THE FRENCH WORSTED AT WALCOURT.

The affairs of France wore but a gloomy aspect on the continent, where all the powers of Europe seemed to have conspired her destruction. King William had engaged in a new league with the states-general, in which former treaties of peace and commerce were confirmed. It was stipulated, that in case the king of Great Britain should be attacked, the Dutch should assist him with six thousand infantry, and twenty ships of the line; and that, provided hostilities should be committed against the states-general, England should supply them with ten thousand infantry, and twenty ships of war. This treaty was no sooner ratified, than king William dispatched the lord Churchill, whom he had by this time created earl of Marlborough, to Holland, in order to command the British auxiliaries in that service to the number of eleven thousand, the greater part of which had been in the army of king James when the prince of Orange landed in England. The earl forthwith joined the Dutch army, under the command of prince Waldeck, who had fixed his rendezvous in the county of Liege, with a view to act against the French army commanded by the mareschal D’Humieres; while the prince of Vaudemont headed a little army of observation, consisting of Spaniards, Dutch, and Germans, to watch the motions of Calvo in another part of the Low-Countries. The city of Liege was compelled to renounce the neutrality, and declare for the allies. Mareschal D’Humieres attacked the foragers belonging to the army of the states at Walcourt, in the month of August; an obstinate engagement ensued, and the French were obliged to retreat in confusion, with the loss of two thousand men, and some pieces of artillery. The army of observation levelled part of the French lines on the side of Courtray, and raised contributions on the territories of the enemy.