clapped into a French prison.

"A bonny come off," the old skipper grumbled, "but we shall ha' to
make the best on it."

It will not be forgotten that the war just begun was, to put it
bluntly, a war to determine which of two indifferent princes, Philip
of France and Charles of Austria, should have the Spanish crown. Lord
Peterborough declared that it was not worth his country's while to
fight for such "a pair of louts."

[Illustration: "Now!" came the order.]

Into the war, however, England had thrown herself, under the direction
of Harley, the famous Tory minister now in power, at home, and with
Marlborough as commander-in-chief of both the English and the Dutch
forces abroad. The General's first aim was to take back from Louis XIV
all those fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands which had been seized
and garrisoned by the French troops as if the country were a French
possession.

He started from Kaiserwörth, a town on the Rhine, which his troops had
captured from one of Louis's chief allies, the Elector of Cologne,
before Marlborough arrived to take command. Venloo was taken in
gallant style, and then the important city of Liége, on the Meuse. The
result of the campaign was that the French had been chased from the
Lower Rhine, and Holland, much to its relief, made far more safe from
attack. Returning to England, the victorious commander was given a
grand reception. And no wonder, for it was the first time for many a
year that the French had received a real check.