Still Louis displayed undoubted proofs of his determina tion not to continue long at peace ; and even while at peace, to augment his power by unjustifiable as well as justifiable means. He paid particular attention to the in crease of his navy, and the enlargement and improvement of his ports. He had upwards of 100 sail of the line, and 60,000 seamen. The port of Toulon was constructed ; Dunkirk and Brest were repaired, and rendered more fit for the purposes of holding ships of war ; and Rochefort, in spite, as it were, of nature, was converted into a con venient harbour. Squadrons were employed against the African pirates : bomb ketches, which had been newly in vented by a Frenchman, were used against Algiers in 1681, and again in 1634. This piratical state, as well as those of Tunis and Tripoli, experienced and acknowledged the power of Louis. Genoa next felt his wrath. This republic was accused of selling powder to the pirates, and building galleys for Spain. The city of Genoa was bombarded ; and some of its palaces reduced to ashes. The Doge and four of the principal senators were obliged to go to Paris and implore the clemency of Louis, who, in order to prevent the Genoese from depriving him of any part of his triumph, insisted that the Doge should be continued in office, not withstanding the law of the republic, by which•a Doge was deprived of his dignity the moment he quits the city. When the Doge was asked, what he thought most ex traordinary at Versailles ? he replied, " To see myself there !" In 1683, Colbert died. The advantages which he had secured to France, were great and numerous ; he re stored her finances, and established or invigorated her principal manufactures. Subsequent events proved how much France was indebted to him ; since, when he ceased to manage the finances, the military successes of Louis languished. As he found that the Protestants, no longer able to oppose the government, or to distinguish them selves by their valour in the field, were disposed to direct their attention to manufactures, lie protected and encouraged them. Their ingenuity and industry were rewarded by opu lence ; and their opulence rendered them the objects of the envy and the jealousy of their Catholic brethren. After the death of Colbert, they were exposed to a persecution at once unjust and impolitic, which terminated in the re vocation of the edict of Nantes. Even before this, the Protestants were excluded from all civil employments, and rendered incapable of holding any share in those very manufactures, which they had carried to such an ex tent and perfection, as to have rendered them the sour ces of great individual and national wealth. After the death of Colbert, they were placed entirely at the mer cy of the Chancellor Tellier, and his son, the Marquis de Louvois, whose leading maxim was, that every person should tremble at the name of the king. In 1684, they sent troops into the Protestant districts ; and Louvois wrote, that it was his majesty's pleasure, that all who did not conform to his religion, should suffer the greatest severities. By the revocation of the edict of Names, liberty of conscience was abolished ; all the Protestant churches were destroyed ; and an order was issued even to take their children from them, and put them into the hands of their Catholic relations. The ministers were banished ; and the others were prohibited from leaving that kingdom, in which the law inflicted on them such unjust and cruel persecution. All the terrors of military execu tion were employed to make them profess the Catholic religion ; and such as relapsed, were exposed to the most dreadful punishments. A twentieth part of the whole body was put to death in a short time ; and a price was set on the heads of the rest, who were hunted like wild beasts. Above 500,000 of the most useful and industrious inhabitants of France were driven into exile, by the revo cation of the edict of Nantes ; and thus the staple manu factures of France not only declined in that country, but were transferred to other nations by these exiles. At the very same time that Louis, out of zeal for the Catholic religion, was thus persecuting the Protestants, he was in sulting the Pope, and depriving him of Avignon. The cause of his insulting the head of the Catholic religion, sufficiently proves that Louis was actuated more fre quently and strongly by ambition, and a desire to exercise his power, than by any other feeling or principle ; and that, even on the most frivolous or unjust pretences, his ruling passions sought opportunities of displaying themselves. The Pope Innocent XI. was a man of talents and abilities ; and was extremely anxious to destroy an abominable privi lege, which rendered nearly one half of Rome an asylum for all sorts of criminals, the ambassadors of Catholic princes in that city extending their right of protection to a great distance from their dwellings. He was also anxious to mot out another privilege, by which whatever entered Rome under the sanction of an ambassador's name paid no duty ; and thUs the trade of the city suffered, and the revenue was defrauded. Several of the Catholic sovereigns, on the representation of the Pope, gave up the abuse of these rights. Louis was next applied to ; but he answer ed, that he never acted after the example of others, but would himself set an example to them ; and accordingly he sent his ambassador to Rome, with such a number of guards, as should protect him in the full exercise of these most unjust privileges.
