termination of the great Austro-Burgundian dynasty that was founded by Charles V.,--at one time as majestic as "the broad and winding Rhine," but again, like the Rhine, running fast to insignificance. [30] If the house of Austria was not in the greatest danger it ever experienced in 1704, its members and officers could affect to feel all but absolutely desperate. The following letter, written in queer German-French, by the Imperial Minister near the English court, Count John Wenceslaus Wratislaw, to Queen Anne, conveys an almost ludicrous idea of the fright under which the Austrian chiefs suffered:--"Madame, Le soussigne envoye extraordinaire de sa Majeste Imperiale ayant represente de vive voix en diverses occasions aux ministres de votre Majeste la dure extremite dans laquelle se trouve l'Empire, par l'introduction d'une armee nombreuse de Francois dans la Baviere, laquelle jointe a la revolte de la Hongrie met les pais hereditaires de sa Majeste Imperiale dans une confusion incroyable, de sorte que si l'on n'apporte pas un remede prompt et proportionne au danger present, dont on est menace on a a craindre une revolution entiere, et une destruction totale de l'Allemagne." Luckily for Austria, Marlborough was a man of as much moral as physical courage, and he took the responsibility of leading his army into Germany,--a decision that, perhaps, no other commander of that time would have been equal to,--and by the junction of his forces with those of Eugene was enabled to fight and win the battle of Blenheim (Blindheim), which put an end to the ascendency of France. Emperor Leopold was positively grateful for the services Marlborough rendered him, and treated him differently from the manner in which he had treated Sobieski for doing him quite as great a favor. He wrote him a letter in his own hand, gave him a lordship in fee, and made him, by the title of Mindelheim, a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.