WILLIAM AND MARY.

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supposed that Liege was the object of the enemy, rejoined him chap.by forced marches. Three weeks after his defeat he held— .**,' ■ -a review a few miles from Brussels. The number of men underarms was greater than on the morning of the bloody day ofLanden: their appearance was soldierlike; and their spiritseemed unbroken. William now wrote to ITeinsius that theworst was over. “The crisis,” he said, “has been a terribleone. Thank God that it has ended thus.” He did not, how-ever , think it prudent to try at that time the event of anotherpitched field. He therefore suffered the French to besiege andtake Charleroy; and this was the only advantage which theyderived from the most sanguinarybattlefought inEurope duringthe seventeenth century.

The melancholy tidings of the defeat of Landen found Eng- *! israr -

1,0 ° riage of

land agitated by tidings not less melancholy from a different thequarter. During many months the trade with the Mediterranean fleet.Sea had been almost entirely interrupted by the war. Therewas no chance that a merchantman from London or fromAmsterdam would, if unprotected, reach the Pillars of Herculeswithout being boarded by a French privateer; and the protec-tion of armed vessels was not easily to be obtained. During theyear 1G92, great fleets, richly laden for Spanish, Italian andTurkish markets, had been gathering in the Thames and theTexel. In February 1693, near four hundred ships ivere readyto start. The value of the cargoes was estimated at severalmillions sterling. Those galleons which had long been thewonder and envy of the world had never conveyed so precious afreight from the West Indies to Seville. The English govern-ment undertook, in concert with the Dutch government, toescort the vessels winch were laden with this great mass ofwealth. The French government was bent on interceptingthem.

The plan of the allies w’as that seventy ships of the line andMacaulay, History. VII. 15