Such proceedings could not fail to excite the appre hensions of the other potentates of Europe. The Em peror Leopold having succeeded in defeating the Turks, in reducing the Hungarian malcontents, and in securing to the House of Austria the hereditary possession of the throne of Hungary, resolved to oppose the power of Louis. The Prince of Orange, who seems to have had a habitual and cherished hatred of Louis, readily entered into the views of the Emperor ; and the league of Augsburg was formed, in order to restrain the encroachments of France, and to secure the objects of the treaties of Westphalia, the Pyrenees, and Nimeguen. Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and Savoy, afterwards joined in the league. Louis, apprized of the designs of these powers, resolved to strike the first blow ; and accordingly sent the Dauphin, at the head of -100,000 men, into Germany. After a siege of 19 days, Philipsburg was reduced ; Manheim, Frankendal, Spiers, Worms, and Oppenheim, also surrendered ; and the Pala tinate was again given up to the plunder and devastation of the soldiers, A. D. 1689. Men, women, and children, were driven out into the fields, in the midst of a severe frost, and left to perish of hunger and cold ; while their houses were reduced to ashes, their property seized, and their possessions pillaged. More than 40 cities, and an infinite number of villages, were burnt ; the palaces of the electors were razed to the ground, and their very tombs opened in search of hidden treasures. This second de vastation made the former one under Turenne appear mild and merciful. About this time, England was added to the number of Louis's enemies. James II. had been de posed, and William Prince of Orange chosen in his stead. Louis sent a fleet to Ireland, with troops to support the dethroned monarch. William gladly seized this oppor tunity of rousing the parliament and people of his new kingdom against Louis.
The exertions of the French monarch, though great, were not commensurate with the strength and number of the states that opposed him. He had nearly 400,000 men in the field. The army of Spain and the United Provinces, after it was reinforced by the English under the Earl of Marlborough, amounted to nearly 50,000. The Emperor and the German states supplied three armies; one under the Elector of Bavaria, who commanded on the Upper Rhine ; the main army under the Duke of Lorraine, on the Middle Rhine ; and the third on the Lower Rhine, under the Elector of Brandenburg. The Duke of Lorraine took Mentz, and the Elector of Brandenburg took Bonne, while the Prince of Waldeck obliged the French, under Marshal D'Humiers, to hazard a battle at Walcourt, in which they were defeated. The next year, A. D. 1690, Louis gave the command of this army to Marshal Luxemburg, who, in the plains of Fleurus, defeated the Prince of Waldeck, with the loss of 6000 killed, and 8000 taken prisoners. The Dutch infantry behaved so gallantly on this occasion, that the Marshal observed, " Prince Waldeck ought always to remember the French cavalry ; and I shall never forget the Dutch infantry." In Italy, the Duke of Savoy, the celebrated Victor Amadeus, was opposed by the Marshal de Catinat, who had been bred to the law, but whose superior genius soon rendered him an excellent general. He completely defeated the Duke at Staffarada ; and in consequence of this victory, the whole of Savoy, except the fortress of Montmelian, was reduced by the French. Catalonia was the scene of hostile operations, in which also the French were successful. But what was more ex traordinary, and more flattering to the ambition of Louis, the combined fleets of Holland and England were de feated off Beachy Head, by the French fleet under Tour ville.
In the beginning of April 1691, Louis himself took Mons, in defiance of King William. Nothing farther re markable happened on the side of Flanders. In Italy, Marshal Catinat was held in check by Prince Eugene : on the frontiers of Germany, the war languished ; and in Catalonia, the advantages gained by the French were neither splendid nor decisive. The following spring, Louis and William set out on the same day to join their respective armies. Namur was reduced, even in the sight of William, by Louis, with an army of 45,000 men ; while Luxemburg, with another army, covered the siege. The reduction of this place was rendered remarkable by the circumstance, that Cochorn defended in person a new fort, while Vauban directed the attack. In order to atone for his not having prevented the fall of this important town, William endeavoured to surprise the French army under Luxemburg, at Steinkirk ; but after the most daring efforts, he was compelled to retreat. The next year he was yet more unfortunate ; the army of the confederates being defeated with the loss of 8000 men at Landen : Huy and Charleroi fell into the possession of the French, in con sequence of their success at Landen. In the mean time, the French fleet under Te/urville, who received express and positive orders to fight, that, if victorious, he might invade England, was defeated near Cape La Hogue, by the combined fleets of England and Holland.