The French king having exhausted the wealth and patience of his subjects, and greatly diminished their number in the course of this war, began to be diffident of his arms, and employed all the arts of private negotiation.

While his minister D'Avaux pressed the king of Sweden to offer his mediation, he sent Callieres to Holland with proposals for settling the preliminaries of a treaty.
He took it for granted that as the Dutch were a trading people, whose commerce had greatly suffered in the war, they could not be averse to a pacification; and he instructed his emissaries to tamper with the malcontents of the republic, especially with the remains of the Louvestein faction, which had always opposed the schemes of the stadtholder.

Callieres met with a favourable reception from the states, which began to treat with him about the preliminaries, though not without the consent and concurrence of king William and the rest of the allies.

Louis, with a view to quicken the effect of this negotiation, pursued offensive measures in Catalonia, where his general the duke de Vendome attacked and worsted the Spaniards in their camp near Ostalrick, though the action was not decisive; for that general was obliged to retreat after having made vigorous efforts against their intrenchments.
On the twentieth day of June, mareschal de Lorges passed the Rhine at Philips-burg and encamped within a league of Eppingen, where the Imperial troops were obliged to intrench themselves, under the command of the prince of Baden, as they were not yet joined by the auxiliary forces.

The French general after having faced him about a month, thought proper to repass the river.