The dikes were quietly opened.

Turenne and Luxembourg and Vauban were baffled as completely as Napoleon in Russia.

And when the magnificent army had evacuated the flooded country, the dikes were quietly closed again and time and windmills restored their fields to fertility.
In the meantime William had been drawing to himself powerful allies.
Half of Europe was in league with him in the battles he now fought upon the Rhine.

But the French were victorious.

And after the peace of Nymwegen, 1678, Louis had reached the zenith of his power.
Human pretension and arrogance could go no farther.