STATE OF THE WAR IN EUROPE.
In Flanders nothing of moment was executed, except the bombardment of Bruges and Namur by baron Spaar, with nine thousand Dutch troops; and two attempts upon the French lines, which were actually penetrated by Auverquerque, though he was not able to maintain the footing he had gained. The elector of Bavaria, who had retired to Brussels after his defeat, formed a scheme for surprising the Dutch general at the end of the campaign, and assembled all his troops at Tirlemont: but the French court, apprehensive of his temerity, sent Villeroy to watch his conduct, and prevent his hazarding an engagement, except with a fair prospect of advantage. The mareschal finding him determined to give battle at all events, represented the improbability of succeeding against an enemy so advantageously posted; and the ill consequences of a repulse: but finding the elector deaf to all his remonstrances, he flatly refused to march, and produced the king’s order to avoid an engagement. In Italy the French met with no opposition. The duke of Savoy, being unable to face the enemy in the field, was obliged to lie inactive. He saw the duke de Vendome reduce Vercelli and Ivrea, and undertake the siege of Verac; while he posted his little army on the other side of the Po, at Crescentino, where he had a bridge of communication by which he supplied the place occasionally with fresh troops and provisions. The place held out five months against all the efforts of the French general: at length, the communication being cut off, the duke of Savoy retired to Chivas. He bore his misfortunes with great equanimity, and told the English minister that though he was abandoned by the allies, he would never abandon himself. The emperor had neglected Italy that he might act with more vigour against Ragotzki and the Hungarian malcontents, over whom he obtained several advantages; notwithstanding which they continued formidable, from their number, bravery, and resolution. The ministers of the allies pressed Leopold to enter into a negotiation for a peace with those rebels, and conferences were opened; but he was not sincerely disposed to an accommodation, and Ragotzki aimed at the principality of Transylvania, which the court of Vienna would not easily relinquish. The emperor was not a little alarmed by a revolution at the Ottoman porte, until the new sultan despatched a chiaus to Vienna, with an assurance that he would give no assistance to the malcontents of Hungary. In Poland, the diet being assembled by the cardinal-primate, Stanislaus Lezinski, palatine of Posnania, was elected and proclaimed king, and recognised by Charles of Sweden, who still maintained his army by contributions in that country, more intent upon the ruin of Augustus than upon the preservation of his own dominions; for he paid no regard to the progress of the Muscovites, who had ravaged Livonia, reduced Narva, and made incursions into Sweden. Augustus retreated into his Saxon dominions, which he impoverished in order to raise a great army with which he might return to Poland; the pope espoused the interest of this new convert, so far as to cite the cardinal-primate to appear at Rome, and give an account of the share he had in the Polish troubles. The protestants of the Cevennois, deriving courage from despair, became so troublesome to the government of France, that Louis was obliged to treat them with lenity: he sent mareschal Villars against them with a fresh reinforcement, but at the same time furnished him with instructions to treat for an accommodation. This officer immediately commenced a negotiation with Cavalier, the chief of the revolters; and a formal treaty was concluded, by which they were indulged with liberty of conscience: but these articles were very ill observed by the French ministry.
CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL.
In Portugal, the interest of king Charles wore a very melancholy aspect. When he arrived at Lisbon, he found no preparations made for opening the campaign. The Portuguese ministry favoured the French in secret; the people were averse to heretics; the duke of Schom-berg was on ill terms with Fagel, the Dutch general; the Portuguese forces consisted of raw undisciplined peasants; and the French ambassador had bought up the best horses in the kingdom; so that the troopers could not be properly mounted. The king of Portugal had promised to enter Spain with Charles by the middle of May; but he was not ready till the beginning of June, when they reached Santaran. By this time they had published their respective manifestoes; Charles displaying his title to the crown of Spain, and promising pardon to all his subjects who would in three months join his army; and the king of Portugal declaring, that his sole aim in taking up arms was to restore liberty to the Spanish nation, oppressed by the power of France, as Avell as to assert the right of Charles to that monarchy. The present possessor, whom they mentioned by the name of the duke of Anjou, had already anticipated their invasion. His general, the duke of Berwick, entering Portugal, took the town of Segura by stratagem. The governor of Salvaterra surrendered at discretion; Cebreros was reduced without much opposition; Zode-bre was abandoned by the inhabitants; and the town of Lhana la Viella was taken by assault. Portugal was at the same time invaded in different parts by the marquis de Jeoffreville, prince Tserclas de Tilly, and the marquis de Villadarias. Two Dutch battalions were attacked and taken by the duke of Berwick at Sodreira Formosa. Then he passed the Tagus, and joined prince Tserclas. King Philip arriving in the army, invested Portalegre; and the garrison, including an English regiment of foot commanded by colonel Stanhope, were made prisoners of war. The next place he besieged was Castel Davide, which met with the same fate. On the other hand, the marquis Das Minas, in order to make a diversion, entered Spain with fifteen thousand men, took Feuenta Grimaldo in Castile, by assault, defeated a body of French and Spaniards commanded by Don Ronquillo, and made himself master of Manseinto. The weather growing excessively hot, Philip sent his troops into quarters of refreshment; and the allies followed his example. Duke Schomberg finding his advice very little regarded by the Portuguese ministry, and seeing very little prospect of success, desired leave to resign his command, which the queen bestowed upon the earl of Galway, who, with a reinforcement of English and Dutch troops, arrived at Lisbon on the thirtieth day of July. About the latter end of September, the two kings repaired to the camp near Almeida, resolving to invade Castile; but they found the river Aguada so well guarded by the duke of Benvick, that they would not attempt a passage. They therefore retired into the territories of Portugal, and the army was put into winter quarters. The Spaniards were now so weakened by detachments sent with the marquis de Villadarias towards Gibraltar, that the duke of Berwick could not execute any scheme of importance during the remaining part of the campaign.
