“You will be told what England proposes, that you should renounce your birthright, retaining the monarchy of Spain and the Indies, or renounce the monarchy of Spain, retaining your rights to the succession in France, and receiving in exchange for the crown of Spain the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples, the states of the Duke of Savoy, Montferrat, and the Mantuan, the said Duke of Savoy succeeding you in Spain; I confess to you that, notwithstanding the disproportion in the dominions, I have been sensibly affected by the thought that you would continue to reign, that I might still regard you as my successor, sure, if the dauphin lives, of a regent accustomed to command, capable of maintaining order in my kingdom and stifling its cabals.  If this child were to die, as his weakly complexion gives too much reason to suppose, you would enjoy the succession to me following the order of your birth, and I should have the consolation of leaving to my people a virtuous king, capable of commanding them, and one who, on succeeding me, would unite to the crown states so considerable as Naples, Savoy, Piedmont, and Montferrat.  If gratitude and affection towards your subjects are to you pressing reasons for remaining with them, I may say that you owe me the same sentiments; you owe them to your own house, to your own country, before Spain.  All that I can do for you is to leave you once more the choice, the necessity for concluding peace becoming every day more urgent.”

The choice of Philip V. was made; he had already written to his grandfather to say that he would renounce all his rights of succession to the throne of France rather than give up the crown of Spain.  This decision was solemnly enregistered by the Cortes.  The English required that the Dukes of Berry and Orleans should, likewise make renunciation of their rights to the crown of Spain.  Negotiations began again, but war began again at the same time as the negotiations.

The king had given Villars the command of the army of Flanders.  The marshal went to Marly to receive his last orders.  “You see my plight, marshal,” said Louis XIV.  “There are few examples of what is my fate—­to lose in the same week a grandson, a grandson’s wife and their son, all of very great promise and very tenderly beloved.  God is punishing me; I have well deserved it.  But suspend we my griefs at my own domestic woes, and look we to what may be done to prevent those of the kingdom.  If anything were to happen to the army you command, what would be your idea of the course I should adopt as regards my person?” The marshal hesitated.  The king resumed:  “This is what I think; you shall tell me your opinion afterwards.  I know the courtiers’ line of argument; they nearly all wish me to retire to Blois, and not wait for the enemy’s army to approach Paris, as it might do if mine were beaten.  For my part, I am aware that armies so considerable are never defeated to such an extent as to prevent the greater part of mine from retiring upon the Somme.  I know that river; it is very difficult to cross; there are forts, too, which could be made strong.  I should count upon getting to Peronne or St. Quentin, and there massing all the troops I had, making a last effort with you, and falling together or saving the kingdom; I will never consent to let the enemy approach my capital. [Memoires de Villars, t. ii. p. 362.]”