It would be much if the harassed and exhausted land, beset on all sides by enemies, should be able to sustain a defensive war without any disaster.

So able a politician as the French King could not but feel that it would be for his advantage to treat with the allies while they were still awed by the remembrance of the gigantic efforts which his kingdom had just made, and before the collapse which had followed those efforts should become visible.
He had long been communicating through various channels with some members of the confederacy, and trying to induce them to separate themselves from the rest.

But he had as yet made no overture tending to a general pacification.

For he knew that there could be no general pacification unless he was prepared to abandon the cause of James, and to acknowledge the Prince and Princess of Orange as King and Queen of England.

This was in truth the point on which every thing turned.