Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/154

140 joined by the Swedish fleet, and the combined fleet now amounting to fifty-two ships of the line, he chased the Danes from the Baltic, and cooped them up in the harbour of Copenhagen. The Danes made their first attack by land on the territories of the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, the cousin and ally of Charles of Sweden. But the troops of Sweden, under the duke of Lunenburg, crossed the Elbe, and marched to the assistance of Holstein. The Danes were compelled to abandon the siege of Tonnenberg; and the troops of Saxony, which had entered Brunswick, whose elector was the ally of Sweden, were compelled to retire in disorder. Whilst affairs were thus running unexpectedly adverse to Denmark, Charles XII. of Sweden, a name destined speedily to electrify the whole civilised world, crossed the Belt under protection of the combined fleet, and threw himself into Zealand at the head of his army. He forced a landing in the face of powerful batteries only five Swedish miles from Copenhagen itself. As the balls whistled round his head, he asked a Scottish officer in his pay, major-general Stuart, what that noise was. "They are the balls of the enemy," replied Stuart. "Good," said Charles; "they shall henceforth be my music." As he said this, Stuart on one side of him, and a lieutenant on the other, fell dead; but the boy-hero rushed on, and drove the enemy from their batteries. He then marched on Copenhagen, which he attacked from the land, whilst the fleet bombarded it from the sea; and the Danes, thus stormed in their own capital, and their country already traversed by the Swedish armies, were glad to make peace. Meantime Augustus of Poland had besieged Riga; but the brave old octogenarian Swedish general, Dahlberg, compelled him to retire with disgrace; and Charles XII., retiring to Schonen, prepared to direct his arms against Peter the czar, and as autumn came on, the allied fleets retired from the Baltic.

William during this spring had been busy contracting a new treaty of partition. Tallard, Portland, and Jersey had assisted in it. It was signed by them in London on the 21st of February, and by Briord and the plenipotentiaries of the States at the Hague on the 25th of March. It had substituted the archduke Charles, the second son of the emperor, for the deceased electoral prince of Bavaria, as heir to Spain with the Spanish Flanders and colonies; but the dauphin was still to possess Naples and the other Italian states with Lorraine and Bar, and the duke of Lorraine was to have Milan. In case of the archduke dying without issue, some other son of the emperor was to succeed, but not the king of the Romans, for it was stipulated that Spain and the empire, or France and Spain, were never to be united under one crown. The treaty was now made known to the different powers, and excited much astonishment and disapprobation. The emperor of Germany, notwithstanding his son was made successor to the Spanish monarchy, Flanders, America, and the Indies, was by no means conciliated. He expressed his astonishment that the kings of other kingdoms should take upon them to carve up the Spanish monarchy without the consent of the present possessor and the estates of the kingdom. He denied the right of these powers to compel him to accept a part when he was heir to the whole, and to pronounce his forfeiture of even that part if within three months he did not consent to this unwarrantable proceeding. The other princes of Germany were unwilling to excite the enmity of the house of Austria by expressing their approval of the scheme, and Brandenburg, which was just now in treaty with the emperor for the acknowledgment of Prussia as a kingdom, which was signed on the 16th of November, of course united with him. The Italian states were alarmed at the prospect of being handed over to France, and the Swiss declined to sanction the treaty. In Spain the aristocracy, who had vast estates in Sicily, Naples, and the other Italian provinces, and who enjoyed the vice-royalties, and governorships, and other good offices there, were greatly incensed at the idea of all these passing to the French. The miserable and dying king was in agonies. He had already made a will, leaving the crown and all its dependencies to the emperor, but neither he nor the emperor had taken the precaution of securing the Italian provinces by marching a strong army thither — probably from fear of arousing Louis to a premature war. He now called a council of state to deliberate on the succession; but the unfortunate prince had to deliberate with a council which had long been bought over by the French. Even the queen, who was young and childless, was tempted by the private proposal that, on the king's death, and the succession of the son of the dauphin — for still, spite of Louis's treaty with William, it was the son of the dauphin that he meant to succeed—she should marry him and still share the crown. Though the king still adhered to the house of Austria, he found that ten out of twelve of the council were for a Bourbon prince. They contended that Spain had fallen into such a state of weakness, that nothing but being under the care and alliance of France could prevent the different powers seizing on her dependencies and dismembering her; that Austria could not do this; she was too distant, had no fleets, was too poor, and too much dependent on the support of heretic princes. France, on the other hand, was truly catholic, and had shown that she could overawe all Europe. They had only to provide that the two crowns should never be united.

Only two of the council had the patriotism to vote that the question should be submitted to the cortes; they were overborne by the voices of the rest, who had been bought over by Harcourt, the French minister. Amongst them were prominent the marquis de Monterey and cardinal Portocarrero. They advised that they should consult the faculties of law and theology, and these faculties were already bribed by France. Portocarrero removed the king's confessor, who was in the interest of Austria, and by whom the queen kept the king firm to that house. He introduced instead one Froylan Diaz, a Dominican friar, who was perfectly his creature, and, by the aid of this friar, Portocarrero and the inquisitor-general persuaded Charles that all his complaints arose from sorcery which had been practised on him by his own mother, Mariana, who was of the house of Austria, and who was hated by the Spaniards for her insolent carriage and rapacious disposition. This scheme was, however, defeated by the death of the inquisitor-general, and the succession of the bishop of Segovia, who was in the German interest, and who convinced Charles that he had been grossly imposed upon. This diabolical plot having failed, the French faction persuaded the starving people that all their troubles had been produced by the partisans of Austria; and the enraged mob surrounded the palace and demanded to see the king,