sown were ploughed up. The orchards were hewn down. No promise of a harvest was left on the fertile plains near what had once been Frankenthal. Not a vine, not an almond-tree, was to be seen on the slopes of the sunny hills round what had once been Heidelberg. No respect was shown to palaces, to temples, to monasteries, to infirmaries, to beautiful works of art, to monuments of the illustrious dead. The far-famed castle of the Elector Palatine was turned into a heap of ruins. The adjoining hospital was sacked. The provisions, the medicines, the pallets on which the sick lay were destroyed. The very stones of which Manheim had been built were flung into the Rhine. The magnificent cathedral of Spires perished, and with it the marble sepulchres of eight Cæsars. The coffins were broken open. The ashes were scattered to

the winds.

William III. now opposed Louis with all the power of England, but still the French gained brilliant successes. In spite of William's extremest efforts, Mons was besieged and taken in 1691. A hundred thousand men had been brought together. All the implements of war had been largely provided by Louvois, the first of living administrators. The command was intrusted to Luxemburg, the first of living generals. The scientific operations were directed by Vauban, the first of living engineers. The same thing happened next year at Namur.

At Namur, as at Mons, Louis, assisted by Vauban, conducted the siege: Luxemburg covered it: William vainly tried to raise it, and with deep mortification assisted as a spectator at the victory of his enemy.

This was perhaps the moment at which the arrogance of Louis reached the highest point. He had achieved the last and the most splendid military exploit of his life. His confederated foes, English, Dutch, and German, had, in

their own despite, swelled his triumph, and had been witnesses of the glory which made their hearts sick. His exultation was boundless.

From this time Louis' fortune waned. Namur was retaken in 1695, exhausted France could not support her

immense armies, and at the peace of Ryswick in 1697 Louis surrondered nearly all his conquests.

In 1702 his ambition again set Europe in a blaze, and revived a still more formidable Grand Alliance against him. In 1712 France made peace at Utrecht, thoroughly bankrupt and exhausted.

In his old age Louis became religious. He shrugged his shoulders and knitted his brows if he observed at his levee, or near his dinner-table, any gentleman who neglected the duties enjoined by the church. Versailles became in everything but dress a convent. shals of France were much in prayer; and there was hardly one among the dukes and peers who did not carry

The mar

good little books in his pocket, fast during Lent, and communicate at Easter. "I have been too fond of war," said the old king sadly to his little grandson and successor, "don't imitate me in that."-Macaulay

THE CAMPAIGN OF BLENHEIM.

In November, 1700, died the imbecile and childless. King Charles II. of Spain, whose elder sister was Queen of France. Louis XIV. had so managed that his son Philip Duke of Anjou was proclaimed king of all the Spanish dominions in spite of the Partition Treaty which he had signed some years before. In September, 1701, King James II. died at the palace of St. Germains, and his son was forthwith proclaimed by Louis' orders James III. of England. The news of this roused a great storm of rage in England, and the nation was eager to join again in a Grand Alliance against France. King William died before England could take part in the war, but the great Marlborough became the life and soul of the alliance. His wife was the bosom friend of Queen Anne, and three days after her accession Marlborough was decorated with the order of the Garter, and next day was named captaingeneral of the English forces at home and abroad. Besides Philip of Anjou there were two other claimants to the Spanish crown, the Archduke Charles of Austria, whose claim the English supported, and the Elector of Bavaria, who now sided with France, and hoped to receive part of the vast Spanish dominions, and who shared in the beating which the French received at Blenheim.

Marlborough spent the year 1703 in sieges in Flanders, for the Dutch government would not trust their soldiers

farther away. Indeed the impediments caused by the various allies were Marlborough's greatest trouble. Fortunately he was as skilful a negotiator as a fighter, and no man knew better how to overcome the timid scruples of others.

In 1704 Marlborough determined upon a bolder course. Marshal Villerau was with one French army upon the

Moselle, Marshal Tallard with another upon the Rhine, and the Elector with a combined French and Bavarian army was upon the Danube near its source. Marlborough declared his intention to attack the French upon the Moselle, and the Dutch government would hardly consent

to his going so far. But his intention was to cross the Rhine, to plunge into the heart of Bavaria, and the brave Prince Eugene of Savoy was the only one of the allied generals to whom he confided his secret. The march was a perilous one. Con lé or Turenne, had they been alive, might have destroyed Marlborough as he crossed the Rhine, but all went well. Eugene was left to guard the Rhine, and if possible to prevent the French from crossing, and Marlborough hastened on. On July 1st he found the Bavarian army drawn up on the heights of Schellenberg, close to Donnauworth on the Danube. He saw they must be driven from thence at any cost, and with picked men from every battalion an assault was made. For the greater part of the summer day the struggle lasted, and at last the Bavarians were driven from the hill. The loss was heavy on both sides, but of the Bavarians seven or eight thousand perished on the hill, or were drowned in the Danube in their flight.

The Elector then retrea ed to Augsburg, and Marlborough marched into the heart of Bavaria, and as the Elector would not come to terms, the country was laid waste up to the very walls of Munich. Meanwhile Marshal Tallard crossed the Rhine with a great army, passed through the Black Forest, and joined the Elector at Augsburg. Their united forces then marched northwards and crossed the Danube, and the little army of Prince Eugene was in the greatest danger of being overwhelmed. by skilful and rapid marches over rugged roads and swollen streams, on the 11th of August Marlborough's and Eugene's forces were safely united on the heights of Schellenburg, which the English now knew so well. Next day the two generals from the top of a church-tower saw the French marking out a camp between Blenheim and Lutzingen, and determined to attack them there. It was

But