by his Parliament
to make a peace more favourable than the Dutch could have hoped for; but
in almost every direction Lewis made good again the ground he had lost
in the previous year. William, indeed, took Grave, but he was compelled
to raise the siege of Oudenarde. A large force of Germans under the
Elector of Brandenburg was driven out of Alsace across the Rhine by
Turenne, who had a short while before completely routed the Imperial
troops under the Duke of Lorraine at Sintzheim. Franche Comte was
reconquered in a few weeks. But the most notable action of the year was
the battle of Seneff, fought near Mons on August 11th between William
and Conde. It was long, bloody, and indecisive; but it raised William's
reputation for courage and ability to the highest pitch, and drew from
his veteran opponent one of those compliments a brave soldier is always
glad to pay a foeman worthy of his steel. "The Prince of Orange," said
Conde, "has acted in everything like an old captain, except in venturing
his life too like a young soldier."

The battle of Seneff has for us, too, a particular importance. It gives
us, according to some of his biographers, the first glimpse of
Claverhouse as a soldier. The story goes that, at an early period of the
fight, William with a handful of his men was closely beset by a large
body of French troops. In making his way back to his own lines the
Prince's horse foundered in some marshy ground, and he would inevitably
have been either killed or made prisoner had not Claverhouse, who was of
the party, mounted him on his own charger and brought him safe out of
the press. For this service William gave the young soldier (who was,
however, the Prince's senior by seven years) a captain's commission in
his own regiment of Horse Guards, commanded by the Count de Solmes who
led the English van on the day of the Boyne. This story has been
contemptuously rejected by Macaulay as a Jacobite fable composed many
years after both actors in the scene were dead. The story may not be
true, but Macaulay's reasons for rejecting it are not quite exact.
Reports of Claverhouse's gallantry at Seneff were certainly current
during his lifetime. It is mentioned, for example, in a copy of doggerel
verses addressed to Claverhouse by some nameless admirer on New Year's
Day 1683.[4] And there is yet more particular testimony, though, like
the former, it is of that nature which a historian will always feel
himself at liberty to reject