Prince Eugene advanced to support Marlborough, but he set out too late; the Elector of Bavaria obstructed his march. "I do not wish to speak ill of Prince Eugene," said Marlborough, "but he will arrive at the rendezvous on the Moselle ten days too late." The English were unsupported when they encountered the French army in front of Kidenarde. The battle commenced without the presence of the Duke of Burgundy, who received the news too late. Vendôme, the commanding general, was defeated. Marlborough proposed to carry the war into France. Prince Eugene, and the deputies of the States-General, did not approve of the boldness of the project. The allies besieged Lille. Marshal Boufflers held the city until the 23rd of October, and the citadel until the 9th of December, without receiving any succor. When he surrendered. Prince Eugene permitted him to march out, with all the honors of war. Ghent and Bruges were delivered into the hands of the imperialists. "We have committed folly upon folly in this campaign," says Marshal Berwick, in his Memoirs, "but notwithstanding even this, if we had not abandoned Ghent and Bruges we would have had easy work the next year." The Low Countries were lost, and the French frontiers were encroached upon by the loss of Lille. The Duke of Orleans, weary of his forced inactivity in Spain, and suspected at the court of Philip V., resigned his command: he returned to France. The English Admiral Leake, and General Stanhope, took possession of Sardinia, the island of Minorca, and Port-Mahon. The archduke was master of the islands and of the Mediterranean sea. For a year past Philip V. had not possessed an inch of land in Italy. The exhaustion and misery of France were extreme, and Louis XIV. finally decided to negotiate for peace.
He first addressed himself to Holland, where there existed a general desire for peace; the war could bring the Dutch no other profit than a guarantee of security. The king offered this. "In the midst of the sufferings that hostilities had inflicted upon commerce, there was reason to hope," wrote the Marquis of Torcy, in his Memoirs, "that the grand pensionary, regarding principally the interests of his country, would desire the end of a war, the burden of which fell upon his own country. Authorized by the republic, he had no reason to fear any secret intrigue, nor any cabal to displace him from a post which he occupied to the satisfaction of his masters, and in which he conducted himself with moderation. Although the united provinces bore the principal weight of the war, the emperor alone gathered the fruits. It is said that the Dutch guarded the Temple of Peace and held the keys in their hands."
Torcy had counted too much upon the moderation of Heinsius. In vain President Rouillé, charged with the secret negotiations, proposed to abandon Spain, provided Naples, Sardinia and Sicily were assured to Philip V.: Louis XIV. thereby came back to the second treaty of partition, but recently concluded with the United Provinces, as well as with England. Heinsius, faithful to the Grand Alliance, ardent to avenge the past injuries of the republic, and justly suspicious regarding France, did not comprehend that he was destroying the work of William III., and the European equilibrium, if he assured to the house of Austria the preponderance of which he deprived the house of Bourbon; the conditions that he exacted, through his delegates, were such that Rouillé scarcely dared transmit them to Versailles. Each of the allies desired a share of the spoils. England claimed Dunkirk, Germany desired Strasbourg and the re-establishment of the Peace of Westphalia; Victor Amadeus wanted to recover Nice and Savoy, and the Dutch demanded that to the barrier stipulated at Reyswick should be added, Lille, Condé and Tournay. "The king will break off the negotiations, sooner than accept such exorbitant conditions," said the deputy of the States-General to Marlborough.—"So much the worse for France," replied the English general; "for the campaign once begun, things will go further than the king thinks. The allies will never relax their first demands."
The Duke was assured of the fidelity of his allies—he had made a trip to England. When he returned to the Hague, the Marquis of Torcy himself had arrived to pursue the negotiations, and was the bearer of new concessions. The king offered to recognize Queen Anne, to cede Strasbourg and Lille, and to content himself with Naples for his grandson. Marlborough protested his pacific intentions: "You also ought to desire peace for France," said he to the minister of Louis XIV.; "it is necessary to conclude it as soon as possible. But if you seriously desire it, be assured that it is necessary to renounce absolutely the Spanish monarchy; on this point my compatriots are unanimous. The English will never permit Naples and Sicily, or even one of those two kingdoms, to remain in the hands of a Bourbon. An English minister would not dare even to propose it."
The Duke insisted that the Pretender should be compelled to leave France. An attempted descent upon Scotland, assisted by Louis XIV., although unsuccessful, owing to the bad weather, had excited the anger of the Whig ministry, and they demanded, in the negotiations, that France should cease to give her support to the young prince. "I would like to serve him," said Marlborough to Torcy—who had not left him in ignorance of the intrigues that were taking place at the Court of St. Germain; "he is the son of a king for whom I would have given my life," and he added: "my colleague Lord Townshend is a Whig: in his presence I am obliged to speak as the most of the English; but I would like, with all my heart, to serve the Prince of Wales. I sincerely believe it would be to his advantage, at this time, to leave France. Is not the success of the allies a miracle of Providence? When has it happened before that eight nations have spoken and acted as one man?"
Torcy had gone to the last limits of concession; he had renounced Sicily as well as Naples. The allies claimed Alsace, certain towns in Dauphiné and Provence, and they exacted that the conditions of the peace were to be executed during the truce of two months, that they were about to accord; besides Louis XIV. was to deliver immediately, to Holland, in case Philip V. refused to abdicate, three fortified cities. To this dishonorable proposition, the young king replied: "God has given me the crown of Spain; and while there remains a drop of blood in my veins, I will defend it."
The demands of the allies passed all reasonable bounds; imprudent even for the interests of Europe as well as for the maintenance of a durable peace, their propositions deeply wounded royal honor and patriotic sentiment in France and Spain. The prudent sagacity of William III. would have preserved the powers from this grave error, but the political obstinacy of Heinsius, the decided hatreds of Prince Eugene, and the avidity of the Duke of Marlborough for glory and fortune, served the cause that they at heart desired to ruin forever. Louis XIV. broke off negotiations and made a final effort. "If I must continue the war," said he, "I will contend against my enemies rather than against my own family." He wrote to all the governors of the provinces and cities:
"Gentlemen: The hope of an early peace has been so generally spread abroad in my kingdom, that I believe it due to the fidelity that my people have testified towards me, during the entire course of my reign, that I inform them of the reasons which still prevent their enjoying that repose which I had designed to procure for them. In order to re-establish peace, I would have accepted conditions strongly opposed to the safety of my frontier provinces; but the more readiness I have shown, and the more desire I have manifested to dissipate the fears of my power and of my designs that my enemies affect to entertain, the more they have multiplied their pretensions, refusing to make any other engagement than to discontinue all acts of hostility until the first of August, and reserving to themselves the liberty of then appealing to arms, if the King of Spain, my grandson, persists in his resolution to defend the crown which God has given him. Such a resolution is more dangerous to my people than war, for it assures to the enemy advantages more considerable than they would be able to gain by their armies. As I put my confidence in the protection of God, and as I hope the purity of my intentions will draw his benediction upon my arms, I wish my people to know that they would immediately enjoy peace if it depended only upon my will to procure for them a blessing that they so reasonably desire; but that it is necessary to acquire it by new efforts, since the enormous concessions that I would have accorded are useless for the re-establishment of the public peace.