Page "Battle of Blenheim" Paragraph 13

With Villeroi shadowing Marlborough's every move, Marlborough's gamble that the French would not move against the weakened Dutch position in the Netherlands paid off.

In any case, Marlborough had promised to return to the Netherlands if a French attack developed there, transferring his troops down the Rhine on barges at a rate of a day.

Encouraged by this promise ( whatever it was worth ) the States-General agreed to release the Danish contingent of seven battalions and 22 squadrons as a reinforcement.

Marlborough reached Ladenburg, in the plain of the Neckar and the Rhine, and there halted for three days to rest his cavalry and allow the guns and infantry to close up.

On 6 June he arrived at Wiesloch, south of Heidelberg.

The following day, the Allied army swung away from the Rhine towards the hills of the Swabian Jura and the Danube beyond.

At last Marlborough's destination was established without doubt.