Austrian Prince; and William learned, with agreeable surprise, that
Lewis might possibly be induced to suffer the younger Archduke to be
King of Spain and the Indies. It was intimated at the same time that the
House of Bourbon would expect, in return for so great a concession to
the rival House of Habsburg, greater advantages than had been thought
sufficient when the Dauphin consented to waive his claims in favour of
a candidate whose elevation could cause no jealousies. What Lewis
demanded, in addition to the portion formerly assigned to France, was
the Milanese. With the Milanese he proposed to buy Lorraine from
its Duke. To the Duke of Lorraine this arrangement would have been
beneficial, and to the people of Lorraine more beneficial still. They
were, and had long been, in a singularly unhappy situation. Lewis
domineered over them as if they had been his subjects, and troubled
himself as little about their happiness as if they had been his enemies.
Since he exercised as absolute a power over them as over the Normans and
Burgundians, it was desirable that he should have as great an interest
in their welfare as in the welfare of the Normans and Burgundians.

On the basis proposed by France William was willing to negotiate; and,
when, in June 1699, he left Kensington to pass the summer at Loo, the
terms of the treaty known as the Second Treaty of Partition were very
nearly adjusted. The great object now was to obtain the consent of the
Emperor. That consent, it should seem, ought to have been readily and
even eagerly given. Had it been given, it might perhaps have saved
Christendom from a war of eleven years. But the policy of Austria was,
at that time, strangely dilatory and irresolute. It was in vain that
William and Heinsius represented the importance of every hour. "The
Emperor's ministers go on dawdling," so the King wrote to Heinsius, "not
because there is any difficulty about the matter, not because they mean
to reject the terms, but solely because they are people who can make up
their minds to nothing." While the negotiation at Vienna was thus drawn
out into endless length, evil tidings came from Madrid.

Spain and her King had long been sunk so low that it seemed impossible
for him to sink lower. Yet the political maladies of the monarchy and
the physical maladies of the monarch went on growing, and exhibited
every day some new and frightful symptom. Since the death of the
Bavarian Prince, the Court had been