soon followed in this step by Holland, and the two countries at once
agreed to stand by one another in their struggle against France. But it
was more difficult to secure the co-operation of the two branches of the
House of Austria in Germany and Spain, reluctant as they were to join
the Protestant powers in league against a Catholic king. Spain however
was forced by Lewis into war, for he aimed at the Netherlands as his
especial prey; and the court of Vienna at last yielded to the bait held
out by Holland of a recognition of its claims to the Spanish succession.

[Sidenote: Scotland and the Revolution.]

The adhesion of these powers in the spring of 1689 completed the Grand
Alliance of the European powers which William had designed; and the
union of Savoy with the allies girt France in on every side save that of
Switzerland with a ring of foes. Lewis was left without a single ally
save the Turk; for though the Scandinavian kingdoms stood aloof from the
confederacy of Europe their neutrality was unfriendly to him. But the
energy and quickness of movement which sprang from the concentration of
the power of France in a single hand still left the contest an equal
one. The empire was slow to move; the court of Vienna was distracted
with a war against the Turks; Spain was all but powerless; Holland and
England were alone earnest in the struggle, and England could as yet
give little aid in it. One English brigade indeed, formed from the
regiments raised by James, joined the Dutch army on the Sambre, and
distinguished itself under Churchill, who had been rewarded for his
treason with the title of Earl of Marlborough, in a brisk skirmish with
the enemy at Walcourt. But for the bulk of his forces William had as yet
grave work to do at home. In England not a sword had been drawn for
James. In Scotland his tyranny had been yet greater than in England, and
so far as the Lowlands went the fall of his tyranny was as rapid and
complete. No sooner had he called his troops southward to meet William's
invasion than Edinburgh rose in revolt. The western peasants were at
once up in arms; and the Episcopalian clergy, who had been the
instruments of the Stuart misgovernment ever since the Restoration, were
rabbled and driven from their parsonages in every parish. The news of
these disorders forced William to act, though he was without a show of
legal authority over Scotland. On the advice of the Scotch Lords present
in London he ventured to s