UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT UPON TOULON.

The attempt upon Toulon by the duke of Savoy and prince Eugene might have succeeded, if the emperor, notwithstanding the repeated remonstrances of the maritime powers, had not divided his army in Italy, by detaching a considerable body through the ecclesiastical state towards Naples, of which he took possession without any difficulty. Besides, ten thousand recruits destined for the Imperial forces in Italy were detained in Germany, from an apprehension of the king of Sweden, who remained in Saxony, and seemed to be upon very indifferent terms with the emperor. With the assistance of the English and Dutch fleets, the duke of Savoy and prince Eugene passed the Var 149 [See note 2 B, at the end of this Vol.] on the eleventh day of July, at the head of an army of thirty thousand men, and marched directly towards Toulon, whither the artillery and ammunition were conveyed on board of the combined squadrons. The French king was extremely alarmed at this attempt, as five thousand pieces of cannon, vast magazines, and the best part of his fleet, were in the harbour of Toulon, and ran the greatest risk of being entirely taken or destroyed. The whole kingdom of France was filled with consternation when they found their enemies were in the bosom of their country. The monarch resolved to leave no stone unturned for the relief of the place, and his subjects exerted themselves in a very extraordinary manner for its preservation. The nobility of the adjacent provinces armed their servants and tenants, at the head of whom they marched into the city: they coined their plate, and pawned their jewels for money to pay the workmen employed upon the fortifications; and such industry was used, that in a few days the town and harbour, which had been greatly neglected, were put in a good posture of defence. The allies took possession of the eminences that commanded the city, and the ordnance being landed, erected batteries. From these they began to cannonade and bombard the city, while the fleet attacked and reduced two forts at the entrance of the Mole, and co-operated in the siege with their great guns and bomb-ketches. The garrison was numerous, and defended the place with great vigour. They sunk ships in the entrance to the Mole: they kept up a prodigious fire from the ramparts: they made desperate sallies, and even drove the besiegers from one of their posts with great slaughter. The French king, alarmed at this design of his enemies, ordered troops to march towards Toulon from all parts of his dominions. He countermanded the forces that were on their route to improve the victory of Almanza: a great part of the army under Villars on the Bhine was detached to Provence, and the court of Versailles declared, that the duke of Burgundy should march at the head of a strong army to the relief of Toulon. The duke of Savoy being apprized of these preparations, seeing no hope of reducing the place, and being apprehensive that his passage would be intercepted, resolved to abandon his enterprise. The artillery being re-embarked, with the sick and wounded, he decamped in the night, under favour of a terrible bombardment and cannonading from the English fleet, and retreated to his own country without molestation.* Then he undertook the reduction of Susa, the garrison of which surrendered at discretion. By this conquest he not only secured the key to his own dominions, but also opened to himself a free passage into Dauphiné.

* Had the duke of Savoy marched with expedition from the
Var, he would have found Toulon defenceless; but he
lingered in such a manner as gives reason to believe he was
not hearty in the enterprise; and his operations were
retarded by a difference between him and his kinsman prince
Eugene.