n of alliances which Louis
XIV. had but lately twisted round Holland. France, in her turn, was
finding herself alone, with all Europe against her; scared, and,
consequently, active and resolute; the congress of Cologne had broken up;
not one of the belligerents desired peace; the Hollanders had just
settled the heredity of the stadtholderate in the house of Orange. Louis
XIV. saw the danger. "So many enemies," says he in his Memoires,
"obliged me to take care of myself, and think what I must do to maintain
the reputation of my arms, the advantage of my dominions, and my personal
glory." It was in Franche-Comte that Louis XIV. went to seek these
advantages. The whole province was reduced to submission in the month of
June, 1674. Turenne had kept the Rhine against the Imperialists; the
marshal alone escaped the tyranny of the king and Louvois, and presumed
to conduct the campaign in his own way; when Louis XIV. sent him
instructions, he was by this time careful to add, "You will not bind
yourself down to what I send you hereby as to my intentions, save when
you think that the good of my service will permit you, and you will give
me of your news the oftenest you find it possible." (30th of March,
1674.) Turenne did not always write, and it sometimes happened that he
did not obey.

This redounded to his honor in the campaign of 1674. Conde had gained,
on the 11th of August, the bloody victory of Seneffe over the Prince of
Orange and the allied generals; the four squadrons of the king's
household, posted within range of the fire, had remained for eight hours
in order of battle, without any movement but that of closing up as the
men fell. Madame de Sdvigne, to whom her son, standard-bearer in the
dauphin's gendarmes, had told the story, wrote to M. de BussyRabutin,
"But for the Te Deum, and some flags brought to Notre-Dame, we should
have thought we had lost the battle." The Prince 6f Orange, ever
indomitable in his cold courage, had attacked Audenarde on the 15th of
September; but he was not in force, and the, approach of Conde had
obliged him to raise the siege; to make up, he had taken Grave, spite of
the heroic resistance made by the Marquis of Chemilly, who had held out
ninety-three days. Advantages remained balanced in Flanders; the result
of the campaign depended on Turenne, who commanded on the Rhine. "If the
king had taken the most important place in Flanders," he wrote to
Louvois, "and the emperor were