A great commander, whose name was henceforth to be linked most closely with that of Marlborough's himself, was present upon the Upper Danube. He brought with him troops not only equivalent in number to a third of his colleague's existing forces, but trained under his high leadership, disciplined in his excellent school, and containing, what will prove essential to the fortunes of the coming battle, a very large proportion of cavalry. Further, the appearance of Eugene at this critical moment permitted Marlborough to rid himself of Louis of Baden, to despatch him to the siege of Ingolstadt in the heart of Bavaria, at once to be free of the clog which the slow decision and slow movements of that general burdened him with, to threaten the heart of the enemy's country by that general's departure on such a mission, and to unite himself and his forces with a man whose methods were after his own heart. It is true that a minor problem lay before Eugene and Marlborough which must be solved before the great value of the junction they were about to effect could be taken advantage of. Their forces were still separated by the Danube: Marlborough lay a day's march to the south of it, and were he to cross the Danube at Neuburg he would be two days' march from Eugene. But each army was free to march towards the other, and all that their commanders had to decide was upon which side of the river the junction should be effected. Were the junction effected to the south--that is, were Eugene to cross the Danube and join Marlborough in Bavaria--Tallard, crossing the Danube at Dillingen, could strike at the great northern line of communications which conditioned all these movements. It was, therefore, the obvious move for Eugene and Marlborough to join upon the _northern_ bank of the Danube, and to move upon and defend that all-important line of communications, point for point, as Tallard might threaten it. It was on the 8th, the Friday, as I have said, that Eugene's presence was known both to Tallard and to Marlborough, for Eugene had ridden forward and met his colleague. Upon the 9th, the Saturday, the French marched towards the bridge of Dillingen. Eugene, who was already on the way back to his army, returned to inform Marlborough of this, then rode westward again to his forces, and, while the French made their arrangements for crossing the river on the morrow, he busied himself in conducting his 15,000 eastward down the north bank of the Danube. Three thousand of Marlborough's cavalry went forward to meet him, and to begin that junction between the two forces which was to determine the day at Blenheim.