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the young king, roused the anxiety of Europe, and doubtless increased
the strength of the peace party in England. Under the leadership of
Holland, but with the hearty co-operation of the English minister, an
alliance was formed between the two countries and Sweden, hitherto the
friend of France, to check Louis' advance before his power became too
great. The attack first on the Netherlands in 1667, and then on
Franche Comte in 1668, showed the hopeless weakness of Spain to defend
her possessions; they fell almost without a blow.

The policy of the United Provinces, relative to the claims of Louis at
this time, was summed up in the phrase that "France was good as a
friend, but not as a neighbor." They were unwilling to break their
traditional alliance, but still more unwilling to have her on their
border. The policy of the English people, though not of their king,
turned toward the Dutch. In the increased greatness of Louis they saw
danger to all Europe; to themselves more especially if, by a settled
preponderance on the continent, his hands were free to develop his sea
power. "Flanders once in the power of Louis XIV.," wrote the English
ambassador Temple, "the Dutch feel that their country will be only a
maritime province of France;" and sharing that opinion, "he advocated
the policy of resistance to the latter country, whose domination in
the Low Countries he considered as a threatened subjection of all
Europe. He never ceased to represent to his government how dangerous
to England would be the conquest of the sea provinces by France, and
he urgently pointed out the need of a prompt understanding with the
Dutch. 'This would be the best revenge,' said he, 'for the trick
France has played us in involving us in the last war with the United
Provinces.'" These considerations brought the two countries together
in that Triple Alliance with Sweden which has been mentioned, and
which for a time checked the onward movement of Louis. But the wars
between the two sea nations were too recent, the humiliation of
England in the Thames too bitter, and the rivalries that still existed
too real, too deeply seated in the nature of things, to make that
alliance durable. It needed the dangerous power of Louis, and his
persistence in a course threatening to both, to weld the union of
these natural antagonists. This was not to be done without another
bloody encounter.

Louis was deeply angered at the Triple Alliance, and his wrath was
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