a young soldier."

The campaign of 1675 offered no remarkable event; the Prince
of Orange with great prudence avoiding the risk of a battle.
But the following year was rendered fatally remarkable by the
death of the great De Ruyter,[7] who was killed in an action
against the French fleet in the Mediterranean; and about the
same time the not less celebrated Turenne met his death from a
cannon-ball in the midst of his triumphs in Germany. This year
was doubly occupied in a negotiation for peace and an active
prosecution of the war. Louis, at the head of his army, took
several towns in Belgium: William was unsuccessful in an attempt
on Maestricht. About the beginning of winter, the plenipotentiaries
of the several belligerents assembled at Nimeguen, where the
congress for peace was held. The Hollanders, loaded with debts
and taxes, and seeing the weakness and slowness of their allies,
the Spaniards and Germans, prognosticated nothing but misfortunes.
Their commerce languished; while that of England, now neutral
amid all these quarrels, flourished extremely. The Prince of
Orange, however, ambitious of glory, urged another campaign;
and it commenced accordingly. In the middle of February, Louis
carried Valenciennes by storm, and laid siege to St. Omer and
Cambray. William, though full of activity, courage, and skill,
was, nevertheless, almost always unsuccessful in the field, and
never more so than in this campaign. Several towns fell almost
in his sight; and he was completely defeated in the great battle
of Mount Cassel by the duke of Orleans and Marshal Luxemburg. But
the period for another peace was now approaching. Louis offered
fair terms for the acceptance of the United Provinces at the
congress of Nimeguen, April, 1678, as he now considered his chief
enemies Spain and the empire, who had at first only entered into
the war as auxiliaries. He was, no doubt, principally impelled
in his measures by the marriage of the Prince of Orange with
the lady Mary, eldest daughter of the duke of York, and heir
presumptive to the English crown, which took place on the 23d of
October, to the great joy of both the Dutch and English nations.
Charles was at this moment the arbiter of the peace of Europe;
and though several fluctuations took place in his policy in the
course of a few months, as the urgent wishes of the parliament
and the large presents of Louis differently actuated him, still
the wiser and more just course prevailed,