by mere help of Noailles and luck) got a real General to her
Armies: Comte de Saxe, now Marechal de Saxe; who will shine very
splendent in these Netherland operations,--counter-shone by mere
Wades, D'Ahrembergs, Cumberlands,--in this and the Four following
Years. Noailles had always recognized Comte de Saxe; had long
striven for him, in Official quarters; and here gets the light of
him unveiled at last, and set on a high place: loyal Noailles.

This was the Year, this 1744, when Louis XV., urged by his
Chateauroux, the high-souled unfortunate female, appeared in person
at the head of his troops: "Go, Sire, go, MON CHOU (and I will
accompany); show yourself where a King should be, at the head of
your troops; be a second Louis-le-Grand!" Which he did, his
Chateauroux and he; actually went to the Netherlands, with baggage-
train immeasurable, including not cooks only, but play-actors with
their thunder-barrels (off from Paris, May 3d), to the admiration
of the Universe. [Adelung, iv. 113; Barbier, ii. 391, 394; Dulaure,
Hist. de Paris; &c.] Took the command,
nominal-command, first days of June; and captured in no-time Menin,
Ipres, Furnes, and the Fort of Knock, and as much of the Austrian
Netherlands as he liked,--that is to say, saw Noailles and Saxe do
it;--walking rapidly forward from Siege to Siege, with a most
thundering artillery; old Marshal Wade and consorts dismally eating
their victuals, and looking on from the distance, unable to attempt
the least stroke in opposition. So that the Dutch Barrier, if
anybody now cared for it, did go all flat; and the Balance of Power
gets kicked out of its sacred pivot: to such purpose have the Dutch
been hoisted! Terrible to think of;--had not there, from the
opposite quarter, risen a surprising counterpoise; had not there
been a Prince Karl, with his 70,000, pressing victoriously over the