"He has every quality of a general.

His very look shows it.

He cannot fail to achieve something great." "I really believe, cousin," answered the King, "that my Lord will make good every thing that you have said of him." There was still a short interval before the commencement of military operations.

William passed that interval in his beloved park at Loo.
Marlborough spent two or three days there, and was then despatched to Flanders with orders to collect all the English forces, to form a camp in the neighbourhood of Brussels, and to have every thing in readiness for the King's arrival.
And now Marlborough had an opportunity of proving the sincerity of those professions by which he had obtained from a heart, well described by himself as harder than a marble chimneypiece, the pardon of an offence such as might have moved even a gentle nature to deadly resentment.

He received from Saint Germains a message claiming the instant performance of his promise to desert at the head of his troops.