William proclaimed everywhere that he must have been willing that the massacre should be perpetrated; but his friends found an excuse in the vast obligations he owed to the family and interest of the Dalrymples, and in the great ability of those men, who were the most politic and best heads in Scotland, and most able to do him service there whenever the storm should be blown over. And, at the same time, no inconsiderable part of the Scottish Lowlanders, who had been most exposed to the incursions and depredations of the wild Highlanders, thought that no crime had been committed by extirpating that sect of thieves;" and that the best security for their cattle, their goods, and their persons would be a repetition of the blood-letting at Glenco upon the other clans, whose lawless practices report upon it would be made to them. In the course of the examination made in the privy council, and by means of agents, some of the Highlanders deposed that the Earl of Breadalbane, the originator of the schemes of pacification, while treating with them for their submitting to King William, had assured them that he still adhered to the interests of King James, and that all that he wanted by the specification was only to preserve the clans for his service till a more favorable opportunity. Upon these revelations the double-dealing Breadalbane was committed to Edinburgh Castle; but he maintained that he had secret orders from King William to say any thing that would procure him credit with the Highlanders; and William seemed to own the fact by ordering a new pardon to be passed for the earl. It is unquestionable that, in his almost un-excluded them from the benefits of civilized law. precedented difficulties, William repeatedly had recourse to these arts, the practice of which makes it not unfrequently doubtful who were real traitors to him, and who were only pretended traitors, to do him service and frustrate the plans and plots of the Jacobites. It was found necessary to deliver in the report of the examination of the massacre in full parliament. By this report it appeared that a black design had been on foot at one time to cut off a great many more clans in the same fashion; that there were many letters written with great earnestness to this effect by ministers and others; and that, though the king's orders implied nothing of the sort, nor contained any thing that was blamable, the secretary of state's letters went much farther. In the end, the Scottish parliament justified the king's instructions, but voted that the execution in Glenco was a barbarous massacre," and that it was " pushed on by the secretary of state's letters beyond the king's orders." It was also carried, by a great majority, that an address should be presented to the king, praying that the secretary of state, and others concerned in that matter, might be proceeded against according to law, in order that the vindica--that he knew of a country where gold mines were tion might be national, as the reproach had been; but principally that they, from whom it was most proper, might testify to the world how clear his majesty's justice had been in the whole matter. As the secretary of state (Dalrymple, master of Stair) had been allowed to go unscathed, it was judged that no proceedings could be taken against him; and, as the principal was thus protected, the inferior instruments were not much troubled by any course of law. Hence, all who were enemies to 1 "But we are not to wonder at his escape; for it is said he was as subtile as a serpent and as slippery as an eel, that he had no attachment of any kind but to his own interest; that he was not only Jacob-niers had made the scene of most extraordinary adite and Williamite by turns, but both at once; and that he played this double part with so much success in the Highland treaty, that he re ceived the thanks of King James for having preserved his people, whom he could not succor, and was rewarded by King William for having difficult to subdue."-MS. Character of Breadalbane, quoted by Ralph. But this character, cæteris paribus, may be applied with equal justice to many of the leading men both in England and Scotland. There were several suits for "spuilzie and restitution of damages" instituted against Breadalbane; but it does not appear that the Highlanders had much success in the courts.-Lauder of Fountainhall, Decisions. reconciled to his government those desperadoes whom he found it so 2 The secretary, Dalrymple, master of Stair, was, however, effectually driven from office. He became Viscount Stair, by the death of his father, in November this same year; was advanced to the rank of Earl It was during this session of the Scottish parliament that the scheme was presented of a Scottish company and colony on the isthmus of Darien, which ended in a great amount of human suffering and in an increase of unpopularity to the king. The Scottish parliament in the year 1693 had passed an act for the encouragement of commerce, by which it was provided that letters patent should be granted to all such as should offer to set up new manufactures, establish new settlements, or drive any new trade; and, taking advantage of this act, some of the English interlopers in the East India trade, after being defeated by the company, had entered