the place the siege was carried on till the twenty-sixth day of the month, when the breaches being practicable, the besieged capitulated, on condition of marching out with their arms, and as much baggage as they could carry on their backs; and of their being conducted to the next Irish garrison which was at Newry. During this siege the duke was joined by the rest of his army from England: but he had left orders for conveying the greater part of the artillery and stores from Chester directly to Carlingford. He now began his march through Lisburne and Hillsborough, and encamped at Drummore, where the protestants of the north had been lately routed by Hamilton: thence he proceeded to Loughbrillane, where he was joined by the horse and dragoons of Inniskillin. Then the enemy abandoned Newry and Dundalk, in the neighbourhood of which Schomberg encamped on a low, damp ground, having the town and river on the south, and surrounded on every other part by hills, bogs, and mountains.

§ II. His army, consisting chiefly of new raised men little inured to hardship, began to flag under the fatigue of marching, the inclemency of the weather and scarcity of provision. Here he was reinforced by the regiments of Kirke, Hanmer, and Stuart; and would have continued his march to Drogheda, where he understood Rosene lay with about twenty thousand men, had he not been obliged to wait for the artillery, which was not yet arrived at Carlingford. King James, having assembled all his forces, advanced towards Schomberg, and appeared before his intrenchments in order of battle: but the duke, knowing they were greatly superior in number of horse, and that his own army was undisciplined, and weakened by death and sickness, restrained his men within the lines, and in a little time the enemy retreated. Immediately after their departure, a conspiracy was discovered in the English camp, hatched by some French papists, who had insinuated themselves into the protestant regiments. One of these, whose name was Du Plessis, had written a letter to the ambassador D'Avaux, promising to desert with all the papists of the French regiments in Schomberg's army. This letter being found, Du Plessis and five accomplices were tried by a court martial and executed. About two hundred and

fifty papists being discovered in the French regiments, they were sent over to England, from thence to Holland. While Schomberg remained in this situation, the Inniskilliners made excursions in the neighbourhood, under the command of colonel Lloyd; and on the twenty-seventh day of September they obtained a complete victory over five times their number of the Irish. They killed seven hundred on the spot, and took O'Kelly their commander, with about fifty officers, and a considerable booty of cattle. The duke was so pleased with their behaviour on this occasion, that they received a very honourable testimony of his approbation.

§ III. Meanwhile, the enemy took possession of Jamestown, and reduced Sligo, one of the forts of which was gallantly defended by St. Sauver, a French captain, and his company of grenadiers, until he was obliged to capitulate for want of water and provision. A contagious distemper still continued to rage in Schomberg's camp, and swept off a great number of officers and soldiers; so that in the beginning of next spring, not above half the number of those who went over with the general remained alive. He was censured for his inactivity, and the king, in repeated letters, desired him to hazard an engagement, provided any opportunity should occur; but he did not think proper to run the risk of a battle, against an enemy that was above thrice his number, well disciplined, healthy, and conducted by able officers. Nevertheless, he was certainly blamable for having chosen such an unwholesome situation. At the approach of winter he retired into quarters, in hopes of being reinforced with seven thousand Danes, who had already arrived in Britain. These auxiliaries were stipulated in a treaty which William had just concluded with the king of Denmark, The English were not more successful at sea than they had proved in their operations by land. Admiral Herbert, now created earl of Torrington, having sailed to Ireland with the combined squadrons of England and Holland, made a fruitless attempt upon Cork, and lost a great number of seamen by sickness, which was imputed to bad provision. The Dartmouth ship of war fell into the hands of the enemy, who infested the channel

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with such a number of armed ships and privateers, that the trade of England sustained incredible damage.

§ IV. The affairs of France wore but a gloomy aspect on the continent, where all the powers of Europe seemed to have conspired her destruction. King William had engaged in a new league with the states general, in which former treaties of peace and commerce were confirmed. It was stipulated, that in case the king of Great Britain should be attacked, the Dutch should assist him with six thousand infantry and twenty ships of the line; and that provided hostilities should be committed against the states general, England should supply them with ten thousand infantry and twenty ships of war. This treaty was no sooner ratified than king William despatched the lord Churchill, whom he had by this time created earl of Marlborough, to Holland, in order to command the British auxiliaries in that service, to the number of eleven thousand, the greater part of which had been in the army of king James when the prince of Orange landed in England. The earl forthwith joined the Dutch army, under the command of prince Waldeck, who had fixed his rendezvous in the county of Liege, with a view to act against the French army commanded by the mareschal D'Humieres; while the prince of Vaudemont headed a little army of observation, consisting of Spaniards, Dutch, and Germans, to watch the motions of Calvo in another part of the Low Countries. The city of Liege was compelled to renounce the neutrality, and declare for the allies. Mareschal D'Humieres attacked the foragers belonging to the army of the States at Walcourt, in the month of August; an obstinate engagement ensued, and the French were obliged to retreat in confusion with the loss of two thousand men, and some pieces of artillery. The army of observation levelled part of the French lines on the side of Courtray, and raised contributions on the territories of the enemy.

