ch in a few clays
was surrendered. Then he appeared before the strong town of Mons in
Hainault, with an irresistible train of artillery, and an immense
quantity of bombs and warlike implements. He carried on his approaches
with such unabating impetuosity, that, notwithstanding a very vigorous
defence, the garrison was obliged to capitulate on the twenty-seventh
day of June, in about eight-and-twenty days after the place had been
invested. Sieges were not now carried on by the tedious method of
sapping. The French king found it much more expeditious and effectual
to bring into the field a prodigious train of battering cannon, and
enormous mortars, that kept up such a fire as no garrison could sustain,
and discharged such an incessant hail of bombs and bullets, as in a very
little time reduced to ruins the place with all its fortifications. St.
Guislain and Charleroy met with the fate of Mons and Antwerp; so that
by the middle of July the French king was absolute master of Flanders,
Brabant, and Hainault.

Prince Charles of Lorraine had by this time assumed the command of the
confederate army at Terheyde, which being reinforced by the Hessian
troops from Scotland, and a fresh body of Austrians under count Palfi,
amounted to eighty-seven thousand men, including the Dutch forces
commanded by the prince of Waldeck. The generals, supposing the next
storm would fall upon Namur, marched towards that place, and took post
in an advantageous situation on the eighteenth day of July, in sight
of the French army, which was encamped at Gemblours, Here they remained
till the eighth day of August, when a detachment of the enemy, commanded
by count Lowendahl, took possession of Huy, where he found a large
magazine belonging to the confederates; and their communication with
Maestricht was cut off. Mareschal Saxe, on the other side, took his
measures so well, that they were utterly deprived of all subsistence.
Then prince Charles, retiring across the Maese, abandoned Namur to the
efforts of the enemy, by whom it was immediately invested. The trenches
were opened on the second day of September; and the garrison, consisting
of seven thousand Austrian-s, defended themselves with equal skill and
resolution; but the cannonading and bombardment were so terrible, that
in a few days the place was converted into a heap of rubbish; and on the
twenty-third day of the month the French monarch took possession of this
strong fortress, which had formerly