1 whole coast, and filled every town with such consternation, that they would have been abandoned by the inhabitants, had not they been detained by military force. On the twenty-sixth day of July, lord Berkeley returned to St. Helens, where he quitted the fleet, and the command devolved upon sir Cloudesley Shovel. This officer having received instructions to make an attempt upon Dunkirk, sailed round to the Downs, where he was joined by M. Meesters, with six-and-twenty Dutch pilots. On the twelfth of September. he appeared before Dunkirk; and next day sent in the Charles galley, with two bombketches, and as many of the machines called Infernals. These were set on fire without effect; and the design miscarried; then Shovel steered to Calais, which having bombarded with little success, he returned to the coast of England; and the bombketches and machines were sent into the river Thames. + § XLI. During these transactions, admiral Russel, with the grand fleet, sailed to the Mediterranean; and being joined by rear-admiral Neville from Cadiz, together with Callemberg and Evertzen, he steered towards Barcelona, which was besieged by the French fleet and army. At his approach, Tourville retired with precipitation into the harbour of Toulon; and Noailles abandoned his enterprise. The Spanish affairs were in such a deplorable condition, that without this timely assistance the kingdom must have been undone. While he continued in the Mediterranean, the French admiral durst not venture to appear at sea; and all his projects were disconcerted. After having asserted the honour of the British flag in those seas during the whole summer, he sailed in the beginning of November to Cadiz, where, by an express order of the king, he passed the winter, during which, he took such precautions for preventing Tourville from passing the Straits, that he did not think proper to risk the passage. § XLII. It will now be necessary to describe the operations on the continent. In the middle of May king William arrived in Holland, where he consulted with the states general. On the third day of June he repaired to Bethlem abbey near Louvain, the place appointed for the ren dezvous of the army; and there he was met by the electors of Bavaria and Cologne. In a few days a numerous army was assembled; and every thing seemed to promise an active campaign. On the third day of June the dauphin assumed the command of the French forces, with which Luxembourg had taken post between Mons and Maubeuge; and passing the Sambre, encamped at Fleurus: but on the eighteenth, he removed from thence, and took up his quarters between St. Tron and Wanheim: while the confederates lay at Rosbeck. On the eleventh of July, the dauphin marched in four columns to Oerle upon the Jaar, where he pitched his camp. On the twenty-second, the confederates marched to Bomale: then the dauphin took the route to Vignamont, where he secured his army by intrenchments, as his forces were inferior in number to those of the allies; and he had been directed by his father to avoid an engagement. In this situation. both armies remained till the fifteenth day of August, when king William sent the heavy baggage to Louvain; and on the eighteenth made a motion to Sombref. This was no sooner known to the enemy, than they decamped; and having marched all night, posted themselves between Temploux and Masy, within a league and a half of the confederates. The king of England resolved to pass the Scheld; and with this view marched, by the way of Nivelle and Soignies, to Chievres: from thence he detached the duke of Wirtemberg, with a strong body of horse and foot, to pass the river at Oudenarde, while the elector of Bavaria advanced with another detachment to pass it at Point de Espieres. Notwithstanding all the expedition they could make, their purpose was anticipated by Luxembourg, who being apprised of their route, had detached four thousand horse, with each a foot soldier behind the trooper, to reinforce M. de Valette, who commanded that part of the French line. These were sustained by a choice body of men, who travelled with great expedition, without observing the formalities of a march. Mareschal de Villeroy followed the same route, with all the cavalry of the right wing, the household troops, and twenty field pieces: and the rest of the army was brought up by the dauphin in person, They marched with such incredible diligence, that the elector of Bavaria could scarce believe his own eyes, when he arrived in sight of the Scheld, and saw them intrenching themselves on the other side of the river. King William having reconnoitred their disposition, thought it impracticable to pass at that place; and therefore marched down the river to Oudenarde, where a passage had been already effected by the duke of Wirtemberg. Here the confederates passed the Scheld on the twentyseventh day of the month; and the king fixed his head quarters at Wanneghem. His intention was to have taken possession of Courtray, and established winter quarters for a considerable part of his army in that district; but Luxembourg having posted himself between that place and Menin, extended his lines in such a manner, that the confederates could not attempt to force them, nor even hinder him from subsisting his army at the expense of the castel-lany of Courtray, during the remainder of the campaign. This surprising march was of such importance to the French king, that he wrote with his own hand a letter of thanks to his army; and ordered that it should be read to every particular squadron and battalion. § XLIII. The king