been restricted by the deputies of the states general, who began to be influenced by the intrigues of the Louvestein faction, ever averse to a single dictator.

§ XXXIX. The French king redoubled his efforts in Germany. The duke of Vendome was ordered to march from the Milanese to Tyrol, and there join the elector of Bavaria, who had already made himself master of Inspruck. But the boors rising in arms, drove him out of the country before he could be joined by the French general, who was, therefore, obliged to return to the Milanese. The Imperialists in Italy were so ill supplied by the court of Vienna, that they could not pretend to act offensively. The French invested Ostiglia, which, however, they could not reduce : but the fortress of Barsillo, in the dutchy of Reggio, capitulating after a long blockade, they took possession of the duke of Modena's country. The elector of Bavaria rejoining Villars, resolved to attack count Stirum, whom prince Lewis of Baden had detached from his army. With this view, they passed the Danube at Donawert, and discharged six guns, as a signal for the marquis d'Usson, whom they had left in the camp at Lavingen, to fall upon the rear of the Imperialists, while they should charge them. in front. Stirum no sooner perceived the signal, than he guessed the intention of the enemy, and instantly resolved to attack d'Usson before the elector and the mareschal should advance. He accordingly charged him at the head of some select squadrons, with such impetuosity, that the French cavalry were totally defeated; and all his infantry would have been killed and taken, had not the elector and Villars come up in time to turn the fate of the day. The action continued from six in the morning till four in the afternoon, when Stirum being overpowered by numbers, was obliged to retreat to Norlingen, with the loss of twelve thousand men, and all his baggage and artillery. In the mean time the duke of Burgundy, assisted by Tallard, undertook the siege of Old Brisac, with a prodigious train of artillery. The place was very strongly fortified, though the garrison was small, and ill provided with necessaries. fourteen days the governor surrendered the place, and was condemned to lose his head, for having made such a slender defence. The duke of Burgundy returned in triumph VOL. I.

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to Versailles, and Tallard was ordered to invest Landau. The prince of Hesse Cassel being detached from the Netherlands, for the relief of the place, joined the count of Nassau Weilbourg, general of the Palatine forces, near Spires, where they resolved to attack the French in their lines. But by this time mons. Pracontal, with ten thousand men, had joined Tallard, and enabled him to strike a stroke which proved decisive. He suddenly quitted his lines, and surprised the prince at Spirebach, where the French obtained a complete victory, after a very obstinate and bloody engagement, in which the prince of Hesse distinguished himself by uncommon marks of courage and presence of mind. Three horses were successively killed under him, and he slew a French officer with his own hand. After incredible efforts, he was fain to retreat with the loss of some thousands. The French paid dear for their victory, Pracontal having been slain in the action. Nevertheless, they resumed the siege, and the place was surrendered by capitulation. The campaign in Germany was finished with the reduction of Augsburgh by the elector of Bavaria, who took it in the month of December, and agreed to its being secured by a French garrison.

§ XL. The emperor's affairs at this juncture wore a very unpromising aspect. The Hungarians were fleeced, and barbarously oppressed, by those to whom he intrusted the government of their country. They derived courage from despair. They seized this opportunity, when the emperor's forces were divided, and his counsels distracted, to exert themselves in defence of their liberies. They ran to arms, under the auspices of prince Ragotzki. They demanded that their grievances should be redressed, and their privileges restored. Their resentment was kept up by the emissaries of France and Bavaria, who likewise encouraged them to persevere in their revolt, by repeated promises of protection and assistance. The emperor's prospect,

however, was soon mended, by two incidents of very great consequence to his interest. The duke of Savoy, foreseeing how much he should be exposed to the mercy of the French king, should that monarch become master of the Milanese, engaged in a secret negotiation with the emperor, which, notwithstanding all his caution, was discovered by

