In the month of July the duke marched into Dauphine, where he plundered a number of villages, and reduced the fortress of Guillestre; then passing the river Darance, he invested Ambrun, which, after a siege of nine days, surrendered on capitulation: he afterwards laid all the neighbouring J towns under contribution.

Here duke Schomberg, who commanded the auxiliaries in the English pay, published a declaration in the name of king William, inviting the people to join his standard, assuring them that his master had no other design in ordering his troops to invade France, but that of restoring the noblesse to their ancient splendour, their parliaments to their former authority, and the people to their just privileges.

He even offered his protection to the clergy, and promised to use his endeavours for reviving the edict of Nantes, which had been guaranteed by the kings of England.

These offers, however, produced little effect; and the Germans ravaged the whole country in revenge for the cruelties which the French had committed in the Palatinate.

The allied army advanced from Ambrun to Gap, on the frontiers of Provence, and this place submitted without opposition.