bounded
generosity was joined in the strictest union with that of Holland;
and the impetuous valor of the worthy successor to the title
of Prince of Orange was, on many occasions, particularly at
Malplaquet, supported by the devotion and gallantry of the Dutch
contingent in the allied armies. The naval affairs of Holland
offered nothing very remarkable. The states had always a fleet
ready to support the English in their enterprises; but no eminent
admiral arose to rival the renown of Rooke, Byng, Benbow, and others
of their allies. The first of those admirals took Gibraltar, which
has ever since remained in the possession of England. The great
earl of Peterborough carried on the war with splendid success in
Portugal and Spain, supported occasionally by the English fleet
under Sir Cloudesley Shovel, and that of Holland under Admirals
Allemonde and Wapenaer.

During the progress of the war, the haughty and longtime imperial
Louis was reduced to a state of humiliation that excited a compassion
so profound as to prevent its own open expression--the most galling
of all sentiments to a proud mind. In the year 1709 he solicited
peace on terms of most abject submission. The states-general,
under the influence of the duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene,
rejected all his supplications, retorting unsparingly the insolent
harshness with which he had formerly received similar proposals
from them. France, roused to renewed exertions by the insulting
treatment experienced by her humiliated but still haughty despot,
made prodigious but vain efforts to repair her ruinous losses.
In the following year Louis renewed his attempts to obtain some
tolerable conditions; offering to renounce his grandson, and to
comply with all the former demands of the confederates. Even these
overtures were rejected; Holland and England appearing satisfied
with nothing short of--what was after all impracticable--the total
destruction of the great power which Louis had so long proved
to be incompatible with their welfare.

The war still went on; and the taking of Bouchain on the 30th
of August, 1711, closed the almost unrivalled military career
of Marlborough, by the success of one of his boldest and best
conducted exploits. Party intrigue had accomplished what, in
court parlance, is called the disgrace, but which, in the language
of common sense, means only the dismissal of this great man. The
new ministry, who hated the Dutch, now entered seriously int