V. The French were almost entire masters of the three ecclesiastical electorates of Germany. They possessed Mentz, Triers, Bonne, Keiserswaert, Philipsburgh, and Landau. They had blown up the castle of Heidelberg, in the Palatinate, and destroyed Manheim. They had reduced Worms and Spiers to ashes; and demolished Frank

endahl, together with several other fortresses. These conquests, the fruits of sudden invasion, were covered with a numerous army, commanded by the mareschal de Duras; and all his inferior generals were officers of distinguished courage and ability. Nevertheless, he found it difficult to maintain his ground against the different princes of the empire. The duke of Lorraine, who commanded the imperial troops, invested Mentz, and took it by capitulation : the elector of Brandenburgh, having reduced Keiserswaert, undertook the siege of Bonne, which the garrison surrendered, after having made a long and vigorous defence. Nothing contributed more to the union of the German princes than their resentment of the shocking barbarity with which the French had plundered, wasted, and depopulated their country. Lewis having, by his intrigues in Poland, and at Constantinople, prevented a pacification between the emperor and the Ottoman Porte, the campaign was opened in Croatia, where five thousand Turks were defeated by a body of Croats between Vihitz and Novi. The prince of Baden, who commanded the Imperialists on that side, having thrown a bridge over the Morava at Passarowitz, crossed that river, and marched in quest of the Turkish army, amounting to fifty thousand men, headed by a Seraskier. On the thirtieth day of August he attacked the enemy in the intrenchments near Patochin, and forced their lines, routed them with great slaughter, and took possession of their camp, baggage, and artillery. They retreated to Nissa, where the general finding them still more numerous than the Imperialists, resolved to make a stand and encamped in a situation that was inaccessible in every part except the rear, which he left open for the convenience of a retreat. Through this avenue, he was, on the twenty-fourth day of September, attacked by the prince of Baden, who, after a desperate resistance, obtained another complete victory, enriched his troops with the spoils of the enemy, and entered Nissa without opposition. There he found above three thousand horses and a vast quantity of provision. Having reposed his army for a few days in this place, he resumed his march against the Turks, who had chosen an advantageous post at Widen, and seemed ambitious of retrieving the honour they had lost in

the two former engagements. The Germans attacked their lines without hesitation; and though the musselmen fought with incredible fury, they were a third time defeated with great slaughter. This defeat was attended with the loss of Widen, which being surrendered to the victor, he distributed his troops in winter quarters, and returned to Vienna, covered with laurels.

§ VI. The French were likewise baffled in their attempt upon Catalonia, where the duke de Noailles hadtaken Campredon, in the month of May. Leaving a garrison in this place, he retreated to the frontiers of France, while the duke de Villa Hermosa, at the head of a Spanish army, blocked up the place, and laid Rousillon under contribution. He afterwards undertook the siege in form, and Noailles marched to its relief; but he was so hard pressed by the Spaniards, that he withdrew the garrison, dismantled' the place, and retreated with great precipitation. The French king hoped to derive some considerable advantage from the death of pope Innocent XI. which happened on the twelfth day of August. That pontiff had been an inveterate enemy to Lewis ever since the affair of the franchises, and the seizure of Avignon." Cabals were immediately formed at Rome by the French faction against the Spanish and imperial interest. The French cardinals de Bouillon and Bonzi, accompanied by Furstemberg, repaired to Rome with a large sum of money. Peter Ottoboni, a Venetian, was elected pope, and assumed the name of Alexander VIII. The duke de Chaulnes, ambassador from France, immediately signified in the name of his master, that Avignon

a The Franchises were privileges of asylum, annexed not only to the houses of ambassadors at Rome, but even to the whole district in which any ambassador chanced to live. This privilege was become a terrible nuisance, inasmuch as it afforded protection to the most atrocious criminals, who filled this city with rapine and murder. Innocent XI. resolving to remove this evil, published a bull, abolishing the franchises; and almost all the catholic powers of Europe acquiesced in what he had done, upon being duly informed of the grievance. Lewis XIV. however, from a spirit of pride and insolence, refused to part with any thing that looked like a prerogative of his crown. He said the king of France was not the imitator, but a pattern and example for other princes. He rejected with disdain the mild representations of the pope; he sent the marquis de Laverden as his ambassador to Rome, with a formidable train, to insult Innocent even in his own city. That nobleman swaggered through the streets of Rome like a bravo, taking all opportunities to affront the pope, who excommunicated him in revenge. On the other hand, the parliament of Paris appealed from the pope's bull to a future council. Lewis caused the pope's nuncio to be put under arrest, took possession of Avignon, which belonged to the see of Rome, and set the holy father st defiance.