Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 349: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE SPRING OF 1672. 331 Chapelle, stopped in the heart of her conquests by that formidable league, she had conceived the hope and pre- sentiment of her victories to come. Louis XIV. had for- gotten nothing. In the midst of the magnificence of his reign and the pomp of a court which was unrivaled in the universe, he recollected that mortal insult made him by Van Benning, schevin of Amsterdam. While a crowd of gentlemen filled the galleries of Versailles and St. Ger- main, the gazetteers of Holland spared the young king neither disdain nor sarcasm. Outrageous medals had been struck, and it was said that upon one of them Van Benning had represented him along with a sun and this device in exergue: ‘‘In conspectu meo stetit sol.’’ Louis XIV. was waiting. He knew that his hour was near at hand, and he wished a splendid vengeance. From 1668 to 1672 was spent in preparations. Astonished Europe and disturbed Holland watched them. War was to be felt in the air, and no one knew where it would burst out. The flag of France floated upon all the seas. The admirals were Tourville, Duquesne, d’Estrées; the chiefs of squadron, Jean Bart and Duquay- Trouin. The Maréchal de Créqui punished the Duc de Lorraine. The province is conquered in the midst of a profound peace, and France cuts off all communication be- tween Franche-Comté and the Low Countries. It was already much but not enough. It was necessary to detach the King of England, Charles LI., from the Dutch alliance brought about by the Chevalier Temple. It is the Duchess of Orleans, his sister, the young and beautiful Henriette, who charges herself with the negotiations. Her journey was a triumphal march. The court of Charles I. was the most gallant and dissolute in the world. The skillfulness of Colbert, Croisy and the influence of Henriette triumphed over the true interests of English politics, and by three successive treaties, King Charles II. promises fifty vessels and six thousand men for continental war. He will get three millions a year, and the nation some of the Dutch isles. The indefatigable activity of Louvois, who was a great minister in spite of his defects, had brought the army up to a hundred and eighty thousand men; never had it been so strong and so well organized; he had provided it with a formidable instrument of death, the bayonet, and the most severe discipline reigned among the troops. As to the generals, they were the same who, in 1668, had conquered the whole of Spanish Flanders in two months—Créqui, Turrenne, Condé, Grammont, and Luxembourg. Every- (E(0) micooo 3