Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/392

378 Pyrenean frontier. Villars had declined the command, being wholly averse to the quadruple alliance, but it was accepted by the duke of Berwick, though it must have been anything but an agreeable one to him. He it was who more than any other man had established Philip on the throne of Spain. He had won the decisive victory of Almanza, and was the stanch friend of the Bourbon cause in Spain, as well as half brother to the pretender, whose interests Spain was endeavouring to maintain when France had abandoned them. But Berwick was a man in whom a sense of duty predominated over all other considerations, and it was sufficient for him to have received the regent's commands for this service. He now, therefore, became the antagonist, as he had before been the champion, of Philip.



Philip had but a few regiments of worn-out veterans or raw recruits to oppose to the powerful army of Berwick, for the flower of his troops were engaged in Sicily; but he put himself at their head confidently, for his agents had represented that the grandson of Louis XIV. had only to present himself before a French army for it to desert in a body to him. He arrived, therefore, at Pampeluna, attended by the queen, the prince of Asturias, and Alberoni. Addresses were drawn up to distribute amongst the soldiers of Berwick; and so strong was the king's infatuation, that he proposed to ride alone into the French army and claim their allegiance, assured of instantly receiving it. Alberoni, however, was not so mad; and when he could not prevent this fatal folly by argument, he disconcerted it by issuing false orders to the king's attendants, by which they were not ready in time, and the absurdity of the proposal was shown by the proclamations being distributed and their producing no effect. The safety of Philip was thus insured by undeceiving him as to the real sentiment of the French army, and he soon beheld M. de Silly, who commanded the army till the arrival of Berwick, advancing upon him with a force that compelled him to retreat before it. The French army passed the Bidasson and reduced the Port Passages, where Silly found six large men-of-war on the stocks. Colonel William Stanhope, who had been sent to insure the most complete destruction of the Spanish naval preparations, recommended that they should be burnt, and it was done. The Biscayan provinces had been the most zealous in