At the congress for concluding this peace, the deputies from Holland had insulted Louis in a manner that monarch was not likely to forget or forgive. " Do you not rely on the king's word ?" said, one day, the French minister to Bennery, the Dutch ambassador—" I do not know what the king will do," replied he, " but I know what he can do." This affront was aggravated by another circum stance : the States ordered a medal to be struck, on which a pompous inscription informed the reader, that the repub lic had conciliated kings, and restored tranquillity to Europe.
To motives of ambition, which alone were sufficient to stimulate Louis to war, were now added, in the case of Holland, the feelings of wounded pride. Under the joint influence of these, he prepared to humble the Dutch. He began by detaching Charles II. of England from his alli ance with that republic, and bribing him to join France against it. Charles XI. of Sweden joined the league ; and even the Bishop of Munster, greedy of war and plunder, and long an enemy to the Dutch, readily concurred in the measures concerted for their destruction.
At this period of danger, Holland was divided and wea kened by two factions ; the one headed by John de Witt, a stern republican, of great talents and integrity ; the other by the Prince of Orange's partizans, who wished to invest him with the powers and the dignities of his ancestors. De \Vitt, however, had the command of the resources of the republic at the time when Louis prepared to invade it ; and he was blamed for neglectin the land forces, and di recting his whole care to the marine. Even after he knew that the French monarch projected an invasion by laud, he seems to have been deceived with respect to the side on which it would be made ; for he had taken his precautionary and defensive measures almost exclusively on the side of Mae stricht. Louis, however, having made an alliance with Cologne, chose that quarter for commencing his hostile operations against Holland. But it was first necessary to enter the territories of the Duke of Lorraine, on which, as he had no hopes of gaining the consent of the Dukc, he resolved to seize ; endeavouring to justify his conduct on the unsupported and frivolous ground, that intrigues clan gerous to the French monarchy had been carrying on at the court of Lorraine. Before he entered the territories of the Dutch, he issued a declaration of war against them. In this he did not condescend to specify particulars, but contented himself with the general and haughty assertion, that the insolence of the Dutch had been so great, that it did not consist with his glory any longer to bear it.
Holland was now threatened with a greater force than had ever been directed against her. The combined fleets of England and France, amounting to upwards of 100 sail, was ready to ravage her coasts ; and a French army of 120,000 excellent troops, assisted and direried by the ta lents of Turenne, Conde, Luxemburg, and Vauban, was preparing to enter the frontiers. Louis passed the Meuse at Visat ; and in a very few days, having made himself master of the intervening towns, approached the Rhine.
The season was extremely favourable to him ; the great est rivers were almost dried up by the excessive drought ; the French cavalry, animated by the presence of their so vereign, plunged into the stream, and were feebly opposed by the Dutch ; so that the passage of the Rhine was ac complished with no danger or difficulty. In little more than a month, the provinces of Guelderland, 0 veryssel, and Utrecht, were in possession of Louis; and the only diffi culties remaining were in the provinces of Holland and Zealand. The king here committed an error: instead of pressing forward with his whole force, as he was advised to do by Conde and Turenne, he was prevailed upon by Louvois to acid new fortifications to his conquests, which, requiring- additional garrisons, necessarily weakened his main army.
In the mean time, the Dutch were successful at sea, Qe Ruyter having defeated the combined fleets of England and France in Solebay.
The Prince of Orange, unable to withstand the victorious and greatly superior armies of Louis, retired with his dis pirited troops into the province of Holland. Naarden, within nine miles of Amsterdam, was reduced by the Mar quis of Rochefort ; and had he taken possession of Mey den, the keys of which were delivered to some of his troops, but recovered by the magistrates, Amsterdam must have fallen. Louis himself, instead of pushing forward, remain ed at Utrecht, wasting his time in vain parade. At this period, John de Witt proposed that the States should sue for peace ; and carried his proposition, notwithstanding the Prince of Orange was decidedly averse to it. But the de puties were received by Louvois with excessive haughti ness ; and the intolerable conditions were insisted on, that the States should give up all their possessions beyond the Rhine, and some strong places in the very heart of the re public ; that they should restore the Roman Catholic reli gion, and every year send an ambassador to Paris, acknow ledging that they held their liberty of France. The depu ties instantly rejected these most absurd and humiliating conditions ; and, on their return to Amsterdam, John de \Vitt and his brother were sacrificed by the populace as the authors of their calamities. The Prince of Orange was now chosen Stadtholder, and the most implicit confi dence and obedience were shewn him by all parties. As soon as Louis and his ally Charles perceived the effects which the appointment of the Prince of Orange had pro duced on the determination of the Dutch, they endeavour ed to corrupt him by offering him the sovereignty of Hol land ; but he rejected all their proposals, and prepared for war. The country was inundated ; preparations were made to embark for their East India colonies, if their coun try could not be saved. Providence itself seemed to inter fere, by preventing the hostile fleet, with an army on board, from approaching the shores ; and Louis, having gained sufficient glory, and finding that his progress was delayed, had returned to Marseilles.