CHAPTER XII
CONCLUSION
Almost before Captain Fairburn had read the last word of Matthew'scommunication, so cheering and so strangely brought into his hands,the French signal to retreat sounded loud all over the field, amournful sound to one of the two listeners, a delight to the other,George and Oborne glanced into each other's face. "What will you do?"the former asked.
"I am your prisoner and defenceless; it is not for me to say," theIrishman answered simply.
"Nay, not so, good fellow. You shall do exactly as you prefer, so faras I am concerned. I can do no less for you."
The prisoner shrugged his shoulders and muttered something aboutcatching it hot, if he ran, to which the captor replied, "So youwould, I am afraid, if any of our men got near you. We have lostheavily, and our temper's a bit ruffled for the moment. If you care tocome with me as my prisoner I'll see you through safe. What's more,I'll do my best to get you exchanged for the man you saved."
"Thank you, captain; that's my best card to play, as things are going.But I'd have given something to have it the other way about."
"Of course you would, my good fellow. It's the fortune of war; I'm upto-day, you're up to-morrow. And you've no cause to be anything butmighty proud of yourselves--you of the Irish Brigade. I never sawbetter stuff than you've turned out this day."
"And many's the thanks, son. A bit o' praise comes sweet even from anenemy."
"Enemies only professionally, Oborne; in private life we're fromto-day the best of friends."
At a later hour Sergeant Oborne informed Fairburn that he had carriedCaptain Blackett's paper about with him for some little time, havinghad no opportunity of passing it on to any likely Englishman, orhaving forgotten it when he had the opportunity.
The slaughter at Malplaquet was terrible on the side of the Allies,amounting to 20,000, or one-fifth of the whole number engaged. TheFrench, who had fought under shelter, lost only about one half of thattotal. Mons surrendered shortly afterwards, and the victory wascomplete, the road to Paris open. Yet what a victory! Villars declaredto his royal master that if the French were vouchsafed such anotherdefeat, there would be left to them no enemies at all.
This proved to be the Duke of Marlborough's last great battle and hislast great victory. "A deluge of blood" it had been. And, what wasworse, rarely has a great victory produced so little fruit.Marlborough had quite expected to see his success at Malplaquet put anend to the war. It did nothing of the kind; for two more years the warcontinued. The rest of its story, however, may be told in a very fewwords.
Louis XIV once more asked for peace, and made certain offers to theAllies, but these would be contented with nothing less than theexpulsion of Philip from Spain. The conference, at Gertruydenberg,therefore came to nothing. This was in the early part of 1710. Thework of capturing the fortresses in French Flanders and the provinceof Artois was proceeded with, and in 1711 Marlborough took Bouchain,in France. But the Duke had apparently lost heart to some extent, andthere was no very vigorous action. At home the war had become hatefulto a very large proportion of the people; its cost in men and moneyfrightened them.
The year 1710 was a busy and a decisive time in Spain. At firstsuccess seemed to lean to the side of the Allies, General Stanhope,the English leader, defeating the French and Spanish at Almanza, andthe Dutch General Staremberg doing the like at Saragossa. Charles theArchduke, styling himself Charles III, now for the first time enteredMadrid. It was also the last time. Presently Stanhope was badlydefeated at the important battle of Brihuega, and Staremberg shortlyafterwards lost at Villa Viciosa. This decided matters in Spain.Charles was compelled to flee the country, and Philip's throne wasfinally secured to him.
The end of the war came in an altogether unexpected and strangefashion. This was the sudden downfall of the Marlboroughs and of theWhig interest. For some time the Queen had been tired of the Duchessof Marlborough, and had been inclining more and more to Mrs. Masham,formerly Abigail Hill, a cousin of Harley, through whom the ministerwas intriguing for the overthrow of the Churchills. Then Dr.Sacheverell, a London clergyman, afterwards so notorious, had preachedviolently against the Whigs, who were foolish enough to impeach him.Sacheverell was suspended for three years, and in consequence becameexceedingly popular among the Tories, and their party gained greatlyin the country. Moreover the writings of certain pamphleteers tendedmuch to damage the cause of the Whigs. Dean Swift was at once theablest and the bitterest of these. Harley managed to get Godolphindismissed from office. And one day, early in 1711, Anne suddenly tookfrom the Duchess her various offices at Court, while later in the sameyear the Duke himself was deprived of his command of the army, and wassucceeded by the Irish peer Ormonde. He, however, was ordered to takeno active steps in the war which was still in theory going on. Ageneral election came soon after, and the Tories had a large majorityover the Whigs. The Tories came into office, and all Whig members ofthe Whig ministry were dismissed. From that time to the present theprinciple has obtained of having the King's Ministers, or the Cabinet,with the other chief administrators, drawn from the same side inpolitics.
