e news arrived of two great blows which had fallen on Spain,
one in the Old and one in the New World. A French army, commanded by
Vendome, had taken Barcelona. A French squadron had stolen out of Brest,
had eluded the allied fleets, had crossed the Atlantic, had sacked
Carthagena, and had returned to France laden with treasure. [812] The
Spanish government passed at once from haughty apathy to abject terror,
and was ready to accept any conditions which the conqueror might
dictate. The French plenipotentiaries announced to the Congress that
their master was determined to keep Strasburg, and that, unless the
terms which he had offered, thus modified, were accepted by the tenth
of September, he should hold himself at liberty to insist on further
modifications. Never had the temper of William been more severely tried.
He was provoked by the perverseness of his allies; he was provoked by
the imperious language of the enemy. It was not without a hard struggle
and a sharp pang that he made up his mind to consent to what France now
proposed. But he felt that it would be utterly impossible, even if it
were desirable, to prevail on the House of Commons and on the States
General to continue the war for the purpose of wresting from France a
single fortress, a fortress in the fate of which neither England nor
Holland had any immediate interest, a fortress, too, which had been lost
to the Empire solely in consequence of the unreasonable obstinacy of the
Imperial Court. He determined to accept the modified terms, and
directed his Ambassadors at Ryswick to sign on the prescribed day. The
Ambassadors of Spain and Holland received similar instructions. There
was no doubt that the Emperor, though he murmured and protested, would
soon follow the example of his confederates. That he might have time to
make up his mind, it was stipulated that he should be included in the
treaty if he notified his adhesion by the first of November.

Meanwhile James was moving the mirth and pity of all Europe by his
lamentations and menaces. He had in vain insisted on his right to send,
as the only true King of England, a minister to the Congress. [813]
He had in vain addressed to all the Roman Catholic princes of the
Confederacy a memorial in which he adjured them to join with France in
a crusade against England for the purpose of restoring him to his
inheritance, and of annulling that impious Bill of Rights which excluded
members of the true Church from the t