The early months of 1706 also proved frustrating for the Duke as Louis XIV's generals gained early successes in Italy and Alsace. These setbacks thwarted Marlborough's original plans for the coming campaign, but he soon adjusted his schemes and marched into enemy territory. Louis XIV, equally determined to fight and avenge Blenheim, goaded his commander, Marshal Villeroi, to seek out "Monsieur Marlbrouck". The subsequent Battle of Ramillies, fought in the Spanish Netherlands on 23 May, was perhaps Marlborough's most successful action, and one in which he had himself characteristically drawn his sword at the pivotal moment. For the loss of fewer than 3,000 dead and wounded (far fewer than Blenheim), his victory had cost the enemy some 20,000 casualties, inflicting in the words of Marshal Villars, "the most shameful, humiliating and disastrous of routs". The campaign was an unsurpassed operational triumph for the English general. Town after town subsequently fell to the Allies. "It really looks more like a dream than truth", wrote Marlborough to Sarah.