s
more equally balanced between the contending parties. But still it was
with difficulty that the alliance kept its ground against Louis--any
untoward event, the defection of any considerable power, would at once,
it was felt, cast the balance in his favour; and all history had
demonstrated how many are the chances against any considerable
confederacy keeping for any length of time together, when the immediate
danger which had stilled their jealousies, and bound together their
separate interests, is in appearance removed. Such was the dubious and
anxious state of Europe, when the death of Charles II. at Madrid, on the
1st November 1700, and the bequest of his vast territories to Philip
Duke of Anjou, second son of the Dauphin, and grandson of Louis XIV.,
threatened at once to place the immense resources of the Castilian
monarchy at the disposal of the ambitious monarch of France, whose
passion for glory had not diminished with his advanced years, and whose
want of moderation was soon evinced by his accepting, after an affected
hesitation, the splendid bequest.

Threatened with so serious a danger, it is not surprising that the
powers of Europe were in the utmost alarm, and erelong took steps to
endeavour to avert it. Such, however, was the terror inspired by the
name of Louis XIV., and the magnitude of the addition made by this
bequest to his power, that the new monarch, in the first instance,
ascended the throne of Spain and the Indies without any opposition. The
Spanish Netherlands, so important both from their intrinsic riches,
their situation as the certain theatre of war, and the numerous
fortified towns with which they were studded, had been early secured for
the young Bourbon prince by the Elector of Bavaria, who was at that time
the governor of those valuable possessions. Sardinia, Naples, Sicily,
the Milanese, and the other Spanish possessions in Italy, speedily
followed the example. The distant colonies of the crown of Castile, in
America and the Indies, sent in their adhesion. The young Prince of
Anjou made his formal entry into Spain in the beginning of 1701, and was
crowned at Madrid under the title of Philip V. The principal continental
powers, with the exception of the Emperor, acknowledged his title to the
throne. The Dutch were in despair: they beheld the power of Louis XIV.
brought to their very gates. Flanders, instead of being the barrier of
Europe against France, had become the outwork of France aga