out of the village; and the duke of Berwick, attacked on all sides, and unsupported, was taken prisoner. (1) · Luxemburg, however, was not intimidated by this disaster. He made a second attempt upon Neerwinden, and succeeded. His troops were again expelled, and a third time took possession of the village. The battle now raged with fury on both sides. William twice led the English infantry up to his intrenchments, which the enemy endeavoured to force; but nothing could resist the impetuosity of the French. Their centre being reinforced by the right wing, opened a way for their cavalry into the very lines of the allies. They flanked the English, they broke the German and Spanish horse; and William, when bravely advancing to the charge, with part of his left wing, had the mortification to see his right driven headlong into the Geete. All was now tumult and confusion. Terror and flight every where prevailed; and besides those who sunk in the general slaughter, many were drowned in the river. Twelve thousand of the allies lay dead on the field; two thousand were made prisoners; and sixty pieces of cannon, and eight mortars, with about fourscore standards and colours, fell into the hands of the French.(2) Yet Luxemburg, after all, gained little but glory by the victory at Neerwinden. Eight thousand of his best troops were slain in battle, and his army was so much weakened by the number of the wounded, that he could take no advantage of the consternation of the enemy. During six weeks he continued in a state of inaction, and Charleroy was the only conquest he afterward made, before the close of the campaign.(3) On the side of Germany, the French stained the glory of their arms by acts of cruelty and barbarity. Chamilly, having taken Heidelberg by storm, put the soldiers and citizens promiscuously to the sword; and when the massacre ended, rapine began. The houses were burnt, the churches pillaged, the inhabitants stripped naked, and the persons of the women exposed to violation, without respect to age or condition. (4) This shocking tragedy excepted, nothing memorable happened in that quarter. The Germans, sensible of their inferiority, studiously avoided a battle; and the dauphin, after crossing the Neckar, and dispersing a vain manifesto, containing humiliating terms of peace, returned without laurels to Versailles.(5) The war in Hungary produced no signal event. In Catalonia, the mareschal de Noailles took Roses in sight of the Spanish army, and would have acquired more important conquests, had he not been obliged to send a detachment into Italy.(6) The military operations, on the side of Piedmont, after having languished throughout the summer, were terminated by a decisive action, towards the end of the campaign. The duke of Savoy, at the head of the confederates, had invested Pignerol. Meanwhile, the mareschal de Catinat, being reinforced with ten thousand men, descended from the mountains, and seemed to threaten Turin. Alarmed for the safety of his capital, the duke raised the siege of Pignerol, and advanced to the small river Cisola, where it passes by Marsaglia. Resolving to engage Catinat, he sent away his heavy baggage. The two armies were soon in sight of each other, and the French general did not decline the combat. The imperial and Piedmontese cavalry, commanded by the duke in person, composed the right wing of the confederates; their infantry, consisting of the troops of Savoy and those in the pay of Great Britain, were stationed in the centre, under the famous prince Eugene; and the Spaniards, led by their native officers, formed the left wing. The French acted in an unusual manner. They received, as they advanced, the fire of the Spaniards; then fired, charged them with fixed bayonets, and afterward sword in hand. The whole left wing of the allied army was instantly broken, and thrown in confusion on the centre, which sustained the battle with great obstinacy. The centre, however, was at length obliged to give way, and a complete victory remained to the French. Besides their cannon and light baggage, with a great number of colours and standards, the allies lost eight (1) Mem. de Fouquieres. Berwick's Mem. ubi sup. (3) Id. ibid. (6) Mem. de Noailles, tom I. thousand men in the action. (1) Among many persons of distinction who fell or were taken, the young duke of Schomberg was mortally wounded and made prisoner. Nor were the French less successful in maritime affairs. Though the shock which their navy had sustained off La Hogue, the foregoing summer, rendered them unable to face the combined fleet of England and Holland, they made up in diligence what they wanted in force. The English nation had, with reason, complained of the little attention paid to commerce ever since the beginning of the war. Though powerful fleets were sent to sea, and some advantages gained on that element, trade had suffered much from the frigates and privateers of the enemy. The merchants, therefore, resolved to keep the richest ships in their several harbours, till a sufficient convoy could be obtained and so great was the negligence of government, that many of them had been for eighteen months ready to sail !