88

HISTORY OR ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XIX .

1692 .

Luxem-

burg.

Though Lewis had quitted the Netherlands, the eyes of allEurope were still fixed on that region. The armies there hadbeen strengthened by reinforcements drawn from manyquarters. Every where else the military operations of theyear were languid and without interest. The Grand Vizier andLewis of Baden did little more than watch each other on theDanube. Marshal Noailles and the Duke of Medina Sidoniadid little more than watch each other under the Pyrenees. Onthe Upper Rhine, and along the frontier which separates Francefrom Piedmont, an indecisive predatory war was carried on,by which the soldiers suffered little and the cultivators of thesoil much. But all men looked, with anxious expectation ofsome great event, to the frontier of Brabant, where Williamwas opposed to Luxemburg.

Luxemburg, now in his sixty-sixth year, had risen, byslow degrees, and by tlie deaths of several great men, to thefirst place among the generals of his time. He was of thatnoble house of Montmorency which united many mythical andmany historical titles to glory, which boasted that it sprangfrom the first Frank who was baptized into the name of Christin the fifth century, and which had, since the eleventh century,given to France a long and splendid succession of Constable'sand Marshals. In valour and abilities Luxemburg was notinferior to any of his illustrious race. But, highly descendedand highly gifted as he was, he had with difficulty surmountedthe obstacles which impeded him in the road to fame. If heowed much to the bounty of nature and fortune, he had sufferedstill more from their spite. His features were frightfully harsh:his stature was diminutive: a huge and pointed hump rose onhis back. His ponstitution was feeble and sickly. Cruel im-putations had been thrown on his morals. lie had been ac-cused of trafficking with sorcerers and with vendors of poison,had languished long in a dungeon, and had at length regained