, and insulted the magistrates; so that
the states-general, seeing their country on the brink of anarchy and
confusion, authorized the prince of Orange to make such alterations as
he should see convenient. They presented him with a diploma, by which
he was constituted hereditary stadtholder and captain-general of Dutch
Brabant, Flanders, and the upper quarter of Guelderland; and the East
India company appointed him director and governor-general of their
commerce and settlements in the Indies. Thus invested with authority
unknown to his ancestors, he exerted himself with equal industry and
discretion in new modelling, augmenting, and assembling the troops of
the republic. The confederates knew that the count de Saxe had a
design upon Maestricht: the Austrian general Bathiani made repeated
remonstrances to the British ministry, entreating them to take speedy
measures for the preservation of that fortress. He, in the month of
January, proposed that the duke of Cumberland should cross the sea, and
confer with the prince of Orange on this subject; he undertook, at the
peril of his head, to cover Maastricht with seventy thousand men, from
all attacks of the enemy: but his representations seemed to have made
very little impression on those to whom they were addressed. The duke
of Cumberland did not depart from England till towards the latter end
of February; part of March was elapsed before the transports sailed from
the Nore with the additional troops and artillery; and the last drafts
from the foot-guards were not embarked till the middle of August.

SIEGE OF MAESTRICHT. FORMS A CESSATION.

The different bodies of the confederate forces joined each other and
encamped in the neighbourhood of Euremond, to the number of one hundred
and ten thousand men; and the French army invested Maestricht, without
opposition, on the third day of April. The garrison consisted of
Imperial and Dutch troops, under the conduct of the governor, baron de
Aylva, who defended the place with extraordinary skill and resolution.
He annoyed the besiegers in repeated sallies; but they were determined
to surmount all opposition, and prosecuted their approaches with
incredible ardour. They assaulted the covered way, and there effected a
lodgement, after an obstinate dispute, in which they lost two thousand
of their best troops; but next day they were entirely dislodged by the
gallantry of the garrison. These hostilities were suddenly suspended,
in c