Villars

“ Complete swaggerer as he was, Villars had more wits and resolution than the majority of the generals left to Louis XIV., but in 1704 he was occupied in putting down the insurrection of the Camisards in the south of France: neither Tallard nor Marsin had been able to impose their will upon the elector. In 1705 Villars succeeded in checking the movement of Marlborough on Lothringen and Champagne. ”

“ His genius throws three bridges over the Scheldt. Villars passes over the river without obstacle, throws himself into the marshes considered impracticable, and where the soldier advances with the water up to his waist; marches straight to the first redoubts; takes them almost without striking a blow; seizes successively a league of fortifications; reaches Denain; crosses the fosse which surrounds it, penetrates into the town, and on arriving at the place, finds his young protégé, the Chevalier d'Harmental, who presents to him the sword of Albemarle, whom he has just taken prisoner. ”

“ All Frenchmen know of Jerome's gallant death at Malplaquet. It is a fireside legend now, and young French lads turn their moistened eyes away at the hearing. Marshal Villars being sorely hurt and in peril of capture, there fought beside his litter an unknown gentleman who, without name or rank, yet bore himself so commandingly, the discouraged guard rallied again and gave him willing obedience. ”

“ The interview of the marshal with the once baker’s boy took place in the garden of the Récolets monks, at the gates of Nismes, on the 16th of May, 1704. “He is,” writes Villars to the minister of war, “a peasant of the lowest rank, not yet twenty-two years of age, and scarcely seeming eighteen, small and with no imposing mien, but possessing firmness and good sense that are altogether surprising. ”

“ Forget his bluntness, then, I beseech you, and forgive his unpleasant remark."
"He is your highness's friend, and that at once earns his forgiveness," replied De Villars. "But that the friend of the Elector of Bavaria should be the enemy of my sovereign I deeply regret; for he may prejudice your highness against the King of France. He may transfer his aversion to—"
"Let us rather suppose that I may transfer my love of France to him," said Max Emmanuel. "But let us eschew politics, and enjoy the bliss of the hour. To-day la bella Venezia puts forth all her charms. ”

“ Marlborough and Eugene now resolved to attack Mons. By a rapid march the Prince of Hesse seized a position near Mons on 6 Sept. The main army followed, and Villars hastened to interrupt the siege. The town was now completely invested, and Villars approached from the south. A broken country, covered in great part by forests, pierced by narrow glades, fills the angle between the Hain and the Trouille, two rivers which join at Mons. Villars formed a strong position in face of two little valleys which intersect this region. Each army appears to have consisted of over ninety thousand men. ”

“ His name, and the newly roused patriotism of the country, raised the spirits of the army, though they were in want of many of the necessaries of life. Villars, determined to act upon the defensive, saw Tournay fall without moving. Thence the conquerors advanced to Mons, the capital of Hainault. It seemed necessary, if possible, to prevent the siege of this town. The rapidity of the movements of the allies prevented Villars from attaining that object, but the investment was scarcely formed when he crossed the Scheldt at Valenciennes, and appeared with his army in the immediate neighbourhood. ”

“ In response to a message, courteous, but firm, informing him at what hour the chaise would await him, Mr. Villars next presented himself before the rector and interrupted him in the midst of some of his sad business details.
“Sir?” said the parson, at the same time arresting by a gesture the withdrawing of the bailiff with whom he was then in consultation. “In what can I be of service?”
“My dear Dr. Tutterville, I came to offer my services to you.”
“You are vastly obliging, Mr. Villars. The best service friends can render a house of mourning is to leave it to itself.” ”

“ By 9 a.m. on the 24th Villars's army had completely deployed on the north bank of the Scheldt. Eugene himself saw them and galloped away to bring up his army from Landrecies. But, long before it arrived, Villars's troops, without wasting precious moments in formal preparations, stormed the lines. The Dutch — spiritless since Malplaquet — were huddled into the narrow avenue between the two entrenchments and forced back on Denain. Their generals were taken. ”

