reluctant to carry his purpose into execution, BOOK VL summoned the governor, colonel Syburgh, to sur- 1709. render, and at the same time permitted him to send out two of his officers to view the condition of the mine. This produced no change in the resolution of the governor; and the signal being next day made for firing the mine, he walked with several officers to the parade, and ordered the guard to retire: which was no sooner done but the mine was blown up, and with little or no noise, made on the very parade, an opening in the rock of some yards in length and about three feet wide, into which the governor and divers other officers fell; and, the opening instantly closing upon them, they all perished. Notwithstanding this horrid catastrophe, colonel d'Albon, upon whom the command devolved, refused to capitulate. Great admiration being excited by so extraordinary a defence, a council of war was held at Barcelona, in order to concert effectual measures for their relief; and general Stanhope in person undertook the command of an armament destined for that purpose: but the weather proved so tempestuous that the troops could not disembark. At length, provisions failing, and the garrison being reduced to extremity, general Stanhope sent a flag of truce to the Spanish commander, offering to surrender the castle of Alicant upon honourable terms; which were granted with11 1709. FOOK Vr. out hesitation, and the garrison marched out, on the 18th of April 1709, with two pieces of cannon and all the honors of war, and were immediately embarked for Minorca, and distributed into quarters of refreshment. On the frontier of Catalonia maréchal Staremberg passed the Segra, and captured the town of Balaguer-the garrison being made prisoners of war: after which exploit he contented himself with acting upon the defensive, and by his vigilance and skill he prevented the enemy from gaining, with all their superiority of force, any advantage over him, King of Sweden defeated at Pulpwa. The autumn of this year was distinguished by the total defeat of the king of Sweden by the ezar at Pultowa. Resolving to invade Muscovy, he had engaged himself so far in the Ukraine that there was no possibility remaining of retreat, He therefore, relying upon his fortune, passed the Nieper, and invested the important fortress of Pultowa. The czar marched at the head of a far superior army to raise the siege: The king of Sweden nevertheless determined to risque a battle: but he soon found that he had not now to contend with the undisciplined rabble of Narva. ezar, by unwearied assiduity and perseverance, had converted his boors into soldiers. There was also no mean display of generalship on the part of the Russians; and in the end the Swedes were compelled to quit the field with the loss of their The 1710. camp, artillery, and baggage. Being Being closely BOOK VL pursued, the whole army, having neither bread nor ammunition, found themselves reduced to the dreadful necessity of surrendering as prisoners of war. The king of Sweden himself, with a few followers, passing the Nieper, took refuge in the Turkish dominions, fixing his residence at Bender. Upon this great reverse of his affairs, king Augustus, declaring his renunciation of the crown forced and void, returned to Poland; which his rival Stanislaus was in no less haste to abandon, finding himself utterly unable to make any effectual resistance. The kings of Denmark and Prussia embraced this apparently favourable opportunity to renew the war against Sweden. But the Danes, passing over the Sound to Schoenen (March 1710), were unexpectedly attacked and entirely defeated by the Swedish militia; and leaving behind them their horses, provisions, and baggage, the remainder of their army embarked precipitately for Elsinore. tures of After the termination of the campaign in the New Over. Netherlands, the French court renewed, in a Peace made by France. covert manner, their overtures for peace; and applied, through the mediation of M. Petkum, resident from the duke of Holstein at the Hague, that passes might be granted for some ministers from France to come to Holland and renew the conferences; or otherwise, that M. Petkum should BOOK VI.be permitted to go to France in order to concert 1709. some expedient that might facilitate the same general purpose. The first the states refused: but they consented that Petkum should go to France; which he did the latter end of November. While these negotiations were carrying on, king Philip published a manifesto, wherein he protested against all that should be acted to his prejudice, as null and void; and declared his resolution to adhere to his faithful Spaniards as long as there was a man of them that would stand by him. After an interval of a few weeks, Petkum returned with a proposal to resume the negotiations in form; and, at the same time, with a frank and open avowal from his Most Christian majesty, that it would be impossible for him to execute the thirty-seventh article of the preliminaries relative to the evacuation of Spain, even if he should sign it. On which their high mightinesses not only refused to resume the negotiations, but wrote letters to the emperor and the diet, and the other powers of the alliance, exhorting them to prosecute the war with redoubled vigour. Parliament. Session of The parliament met on the 15th of November, 1709; and the necessity was again inculcated of aking fresh efforts against the common enemy, who was said "to use all their artifices to amuse with false appearances and deceitful insinuations of their desire of peace, in hope that from thence BOOK VI means might be found to create divisions or jea- 1709. lousies among the allies." The war, however, became every day more unpopular in England; and the majority of the nation began loudly to complain that thanks were year after year returned to the duke of Marlborough for his public services, when it became every day more apparent that he was actuated chiefly by private considerations, and that he invariably opposed all overtures of conciliation, prompted by the suggestions of ambition and of interest. In order, however, effectually to check and intimidate that rising spirit of discontent, evident symptoms of which appeared in every part of the kingdom, and to display the firmness of their attachment to those principles in which this once popular war had originated, the parliament determined to give full scope to their vengeance on an occasion which certainly called for no such extraordinary violence of exertion. On the 5th of November, 1709, an obscure Trial of Sacheverel clergyman of the high-church faction, of the name of Sacheverel, preaching at St. Paul's cathedral upon the words of St. Paul," Perils from false brethren," indulged himself in the most virulent defamation and abuse of the present administration and of their measures. The lord treasurer in particular was scurrilously attacked |