onsequence of the preliminaries signed at Aix-la-Chapelle. The
plenipotentiaries agreed, that, for the glory of his christian majesty's
arms, the town of Maestricht should be surrendered to his general,
on condition that it should be restored with all the magazines and
artillery. He accordingly took possession of it on the third day of
May, when the garrison marched out with all the honours of war; and
a cessation of arms immediately ensued. By this time the Russian
auxiliaries, to the number of thirty-seven thousand, commanded by
prince Repnin, had arrived in Moravia, where they were reviewed by their
imperial majesties; then they proceeded to the confines of Franconia,
where they were ordered to halt, after they had marched seven hundred
miles since the beginning of the year. The French king declared, that
should they advance farther, he would demolish the fortifications
of Maestricht and Bergen-op-Zoom. This dispute was referred to the
plenipotentiaries, who, in the beginning of August, concluded a
convention, importing that the Russian troops should return to their own
country; and that the French king should disband an equal number of his
forces. The season being far advanced, the Russians were provided with
winter-quarters in Bohemia and Moravia, where they continued till
the spring, when they marched back to Livonia. In the meantime
seven-and-thirty thousand French troops were withdrawn from Flanders
into Picardy, and the two armies remained quiet till the conclusion of
the definitive treaty. The suspension of arms was proclaimed at London,
and in all the capitals of the contracting powers; orders were sent to
the respective admirals in different parts of the world, to refrain from
hostilities; and a communication of trade and intelligence was again
opened between the nations which had been at variance. No material
transaction distinguished the campaign in Italy. The French and Spanish
troops, who had joined the Genoese in the territories of the republic,
amounted to thirty thousand men, under the direction of the duke de
Richlieu, who was sent from France to assume that command on the death
of the duke de Boufflers; while mareschal de Belleisle, at the head of
fifty thousand men, covered the western Eiviera, which was threatened
with an invasion by forty thousand Austrians and Piedmontese, under
general Leutrum. At the same time general Brown, with a more numerous
army, prepared to re-enter the eastern Eiviera, an