mistresses, entered into alliance with Louis XIV. for the coercion of
Holland; the Lillies and the Leopards, the navies of France and England,
assembled together at Spithead, and made sail for the French coast,
while the armies of the Grande Monarque advanced across the Rhine into
the heart of the United Provinces; and the consequence was, such a
prodigious addition to the power of France, as it took all the blood and
treasure expended in the war of the Succession and all the victories of
Marlborough, to reduce to a scale at all commensurate with the
independence of the other European states.

* * * * *




THE GATHERER.

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Fleurus is a village in France, in the department of the Sombre and
Meuse, where the Austrians and the French fought a battle in the year
1794, in which the former were defeated. This victory is ascribed to the
information obtained in consequence of reconnoitering the army of the
enemy by the elevation of a balloon. The balloon employed on this
occasion was called the _Entreprenent_; and it was under the
direction of M. Coutel, the captain of the aeronauts at Meudon,
accompanied by an adjutant and a general. He ascended twice in the same
day, to the height of 220 fathoms, for the purpose of observing the
position and manoeuvres of the enemy. He continued each time four hours