that the siege of Mons should be immediately undertaken, without giving the enemy battle; but that if they should come to attack us, in that case we should retreat from them and of this opinion were most of the generals. Prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough were of opinion, on the contrary, to attack the enemy before they began the siege, and they brought over the deputies to be of the same mind: but then they, as well as the duke of Marlborough, insisted that the attack ought to be made immediately, not to give the marechal de Villars time to fortify his camp. Prince Eugene was not, however, to be dissuaded from the resolution he had taken to wait for the detachment from Tournay: a fatal delay which occasioned the ruin of the whole body of Dutch infantry, which alone lost near 10,000 men, more than 700 of whom were officers, at the attack of the intrenchments.

BATTLE OF MALPLAQUET.

A. D. 1709.

LETTER FROM THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH TO MR.

SIR,

SECRETARY BOYLE.

Camp at Blareignies, Sept. 11, N. S. 1709.

As soon as I had dispatched my letter to you on Saturday from Havre, we were alarmed with the enemy's marching to attack the prince of Hesse, upon which the whole army was immediately put in motion, but it was next day at noon before all the troops could come up. In the morning they sent out a detachment of 400 horse to observe our march, which the head of the prince of Hesse's troops attacked, and took the colonel who commanded them, with the lieutenantcolonel and several other officers, and about fifty prisoners. Upon notice of our army's lying on this side the Haisne, the enemy stretched out their line from Quievrain to the right, which they continued to do the next day, and yesterday they possessed themselves of the wood of Dour and Blaugies, where they immediately began to entrench. This motion of the enemy kept our army for two nights under their arms; and in the evening, as soon as the twenty-one battalions and four squadrons we were expecting from Tournay were come within reach, it was resolved to attack them, and the necessary dispositions being made, we accordingly began at eight this morning. The fight was maintained with great

obstinacy till near twelve o'clock, before we could force their entrenchments, and drive them out of the wood into the plain, where their horse was all drawn up, and ours advancing upon them, the whole army engaged, and fought with great fury till three in the afternoon, when the enemy's horse began to give way, and to retire towards Maubeuge and Valenciennes, and part of them towards Condé. We pursued them to the defilé by Bavay with great slaughter, all our troops behaving themselves with the greatest courage. We are now encamped on the field of battle. You may believe the loss must have been very great on both sides. We have a good number of officers prisoners, but as I send this express by lieutenant-colonel Graham, who carries a letter to the queen, I must refer you to my next for further particulars. In the mean time I heartily congratulate you upon this great suecess, and am truly,

Sir,

you most faithful humble servant,

MARLBOROUGH.

P. S. I had almost forgot to tell you that we took St, Guislain yesterday, in the evening, sword in hand, and made the garrison, consisting of 200 men, prisoners of

war.

NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE.

A. D. 1709-10.

IT is necessary to have our minds impressed with the clearest recollection of the insufferable haughtiness, the immeasurable and unprincipled ambition, and above all of the shocking barbarity which distinguished the prosperous years of the reign of Louis XIV., in order to avoid feeling a strong, emotion of compassion at the state of humiliation to which he was reduced, when approaching the termination of his long career. His violent seizure of the Spanish Netherlands, after the death of Philip IV., his unprovoked invasion of Holland in 1672, his encroachments and usurpations subsequent to the treaty of Nimegnen, and his horrible devastation of the palatinate, and other parts of Germany, together with the execrable cruelties practised by his express au thority upon his innocent subjects the Huguenots in France, have for ever marked him in the page of history as a tyrant, and an oppressor. Yet was this monarch by no means destitute of great or amiable qualities. Nature intended him for an accomplished sovereign, but he was corrupted by the indulgence of fortune, and mistched education. Ilis led by the prejudices of a mind, elated by flattery and hardened by the long and unrestrained enjoyment of power, became at length mellowed and softened by adversity: and at the period when in the view of the world at large he appeared most

degraded, in that of the moral and philosophic observer, he seemed most exalted. And indeed he was in no degree less popular during this calamitous period of his reign, amongst his own subjects, than in the most splendid eras of it. They formerly saw, in this great monarch, the lustre of a conqueror; they now discerned in him the parental affection of a father, willing to sacrifice every thing in which he had once placed his glory, to their welfare, their safety, and their happiness.

The picture drawn by the marquis de Torcy, of the state of the kingdom at the commencement of the year 1709, is truly touching. According to the representation of this able writer and statesman, "France was at this period afflicted with great and various evils. The scourge of famine was added to that of war. An excessive degree of cold succeeding to a general thaw at the beginning of January, had caused the seed thrown into the earth to perish. The spring revolved without being accompanied by any of the appearances usual at that season of the year. Nothing but misfortune presented itself on all sides. The general discourse was as melancholy as the subjects which gave occasion to it. Every day the resources of the country diminished, and the credit of the state vanished with them. The armies of the king, formerly victorious, had been compelled, after a series of bloody conflicts, to abandon the territories which had been in happier days the scene of their triumphs. The enemy threatened to penetrate into the heart of France. At the commencement of the war, the king had issued his orders to his generals on the banks of the Danube, the Tagus, and the Po; and who could then have imagined, that, in a few years, he would be