The prince being joined by some troops under general Thungen and other reinforcements, resolved to give battle to the enemy; but Villars declined an engagement, and repassed the Rhine.
Towards the latter end of October, count Tallard and the marquis de Lo-marie, with a body of eighteen thousand men, reduced Triers and Traerbach; on the other hand, the prince of Hesse-Cassel, with a detachment from the allied army at Liege, retook from the French the towns of Zinch, Lintz, Brisac, and Andernach.
BATTLE OF LUZZARA, IN ITALY.
In Italy prince Eugene laboured under a total neglect of the Imperial court, where his enemies, on pretence of supporting the king of the Romans in his first campaign, weaned the emperor's attention entirely from his affairs on the other side of the Alps, so that he left his best army to moulder away for want of recruits and reinforcements.

The prince thus abandoned could not prevent the duke de Vendome from relieving Mantua, and was obliged to relinquish some other places he had taken.
Philip, king of Spain, being inspired with the ambition of putting an end to the war in this country, sailed in person for Naples, where he was visited by the cardinal-legate with a compliment from the pope; yet he could not obtain the investiture of the kingdom from his holiness.
The emperor, however, was so disgusted at the embassy which the pope had sent to Philip, that he ordered his ambassador at Eome to withdraw.
Philip proceeded from Naples to Final under convoy of the French fleet which had brought him to Italy; here he had an interview with the duke of Savoy, who began to be alarmed at the prospect of the French king's being master of the Milanese; and, in a letter to the duke de Vendome, he forbade him to engage prince Eugene until he himself should arrive in the camp.

Prince Eugene, understanding that the French army intended to attack Luzzara and Guastalla, passed the Po with an army of about half the number of the enemy, and posted himself behind the dike of Zero in such a manner that the French were ignorant of his situation.

He concluded that on their arrival at the ground they had chosen, the horse would march out to forage, while the rest of the army would be employed in pitching tents and providing for their refreshment.

His design was to seize that opportunity of attacking them, not doubting that he should obtain a complete victory; but he was disappointed by mere accident.