“ At first they thought him dead, and it was some minutes before the yet lingering animation again made itself visible; but as soon as the old grenadier saw it, he went into the apartment where Villars and his daughter were, and simply told them that a young gentleman had been thrown from his horse at the gate, and he believed he was dying.
Pity's purest dwelling is in a woman's breast. Without thinking, Julie started up, and in a moment had flown to the assistance of the stranger. Villars followed more slowly. It was a duty to aid a fellow-citizen, and he proceeded to obey it. ”

“ Old Villars wanted to bring us to fight, but the duke was too wary for him. He sat down before Bouchain, that had a large garrison of picked men, commanded by the bravest officers in the French army, with stores, guns, and ammunition in plenty. The duke had to make a causeway over a morass before he could get at ’em at all, and there was Villars behind us, ready to cut us to pieces, and that stubborn fortress in front. ”

“ The peasantry of that mountainous district, deeply attached to Austria, thwarted all his efforts to advance, and when Louis of Baden, leaving the lines of Stolhofen, appeared in Bavaria, the Elector was compelled to withdraw and rejoin Villars. Too weak to defeat the Margrave, the combined generals were obliged to content themselves with checking the German troops coming against them from Franconia under Count Stirum at Hochstädt. Villars, who traced the ruin of the campaign to the rejection of his advice, clamoured to be recalled, and his place was but badly filled by Marsin. ”

“ He showed himself possessed of an extraordinary genius for war, and Marshal Villars paid him the high compliment of saying that he was as courageous in attack as he was prudent in retreat, and that by his extraordinary knowledge of the country he displayed in the management of his troops a skill as great as that of the ablest officers. ”

“ Villars, the victor of Hochstädt and Friedlingen, saw that conciliation was necessary; he took advantage of the feeling of horror with which the quiet Protestants of Nimes and other towns now regarded the war, and published an amnesty. In May 1704 a formal meeting between Cavalier and Villars took place at Nimes. ”

“ Upon the French side the plan was purely defensive, as their inferior numbers and their reliance upon earthworks both necessitated and proved. It was Villars’ plan to hold every part of his line with a force proportionate to its strength; to furnish the woods a little more heavily than the entrenchments of the open gap, but everywhere to rely upon the steadiness of his infantry and their artificial protections in the repelling of the assault. ”

“ Villars is superior to the great marshal, Louis Hector. The duke kills men,—the doctor prolongs their existence.”
Villars declared that his uncle, who had been killed at the age of one hundred years, and who might, but for his accidental death, have lived another half century, had confided to [Pg 42] him the secret of his longevity. It consisted of a medicine, which, if taken according to directions accompanying each bottle, would prolong the life of the fortunate possessor ad infinitum. ”

“ The battle was now gained. Villars' position, how strong and gallantly defended soever, was no longer tenable. Pierced through in the centre, with a formidable enemy's battery thundering on either side, in the very heart of his line, on the reserve squadrons, turned and menaced with rout on the left, it was no longer possible to keep the field. Boufflers, upon whom, in the absence of Villars in consequence of his wound, the direction of affairs had devolved, accordingly prepared for a retreat ”

“ Louis XIV. had wept in the full council. These tears had produced an army, which was intrusted to Villars.
Villars marched straight to the enemy, whose camp was at Denain, and who slept in security while watching the agony of France. Never had greater responsibility rested on one head. On one blow of Villars hung the salvation of France. [Pg 249] The allies had established a line of fortifications between Denain and Marchiennes, which, in their pride of anticipation, Albemarle and Eugene called the grand route to Paris. ”

