112 MARLBOROUGH AND HIS METHODS OF WARFARE. 
manner in which he arranged hiscentre. I havea French critic here who 
says that the most admirable thing from a tactical point of view about 
Marlborough is that he had an absolutely certain tactical cowp d’cil— 
that he perceived the least faults of his enemies and knew always how _ 
to take advantage of them. He immediately saw the fault there 
and he led a mass of cavalry through the centre; ho isolated Tallard 
from the left; he compelled the people in Blenheim to surrender; the 
centre and left retired in the utmost confusion to the rear, and many 
were driven into the Danube. That is exactly, if I may be allowed to 
say so, almost a counterpart of the battle of Waterloo, or rather the 
reverse of it. At the battle of Waterloo there was a strong position 
on the English right—that the French assailed—there were positions 
on the English left—those the French assailed. Jerome’s corps 
assailed the English right, D’Hrlon assailed the English left, and then 
a huge mass of cavalry was thrown against the Hnglish centre. The 
difference was that, whereas that the manoeuvres directed by Marl- 
borough broke the French centre and ruined the French right, the 
same manoeuvres directed by Napoleon produced little or no effect on 
the British infantry (applause). Now every one was elated at the 
battle of Blenheim. There was one poet called Phillips and he was 
amazingly elated—he was so elated that he wrote the following poem. 
As I said a feature of the battle was that many French were driven 
into the Danube. He said :— 
“ Think of ten thousand gentlemen at least 
And each man mounted on a capering beast, 
Into the Danube they were pushed by shoals.” 
Macaulay says a few more. poems like that would have prevented 
Marlborough from winning any battle at all for the future. Accord- 
ingly the Secretary of State went to Addison the poet who wrote a 
worthy treatise in poetry on the subject, called “The Campaign,” in 
which he, for the first time, pointed out what is the differentia of a 
general—that is not going about killing people by the thousand on a 
capering beast; it is simply coolness of head and the entire pos- 
session of clear faculties in a most tremendous crisis with awful sur- 
roundings for himself and for his country; it is mens equa in arduis. 
And Addison was enabled to illustrate this quality of highest merit and 
of supreme importance, not merely for Marlborough’s time but for all 
time, by the celebrated simile of how an angel presided over a terrible 
storm which had recently passed over Britain. ‘This is really a very 
excellent summary of the best qualities of generalship, and as I am 
speaking to quite a number of future generals, I hope I may be allowed 
to quote from it. After speaking about the tumult and terrors of a 
battle-field, he says :— 
“Twice then great Marlborough’s mighty soul was proved 
That in the shock of charging hosts unmoved 
Amidst confusion, horror and despair 
Examined all the doubtful scenes of war, 
In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed, 
To fainting squadrons sent his timely aid, 
Inspired repulsed battalions to engage 
And taught the doubtful battle how to rage.” 