(2) Their number accumulated daily. At length, the whole combined fleet was ordered to conduct, as far as might be requisite, four hundred merchantmen, consisting of English, Dutch, and Hamburghers, bound for the different ports of the Mediterranean, and generally known by the name of the Smyrna fleet. They accordingly put to sea, and proceeded fifty leagues beyond Ushant; where they left sir George Rooke, with a squadron of twenty-three sail, to convoy the traders to the straits. Meanwhile, the French fleet, under Tourville, had taken station in the bay of Lagos, and lay in that place till Rooke and the multitude of rich vessels under his convoy appeared. Deceived by false intelligence concerning the strength of the enemy, the English admiral prepared to engage; but suddenly perceiving his mistake, he stood away with an easy sail, ordering the merchantmen to disperse and shift for themselves. The French came up with the sternmost ships, and took three Dutch men of war. About fourscore merchantmen were taken or destroyed in the different ports of Spain, into which they had run, in order to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy. The object of the voyage was totally defeated, and the loss in ships and cargo amounted to twelve hundred thousand pounds. (3) But Lewis XIV., amid all his victories, had the mortification to see his subjects languishing in misery and want. France was afflicted with a dreadful famine, partly occasioned by unfavourable seasons, partly by the war, which had not left hands sufficient to cultivate the ground; and notwithstanding all the provident attention of her ministry in bringing supplies of corn from abroad, in regulating the price and furnishing the markets, many of the peasants perished of hunger, and the whole kingdom was reduced to poverty and distress.(4) William, apprized of this distress, and still thirsting for revenge, rejected all advances towards peace, and hastened his military preparations. He was accordingly enabled to appear early in Flanders at the head of a great and finely appointed army; but the superior genius of Luxemburg, with an army much inferior, prevented him from gaining any considerable advantage. The retaking of Huy was the only conquest he made during the campaign. On the Upper Rhine, in Hungary, in Piedmont, no event of any consequence happened.(5) On the side of Spain, the war was carried on with more vigour. The mareschal de Noailles, having forced the passage of the river Ter, in Catalonia, defeated the Spanish army intrenched on the farther bank. Gironne and Ostalric fell successively into his hands; and he would have made himself master of Barcelona, had not admiral Russel, with the combined fleet, arrived in the neighbouring seas, and obliged the French fleet to take shelter in Toulon.(6) While Tourville and d'Estrees were blocked up in that harbour, the French seaports upon the channel were bombarded, though with no great effect.(7) (1) Mem. de Fouquieres. Europ. Hist. tom. ii. a l'An. 1693. (2) Burnet, book v. (41 Voltaire, Siècle, chap. xv. (6) Mem. de Noailles, tom. i. The glory and greatness of Lewis XIV. were now not only at their height, but verging towards a decline. His resources were exhausted: his minister Louvois, who knew so well how to employ them, was dead; and Luxemburg, the last of those great generals who had made France the terror of Europe, died before the opening of the next campaign. Lewis determined, therefore, to act merely on the defensive in Flanders, where the allies had assembled an amazing force. After some hesitation, he placed mareschal de Villeroy at the head of the principal army, and intrusted the second to Boufflers. Namur on the right, and Dunkirk on the left, comprehended between them the extent of country to be defended by the French. Tournay on the Scheldt, and Ypres, near the Lys, formed part of the line. Boufflers was ordered to assemble his army near Mons, to cover Namur; and Villeroy posted himself between the Scheldt and the Lys, to protect Tournay, Ypres, and Dunkirk.(1) King William, who took the field in the beginning of May, found himself at the head of an army much superior to that of France. In order to amuse the enemy, and conceal his real design upon Namur, he made some artful movements, which distracted the attention of Villeroy, and rendered him uncertain where the storm would first fall. At length, having completed his preparations, and formed his army into three bodies, he ordered the elector of Bavaria, with one division, to invest Namur. He himself, at the head of the main body, was encamped behind the Mehaign, and in a condition to pass that river, and sustain the siege, if necessary; while the prince of Vaudemont, with an army of observation, lay between the Lys and the Mandel, to cover those places in Flanders which were most exposed. (2) Namur, into which mareschal Boufflers had thrown himself with seven regiments of dragoons, in order to reinforce the garrison, made a vigorous defence: but it was at last obliged to surrender; and the citadel, which Villeroy attempted in vain to relieve, was also taken. (3) Lewis XIV., in order to wipe off this disgrace, and to retaliate on the confederates for the attacks made by the English on the coast of France, commanded Villeroy to bombard Brussels; and the prince of Vaudemont had the mortification to see great part of that city laid in ruins, without being able either to prevent or avenge the wanton destruction.