Louis XIV. was not deceived regarding the plans of his adversaries. Although enfeebled by the withdrawal of the English, Prince Eugene, who had taken Quesnoy on the 3rd of July, proposed to follow the former plan of the Duke of Marlborough, and to resolutely advance into the heart of France. Marshal Villars placed himself before him upon the road from Marchiennes to Landrecies, "the road to Paris," said the imperialists. He threw bridges over the Escaut, and on the 23rd of July, 1712, crossed the stream between Ponchain and Denain. The Duke of Albemarle, at the head of seventeen battalions of auxiliary troops, commanded this small town. Prince Eugene advanced by forced marches to relieve Denain. Villars lost no time in preparation: "We have only to make fascines," said he; "the first body of our men who shall fall in the trench, will hold the place for us."
Prince Eugene was unable to cross the Escaut, guarded by the French. Denain was taken under his very eyes. "I had not taken twenty steps in the town, when the Duke of Albemarle, and six or seven lieutenant-generals of the Emperor, halted my horse," says the Marshal in his Memoirs. The allies retreated. Marchiennes was invested by De Broglie, and Prince Eugene was unable to save it. His troops raised the siege of Landrecies. The Marshal seized Douai and recaptured Quesnoy and Ponchain. The imperialist, who had been unable to accomplish anything, retired towards Brussels. The fortune of war had once again inclined victory to the side of France; she profited by it to obtain an honorable peace. "The time to flatter the pride of the Dutch is past," wrote Louis XIV. to his plenipotentiaries at Utrecht; "but it is necessary, in treating with them, in good faith, that it be with a becoming dignity."
The delegates of the States-General themselves comprehended the necessities of the situation, and henceforth they also desired peace. "We take the position that the Dutch held at Gertruydenberg, and they take ours," said Cardinal Polignac: "it is a complete revenge."--"Gentlemen, we will treat for peace in your country, for you, and without you," said the French to the Dutch deputies. Heinsius had not known, in 1709, how to shake off the influence of Marlborough and of Prince Eugene, in order to take the initiative in a peace necessary to Europe; and in consequence of this ignorance he had delivered this power into the hands of Harley and St. John. Henceforth the history of Holland, as a great power, was ended. She owed her liberty, her independence, and her influence in Europe, to the superior men who had so long directed her destinies. William the Silent, John De Witt, and William III. were no more; able and faithful as Heinsius had been, he nevertheless was compelled to arrest the progress and glory of his country at that threshold of grandeur which God alone is able to pass. With the development of material resources, the day of small countries passes forever.
