of all his glory, was extremely
mortified when he reflected what little advantage he had reaped from
all his late victories. The allies had been defeated successively at
Fleurus, Steenkirk, and Landen; yet in a fortnight after each of those
battles William was always in a condition to risk another engagement.
Formerly Louis had conquered half of Holland, Flanders, and
Franche-Comte, without a battle; whereas, now he could not with his
utmost efforts, and after the most signal victories, pass the frontiers
of the United Provinces. The conquest of Charleroy concluded the
campaign in the Netherlands, and both armies went into winter-quarters.

CAMPAIGN ON THE RHINE.

The French army on the Rhine, under De Lorges, passed that river in the
month of May at Philipsburgh, and invested the city of Heidelberg,
which they took, plundered, and reduced to ashes. This general committed
numberless barbarities in the Palatinate, which he ravaged without even
sparing the tombs of the dead. The French soldiers on this occasion seem
to have been actuated by the most brutal inhumanity. They butchered
the inhabitants, violated the women, plundered the houses, rifled the
churches, and murdered the priests at the altar. They broke open the
electoral vault, and scattered the ashes of that illustrious family
about the streets. They set fire to different quarters of the city; they
stripped about fifteen thousand of the inhabitants, without distinction
of age or sex, and drove them naked into the castle, that the garrison
might be the sooner induced to capitulate. There they remained like
cattle in the open air, without food or covering, tortured between the
horrors of their fete and the terrors of a bombardment. When they were
set at liberty, in consequence of the fort's being surrendered, a great
number of them died along the banks of the Neckar, from cold, hunger,
anguish, and despair. These enormous cruelties, which would have
disgraced the arms of a Tartarian freebooter, were acted by the express
command of Louis XIV. of France, who has been celebrated by so many
venal pens, not only as the greatest monarch, but also as the most
polished prince of Christendom. De Lorges advanced towards the Neckar
against the prince of Baden, who lay encamped on the other side of
the river; but in attempting to pass, he was twice repulsed with
considerable damage. The dauphin joining the army, which now amounted to
seventy thousand men, crossed withou