SIR GEORGE KOOKE TAKES GIBRALTAR.
The arms of England were not less fortunate by sea than they had been upon the Danube. Sir George Rooke having landed king Charles at Lisbon, sent a squadron to cruise off Cape Spartell, under the command of rear admiral Dilkes, who on the twelfth of March, engaged and took three Spanish ships of war, bound from St. Sebastian’s to Cadiz. Rooke received orders from the queen to sail to the relief of Nice and Villa Franca, which were threatened with a siege by the duke de Vendôme; at the same time he was pressed by king Charles to execute a scheme upon Barcelona, projected by the prince of Hesse d’Armstadt, who declared his opinion, that the Catalonians would declare for the house of Austria, as soon as they should be assured of proper support and protection. The ministry of England understanding that the French were employed in equipping a strong squadron at Brest, and judging it was destined to act in the Mediterranean, sent out sir Cloudesley Shovel with a considerable fleet, to watch the motions of the Brest squadron; and he was provided with instructions how to act, in case it should be sailed to the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, sir George Rooke, in compliance with the entreaties of King Charles, sailed with the transports under his convoy to Barcelona, and on the eighteenth of May appeared before the city. Next day the troops were landed by the prince of Hesse, to the number of two thousand, and the Dutch ketches bombarded the place; but by this time the governor had secured the chiefs of the Austrian party; and the people exhibiting no marks of attachment to king Charles, the prince re-embarked his soldiers, from an apprehension of their being attacked and overpowered by superior numbers. On the sixteenth day of June, sir George Rooke, being joined by sir Cloudesley Shovel, resolved to proceed up the Mediterranean in quest of the French fleet, which had sailed thither from Brest, and which Rooke had actually discovered, in the preceding month, on their voyage to Toulon. On the seventeenth day of July the admiral called a council of war in the road of Tetuan, when they resolved to make an attempt upon Gibraltar, which was but slenderly provided with a garrison. Thither they sailed, and on the twenty-first day of the month the prince of Hesse landed on the isthmus with eighteen hundred marines; then he summoned the governor to surrender, and was answered, that the place would be defended to the last extremity. Next day the admiral gave orders for cannonading the town; perceiving that the enemy were driven from their fortifications at the south mole-head, he commanded captain Whi-taker to arm all the boats, and assault that quarter. The captains Hicks and Juniper, who happened to be nearest the mole, immediately manned their pinnaces, and entered the fortifications sword in hand. The Spaniards sprung a mine, by which two lieutenants, and about a hundred men were killed or wounded. Nevertheless, the two captains took possession of a platform, and kept their ground until they were sustained by captain Whi-taker, and the rest of the seamen, who took by storm a redoubt between the mole and the town. Then the governor capitulated; and the prince of Hesse entered the place, amazed at the success of this attempt, considering the strength of the fortifications, which might have been defended by fifty men against a numerous army.
A sufficient garrison being left with his highness, the admiral returned to Tetuan to take in wood and Water; and when he sailed, on the ninth day of August, he descried the French fleet, to which he gave chase with all the sail he could spread. On the thirteenth he came up with it, as it lay in a line off Malaga ready to receive him, to the number of two-and-fifty great ships, and four-and-twenty galleys, under the command of the count de Tholouse, high-admiral of France, with the inferior flags of the white and blue divisions. The English fleet consisted of three-and-fifty ships of the line, exclusive of frigates, but they were inferior to the French in number of guns and men, as well as in weight of metal, and altogether unprovided with galleys, from which the enemy reaped great advantage during the engagement. A little after ten in the morning the battle began, with equal fury on both sides, and continued to rage with doubtful success till two in the afternoon, when the van of the French gave way; nevertheless, the fight was maintained till night, when the enemy bore away to leeward. The wind shifting before morning, the French gained the weather-gage; but they made no use of this advantage; for two successive days the English admiral endeavoured to renew the engagement, which the count de Tholouse declined, and at last he disappeared. The loss was pretty equal on both sides, though not a single ship was taken or destroyed by either; but the honour of the day certainly remained with the English. Over and above the disadvantages we have enumerated, the bottoms of the British fleet were foul, and several large ships had expended all their shot long before the battle ceased; yet the enemy were so roughly handled, that they did not venture another engagement during the whole war. The French king, in order to raise the drooping spirits of his people, claimed the victory, and published an account of the action, which, at this distance of time, plainly proves that he was reduced to the mean shift of imposing upon his subjects, by false and partial representations. Among other exaggerations in this detail, we find mention made of mischief done to French ships by English bombs; though nothing is more certain than that there was not one bomb vessel in the combined fleet. The French academy, actuated by a servile spirit of adulation, caused a medal to be struck on the occasion, which, instead of perpetuating the glory of their prince, served only to transmit their own shame to posterity. After the battle, sir George Rooke sailed to Gibraltar to refit, and leaving a squadron with sir John Leake, set sail for England on the twenty-fourth day of August. He arrived in September, and was received by the ministry, and the people in general, with those marks of esteem and veneration which were due to his long services and signal success; but he was still persecuted with a spirit of envy and detraction. Philip king of Spain, alarmed at the reduction of Gibraltar, sent the marquis de Villadarias with an army to retake it. The siege lasted four months, during which the prince of Hesse exhibited many shining proofs of courage and ability. The place was supplied with men and provisions by convoys from Lisbon, until monsieur de Pointis put a stop to that communication, by entering the bay with a strong squadron; but he was obliged to retire at the approach of sir John Leake and admiral Vanderdussen; and the marquis de Villadarias, having made little or no progress on land, thought proper to abandon the enterprise.