into treaty with some merchants in Scotland, who now undertook to procure a special act for a new colony from their parliament. There was one Paterson, a man of no education, but of great notions, which, as was generally said, he had learned from the bucaniers, who knew the New World and the islands of the Pacific better than any other class of men, and with whom it was believed he had associated for some time. Paterson made the Scotch merchants believe that he was in possession of a great secret rich and many, and where the Spaniards were not -a country admirably situated for trade with other parts of the world. For some time he did not describe this happy land, but only desired that the West Indies might be named in any new act they proposed. Meanwhile, an act was passed and received the royal assent, giving the undertakers most extensive privileges, with a limitation, however, that they should not interfere with the trade of England. Paterson then named his promised land. It was the isthmus of Darien, which connects the two continents of America, and which the English buca ventures during the reign of Charles II., when, among other exploits, Morgan had traversed it from ocean to ocean, and plundered and burned the Spanish city of Panama. Paterson, who was perfectly right in his geography, considered that isthof Stair in 1703, and died suddenly, in January, 1707, during the discussions on the Union, in which he had taken a warm part. It is his father, the first Viscount Stair, who is the author of the celebrated "Institutions of the Law of Scotland," of the "Philosophia Nova Experimentalis," and of "Vindication of the Divine Perfections," which last appeared immediately before his death mus as a place where a good settlement might be made, or, rather, two settlements; for he proposed establishing a town and blockhouse on the side of the Atlantic, and another over against it in Panama Bay, on the shores of the Pacific, from which conjointly a trade might be opened both with the West Indies and with the East, and means taken to keep the Spaniards in the neighborhood of the isthmus in quiet if not in subjection. When the passing of this ill-considered act was known in London many more rich merchants entered into the scheme, and thus provoked more than ever the hostility of the East India Company. When all was ready. Paterson and his people, amounting in all to twelve hundred souls, set sail in fifty Scottish ships to famine and destruction, but with the confident hope of establishing a great colony and realizing enormous wealth. This, however, did not happen till four years after the passing of the bill; but the Scots availed themselves of the large letter of the act in other directions, trenching, as it was said, both upon the Dutch and the English, and invading the commercial rights vested in older companies. In Ireland the first session of a new parliament was held in the course of this year (1695), and the Protestant ascendency was completely and tyrannically established under the administration of Lord Capel, now lord deputy, "who," says Burnet, "studied to render himself popular, and espoused the interests of the English against the Irish without any nice regard to justice or equity." But Capel was neither better nor worse than many who succeeded him, and who acted upon the one principle, that the only way to keep Ireland quiet was to coerce the natives, and degrade and persecute their religion. By a series of acts passed during this and the next reign by the English parliament, the great body of the Irish people were put into the chains of a new and complicated bondage. No papist was allowed to keep a school or to teach any, in private houses, except the children of the family occupying that house; and, while this enactment prevented papists from receiving education at home, another went to deprive them of that benefit abroad, for severe penalties were denounced against such as should go themselves or send others for education beyond sea in the Romish religion; and, on probable information given to a magistrate, such persons could be arrested and tried, not by a jury, but by justices at quarter-sessions, where the burden of disproving the charge was thrown upon the accused. As a matter of course, under the ascendency system, magistrates, jury, justices, were all Protestants. Intermarriages between Protestants and papists, possessing any estate in Ireland, were forbidden; and the Protestant husband, or the Protestant wife, might at any time take the children from the Catholic parent to be educated in the Protestant faith. No papist could be guardian to any child; but the Court of Chancery might appoint some relation or other person to bring up the ward in the reformed faith. If the eldest son was, or became, a Protestant, he might convert his father's estate in fee simple into a tenancy for life, and thus secure his own inheritance. If the children were all papists, the father's lands were not to descend to the eldest son, but to be divided equally among them, by gavel-kind law—an admirable instrument for reducing an aristocracy or a body of great landholders to the condition of potato-farmers. Papists could not purchase land except for terms not exceeding thirty-one years. They were bound to conform, within