nsaction of consequence distinguished this campaign
either upon the Rhine or in Flanders. The scheme of Louis was still
defensive on the side of the Netherlands, while the active plans of
king William were defeated by want of money. All the funds for this year
proved defective: the land-bank failed, and the national bank sustained
a rude shock in its credit. The loss of the nation upon the recoinage,
amounted to two millions two hundred thousand pounds; and though the
different mints were employed without interruption, they could not for
some months supply the circulation, especially as great part of the new
money was kept up by those who received it in payment, or disposed of
it at an unreasonable advantage. The French king having exhausted the
wealth and patience of his subjects, and greatly diminished their
number in the course of this war, began to be diffident of his arms, and
employed all the arts of private negotiation. While his minister D'Avaux
pressed the king of Sweden to offer his mediation, he sent Callieres to
Holland with proposals for settling the preliminaries of a treaty.

He took it for granted that as the Dutch were a trading people, whose
commerce had greatly suffered in the war, they could not be averse to
a pacification; and he instructed his emissaries to tamper with
the malcontents of the republic, especially with the remains of the
Louvestein faction, which had always opposed the schemes of the
stadtholder. Callieres met with a favourable reception from the states,
which began to treat with him about the preliminaries, though not
without the consent and concurrence of king William and the rest of the
allies. Louis, with a view to quicken the effect of this negotiation,
pursued offensive measures in Catalonia, where his general the duke de
Vendome attacked and worsted the Spaniards in their camp near Ostalrick,
though the action was not decisive; for that general was obliged to
retreat after having made vigorous efforts against their intrenchments.
On the twentieth day of June, mareschal de Lorges passed the Rhine
at Philips-burg and encamped within a league of Eppingen, where the
Imperial troops were obliged to intrench themselves, under the command
of the prince of Baden, as they were not yet joined by the auxiliary
forces. The French general after having faced him about a month,
thought proper to repass the river. Then he detached a body of horse to
Flanders, and cantoned the rest of his troop