any more. With that force
in hand, he proceeded to raise new claims, consequential, he said, on
the late favourable treaties. He said that the territories ceded to
France ought to be ceded with their dependencies, with such portions
as had formerly belonged to them, and had been detached in the course
of ages. And the parliaments of Lorraine, Alsace, and Franche Comte
were directed to ascertain what places there were, what fragments
under feudal tenure, to which that retrospective principle applied.
They were called chambers, or courts, of reunion, and they enumerated
certain small districts, which the French troops accordingly occupied.
All this was futile skirmishing. The real object was Strasburg.
Alsace was French, but Strasburg, the capital, that is, the capital of
Lower Alsace, was imperial. It was the most important place on the
road between Paris and Vienna, for it commanded the passage of the
only river which crossed and barred the way. Situated on the left
bank, it was the gate of France; and twice in the late war it had
admitted the Imperialists, and opened the way to Paris. The bishop,
Furstenberg, belonged to a great German family that was devoted to
the French interest; but the town was Protestant.

Up to that moment, 1681, religious antagonism had not added much to
the acerbity of the conflict. Spain and Austria were the enemies of
Lewis; Sweden and Denmark were his allies. Brandenburg accepted his
gifts, in money, in jewels, in arras. England was his humble friend.
But a change was approaching; and it began when Furstenberg first said
mass in Strasburg minster, and preached from the text "Nunc Dimittis."
Vauban at once arrived, and erected an impregnable barrier, and a
medal was struck bearing the inscription: "Clausa Germanis Gallia."
On the same day as Strasburg, the French occupied Casale. This was a
fortress closing the road between the duchy of Savoy and the duchy of
Milan, and commanding the line of the Po. It belonged to Montferrat,
which was a dependency of Mantua; but the duke had his price, and he
sold the right of occupation to the French. The agreement had been
concluded three years before, but it had been betrayed by the duke's
minister, and it had become necessary to await a more convenient
occasion. The French government did not scruple to have an
obstructive adversary put out of the way. Louvois gave orders that
Lisola, the Austrian statesman who exposed the scheme of devol