DISPOSITION OF THE ARMIES.

King William having taken such steps as were deemed necessary for preserving the peace of England in his absence, crossed the sea to Holland in the middle of May, fully determined to make some great effort in the Netherlands that might aggrandize his military character, and humble the power of France which was already on the decline. That kingdom was actually exhausted in such a manner that the haughty Louis found himself obliged to stand upon the defensive against enemies over whom he had been used to triumph with uninterrupted success. He heard the clamours of his people which he could not quiet; he saw his advances to peace rejected; and to crown his misfortunes, he sustained an irreparable loss in the death of Francis de Montmorency, duke of Luxembourg, to whose military talents he owed the greatest part of his glory and success. That great officer died in January at Versailles, in the sixty-seventh year of his age; and Louis lamented his death the more deeply, as he had not another general left in whose understanding he could confide. The conduct of the army in Flanders was intrusted to mareschal Villeroy, and Boufflers commanded a separate army though subject to the other’s orders. As the French king took it for granted that the confederates would have a superiority of numbers in the field, and was well acquainted with the enterprising genius of their chief, he ordered a new line to be drawn between Lys and the Scheld; he caused a disposition to be made for covering Dunkirk, Ypres, Tournay, and Namur; and laid injunctions on his general to act solely on the defensive. Meanwhile, the confederates formed two armies in the Netherlands. The first consisted of seventy battalions of infantry, and eighty-two squadrons of horse and dragoons, chiefly English and Scots, encamped at Ærseele, Caneghem, and Wouterghem, between Thield and Deynse, to be commanded by the king in person, assisted by the old prince of Vaudemont. The other army, composed of sixteen battalions of foot and one hundred and thirty squadrons of horse, encamped at Zellich and Hamme, on the road from Brussels to Dendermonde, under the command of the elector of Bavaria, seconded by the duke of Holstein-Ploen. Major-general Ellemberg was posted near Dixmuyde with twenty battalions and ten squadrons; and another body of Brandenburg and Dutch troops, with a reinforcement from Liege, lay encamped on the Mehaigne, under the conduct of the baron de Heyden, Lieutenant-general of Brandenburgh, and the count de Berlo, general of the Liege cavalry. King-William arrived in the camp on the fifth clay of July, and remained eight days at Ærseele. Then he marched to Bekelar, while Villeroy retired behind his lines between Menin and Ypres, after having detached ten thousand men to reinforce Boufflers, who had advanced to Pont d’Espieres; but he too retreating within his lines, the elector of Bavaria passed the Scheld and took post at Kirkhoven; at the same time the body under Heyden advanced towards Namur.