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Updated: June 12, 2025
He had been made a Duke, a Knight of the Garter, and Master of the Ordnance: he was now placed at the head of an army: and yet his elevation excited none of that jealousy which showed itself as often as any mark of royal favour was bestowed on Bentinck, on Zulestein, or on Auverquerque. Schomberg's military skill was universally acknowledged.
They intercepted from him the rays of royal favour. The preference given to them wounded him both in his interests and in his pride. His chance of the Garter was much smaller since they had become his competitors. He might have been Master of the Horse but for Auverquerque, Master of the Robes but for Zulestein, Groom of the Stole but for Bentinck.
He strained his feeble voice to thank Auverquerque for the affectionate and loyal services of thirty years. To Albemarle he gave the keys of his closet, and of his private drawers. "You know," he said, "what to do with them." By this time he could scarcely respire. "Can this," he said to the physicians, "last long?" He was told that the end was approaching.
"Henry Auverquerque, Earl of Grantham, who sits in the House of Lords between the Earl of Jersey and the Earl of Greenwich, has a hundred thousand a year.
Next day, being informed by a fisherman that he was within a league and a half of Goree, he quitted the yacht and went into an open boat, attended by the duke of Ormond, the earls of Devonshire, Dorset, Portland, and Monmouth, with Auverquerque and Zuylestcin, Instead of landing immediately, they lost sight of the fleet, and, night coming on, were exposed in very severe weather to the danger of the enemy and the sea, which ran very high for eighteen hours, during which the king and all his attendants were drenched with sea-water.
Five fine regiments were entirely cut to pieces. No part of this devoted band would have escaped but for the courage and conduct of Auverquerque, who came to the rescue in the moment of extremity with two fresh battalions. The gallant manner in which he brought off the remains of Mackay's division was long remembered with grateful admiration by the British camp fires.
At six o'clock in the morning, general Douglas, with young Schomberg, the earl of Portland, and Auverquerque, marched towards Slane-bridge, and passed the river with very little opposition.
On his encamping at Kupen, on the 20th, he received an express from Auverquerque pressing him to halt, because Villeroy, who commanded the French army in Flanders, had quitted the lines, which he had been occupying, and crossed the Meuse at Namur with thirty-six battalions and forty- five squadrons, and was threatening the town of Huys.
In Flanders nothing of moment was executed, except the bombardment of Bruges and Namur by baron Spaar, with nine thousand Dutch troops; and two attempts upon the French lines, which were actually penetrated by Auverquerque, though he was not able to maintain the footing he had gained.
Marlborough was not diverted by these applications from the prosecution of his grand design. Conscious that the army of Villeroy would be too much reduced to undertake offensive operations, by the detachments which had already been made toward the Rhine, and those which must follow his own march, he halted only a day to quiet the alarms of Auverquerque.
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