(4) The military reputation of William, which had suffered greatly during the three foregoing campaigns, was much raised by the retaking of Namur. But the allies had little success in other quarters. No event of any importance happened on the side of Italy, on the Upper Rhine, or in Catalonia. On the side of Hungary, where peace had been expected by the confederates, the accession of Mustapha II. to the Ottoman throne gave a new turn to affairs. Possessed of more vigour than his predecessor, Achmet II., Mustapha resolved to command his troops in person. He accordingly took the field; passed the Danube; stormed Lippa; seized Itul; and falling suddenly on a body of imperialists, under Veterani, he killed that officer, dispersed his forces, and closed with success a campaign which promised nothing but misfortune to the Turks.(5) The next campaign produced no signal event any where. France was exhausted by her great exertions: and, the king of Spain and the emperor excepted, all parties seemed heartily tired of the war. Lewis XIV., by his intrigues, had detached the duke of Savoy from the confederacy: he tampered with the other powers; and a congress for a general peace, under the mediation of Charles XI. of Sweden, was at last opened, at the castle of Ryswick, between Delft and the Hague. The taking of Barcelona, by the duke of Vendome, induced the king of Spain to listen to the proposals of France; and the emperor, after reproaching his allies with deserting him, found it necessary to accede to the treaty. The concessions made by Lewis XIV. were very considerable; but the pretensions of the house of Bourbon to the Spanish succession were left in (1) Mem. de Fouquieres. (3) Id. ibid. (2) Kane's Campaigns. Mem. de Fouquieres. (5) Barre. Heisa. full force. Though the renunciation of all claim to that succession, conformable to the Pyrenean treaty, had been one great objection of the war, no mention was made of it in the articles of peace. It was stipulated, That the French monarch should acknowledge William to be lawful sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland, and make no farther attempt to disturb him in the possession of his kingdoms;(1) that the dutchy of Luxemburg, the county of Chiney, Charleroy, Mons, Aeth, Courtray, and all places united to France by the chambers of Metz and Brisac, as well as those taken in Catalonia, during the war, should be restored to Spain; that Friburg, Brisgaw, and Philipsburg, should be given up to the emperor; and that the dutchies of Lorrain and Bar should be rendered back to their native prince.(2) Scarce had the emperor acceded to the treaty of Ryswick, which re-established tranquillity in the north and west of Europe, when he received intelligence of the total defeat of the Turks, by his arms, at Zenta, a small village on the western bank of the Thesse, in the kingdom of Hungary. The celebrated prince Eugene of Savoy had succeeded the elector of Saxony in the command of the imperialists, and to his consummate abilities they were indebted for their extraordinary success. Mustapha II. commanded his army in person. The battle was of short duration, but uncommonly bloody. About twenty thousand Turks were left dead on the field; and ten thousand were drowned in the river, in endeavouring to avoid the fury of the sword. The magnificent pavilion of the sultan, the stores, ammunition, provisions, and all the artillery and baggage of the enemy, fell into the hands of prince Eugene. The grand vizier was killed, the seal of the Ottoman empire taken, and the aga of the janizaries, and twenty-seven bashaws, were found among the slain.(3) This decisive victory, though followed by no striking consequences, by reason of the declining season, broke the spirit of the Turks; and the haughty Mustapha, after attempting in vain during another campaign to recover the laurels he had lost at Zenta, agreed to listen to proposals of peace. The plenipotentiaries of the belligerent powers accordingly met at Carlowitz, and signed a treaty; in which it was stipulated, that all Hungary on this side the Saave, with Transylvania and Sclavonia, should be ceded to the house of Austria; that the Russians should remain in possession of Azoph, on the Palus Mæotis, which had been taken by their young sovereign Peter I., afterward styled the Great: that Kaminiec should be restored to the Poles; and that the Venetians, who had distinguished themselves during the latter years of the war, should be gratified with all the Morea, or ancient Peloponnesus, and with several places in Dalmatia. (4) Thus, my