ortunate
than those who envy them."

The favorite minister of the king at this time was Louvois, a very
able but extremely prodigal man, who plunged Louis XIV. into
innumerable expenses, and encouraged his taste both for palaces and
war. It was probably through his intrigues, in order to make himself
necessary to the king, that a general war again broke out in Europe.

[Sidenote: League of Augsburg.]

In 1687 was formed the famous League of Augsburg, by which the leading
princes of Europe united in a great confederacy to suppress the power
and encroachments of the French king. Louvois intrigued to secure the
election of the Cardinal de Furstemberg to the archbishopric of
Cologne, in opposition to the interests of Bavaria, the natural ally
of France, conscious that, by so doing, he must provoke hostilities.
But this act was only the occasion, not the cause, of war. Louis had
enraged the Protestant world by his persecution of the Huguenots. He
had insulted even the pope himself by sending an ambassador to Rome,
with guards and armed attendants equal to an army, in order to enforce
some privileges which it was not for the interest or the dignity of
the pope to grant; he had encouraged the invasion of Germany by the
Turks; he had seized Strasburg, the capital of Alsace; he bombarded
Genoa, because they sold powder to the Algerines, and compelled the
doge to visit him as a suppliant; he laid siege to some cities which
belonged to Spain; and he prepared to annex the Low Countries to his
dominions. Indeed, he treated all other powers as if he were the
absolute monarch of Europe, and fear and jealousy united them against
them. Germany, Spain, and Holland, and afterwards England, Denmark,
Sweden, and Savoy, cooeperated together to crush the common enemy of
European liberties.

Louis made enormous exertions to resist this powerful confederacy.
Four hundred thousand men were sent into the field, divided into four
armies. Two of these were sent into Flanders, one into Catalonia, and
one into Germany, which laid waste the Palatinate with fire and sword.
Louvois gave the order, and Louis sanctioned it, which was executed
with such unsparing cruelty that all Europe was filled with
indignation and defiance.

[Sidenote: Opposing Armies and Generals.]

The forces of Louis were immense, but those of the allies were
greater. The Spaniards, Dutch, and English, had an army of fifty
thousand men in Flanders, eleven thousand of whom we