Marshal Turenne had moved on Dendermonde, but the Flemings had opened their sluices; the country was inundated; it was necessary to fall back on Audenarde; the town was taken in two days; and the king, still attended by the court, laid siege to Lille.

Vauban, already celebrated as an engineer, traced out the lines of circumvallation; the army of M.de Crequi formed a junction with that of Turenne; there was expectation of an attempt on the part of the governor of the Low Countries to relieve the place; the Spanish force sent for that purpose arrived too late, and was beaten on its retreat; the burgesses of Lille had forced the garrison to capitulate; and Louis XIV.

entered it on the 27th of August, after ten days' open trenches.

On the 2d of September, the king took the road back to St.Germain; but Turenne still found time to carry the town of Alost before taking up his winter-quarters.
Louis XIV.'s first campaign had been nothing but playing at war, almost entirely without danger or bloodshed; it had, nevertheless, been sufficient to alarm Europe.

Scarcely had peace been concluded at Breda, when another negotiation was secretly entered upon between England, Holland, and Sweden.
It was in vain that King Charles II.