ving the
honour they had lost in the two former engagements. The Germans attacked
their lines without hesitation; and though the Musselmen fought with
incredible fury, they were a third time defeated with great slaughter.
This defeat was attended with the loss of Widen, which being surrendered
to the victor, he distributed his troops in winter quarters, and
returned to Vienna covered with laurels.

DEATH OF POPE INNOCENT XI.

The French were likewise baffled in their attempt upon Catalonia, where
the duke de Noailles had taken Campredon in the month of May. Leaving a
garrison in this place, he retreated to the frontiers of France, while
the duke de Villa Hermosa, at the head of a Spanish army, blocked up the
place and laid Rousillon under contribution. He afterwards undertook the
siege in form, and Noailles marched to its relief; but he was so hard
pressed by the Spaniards that he withdrew the garrison, dismantled the
place, and retreated with great precipitation. The French king hoped to
derive some considerable advantage from the death of Pope Innocent XL
which happened on the twelfth day of August. That pontiff had been an
inveterate enemy to Louis ever since the affair of the franchises, and
the seizure of Avignon. [016] _[See note F, at the end of this Vol.]_
Cabals were immediately formed at Eome by the French faction against
the Spanish and Imperial interest. The French cardinals, de Bouillon and
Bonzi, accompanied by Furstemberg, repaired to Eome with a large sum
of money. Peter Ottoboni, a Venetian, was elected pope, and assumed the
name of Alexander VIII. The duke de Chaulnes, ambassador from France,
immediately signified in the name of his master, that Avignon should
be restored to the patrimony of the church; and Louis renounced the
franchises in a letter written by his own hand to the pontiff. Alexander
received these marks of respect with the warmest acknowledgments; but
when the ambassador and Furstemberg besought him to re-examine the
election of the bishop of Cologne, which had been the source of so much
calamity to the empire, he lent a deaf ear to their solicitations.
He even confirmed the dispensations granted by his predecessor to the
prince of Bavaria, who was thus empowered to take possession of the
electorate, though he had not yet attained the age required by the
canons. Furstemberg retired in disgust to Paris, where Louis immediately
gratified him with the abbey of St. Germains.

{WILL