“ Villars is quite right. The matter should be investigated. Who, and in what condition, is the man under that woman’s cloak? It is our duty to elucidate the matter. Where is Mr. Herrick?”
“And for that matter, where is Colonel Harcourt?” sneered Mr. Villars.
“You shall not dare!” screamed Lady Lochore. She arrested a retrograde movement on either side with violently 281extended arms. “Out—back to your rooms, all of you! Are you devils, that you should want to gloat—”
Margery laid her left hand warningly on her elbow, and Lady Lochore broke off abruptly. ”

“ Ultimately an agreement was signed, in which Villars made some concessions to the protestants of Languedoc. One of its articles permitted Cavalier to select from his band and from the protestant prisoners who were to be liberated under another article two thousand men for a regiment to be despatched to fight for France in Portugal. Cavalier received from the king a colonel's commission and a pension of twelve hundred livres. But the agreement with Villars satisfied neither the other leaders of the insurrection nor Cavalier's own band, and the regiment was not formed. ”

“ Marshal Villars had now come to the conclusion that the warfare seemed likely to become interminable; that it was possible to harass the hardy mountaineers of the Cevennes, but not to conquer them. So resolute was the spirit of the Camisards, so impregnable their hilly fortresses, that all hope of ending the war so long as one was left alive, was relinquished by this able officer; and we are told that in the heart of Cavalier, who beheld the sufferings of the peasantry from incessant toil and famine, there rose a great longing for peace, if it were possible with safety and honour ”

“ This admirable custom also finds a place at Villars and Champéry. For their pleasures in the Alps visitors owe much to the kindliness of the Swiss people, however much may be said about the manifest benefit brought to the country by its so-called industrie des étrangers. It makes for less heartburnings and more good fellowship to bring the Swiss themselves into the circle of our enjoyment in their Fatherland ”

“ Swabia and a part of Franconia were put under contribution. Villars marched on Stuttgart, crossed the Neckar, and subjected the whole country to ransom as far as the Danube. The enemies in vain rallied and reinforced themselves with tardy contingents of the Empire; they could not prevent Villars from laying under contribution the Lower Neckar, then the country between the Danube and Lake Constance, and from maintaining himself beyond the Rhine till he went into winter-quarters. French parties scoured the country as conquerors as far as the fatal field of Hochstadt. ”

“ In the interval between the Dutch wars and the formation of the League of Augsburg, Villars, who combined with his military gifts the tact and subtlety of the diplomatist, was employed in an unofficial mission to the court of Bavaria, and there became the constant companion of the elector, with whom he took the field against the Turks and fought at Mohacs. He returned to France in 1690 and was given a command in the cavalry of the army in Flanders but towards the end of the Grand Alliance War he went to Vienna as ambassador. ”

“ Villars’s glory thus begins with the year 1709 when France, apparently helpless, was roused to a great effort of self-defence by the exorbitant demands of the Coalition. In that year he was called to command the main army opposing Eugene and Marlborough on the northern frontier. During the famine of the winter he shared the soldiers’ miserable rations. When the campaign opened the old Marshal Boufflers volunteered to serve under him, and after the terrible battle of Malplaquet (q.v.) ”

“ Notwithstanding that one Marshal after another came to oppose the insurgents Cavalier could not be conquered, and the government was reduced to the necessity of treating with him. All his military knowledge had been gained by watching the manoeuvres of the town guards of Geneva. His fame was immense; at the age of twenty-two he was more renowned than any commander in the armies of Europe. “Every one,” writes Villars, “was surprised to see a man of low origin and without experience in the art of war, behave under the most difficult and delicate circumstances like a great general.” ”

“ He did not dare to attack the enemies, now, after having left them leisure to make all their dispositions. The army cried aloud against so capital a fault. Villars answered with his usual effrontery. He had quarrelled with his second in command, the Marechal de Montesquiou, and now knew not what to do.
In this crisis, no engagement taking place, the King thought it fitting to send Berwick into Flanders to act as mediator, even, to some extent, as dictator to the army. He was ordered to bring back an account of all things, so that it might be seen whether a battle could or could not be fought. ”