Nevertheless, they, at the end of the session, sent over an address, in which they bore testimony to the mild and just administration of their lord-deputy.
DISPOSITION OF THE ARMIES.
King William having taken such steps as were deemed necessary for preserving the peace of England in his absence, crossed the sea to Holland in the middle of May, fully determined to make some great effort in the Netherlands that might aggrandize his military character, and humble the power of France which was already on the decline.

That kingdom was actually exhausted in such a manner that the haughty Louis found himself obliged to stand upon the defensive against enemies over whom he had been used to triumph with uninterrupted success.

He heard the clamours of his people which he could not quiet; he saw his advances to peace rejected; and to crown his misfortunes, he sustained an irreparable loss in the death of Francis de Montmorency, duke of Luxembourg, to whose military talents he owed the greatest part of his glory and success.

That great officer died in January at Versailles, in the sixty-seventh year of his age; and Louis lamented his death the more deeply, as he had not another general left in whose understanding he could confide.

The conduct of the army in Flanders was intrusted to mareschal Villeroy, and Boufflers commanded a separate army though subject to the other's orders.