanish Succession_, and arose from the fact that the King of Spain had willed the crown to a French prince. "There are no longer any Pyrenees," said Louis, as he contemplated the union of the two crowns. Such an union would have put the other kingdoms of Europe under the feet of France. Accordingly, an alliance was formed between England, Holland, and Austria to keep the Pyrenees in their place and the two nations apart. 2. Louis must have heard of the death of King William with deep satisfaction. A queen now sat on the throne of England, but fortunately she had in Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, a general who was better qualified even than William as Commander-in-chief, and whose good fortune as a commander proved so remarkable that in the whole course of the war he suffered no defeat; he never besieged a fortress he did not take, nor fought a battle he did not win. Of his many victories the most splendid was that of Blenheim, a little village on the Danube, in Bavaria. 3. The Bavarians having joined the French as allies, the way lay open, through their country, into the very heart of Austria. The French, under Marshal Tallard, were marching on Vienna, when they were pulled up at Blenheim by the allied forces under Marlborough. The right wing of the French army was posted in this village with the river Danube on their flank. In front of the village the French had erected strong palisades; they had also barricaded the streets and loopholed the houses. 4. Marlborough first attempted to dislodge the French from this strong position. Nothing could be finer than the onset of the British, but they were bound to fail. Behind the palisades knelt long lines of French troops, as brave as their assailants, whilst a second line standing erect fired over the heads of their kneeling comrades. Some of our men tried to tear up the palisades with their hands, or clamber over them by mounting on each other's shoulders, but the task proved beyond them. Marlborough withdrew his men, but bade them keep up the feint of an attack upon Blenheim, whilst he prepared to throw his cavalry on the French centre.