the court of Versailles. Lewis immediately ordered the duke of Vendome to disarm the troops of Savoy that were in his army, to the number of two-and-twenty thousand men : to insist upon the duke's putting him in possession of four considerable fortresses; and demand that the number of his troops should be reduced to the establishment stipulated in the treaty of 1696. The duke, exasperated at these insults, ordered the French ambassador, and several officers of the same nation, to be arrested. Lewis endeavoured to intimidate him by a menacing letter, in which he gave him to understand, that since neither religion, honour, interest, nor alliances, had been able to influence his conduct, the duke de Vendome should make known the intentions of the French monarch, and allow him four-and-twenty hours to deliberate on the measures he should pursue. This letter was answered by a manifesto: in the mean time, the duke concluded a treaty with the court of Vienna; acknowledged the archduke Charles as king of Spain; and sent envoys to England and Holland. Queen Anne, knowing his importance, as well as his selfish disposition, assured him of her friendship and assistance; and both she and the States sent ambassadors to Turin. He was immediately joined by a body of imperial horse under Visconti, and afterwards by count Staremberg, at the head of fifteen thousand men, with whom that general marched from the Modenese, in the worst season of the year, through an enemy's country, and roads that were deemed impassable. In vain the French forces harassed him in his march, and even surrounded him in many different places on the route: he surmounted all these difficulties with incredible courage and perseverance, and joined the duke of Savoy at Canelli, so as to secure the country of Piedmont. The other incident which proved so favourable to the imperial interest, was a treaty by which the king of Portugal acceded to the grand alliance. His ministry perceived, that should Spain be once united to the crown of France, their master would sit very insecure upon his throne. They were intimidated by the united fleets of the maritime powers, which maintained the empire of the sea; and they were allured by the splendour of a match between their infanta and the archduke Charles, to whom the emperor and king of the Romans promised to transfer all their preten

sions to the Spanish crown. By this treaty, concluded at Lisbon, between the emperor, the queen of Great Britain, the king of Portugal, and the states general, it was stipulated, that king Charles should be conveyed to Portugal by a powerful fleet, having on board twelve thousand soldiers, with a great supply of money, arms, and ammunition; and that he should be joined immediately upon his landing by an army of eight-and-twenty thousand Portuguese.

§ XLI. The confederates reaped very little advantage from the naval operations of this summer. Sir George Rooke cruised in the channel, in order to alarm the coast of France, and protect the trade of England. On the first day of July, sir Cloudesley Shovel sailed from St. Helens, with the combined squadrons of England and Holland: he directed his course to the Mediterranean, and being reduced to great difficulty by want of water, steered to Altea, on the coast of Valentia, where brigadier Seymour landed, and encamped with five-and-twenty hundred marines. The admiral published a short manifesto, signifying that he was not come to disturb, but to protect, the good subjects of Spain, who would swear allegiance to their lawful monarch, the archduke Charles, and endeavour to shake off the yoke of France. This declaration produced little or no effect; and the fleet being watered, sir Cloudesley sailed to Leghorn. One design of this armament was to assist the Cevennois, who had in the course of the preceding year been persecuted into a revolt on account of religion, and implored the assistance of England and the states general. The admiral detached two ships into the gulf of Narbonne, with some refugees and French pilots, who had concerted signals with the Cevennois: but the mareschal de Montrevil having received intimation of their design, took such measures as prevented all communication; and the English captains having repeated their signals to no purpose, rejoined sir Cloudesley at Leghorn. This admiral, having renewed the peace with the piratical states of Barbary, returned to England, without having taken one effectual step for annoying the enemy, or attempted any thing that looked like the result of a concerted scheme for that purpose. The nation naturally murmured at the fruitless expedition, by which it had incurred such a considerable expense. The merchants

complained that they were ill supplied with convoys. The ships of war were victualled with damaged provisions; and every article of the marine being mismanaged, the blame fell upon those who acted as counsel to the lord high admiral.

§ XLII. Nor were the arms of England by sea much more successful in the West Indies. Sir George Rooke, in the preceding year, had detached from the Mediterranean captain Hovenden Walker, with six ships of the line and transports, having on board four regiments of soldiers, for the Leeward Islands. Being joined at Antigua by some troops under colonel Codrington, they made a descent upon the island of Guadaloupe, where they rased the fort, burned the town, ravaged the country, and reimbarked with precipitation, in consequence of a report that the French had landed nine hundred men on the back of the island. They retired to Nevis, where they must have perished by famine, had not they been providentially relieved by vice-admiral Graydon, in his way to Jamaica. This officer had been sent out with three ships to succeed Benbow, and was convoyed about one hundred and fifty leagues by two other ships of the line. He had not sailed many days, when he fell in with part of the Fench squadron, commanded by du Casse, on their return from the West Indies, very foul, and richly laden. Captain Cleland, of the Montagu, engaged the sternmost; but he was called off by a signal from the admiral, who proceeded on his voyage, without taking further notice of the enemy. When he arrived at Jamaica, he quarrelled with the principal planters of the island; and his ships beginning to be crazy, he resolved to return to England. He accordingly sailed though the gulf of Florida, with a view to attack the French at Placentia, in Newfoundland: but his ships were dispersed in a fog that lasted thirty days and afterwards the council of war which he convoked, were of opinion that he could not attack the the settlement with any prospect of success. At his return to England, the house of lords, then sitting, set on foot an inquiry into his conduct. They presented an address to the queen desiring she would remove him from his employments; and he was accordingly dismissed. The only exploit that tended to distress the enemy was performed by rear-admiral Dilkes, who, in the month of