"With this reverse," says a French naval officer, "began in the French people a regrettable reaction against the navy.

The wonders to which it had given birth, its immense services, were forgotten.

Its value was no longer believed.

The army, more directly in contact with the nation, had all its favor, all its sympathy.

The prevailing error, that the greatness or decay of France depended upon some Rhenish positions, could not but favor these ideas adverse to the sea service, which have made England's strength and our weakness."[76] During this year, 1704, the battle of Blenheim was fought, in which the French and Bavarian troops were wholly overthrown by the English and German under Marlborough and Prince Eugene.