of England, though disappointed in his scheme upon Courtray, found means to make some advantage of his superiority in number. He drafted troops from the garrison of Liege and Maestricht; and on the third day of September reinforced his body with a large detachment from his own camp, conferring the command upon the duke of Holstein Ploen, with orders to undertake the siege of Huy. Next day the whole confederate forces passed the Lys, and encamped at Wouterghem. From thence the king, with part of the army, marched to Roselaer: this diversion obliged the dauphin to make considerable detachments, for the security of Ypres and Menin on one side, and to cover Furnes and Dunkirk on the other. At this juncture, a Frenchman being seized in the very act of setting fire to one of the ammunition wagons in the allied army, confessed he had been employed for this purpose by some of the French generals, and suffered death as a traitor. On the sixteenth day of the month, the duke of Holstein Ploen invested Huy, and carried on the siege with such vigour, that in ten days the garrison capitulated. The king ordered Dixmuyde, Deynese, Ninove, and Tirlemont, to be secured for winter quarters to part of the army: the dauphin returned to Versailles: William quitted the camp on the last day of September; and both armies broke up about the middle of October. XLIV. The operations on the Rhine were preconcerted between king William and the prince of Baden, who had visited London in the winter. The dispute between the emperor and the elector of Saxony was compromised; and this young prince dying during the negotiation, the treaty was perfected by his brother and successor, who engaged to furnish twelve thousand men yearly, in consideration of a subsidy from the court of Vienna. In the beginning of June, mareschal de Lorges passed the Rhine at Philipsburgh, in order to give battle to the Imperialists, ́encamped at Hailbron. The prince of Baden, who was not yet joined by the Saxons, Hessians, nor by the troops of Munster and Paderborn, despatched couriers to quicken the march of these auxiliaries, and advanced to Eppingen, where he proposed to wait till they should come up; but, 'on the fifteenth, receiving undoubted intelligence that the enemy were in motion towards him, he advanced to meet them in order of battle. De Lorges concluded that this was a desperate effort, and immediately halted, to make the necessary preparations for an engagement. This pause enabled prince Lewis to take possession of a strong pass near Sintzheim, from which he could not easily be dislodged. Then the mareschal proceeded to Viseloch, and ravaged the adjacent country, in hopes of drawing the Imperialists from their intrenchments. The prince being joined by the Hessians, resolved to beat up the quarters of the enemy; and the French general being apprised of his design, retreated at midnight with the utmost precipitation. Having posted himself at Ruth, he sent his heavy baggage to Philipsburgh: then he moved to Gonsberg, in the neighbourhood of Manheim, repassed the Rhine, and encamped between Spiers and Worms. The prince of Baden being joined by the allies, passed the river by a bridge of boats near Hagenbach, in the middle of September; and laid the country of Alsace under contribution. Considering the VOL. I. С с advanced season of the year, this was a rash undertaking; and the French general resolved to profit by his enemy's temerity. He forthwith advanced against the Imperialists, foreseeing that should they be worsted in battle, their whole army would be ruined. Prince Lewis, informed of his intention, immediately passed the Rhine; and this retreat was no sooner effected, than the river swelled to such a degree, that the island in the middle, and great part of the camp he had occupied, was overflowed, Soon after this incident both armies retired into winter quarters, The campaign in Hungary produced no event of importance, It was opened by the new visir, who arrived at Belgrade in the middle of August; and about the same time Caprara assembled the Imperial army in the neighbourhood of Peterwaradin. The Turks passed the Saave, in order to attack their camp, and carried on their approaches with five hundred pieces of cannon; but made very little progress. The Imperialists received reinforcements: the season wasted away; a feud arose between the visir and the cham of the Tartars; and the Danube being swelled by heavy rains, so as to interrupt the operations of the Turks, their general decamped in the night of the first of October. They afterwards made an unsuccessful attempt upon Titul, while the Imperial general made himself master of Giula, In the course of this summer, the Venetians, who were also at war with the Turks, reduced Cyclut, a place of importance on the river Naranta, and made a conquest of the island of Scio in the Archipelago. § XLV. We have already observed, that the French king had determined to act vigorously in Catalonia. In the beginning of May, the duke de Noailles advanced at the head of eight-and-twenty thousand men to the river Ter, on the opposite bank of which the viceroy of Catalonia was encamped with sixteen thousand Spaniards. The French general passed the river in the face of this army, and attacked their intrenchments with such impetuosity, that in less than an hour they were totally defeated. Then he marched to Palamóse, and undertook the siege of that place, while at the same time it was blocked up by the combined squadrons of Brest and Toulon. Though the besieged made an obstinate defence, the town was taken by |