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fite judge and moft munificent patron of literary merit. In a word, in him were united all the virtues and accomplishments which can make a character either great or amiable; and History is proud to exhibit him as one of those exalted perfonages who occafionally appear to adorn and to enlighten a world too often ignorant or insensible of their merits. The department of the Admiralty was now placed in the hands of fir Cloudesley Shovel, an officer diftinguished by his professional and personal merit, affifted by the admirals Killegrew and Delaval.

The KING embarked for Holland March the 31ft, 1693, and immediately repaired to the army in Flanders, where the French had affembled a force far fuperior to the confederates. The king of France having joined his army in perfon, it was concluded that fome grand design was in contemplation either upon Maeftricht, Bruffels or Liege. But the king of England having with great diligence poffeffed himself of the strong pofition of Parke near Louvaine, the measures of the enemy were broken; and Louis, after detaching a body of 20,000 men to the Upper Rhine, left the care of the army to the marechals Luxemburg and Boufflers, and returned in fome difappointment to Verfailles. The duke of Luxemburg now removed his camp to Meldert, within half a league of the allies-and an engagement was hourly expected; but neither fide found a favorable opportunity of attack. The duke of Wirtemberg, however, with a detachment of thirty-three battalions and fquadrons, forced the French lines between the Scheld and the Lys, and laid the whole country as far as Lifle under contribution. the fame day (July the 18th), on which the enemy's lines were forced, marechal Luxemburg quitted the camp of Meldert, and moved towards Huy, which was next day invested by marechal Villeroi; and, after a feeble defence, it capitulated on the 23d. The French general then marched forwards to Liege; but the allies had taken the precaution of throwing ten battalions into the place. Marechal Luxemburg

On

Luxemburg nevertheless made fuch difpofitions as feemed to threaten an approaching fiege; but, on a fudden, early in the morning of the 28th, he quitted his poft at Hellicheim, feven leagues diftant from the camp of the confederates, and, marching in four columns, paffed the Jaar; and be-fore the close of day reached the village of Roucoux. The king of England, on discovering the van-guard of the enemy, refolved to wait the attack; as an attempt to retreat would have left his rear expofed, and the chief towns of the province of Brabant uncovered.

The duke of Wirtemberg not having yet rejoined the army, marechal Luxemburg was fuperior, as it is faid, by 30,000 men to the allies. But the king depended on the ftrength of his pofition. The right of the confederate army extended to the banks of the Geete, the front being covered with hedges and hollow ways, ftretching to the village of Neer-Winden in the centre. The left reached Neer-Landen,. on the rivulet of that name; and the two villages were joined by an entrenchment, and the approaches covered with above 100 pieces of cannon. But the experienced and vigilant eye of Luxemburg difcovered a great defect in this difpofition. From the vicinity of a morafs bordering on the Geete, at the back of the English camp, and the nature of the ground in front, he faw that the cavalry of the left wing would be unable to act with effect. And on reconnoitring the ground previous to the engagement, he exclaimed, "Now I believe that Waldeck is really dead !”—that general having been famous for his skill in encampment. The French began the battle at funrise, by a furious attack on the villages of Neer-Winden and Landen; for the entrenched front was unapproachable while they were exposed to the fire of the two villages in flank. After a desperate conflict, the enemy made themselves mafters of these im portant pofts. M. de Luxemburg then ordered a general charge upon the whole line, which was carried into execution with an impetuofity that furmounted all refistance.

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The king of England, who was feen by turns in every poft of danger, behaved with the most heroic courage, bringing up in perfon the English cavalry to the fuccour of the Dutch and Hanoverian horse, and charging twice at the head of the battalions at the entrenchment. The elector of Bavaria, after making every poffible effort, retreated over the bridge thrown across the Geete, and rallied the fugitives. The king, feeing the battle loft, yet remained in the field, to give the neceffary orders for the fafety of the troops, displaying, in the opinion of all, no less conduct than valor. "I saw," said the prince of Conti in an intercepted letter to his princess," the king of England expofing himself to the greatest dangers. Surely fo much valor well deferves the peaceable poffeffion of the crown he wears." The duke of Berwick being taken prifoner in the heat of the battle was carried to the king by general Churchill. That great man informs us in his Memoirs, "that the first thing which ftruck him, who had never feen the person of the prince of Orange before, was his eye like that of an eagle. He took off his hat without speaking to the duke, and continued giving his orders with a calmness which fhewed the most perfect negligence of danger." The French commander himself joined in the general applause ; and when the king of France read the accounts transmitted to him of this battle, he declared, "that Luxemburg had attacked like Condé, and that the prince of Orange had retreated like Turenne."

