The insensate pride of king and nation was to be put to other trials; the campaign of 1689 had been without advantage or honor to the king’s arms.  Disembarrassed of the great Conde, of Turenne, and even of Marshal Luxembourg, who was compromised in some distressing law proceedings, Louvois exercised undisputed command over generals and armies; his harsh and violent genius encountered no more obstacles.  He had planned a defensive war which was to tire out the allies, all the while ravaging their territories.  The Palatinate underwent all its horrors.  Manheim, Heidelberg, Spires, Worms, Bingen, were destroyed and burned.  “I don’t think,” wrote the Count of Tesse to Louvois, “that for a week past my heart has been in its usual place.  I take the liberty of speaking to you naturally, but I did not foresee that it would cost so much to personally look to the burning of a town with a population, in proportion, like that of Orleans.  You may rely upon it that nothing at all remains of the superb castle of Heidelberg.  There were yesterday at noon, besides the castle, four hundred and thirty-two houses burned; and the fire was still going on.  I merely caused to be set apart the family pictures of the Palatine House; that is, the fathers, mothers, grandmothers, and relatives of Madame; intending, if you order me or advise me so, to make her a present of them, and have them sent to her when she is somewhat distracted from the desolation of her native country; for, except herself, who can take any interest in them?  Of the whole lot there is not a single copy worth a dozen livres.”  The poor Princess Palatine, Monsieur’s second wife, was not yet distracted from her native country, and she wrote in March, 1689, “Should it cost me my life, it is impossible for me not to regret, not to deplore, having been, so to speak, the pretext for the destruction of my country.  I cannot look on in cold blood and see the ruin at a single blow, in poor Manheim, of all that cost so much pains and trouble to the late prince-elector, my father.  When I think of all the explosions that have taken place, I am so full of horror that every night, the moment I begin to go to sleep, I fancy myself at Heidelberg or Manheim, and an eye-witness of the ravages committed.  I picture to myself how it all was in my time, and to what condition it has been reduced now, and I cannot refrain from weeping hot tears.  What distresses me above all is, that the king waited to reveal his orders until the very moment of my intercession in favor of Heidelberg and Manheim.  And yet it is thought bad taste for me to be afflicted!”