Grave men were scandalized by the ostentatious manner in which the King, while making a high profession of piety, exhibited his partiality for this offspring of a double adultery.  Kindness, they said, was doubtless due from a parent to a child; but decency was also due from a Sovereign to his people.  In spite of these murmurs the youth had been publicly acknowledged, loaded with wealth and dignities, created a Duke and Peer, placed, by an extraordinary act of royal power, above Dukes and Peers of older creation, married to a Princess of the blood royal, and appointed Grand Master of the Artillery of the Realm.  With abilities and courage he might have played a great part in the world.  But his intellect was small; his nerves were weak; and the women and priests who had educated him had effectually assisted nature.  He was orthodox in belief, correct in morals, insinuating in address, a hypocrite, a mischiefmaker and a coward.

It was expected at Versailles that Flanders would, during this year, be the chief theatre of war.  Here, therefore, a great army was collected.  Strong lines were formed from the Lys to the Scheld, and Villeroy fixed his headquarters near Tournay.  Boufflers, with about twelve thousand men, guarded the banks of the Sambre.

On the other side the British and Dutch troops, who were under `- William’s immediate command, mustered in the neighbourhood of Ghent.  The Elector of Bavaria, at the head of a great force, lay near Brussels.  A smaller army, consisting chiefly of Brandenburghers was encamped not far from Huy.

Early in June military operations commenced.  The first movements of William were mere feints intended to prevent the French generals from suspecting his real purpose.  He had set his heart on retaking Namur.  The loss of Namur had been the most mortifying of all the disasters of a disastrous war.  The importance of Namur in a military point of view had always been great, and had become greater than ever during the three years which had elapsed since the last siege.  New works, the masterpieces of Vauban, had been added to the old defences which had been constructed with the utmost skill of Cohorn.  So ably had the two illustrious engineers vied with each other and cooperated with nature that the fortress was esteemed the strongest in Europe.  Over one gate had been placed a vaunting inscription which defied the allies to wrench the prize from the grasp of France.

William kept his own counsel so well that not a hint of his intention got abroad.  Some thought that Dunkirk, some that Ypres was his object.  The marches and skirmishes by which he disguised his design were compared by Saint Simon to the moves of a skilful chess player.  Feuquieres, much more deeply versed in military science than Saint Simon, informs us that some of these moves were hazardous, and that such a game could not have been safely played against Luxemburg; and this is probably true, but Luxemburg was gone; and what Luxemburg had been to William, William now was to Villeroy.