his return he took his departure from Rastadt, and hastened
to meet his troops, who were on their march to Treves.

These forces encountered in their progress unusual hard-
ships. An eye-witness observes: "After we had quitted
Juliers, you never saw so wretched a country. The soil
barren, mountainous, fruitful in nothing but iron, and the
air strangely cold, as if it had been in the midst of winter.
The towns have all the marks of poverty that French oppres-
sion or government can give; and to make the little accom-
modation an army could meet with in so wretched a country.
still less, there was not a soul to be seen in the villages, the
peasants flying as we came, either into places of defence or
to the woods, and conveying what they could, of the little
they had, alone with them; which left us in want of every
thing, and made both officers and soldiers pass their time ill
enough. I will only add, that the Scots think an army in
their highlands could shift better." ^*

AFTER the unsatisfactory interview with the margrave,
Marlborough repaired to Treves, where he expected to
receive intelligence of the artillery, draught horses, and part
of the contingents, which were to be furnished by the Ger-
man states. He arrived on the 26th, at the moment when
his troops were filing into their destined camp near Triers.
weiler. He found the auxiliaries who had wintered on the
Moselle posted in the vicinity of Consaarbruck; and after
spending two days in reviewing the different corps, he
ordered the troops who had marched from the Netherlands
to advance to Igel. His army was there collected in two
divisions, which were separated by the Moselle.

To his chagrin and mortification, however, even the limited
hopes which he had conceived of the co-operation of the
German princes and states were totally frustrated. Not a
single draught horse appeared; and instead of an army
amounting at least to 80,000 men, he could scarcely muster

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