In 1676, the King having returned into Flanders, took Conde; whilst Monsieur took Bouchain.  The armies of the King and of the Prince of Orange approached each other so suddenly and so closely, that they found themselves front to front near Heurtebise.  According even to the admission of the enemy, our forces were so superior to those of the Prince of Orange, that we must have gained the victory if we had attacked.  But the King, after listening to the opinions of his generals, some for, and some against giving battle, decided for the latter, turned tail, and the engagement was talked of no more.  The army was much discontented.  Everybody wished for battle.  The fault therefore of the King made much impression upon the troops, and excited cruel railleries against us at home and in the foreign courts.  The King stopped but little longer afterwards in the army, although we were only in the month of May.  He returned to his mistress.

The following year he returned to Flanders, and took Cambrai; and Monsieur besieged Saint-Omer.  Monsieur got the start of the Prince of Orange, who was about to assist the place, gave him battle near Corsel, obtained a complete victory, immediately took Saint-Omer, and then joined the King.  This contrast so affected the monarch that never afterwards did he give Monsieur command of an army!  External appearances were perfectly kept up, but from that moment the resolution was taken and always well sustained.

The year afterwards the King led in person the siege of Ghent.  The peace of Nimeguen ended this year the war with Holland, Spain, &c.; and on the commencement of the following year, that with the Emperor and the Empire.  America, Africa, the Archipelago, Sicily, acutely felt the power of France, and in 1684 Luxembourg was the price of the delay of the Spaniards in fulfilling all the conditions of the peace.  Genoa, bombarded, was forced to come in the persons of its doge and four of its senators, to sue for peace at the commencement of the following year.  From this date, until 1688, the time passed in the cabinet less in fetes than in devotion and constraint.  Here finishes the apogeum of this reign, and the fulness of glory and prosperity.  The great captains, the great ministers, were no more, but their pupils remained.  The second epoch of the reign was very different from the first; but the third was even more sadly dissimilar.

I have related the adventure which led to the wars of this period; how an ill-made window-frame was noticed at the Trianon, then building; how Louvois was blamed for it; his alarm lest his disgrace should follow; his determination to engage the King in a war which should turn him from his building fancies.  He carried out his resolve:  with what result I have already shown.  France was ruined at home; and abroad, despite the success of her arms, gained nothing.  On the contrary, the withdrawal of the King from Gembloux, when he might have utterly defeated the Prince