."

"There is something in that, I admit, Kennedy. It seems to me
that, in this war, it would be much better if the Spaniards and
Portuguese had both remained at home, and allowed the French and
us fight it out with the English and Dutch. The battles would have
been small, but at least they would have been desperately fought."

"But it would be absurd, Moore, for us to lay down our lives in a
struggle in which those principally concerned took no part
whatever, and which was of no great interest either to us or to
the English. After the way in which Louis was ready to throw over
Spain and Philip at the beginning of the year, the Spanish
alliance can be of no great advantage to him, and I do not think
that even Philip's orders would induce a Spanish army to march
across the frontier to assist France. Therefore, as Louis can gain
nothing by the Spanish alliance, why should he weaken himself by
sending forces here to maintain Philip on the throne?"

"But with the Archduke Charles here, he would have an enemy on his
frontier. Philip might not assist him, but Charles would be
actively hostile. The English and Dutch troops would be pouring
into the peninsula, and we should have another Flanders in the
south of France."

"Well," Desmond said, after a pause; "the best way I can see out
of it is for both Philip and Charles to withdraw, and allow the
Spanish to elect a Spaniard for their king; or, if they could not
agree to that, which I don't suppose they could do, choose some
foreign prince belonging to a petty state which stands altogether
aloof from European affairs, and seat him on the throne. If,
again, they would not accept him, England and France should
mutually agree not to interfere in the affair, and let the
Spaniards indulge in civil war as long as it pleases them."

Moore laughed.

"It might be a good solution, Kennedy, but there is no more chance
of Philip or Charles renouncing their pretensions, or indeed of
the French on one side and the allies on the other permitting them
to do so, than there is of the world becoming an utopia, where war
shall be unknown, and all peoples live together in peace and
amity."

"Well," Desmond said, "for my part, I am sick of fighting in
quarrels that do not concern me, and when this campaign comes to
an end I shall, if possible, rejoin Berwick. The cause of the
Stuarts is not advanced, in the slightest, by what is taking place
in Spain, and if I am to fight, I would rather