Excerpt from The Military Life of John, Duke of Marlborough Consummate as were the abilities, unbroken the suc cess, immense the services of the Duke of Marlborough, the details of his campaigns can scarcely be said to be known to the vast majority of his countrymen. They have heard the distant echo of his fame, as they have that of the exploits of Timour, of Bajazet, and of Gen ghis Khan; the names of Blenheim and Ramillies, of Malplaquet and Oudenarde awaken a transient feeling of exultation in their bosoms but as to the particulars of these events, the difficulties with which their gen eral had to struggle, the objects for which he contend ed, even the places where they occurred, they are, for the most part, as ignorant as they are of similar details in the campaigns of Baber or Aurengzebe. What they do know is derived chiefly, if not entirely, from the his tories of their enemies. Malice and party spirit have done much to dim the reputation of the illustrious gen eral in his own country, but these disturbing passions have not been felt in other states and, strange to say, no adequate Opinion Of his merits can-be formed by his countrymen but by viewing the impression he has made on her enemies, or studying'the history of his Victories by them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.