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The lofs fuftained by the two armies was nearly equalabout nine or ten thousand men. King William being joined in a few days by the duke of Wirtemberg, and recalling his detachment from Liege, found himself immediately in a fituation to risk another engagement. Both armies however remained for fome weeks inactive, till, marechal Boufflers having led back the reinforcement detached fome months fince to the Upper Rhine, fiege was laid to Charleroy, which the utmost efforts of the allies were ina

dequate

dequate to relieve. After a very gallant refiftance of thirtyone days, the governor capitulated on the most honorable conditions; and the reduction of the place was celebrated with a Te Deum and other rejoicings at Paris. The conqueft of Charleroy concluded the campaign in the Netherlands.

The French army on the Rhine, commanded by the marechal de Lorges, paffed that river in May, and invested the city of Heidelberg, which, being taken by storm, was delivered up to all the horrors of cruelty, luft and rapine. Every house was ranfacked and plundered. The churches were no longer fanctuaries. The fame impious hand that robbed the altar, left it ftained with human gore. The capuchins, on imploring that their monastery might be spared, were told, that not one stone would be left upon another. Even the facred monuments of the dead were violated; and the bones of the electoral family torn with unhallowed rage from the vault where they had repofed for ages. All the quarters of the town were fet on fire, and the inhabitants, without refpect to age, fex, or condition, were driven almost naked to the castle to enforce a capitulation. When on the furrender of the citadel they were fet at liberty, numbers of them died on their march, which was by night along the banks of the Necker, of hunger, cold, weariness, and all the anguish of mind arifing from such a burst of calamities. All Europe rung with the horrors of fo dire a tragedy. Prince Lewis of Baden, who commanded the Imperial army, aftonifhed and shocked at these atrocities, fent a meffage to marechal de Lorges, "that he was come from a war against the Turks; and that he expected Christian enemies would have treated each other with Chriftian usage; but that he found the French acted more like barbarians than their Turkifh allies-He fhould therefore in future make such reprisals as would teach them, from concern to themselves, to fhew compaffion to others."

The Moft Chriftian King was no fooner apprifed of the infamous fuccefs of his arms at Heidelberg, than he fen:

his

his royal mandate to the archbishop of Paris to celebrate this joyful event by a Te Deum. "I ordered," faid he, "my coufin the marechal duc de Lorges to make himself master of Heidelberg; and he has executed my orders.— This conqueft, which begins the campaign fo glorioufly, affords me time, a freer entrance into the heart of the empire, and an almoft certain prefage of farther fuccefs."But though M. de Lorges continued his march to Hailbron, and made feveral attempts to pafs the Necker in order to attack the prince of Baden, he was invariably repulsed, and at length obliged to retreat by way of Philipsburg back to France.

In Catalonia, the Spaniards fuffered the lofs of the important town of Rofes, almoft without refiftance. In Piedmont, the French had, as in all other parts during this summer, greatly the advantage. The campaign opened on the part of the allies with the fiege of Pignerol; in which the duke of Savoy had made fome progress when he underftood that marechal de Catinat had defcended into the plains, and menaced the city of Turin. Alarmed at the danger of his capital, the duke immediately drew off his 'army from Pignerol, and marched in queft of the enemy, whom he found encamped in the vicinity of Marfiglia. The left of the confederate army, composed of Spanish troops and Imperial cavalry, was commanded by the marquis de Leganez; the right, of Imperial and Piedmontese cavalry and infantry intermixed, by the duke himself, affifted by the count de Caprara; and the centre, which confifted of Imperial, British, and Piedmontese infantry, by prince Eugene of Savoy and the count de Las Torres. The duke of Schomberg, who had been denied his just rank, fought in the capacity of colonel only, at the head of his own regiment. Early in the morning of the 4th of October, 1693, the enemy advanced to the attack with undaunted refolution, charging with fixed bayonets at the end of their fufees, without firing a fhot-at that time a very unusual

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