they should charge them
in front. Stirum no sooner perceived the signal than he guessed the
intention of the enemy, and instantly resolved to attack D'Usson before
the elector and the mareschal should advance. He accordingly charged
him at the head of some select squadrons with such impetuosity, that the
French cavalry were totally defeated; and all his infantry would have
been killed and taken, had not the elector and Villars come up in
time to turn the fate of the day. The action continued from six in the
morning till four in the afternoon, when Stirum, being overpowered by
numbers, was obliged to retreat to Norlin-gen, with the loss of twelve
thousand men, and all his baggage and artillery. In the meantime the
duke of Burgundy, assisted by Tallard, undertook the siege of Old
Brisac, with a prodigious train of artillery. The place was very
strongly fortified, though the garrison was small and ill provided with
necessaries. In fourteen days the governor surrendered the place, and
was condemned to lose his head for having made such a slender defence.
The duke of Burgundy returned in triumph to Versailles, and Tallard was
ordered to invest Landau. The prince of Hesse-Cassel being detached
from the Netherlands for the relief of the place, joined the count of
Nassau-Weilbourg, general of the Palatine forces, near Spires, where
they resolved to attack the French in their lines. But by this time
Mons. Pracon-tal, with ten thousand men, had joined Tallard, and enabled
him to strike a stroke which proved decisive. He suddenly quitted his
lines, and surprised the prince at Spirebach, where the French obtained
a complete victory after a very obstinate and bloody engagement, in
which the prince of Hesse distinguished himself by uncommon marks of
courage and presence of mind. Three horses were successively killed
under him, and he slew a French officer with his own hand. After
incredible efforts, he was fain to retreat with the loss of some
thousands. The French paid dear for their victory, Pracontal having been
slain in the action. Nevertheless they resumed the siege, and the place
was surrendered by capitulation. The campaign in Germany was finished by
the reduction of Augsburg by the elector of Bwaria, who took it in the
month of December, and agreed to its being secured by a French garrison.

TREATY BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE DUKE OF SAVOY.

The emperor's affairs at this juncture wore a very unpromising aspect.
The Hun