NOTHING now remained to detain Marlborough in England;
for the supplies had been granted at an early period of the
session, and the military preparations were matured. He
therefore embarked at Harwich on the 31st of March, in one
of the royal yachts, under the protection of a squadron com-
manded by the Marquis of Caermarthen, and after a trouble-
some and dangerous passage entered the mouth of the Meuse.
He experienced considerable difficulty in ascending the river,
several of the yachts falling among the sands. At length he
entered an open boat, and after four hours' labour against
wind and tide, he reached the Brill towards midnight. Im-
patient to arrive at the Hague, he re-embarked at five in the
morning, and soon effected the passage of the Meuse. He
was, however, so fatigued by his exertions that Cardonel was
commissioned to announce his arrival to Secretary Harley,
and he wrote only a few hasty lines to the duchess ^* , dated
Hague, April 3-14.

"I have been so very sick at sea, that my blood is as hot as if I were
in a fever, which makes my head ache extremely, so that I beg you will
make my excuse to lord treasurer, for I can write to nobody but my
dear soul, whom I love above my life. I am now just going to bed,
although I know I cannot sleep, yet I know that it will do me good, so
that you will excuse me for saying no more till next post."

His first business was to communicate to the States the
plan for the ensuing campaign, which had been secretly con-
certed with Prince Eugene at the siege of Landau and ap-
proved by the cabinet in England. It was to invade France
on the side of the Moselle, which was the least defensible
part of the frontier, and to penetrate into Lorrain, the sove-
reign of which duchy was, to use Marlborough's own words,
"heart and soul with the allies," and the inhabitants eager to
take arms in behalf of the house of Austria. The final ope-
rations of the last campaign had been preparatory to this
object. ^† As Treves and Traerbach afforded secure places of
arms, the magazines were to be there collected; and early in
the spring the combined army, amounting to no less than

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