d them that his master would approve of the electoral prince of
Bavaria rather than consent to the succession's devolving upon a son of
the emperor. Nay, he hinted that if they would choose a sovereign among
themselves, they might depend upon the protection of his most christian
majesty, who had no other view than that of preventing the house of
Austria from becoming too formidable to the liberties of Europe. The
queen of Spain, having discovered the intrigues of this minister,
conveyed the king to Toledo, on pretence that the air of Madrid was
prejudicial to his health. Harcourt immediately took the alarm. He
supposed her intention was to prevail upon her husband in his solitude
to confirm the last will of his father; but his doubts were all removed
when he understood that the count de Harrach, the Imperial ambassador,
had privately repaired to Toledo. He forthwith took the same road,
pretending to have received a memorial from his master with a positive
order to deliver it into the king's own hand. He was given to understand
that the management of foreign affairs had been left to the care of
cardinal Corduba at Madrid, and that the king's health would not permit
him to attend to business. The purport of the memorial was, an offer of
French forces to assist in raising the siege of Ceuta in Barbary, which
the Moors had lately undertaken; but this offer was civilly declined.
Harcourt, not yet discouraged, redoubled his efforts at Madrid, and
found means to engage cardinal Portocarrcro in the interests of his
master. In the meantime Louis concluded an alliance with Sweden, under
the pretext of preserving and securing the common peace by such means as
should be adjudged most proper and convenient. During these transactions
king William was not wanting in his endeavours to terminate the war in
Hungary, which had raged fifteen years without intermission. About the
middle of August, lord Paget and Mr. Colliers, ambassadors from England
and Holland, arrived in the Turkish camp near Belgrade, and a conference
being opened under their mediation, the peace of Carlowitz was signed on
the twenty-sixth day of January By this treaty, the emperor remained in
possession of all his conquests; Caminieck was restored to the Poles;
all the Morea, with several fortresses in Dalmatia, were ceded to the
Venetians; and the czar of Muscovy retained Azoph during a truce of two
years: so that the Turks by this pacification lost great part of their