They also voted, agreeably to the king's request, the continuance of the additional excise for three years.

This excise had been granted for nine years in 1668.

Every thing seemed to promise a peaceable and an easy session.
But the parliament was roused from this tranquillity by the news received from abroad.

The French king had taken the field in the middle of February, and laid siege to Valenciennes, which he carried in a few days by storm.

He next invested both Cambray and St.Omers.The prince of Orange, alarmed with his progress, hastily assembled an army, and marched to the relief of St.Omers.He was encountered by the French, under the duke of Orleans and Mareschal Luxembourg.