ey concurred with her in
a just sense of the duke's eminent services. Both the letter and the
addresses were procured by the interest of Marlborough, to let the queen
see how much that nobleman was considered both at home and abroad.
But she was already wholly alienated from him in her heart, and these
expedients served only to increase her disgust.

PRIDE AND OBSTINACY OF THE DUTCH.

The French ministers were subjected to every species of mortification.
They were in a manner confined to a small fortified town, and all their
conduct narrowly watched. Their accommodation was mean: their letters
were opened; and they were daily insulted by injurious libels. The Dutch
deputies would hear of no relaxation, and no expedient for removing
the difficulties that retarded the negotiation. In vain the
plenipotentiaries declared, that the French king could not with decency,
or the least regard to his honour, wage war against his own grandson:
the deputies insisted upon his effecting the cession of Spain and the
Indies to the house of Austria; and submitting to every other article
specified in the preliminaries. Nay, they even reserved to them selves
a power of making ulterior demands after the preliminaries should be
adjusted. Louis proposed that some small provision should be made for
the duke of Anjou, which might induce him to relinquish Spain the
more easily. He mentioned the kingdom of Arragon; and this hint being
disagreeable to the allies, he demanded Naples and Sicily. When they
urged that Naples was already in possession of the house of Austria, he
restricted the provision to Sicily and Sardinia. He offered to deliver
up four cautionary towns in Flanders, as a security for Philip's
evacuating Spain; and even promised to supply the confederates with a
monthly sum of money, to defray the expense of expelling that prince
from his dominions, should he refuse to resign them with a good grace.
The substance of all the conferences was communicated to lord Townshend,
and count Kinzendorf, the Imperial plenipotentiary; but the conduct of
the deputies was regulated by the pensionary Heinsius, who was firmly
attached to prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough, more averse than
ever to a pacification. The negotiation lasted from the nineteenth day
of March to the twenty-fifth of July, during which term the conferences
were several times interrupted, and a great many despatches and new
proposals arrived from Versailles. At len