f affairs at this juncture was far from being favourable to the allies.
The court of Vienna had tampered in vain with the elector of Bavaria,
who made use of this negotiation to raise his terms with Louis. His
brother, the elector of Cologn, admitted French garrisons into Liege and
all his places on the Rhine. The elector of Saxony was too hard pressed
by the king of Sweden to spare his full proportion of troops to the
allies; the king of Prussia was overawed by the vicinity of the Swedish
conqueror; the duke of Savoy had joined his forces to those of France,
and overrun the whole state of Milan; and the pope, though he professed
a neutrality, evinced himself strongly biassed to the French interests.

{ANNE, 1701--1714}

KEISEESWAERT AND LANDAU TAKEN.

The war was begun in the name of the elector-palatine with the siege of
Keiserswaert, which was invested in the month of April by the prince of
Nassau-Saarburgh, mareschal-du-camp to the emperor: under this officer
the Dutch troops served as auxiliaries, because war had not yet been
declared by the states-general. The French garrison made a desperate
defence. They worsted the besiegers in divers sallies, and maintained
the place until it was reduced to a heap of ashes. At length the allies
made a general attack upon the counterscarp and ravelin, which they
carried after a very obstinate engagement, with the loss of two
thousand men. Then the garrison capitulated on honourable terms, and
the fortifications were razed. During this siege, which lasted from
the eighteenth day of April to the middle of June, count Tallard posted
himself on the opposite side of the Rhine, from whence he supplied the
town with fresh troops and ammunition, and annoyed the besiegers with
his artillery; but finding it impossible to save the place, he joined
the grand army commanded by the duke of Burgundy in the Netherlands. The
siege of Keiserswaert was covered by a body of Dutch troops under the
earl of Athlone, who lay encamped in the duchy of Cleve. Meanwhile
general Coehorn, at the head of another detachment, entered Flanders,
demolished the French lines between the forts of Donat and Isabella, and
laid the chatellaine of Bruges under contribution; but a considerable
body of French troops advancing under the marquis de Bedmar, and the
count de la Motte, he overflowed the country, and retired under the
Avails of Sluys. The duke of Burgundy, who had taken the command of the
French army u