six months after any title should accrue by descent, devise, or settlement, on pain of forfeiture to the next Protestant heir-a provision, says Mr. Hallam, which seems intended to exclude them from real property altogether. No papist was permitted to keep arms, and search might be made at any time by two justices. The celebration of mass and other Catholic rites was not subjected to any new penalties; but all regular popish priests, bishops, and others claiming spiritual jurisdiction, and all who should come to the kingdom of Ireland from foreign parts, were ordered to be banished, and were to be held guilty of high treason if they returned from their banishment. To prevent the evasion of these barbarous and maddening regulations, all priests were bound to be registered, and were forbidden to leave their own parishes, in which they were to be fixed like paupers by the old poor-laws; and informers, always ready and numerous enough upon the mere motives of religious intolerance and personal enmities, were further tempted into the field by large rewards, to be levied on the papists, and to be given to those who should detect the violation of these statutes. Let the Irish Protestant party, who disgraced a great name by calling themselves Orangeists, equivocate and color the matter as they will, there is as much truth as generous warmth of feeling in the words with which an eminent living historian concludes his account of these detestable enactments: "To have exterminated the Catholics by the sword, or expelled them, like the Moriscoes of Spain, would have been little more repugnant to justice and humanity, but incomparably more politic."1 On the 12th of May, William embarked to put himself again at the head of the allied army. One great event which contributed to hasten the decline of the power of Louis XIV. was the death of the Marshal Duke of Luxembourg, one of the greatest generals of that age, who died at the beginning of this year. The other great generals of France, and Seignelai, the son of Colbert, who had called the French navy into existence, and Louvois, the greatest of her statesmen, were all dead already; there were none that promised to supply their places; Barbessieux, the new minister, a creature of courts and saloons, promoted by court intrigues and the influence of mistresses, was wholly incapable of contending with the difficulties in which even his great predecessor had left the country; and if to this we add that the oppressed people in many parts of France were absolutely perishing with hun between the 3d of William and Mary and 3d of Queen Anne (16921705). 1 Hallam, Const. Hist. All the acts above enumerated were passed ger, the reader will understand that the French | and, as Vauban had been employed upon the works, army in Flanders, badly supplied with provisions the French deemed Namur impregnable. But Willand recruits, and commanded by a third-rate gen- iam, having put his army in a good position, left it eral, Boufflers, or Villeroy, was in no condition to under the command of the Prince of Vaudemont; repair the check it had received in the last cam- and, at the head of a division, joined the Elector of paign. William, who saw the difference in every Bavaria, and then, uniting with Ginckel, took the move he made, and in every movement of his ene- command of all the forces before Namur. Vaudemies, detached Ginckel, now Earl of Athlone, with mont committed a great blunder in moving from his a great force, to invest the important city of Na- position, with the view of preventing Villeroy from mur, which had been taken by the French in the marching to the relief of Namur; but Villeroy had year 1692. Old Ginckel did his best; but, from the not ability enough to profit by the advantage, and nature of the ground and the vast extent of his lines, Vaudemont retrieved his error by making an adhe could not prevent Boufflers from throwing him- mirable retreat to the walls of Ghent. In the mean self into the place with a strong reinforcement. The while the siege of Namur was prosecuted with garrison then amounted to 14,000 or 15,000 men, vigor under the eye of William and the direction of the great engineer Coehorn. The king, though the English troops under Major-general Ramsay a valetudinarian, shared in the fatigues as well as in and Brigadier Hamilton were left alone in the the dangers of the common soldiery. On the 27th midst of mines and booths on the glacis, and they of July, at the storming of the first counterscarp, were three several times repulsed, yet still returnMr. Godfrey, deputy governor of the Bank of Eng-ed to the charge, and at last made themselves masland, who had come over to speak with the king upon some financial business, but who ventured where he was not wanted, was killed, with several other persons, close by William's side. For a time 1 According to a note in Ralph, "tradition also adds that a short parley had just before passed between them, to the following effect :- I be excusable if I showed more concern? "King.