But this and his personal care for and interest in his men was the secret of his power of leadership. He himself inspected his line before a battle, and his calm presence imparted a courage and confidence that all soldiers understand. His cheerful and cheering “Be steady and go on--keep up your fire, and the enemy will soon be dispersed,” accounts for much of the feeling that the rank and file felt for “Corporal John,” the affectionate title the men applied to him, as French soldiers did that of “le petit Caporal” to the equally great soldier of the next century. The ballad-writer of about 1711 fully emphasises this:-- “Don’t talk of Schomberg and such to me; Noll and King William they might be queer To deal with, but he’d have beat them all three, Lord! as easy as I’m taking off this beer. All along I was with him, and I should know, And I tell you, my boys, the sun never shone On one that has led a charge here below That was fit to be named with Corporal John. * * * * * Then May good luck and Ramilies brought, At Ottomond’s tomb, by the red Mehaigne, To slaughter our corporal, Villeroi thought, But the French and their marshal we thrashed again. Eighty standards and every gun Our corporal took that glorious day, And with it the whole of Brabant we won, And Louis from Flanders, he slunk away. Oh, Corporal John always fought to beat; He was the one who could reckon upon; There was glory and plunder, but never retreat, For all who fought under Corporal John.” He believed in his men, and was careful of them as far as such was possible. He believed that “with 10,000 well-fed Englishmen, 10,000 half-starved Scotchmen, and 10,000 Irishmen charged with usquebaugh, he could march from Boulogne to Bayonne in spite of Le Grand Monarque.” And, true Englishman, he was “always of opinion that English horses, as well as English men, were better than could be had anywhere else.”