The Tories now sought to bring to a close a war that had become sounpopular. Louis XIV was also suing for peace. Then in 1711 theEmperor Joseph died, and his brother the Archduke succeeded him asCharles VI. It was now useless to trouble further to support or opposethe claims of either candidate for the Spanish throne. Spain might aswell be in the hands of a Frenchman as be assigned to the powerfulEmperor. It would have been absurd, in short, for England to go onfighting for Charles.
The famous treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, brought the war to an end. Bythis treaty several important matters were settled. Philip retainedSpain, but gave up for ever his claim to the throne of France. Louisacknowledged the Hanoverian succession, and gave back to the Dutch theline of "barrier fortresses" about which so much blood had been shed.France gave up to Britain Newfoundland and some other possessions inNorth America, and Spain resigned Gibraltar and Minorca. The Emperorreceived Milan, Sardinia, and Naples. The rest of the Allies receivedlittle or nothing, and loud was the outcry they raised.
George Fairburn did not remain abroad till the conclusion of peace.During the year 1710, at a time when things were at a standstill inthe Netherlands, he received word that his father had been killed inan accident at the pit. With a heavy heart he sought permission toreturn home for a period, and in pursuing his application he foundhimself in the presence of the great commander-in-chief himself. Tohis delight Marlborough recognized him at once. The Duke was full ofsympathy, and not only readily granted the young captain anyreasonable leave of absence he might desire, but held out his handwith a smile, as he dismissed him: "Major Fairburn, you go with mysympathy and my regard. I have few young fellows under me of whom Ithink more highly." And in spite of his terrible bereavement thenewly-promoted officer left his master's presence with a swellingheart.
With him travelled home Matthew Blackett, whose release George, to hisdelight, had managed, though with difficulty. The gallant SergeantOborne had also been exchanged for an English prisoner in Frenchhands. An additional pleasure to both George and Matthew was anintimation that Matthew, too, had been raised to the rank of major inrecognition of his excellent service throughout the war. As it proved,neither officer ever served under Marlborough again.
The months flew by. Mr. Fairburn was found to have left a far largerfortune than the world had dreamt of, the sum amounting to fully fiftythousand pounds. George and his ageing mother were rich. MatthewBlackett had taken to the management of the joint collieries, strangeto say, and was preparing to leave the army as soon as he could do soconveniently. Major Fairburn, on the other hand, was first and last asoldier, and he hoped some day to have further opportunities of risingin his profession.
The Queen was in a very bad state of health; she might die any day.But the Electress Sophia died first, and her son, Prince George ofHanover, became the next heir to the throne, a prospect not much tothe liking of many in England. Some o
f the leading Tories were makingpreparations for a revolution in favour of the Pretender, but thedeath of Anne came before their preparations were complete, and Georgeof Hanover was quietly proclaimed as George I.
Before Marlborough died George Fairburn was a lieutenant-colonel, and,as he happened to be stationed for a time at Windsor, he and his wife,the Mary Blackett of old, had more than once the honour of aninvitation to Windsor Park, the Duke's favourite abode, his greatpalace of Blenheim being not yet ready for him.
* * * * *
We hear of our hero, many long years after all this, a stout oldsoldier, General Sir George Fairburn, taking part in the memorablechase after the Young Pretender in 1745, and the subsequent greatfight at Culloden.
"And I tell you, sir," said Mr. Matthew Blackett, member for Langkirk,as he told the story to a crony in the smoking-room of his club,White's, "I tell you, sir, he trod Culloden Moor with all the vigourand fire he had when we marched with Marlborough to Malplaquet."
With Marlborough to Malplaquet: A Story of the Reign of Queen Anne Page 12