-Yes; I am in my duty, and therefore have a more reasonable claim to preservation." ters of the counterscarp. During the stern contest William laid his hand on the elector's shoulder, and exclaimed," See my brave English! see my brave English!" The Dutch, advancing along the Maese, came up in time to secure the advantage which the English had gained; and, on the same day, the Elector of Bavaria threw a bridge over the Sambre, while other corps of the allies drove the French from the suburb of Jamb, and effectually prevented any more sallies. On the 29th, when the town-moat was drained by undermining and several battalions into Brussels and its outworks; but they could not prevent Villeroy from taking ground proper to the purpose of the revengeful commission with which he was charged by his sovereign, who had felt most acutely the insults offered to his own coasts by the English fleet, who were this year repeating their bombardments of the French sea-ports. The marshal took up his quarters at Auderleck, and dispatched a letter to the governor of Brussels, signifying that the Prince of Orange having sent his fleet upon the coast of France to bombard and ruin the sea-ports, without any prospect of advantage to himself, the king his master thought he could no otherwise put a stop to such disorders than by making reprisals. That for this reason he had sent his commands to bombard Brussels; and, at the same time, to declare that it was with reluctance his majesty was constrained to make use of this expedient; as, also, that as soon as he should be assured his sea ports would be no more bombarded, he would bombard the towns of his enemies no more, with the exception of such places as should be regularly besieged. That his majesty's concern was so much the greater because the Electress of Bavaria was residing in Brussels; but that, if the governor would make known in what quarter her electoral highness resided, care should be taken that the French mortars should not be directed that way." By this time the Elector of Bavaria himself had come up to the threatened city, and he replied to Villeroy's letter, that the reason assigned for his orders to bombard Brussels solely regarded the King of England; that his electoral highness would acquaint him with it, and procure an answer in twenty-four hours; and that, as to the consideration which his most Christian majesty had shown to the electress, he begged to say that her residence was at the royal palace. blowing up the dam which kept it full, a council of war was held in the allied camp, and it was there resolved to make a simultaneous attack on every side, notwithstanding a doubt of its success expressed by the cautious Coehorn. And, as soon as it was dark, all the corps ordered on this desperate service advanced as near to the enemy's intrenchments as they could without being discovered, and there rested on their arms till peep of day. Then they put themselves in motion, and began the attack at three several points at the same instant, and, after a terrible slaughter on both sides, made themselves masters of all the outworks, on the castle side, from the Sambre to the Maese. At the same moment a mine was sprung on the town side, and the breach kept clear by a well-directed fire. On the morrow, the 1st of August, the breach was enlarged, and, on the 2d, two hundred English grepadiers, supported by a battalion of Dutch, forced the breach, stormed and carried the half-moon, the covered way, and the demi-bastion at St. Nicholas Gate. By this time the besieged lay open, on all sides, to the fire of the besiegers, who pointed their own guns against them, and kept up an incessant play with cannons, mortars, small arms, and grenades. On the following morning, as the allies were preparing for a general assault on the town, M. de Guiscard, the governor of the town, hung out a white flag, and soon capitulated for the surrender of the town, but no more, with the Elector of Bavaria, who at first refused to treat for any thing less than the whole. De Guiscard, with the remnant of his forces, and with his sick and wounded, retired into the castle, which still held out, with six or seven thousand men in it, under Boufflers. The loss of the French had been terrific; but the confederates, as assailants, had suffered far more severely. On the 7th, toward evening, the batteries were opened against the castle. In the mean while Villeroy had passed the Lys and the Scheldt, and advanced to Ninove; and the Prince of Vaudemont had decamp ed from Ghent and taken post at Dighen, in order to watch the French, who still gave out that they were going to the relief of Namur. But it was discovered that Villeroy's real intention was to bom-ed his fire upon that fine old city with twenty-five bard the city of Brussels. To prevent this calamity, mortar pieces and eighteen pieces of heavy artilVaudemont proposed occupying the plain of Gigot lery. This scene of destruction commenced be-. and St. Pee, and asked for considerable reinforce- tween six and seven o'clock on the evening of the ments from the main body of the army. But Will- 13th of August, and lasted without intermission till iam, on the first news of Villeroy's movement, had the afternoon of the 15th, during which time fifdetached the Earl of Athlone and the Count of teen hundred houses, six churches, and many other Nassau, with thirty battalions and forty squadrons public buildings were laid in ruins. There was a of horse, to post themselves between Waterloo and strong wind, which spread the flames on some