into disgrace, was unwilling to risk a great battle with an impeachment before him. Marlborough, in pursuance of his plan, obtained possession in the first campaign of the whole line of the Lys, and of the towns of Douay, Bethune, and St. Venant. Yet, skilful as were the operations both of Villars, who was manoeuvring carefully with his last army to save France, and Marlborough, who was manoeuvring with equal care to save his head, nothing occurred equal to the splendid and bloodless capture of the French line at Bouchain by Marlborough in 1712, in which he put forth all his skill, and passed Villars at the spot where he had boasted that he brought his antagonist to his ne plus ultra-an operation which will ever be considered as a perfect masterpiece of strategy.

But the event had now occurred which was to change the whole aspect of the war. The Emperor Joseph, who had succeeded his father Leopold in 1705, died in the very prime of youth, of the small-pox, and his brother Charles, the Prince for whom the Allies had lavished their blood and treasure for eleven years, was elected to the Empire; this circumstance strengthened immeasurably the authority of the peace party in England, who found no difficulty in reinforcing their arguments against the war by the consideration that England could have small interest in sacrificing her soldiers and spending seven millions a year for the purpose of reviving the colossal monarchy of Charles V.

The death of Joseph was bitterly felt by Eugene. He was personally deeply attached to the young Emperor, who, with his free, generous, buoyant spirit, was in most respects the direct opposite of his gloomy and reserved successor. When the young Sovereign was seized with his fatal malady, Eugene, being about to leave for the Netherlands, pressed earnestly to be allowed to visit his sick bed; but the Emperor refused to subject the chief support of his empire to the chance of contagion. While the Archduke Charles was preparing to leave Barcelona, Eugene, leaving the command of the army in the Netherlands to Marlborough, was actively engaged in canvassing the courts of Germany to secure the election of the new monarch to the Empire, and in covering the scene of their deliberations at Frankfort with the army of the Rhine. When the troops were dismissed to their winter quarters, the Prince went to meet his new Emperor at Innsbruck to discuss the present state of affairs. He found the Counts Zinzendorf and Wratislaw, ministers of the late monarch, already in attendance. be imagined, the relations with England was the chief topic of discussion. Everything in this country was going against

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the Imperial interests. Not only were the Whigs dismissed from power; not only had public feeling and a majority of the Lower House declared loudly in favour of the Tories and against the war; not only were they aware that secret negotiations of the most unfavourable character were being conducted between the Tory ministers and the Court of Versailles, but the Austrian envoy, Count Gallas, had been dismissed under circumstances of an extremely unpleasant character.

In this embarrassed state of affairs, the Emperor proposed that Eugene himself should visit England, in the hope that his personal influence might operate upon the Queen's government, and bring about a renewed prosecution of the war for the same purposes as before. Eugene himself had no illusions about his mission, and thought it a hopeless one. In his long and intimate connexion with Marlborough, he had acquired a thorough knowledge of the height to which party spirit ran in England, and the hopelessness of his task. Nevertheless, in obedience to the wish of his sovereign, he determined to make the attempt. The Tory ministry, as soon as they heard of his proposed visit, used every effort to avert it, and declared that the popular feeling was so strong against the war, that they could not answer for his safety. The Prince, however, embarked at the Hague on January 7. 1712; and after a stormy passage of nine days he arrived in the Thames. The first question which he asked on his arrival showed his acquaintance with the state of English parties, and his knowledge of the plans of the Tory ministry. He asked, 'whether the new lords were created,' who were to give the ministry a majority in the Upper House, as they already possessed one in the Lower.

As far as his mission was concerned, it was, as he foresaw, an entire failure. The Queen received him civilly and coldly. She presented him with a splendid sword on her birthday, but regretted that the state of her health did not allow her to discuss politics, and referred him to her ministers. He presented her with a memorial, and drew up five others for her ministers, recalling the mutual engagements of England to the Empire, and offering, on the part of the Emperor, to make greater sacrifices than ever. The ministers listened to him with indifference, and postponed a reply till they had consulted the Commons.

Both Harley and St. John concealed the negotiations then in full activity between France and England, and declared that England had contracted no engagements with France. St. John, Prince Eugene said, from his superior knowledge of French,

answered fluently enough, and evaded direct replies with great dexterity; but Harley took advantage of his bad French, made replies in unintelligible noises which nobody could understand, and then turned away to some other subject. However, by the people he was received with even more cordial demonstrations than Blucher received in the streets of London after the campaign of 1815. Whenever he was expected to appear crowds assembled to get a glimpse of him; he was constantly fêted by both Whigs and Tories, and the latter were as anxious to get a view of him as the former. Even Swift, who wrote such libellous stuff about him in his Four Years of 'Queen Anne's Reign,' proposed to some lords to have a sober 'meal with him, but was unable to compass it.' He, however, saw him at court, and wrote to Stella that he was plaguy yellow and very ugly besides.' Pope remarked that he took 'towns as he did snuff.' For, like Frederick and Napoleon, he was a great snuff-taker, and, like them, took it out of his waistcoat pocket. Steele has drawn a not unpleasing portrait of him in the Tatler.' " The Prince passed most of his time with Marlborough, and could on no account be persuaded not to show him the same respect as in the days of his highest prosperity.