dear Philip, was general tranquillity again restored to Europe. But the seeds of future discord, as we shall soon have occasion to notice, were already sown in every corner of Christendom. It was but a delusive calm before a more violent storm. It will, however, afford us leisure to carry forward the progress of society. (1) Lewis, we are told, discovered much reluctance in submitting to this article; and that he might not seem altogether to desert the dethroned monarch, proposed that his son should succeed to the crown of England, after the death of William; that William, with little hesitation, agreed to the request; that he even solemnly engaged to procure the repeal of the act of settlement, and to obtain another act, declaring the pretended prince of Wales his successor. But James, it is added, rejected the offer; protesting, that should he himself be capable of consenting to such a disgraceful proposal in favour of his son, he might justly be reproached with departing from his avowed principles, and with ruining monarchy, by rendering elective an hereditary crown. Depôt des Affaires Etrangères à Versailles. James II., 1697 Macpherson, (2) Dumont, Corp. Diplom. tom. viii. Hist. Brit. vol. ii. (3) Barre, Hist. d'Allemagne, tom. x. (4) Dumont, Corp. Diplom. tom. viii. Life of Prince Eugene. LETTER XIX. The Progress of Society in Europe, from the Middle of the Sixteenth to the End of the Seventeenth Century. ABOUT the middle of the sixteenth century, as we have formerly seen,(1) society had attained a very high degree of perfection in Italy. Soon after that era, the Italian states began to decline, and the other European nations, then comparatively barbarous, to advance towards refinement. Among these, the French took the lead: for although the Spanish nobility, during the reign of Charles V. and those of his immediate successors, were perhaps the most polished and enlightened set of men on this side of the Alps, the great body of the nation then was, as it still continues, sunk in ignorance, superstition, and barbarism; and the secluded condition of the women, in both Spain and Italy, was a farther barrier against true politeness. That grand obstruction to elegance and pleasure was effectually removed, in the intermediate kingdom, by the gallant Francis I. Anne of Brittany, wife of Charles VIII., and Lewis XII. had introduced the custom of ladies appearing publicly at the French court: Francis encouraged it; and by familiarizing the intercourse of the sexes, in many brilliant assemblies and gay circles, threw over the manners of the nation those bewitching graces that have so long attracted the admiration of Europe. But this innovation, like most others in civil life, was at first attended with several inconveniences. As soon as familiarity had worn off that respect, approaching to adoration, which had hitherto been paid to the women of rank, the advances of the men became more bold and licentious. No longer afraid of offending, they poured their lawless passion in the ear of beauty; and female innocence, unaccustomed to such solicitations, was unable to resist the seducing language of love, when breathed from the glowing lips of youth and manhood. Not only frequent intrigues, but a gross sensuality was the consequence; and the court of France, during half a century, was little better than a common brothel. Catharine of Medicis encouraged this sensuality, and employed it as the engine for perfecting her system of Machiavelian policy. By the attractions of her fair attendants, she governed the leaders of the Hugonot faction, or by their insidious caresses obtained the secrets of her enemies, in order to work their ruin; to bring them before a venal tribunal, or to take them off by the more dark and common instruments of her ambition-poison, and the stiletto. Murders were hatched in the arms of love, and massacre planned in the cabinet of pleasure. On the accession of Henry IV., and the cessation of the religious wars, gallantry began to assume a milder form. The reign of sensuality continued; but it was a sensuality mingled with sentiment, and connected with heroism. Henry himself, though habitually licentious, was often in love, and sometimes foolishly intoxicated with that passion; but he was always a king and a soldier. His courtiers, in like manner, were frequently dissolute, but never effeminate. The same beauty that served to solace the warrior after his toils, contributed also to inspire him with new courage. Chivalry seemed to revive in the train of libertinism; and the ladies, acquiring more knowledge and experience, from their more early and frequent intercourse with our sex, became more sparing of their favours. Gallantry was formed into a system during the reign of Lewis XIII., and love was analyzed with all the nicety of metaphysics. The faculties of the two sexes were whetted, and their manners polished, by combating each other. Woman was placed beyond the reach of man, without the help of grates or bars. In the bosom of society, in the circle of amusement, and (1) Part I. Let. IV. |