Gemappe, in order to oppose the enemy's passage buildings that took fire; and, but for the knocking at Braine le Chateau; and he soon followed in per- down of many of the houses to cut off the comson with twenty squadrons more: so that nothing munication, nearly the whole of the city must have remained for Vaudemont to do but to encamp his in- been destroyed. King William had returned to fantry on the heights near Brussels, between Mont- the siege of the castle of Namur on the 12th; but zey and the counterscarp of Ixel, where the com- the Prince of Vaudemont, from his fortified emimunication was opened between his forces and those nence, witnessed this vindictive act without daring of Athlone and Nassau, who now covered part of to attempt to interrupt it, nor could Athlone and that ground which, in our own days, has been the the troops at Waterloo do more than the prince. scene of a far more memorable warfare. By these As soon as Villeroy had executed his commission, maneuvers the allies were also enabled to throw he decamped, and made, by forced marches, for But Villeroy, whose real purpose was to create a misunderstanding between William and his allies, or to induce those whose towns were liable to sim ilar visitations to oblige the King of England to spare the French ports, instantly began to arrange his batteries; and, as soon as they were ready, he open 66 But in the morning till eight at night, neither refusing Enghien, where he remained till the 20th; and The King of England was on horseback from four then, evacuating various towns which the French had taken in this or the preceding campaign, he advanced to Soignies, almost in sight of the grand army under William. But he was watched by the Prince of Vaudemont, who, having joined Athlone at Waterloo, advanced to Gemappe, and then to Mazey, a strong camp within two short leagues of the main army, where he was joined by the Hessians and Lunenburghers. On the night of the 12th, when William had returned to the siege of the castle of Namur, trenches were opened, approaches were made, and for three successive days a terrible fire was kept up. Boufflers, who had been told that no French marshal had ever surrendered, conceived a desperate design to break through the confederate camp with his cavalry, and so escape to Villeroy; but his movements were anticipated by William, who took precautions which rendered the plan utterly hopeless. On the 21st, one hundred and sixty-six cannon and sixty mortars assailed the castle, and, as if the besiegers had designed to level the walls like those of Jericho, with one blast, the dreadful business of the day was opened with one general discharge from all these batteries at the same instant, with such an effect, that not only the whole circumference of the castle, but the very hill it stood on, seemed to reel with the shock, and to be lost in the cloud of smoke and dust that followed it. Scarce could the besiegers themselves sustain the horror of their own experiment; and, as to the besieged, their consternation and confusion were inexpressible: those that escaped could scarce believe they had escaped: every object round about them wore a face of ruin; for bursting bombs, fractured battlements, dying men, and horses staking themselves on the palisadoes, or plunging headlong into the ditches, in a fit of ungovernable frenzy, were the only objects they were surrounded with." 1 At this desperate juncture, Villeroy, having sent off his baggage to Mons, advanced with his army to Soignies, announcing his approach in the night by a discharge of ninety cannon, which was answered by the besieged with a great light thrown up from the battlements. When day dawned he was discovered near the allied army, with his right wing resting upon Fleurus and his left upon Sombref. He had been reinforced from various quarters, and on the next day (the 27th) he was joined by troops from the Rhine and other forces under the Marquis d'Arcourt. William, who had received ten fresh battalions and twenty-two squadrons, left the Elector of Bavaria to look after the castle, and placed his troops in position, expecting a general engagement. On the morrow Villeroy removed to Gemblours, and on the 29th drew up his forces and advanced in order of battle; but he was deterred by the sight which a close approach afforded him, and, instead of fighting, stood gazing on the allied army till nightfall, when, with as little noise as possible, he edged off, and, coasting the river Mahigne, he extended his right to Perwys, and his left to Boneffe. 1 Ralph After the reduction of Namur the allies retired to winter-quarters, and William repaired to Loo, where he was complimented by all the ministers of the confederate princes and potentates. In other directions the campaign had been inactive and inglorious to the French. On the Rhine the Marshal Delorges had been again foiled by the Prince of Baden; in Italy the Duke of Savoy had recovered possession of the important fortress of Casale; in Spain they had been obliged to evacuate all their conquests in Catalonia beyond Gironne. But the Turks, the allies of his most Christian majesty, had again dashed across the Danube, and inflicted some severe blows upon the imperialists in Hungary. The English navy had continued masters of the |