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Eugene, finding that he could make no impression in England, passed over into Holland, and assured the States-General that they must now carry on the campaign entirely on their own resources. The Duke of Ormond, who was sent over to command the English forces, had orders to co-operate in no serious movement, and notice of this injunction was given to Villars. A truce with England was soon formally ratified, and the English army separated entirely from the Austro-Dutch forces on the 17th of July; while on the 19th, 5,000 English took possession of Dunkirk as a guarantee of the promises of the French King. Eugene and Villars were thus left face to face. The army of Eugene was still superior to that of Villars; at the beginning of the campaign it obtained several advantages, and proceeded to invest Landrecy. In spite of the defection of England from the Allies, the progress of Eugene filled Versailles and the whole kingdom with alarm. Not only did this exhausted country sink again into despair, but a succession of calamities had fallen upon the royal family which seemed to mark it out as abandoned by Providence to extinction.

At the same time an additional disaster, the death of the Duke of Vendôme, who, aided by the enthusiastic and resistless outbreak of the national Spanish spirit, had restored Philip to Madrid and brought all Spain, with the exception of Barcelona, under his authority, seemed to portend a reversal of the only

successes they had enjoyed. The general discouragement was so great that already courtiers began to advise the King to retire to Blois. But the King declared to Villars in his last interview before the campaign, that in case of further defeat he was resolved to perish with the army or save the state. Fortunately, however, for France the genius of Villars was now in the ascendant. Eugene, with his past experience of the caution of the French general, grew himself too venturesome, scattered his forces, and neglected to keep himself in sufficiently close communication with the Dutch general, the Earl of Albemarle who, with seventeen battalions, was posted behind entrenchments at Denain to protect the convoys of the army of Eugene. Villars suddenly attacked the forces under the Earl of Albemarle, and entirely destroyed or took prisoners the whole of them. Eugene was a witness of their discomfiture from the opposite bank of the Scheldt, and tried in vain to cross the bridge under the enemy's fire to come to their assistance. The Allies lost 8,000 men and 12 cannon, Albemarle and several German princes were taken prisoners, and Villars sent sixty stand of colours to Versailles. The siege of Landrecy was raised; Villars maintained his superiority over Eugene in this and the succeeding campaign; he recaptured several important places in Holland, and Landau and Friburg on the side of Alsatia.

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Eugene now advised the Emperor to make peace. English ministry, taking advantage of the disgrace of the Duke of Marlborough, and of the general change in the aspect of the war, had already concluded peace at Utrecht on the same terms which might have been obtained almost at any moment since the commencement of the war, and had brought the Dutch to accept the same conditions. Victor Amadeus II. also secured the integrity of all Piedmont on the other side of the Alps, together with the fortresses of Exilles and Fenestrelles, and was besides recognised as King of Sicily. Frederic I., the first King of Prussia, as a sign of his emancipation, alone of all the constituent states detached himself from the Empire and joined also in the peace. Had the Emperor been willing to sign peace at the same time, the House of Hapsburg might have had Landau and perhaps Strasbourg. But the ill success which attended their last campaign obliged the Court of Vienna, not only to renounce them, but to make further concessions. two leaders of the war were appointed to negotiate the peace, and they agreed to open the conferences at Rastadt. It was fortunate that Villars and Eugene should have had the conduct of so important a negotiation. They had long known and

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esteemed each other, and their antagonism in war had not impaired their friendship. Both were good diplomatists and both brave men, incapable of rancour or jealousy. They met each other in the frank, chivalrous, and courteous spirit which distinguished princes and chevaliers of old. After the first interview of ceremony was paid, they visited each other privately. They passed their mornings in diplomatic fencing, dined together with their followers in the afternoon, and passed their evenings in company at brelan or piquet. Nevertheless, there were many difficulties which had to be smoothed over on both sides before peace could be made certain; but the conduct of both negotiators was admirable. Whether we regard Eugene's management of the negotiation in the narrative of Villars or in that of the volumes before us, his ability and firm and straightforward dealing are most remarkable. J'ai toujours pensé,' he told Villars, 'que la meilleure finesse est de n'en avoir pas ;' and to his honour it must be mentioned that the point for which he made the most strenuous protestations, and for which he combated to the last, though in vain, was the protection of the Catalans and their privileges from the reprisals with which they were threatened by Philip and Louis XIV. The preliminaries having been arranged at Rastadt, the general peace was signed at Baden in Switzerland. Of all the possessions of the Spanish monarchy Charles retained only the portions he already held in possession, Sardinia, Milan, Naples, and Mantua; he was obliged to reinstate the Electors of Bavaria and Cologne in their dominions, and to ratify the barrier treaty with Holland.

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Thus,' writes Villars, after a war of fourteen years, during which the Emperor and the King of France had nearly quitted 'their respective capitals, Spain had seen two rival kings in Madrid, and almost all the petty states of Italy had changed their sovereigns,—a war which had desolated the greater part of Europe, was concluded almost on the very terms which might have been procured at the commencement of hostilities.'*

It was not long, however, before Eugene found himself again at the head of his army in the field. His last great successes were gained against his old enemies, the Turks, who had broken the treaty of Carlowitz and attacked the Venetians in the Morea. Being threatened with hostilities, the Ottoman Power

A general view of all the military operations of the contest of the Spanish Succession may be obtained with great advantage from Sir Edward Cust's excellent Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century; which are a most compendious and accurate manual of military history, invaluable to the student and to the officer in the field.