and the United Provinces, of a body of 6000 Dutch. Before the year 1745
had ended, Tournay, Ghent, Bruges, Oudenarde, Dendermonde, Ostend,
Nieuport, Ath fell in succession into the hands of Marshal Saxe, and
after a brave defence Brussels itself was forced to capitulate on
February 19, 1746.

Van der Heim and the Republican conclave in whose hands was the
direction of foreign affairs, dreading the approach of the French armies
to the Dutch frontier, sent the Count de Larrey on a private mission to
Paris in November, 1745, to endeavour to negotiate terms of peace. He
was unsuccessful; and in February, 1746 another fruitless effort was
made, Wassenaer and Jacob Gilles being the envoys. The French minister,
D'Argenson, was not unwilling to discuss matters with them; and
negotiations went on for some time in a more or less desultory way, but
without in any way checking the alarming progress of hostilities. An
army 120,000 strong under Marshal Saxe found for some months no force
strong enough to resist it. Antwerp, Louvain, Mechlin, Mons, Charleroi,
Huy and finally Namur (September 21) surrendered to the French. At last
(October 11) a powerful allied army under the command of Charles of
Lorraine made a stand at Roucoux. A hardly-fought battle, in which both
sides lost heavily, ended in the victory of the French. Liege was taken,
and the French were now masters of Belgium.

These successes made the Dutch statesmen at the Hague the more anxious
to conclude peace. D'Argenson had always been averse to an actual
invasion of Dutch territory; and it was arranged between him and the
Dutch envoys, Wassenaer and Gilles, at Paris, and between the
council-pensionary Van der Heim and the Abbe de la Ville at the Hague,
that a congress should meet at Breda in August, in which England
consented to take part. Before it met, however, Van der Heim had died
(August 15). He was succeeded by Jacob Gilles. The congress was destined
to make little progress, for several of the provinces resented the way
in which a small handful of men had secretly been committing the
Republic to the acceptance of disadvantageous and humiliating terms of
peace, without obtaining the consent of the States-General to their
proposals. The congress did not actually assemble till October, and
never got further than the discussion of preliminaries, for the war
party won possession of power at Paris, and Louis XV dismissed
D'Argenson. Moderate counsels were thrown to the