"That's a splendid post in France, that of colonel general," said he one day; "my father held it; at his death we hoped that my brother might get it; the king thought it better to give it to one of his, natural sons.

He is master, but all the same is one not sorry sometimes to find one's self in a position to make slights repented of." "Marlborough displayed courtesy, insisting upon seeing in the affairs of the coalition the finger of God, who had permitted eight nations to think and act like one man." The concessions extorted from France were no longer sufficient: M.de Torcy gave up Sicily, and then Naples; a demand was made for Elsass, and certain places in Dauphiny and Provence; lastly, the allies required that the conditions of peace should be carried out at short notice, during the two months' truce it was agreed to grant, and that Louis XIV.

should forthwith put into the hands of the Hollanders three places by way of guarantee, in case Philip V.should refuse to abdicate.

This was to despoil himself prematurely and gratuitously, for it was impossible to execute the definitive treaty of peace at the time fixed.

"The king did not hesitate about the only course there was for him to take, not only for his own glory, but for the welfare of his kingdom," says Torcy; he recalled his envoys, and wrote to the governors of the provinces and towns,-- "Sir: The hope of an imminent peace was so generally diffused throughout my kingdom, that I consider it due to the fidelity which my people have shown during the course of my reign to give them the consolation of informing them of the reasons which still prevent them from enjoying the repose I had intended to procure for them.