e heights of Barfleur his fierce attack proved Russell true to his
word. Tourville's fifty vessels were no match for the ninety ships of
the allies, and after five hours of a brave struggle the French were
forced to fly along the rocky coast of the Cotentin. Twenty-two of their
vessels reached St. Malo; thirteen anchored with Tourville in the bays
of Cherbourg and La Hogue; but their pursuers were soon upon them, and
in a bold attack the English boats burned ship after ship under the eyes
of the French army.

[Sidenote: The turn of the War.]

All dread of the invasion was at once at an end; and the throne of
William was secured by the detection and suppression of the Jacobite
conspiracy at home which the invasion was intended to support. The
battle of La Hogue was a death-blow to the project of a Stuart
restoration by help of foreign arms. Henceforth English Jacobitism would
have to battle unaided against the throne of the Revolution. But the
overthrow of the Jacobite hopes was the least result of the victory.
France ceased from that moment to exist as a great naval power; for
though her fleet was soon recruited to its former strength the
confidence of her sailors was lost, and not even Tourville ventured
again to tempt in battle the fortune of the seas. A new hope too dawned
on the Grand Alliance. The spell of French triumph was broken. On land
indeed the French still held their old mastery. Namur, one of the
strongest fortresses in Europe, surrendered to Lewis a few days after
the battle of La Hogue. An inroad into Dauphine failed to rouse the
Huguenots to revolt, and the Duke of Luxembourg maintained the glory of
the French arms by a victory over William at Steinkirk. But the battle
was a useless butchery in which the conquerors lost as many men as the
conquered. From that moment France felt herself disheartened and
exhausted by the vastness of her efforts. The public misery was extreme.
"The country," Fenelon wrote frankly to Lewis, "is a vast hospital." The
tide too of the war began to turn. In 1693 the campaign of Lewis in the
Netherlands proved a fruitless one, and Luxembourg was hardly able to
beat off the fierce attack of William at Neerwinden. For the first time
in his long career of prosperity therefore Lewis bent his pride to seek
peace at the sacrifice of his conquests, and though the effort was a
vain one it told that the daring hopes of French ambition were at an end
and that the work of the Grand Allian