690 Outlines of European History Louis XIV' invasion of Holland, 16; Peace of Nimwegen, 1678 Strong dislike for the United Provinces, which was increased by the protection that they afforded to writers who annoyed him with their attacks. He broke up the Triple Alliance by inducing Charles II of England to conclude a treaty which pledged England to help France in a new war against the Dutch. Louis XIV then startled Europe again by seizing the duchy of Lorraine, which brought him to the border of Holland. At the head of a hundred thousand men he crossed the Rhine (1672 ) and easily conquered southern Holland. For the moment the Dutch cause appeared to be lost. But William of Orange showed the spirit of his great ancestor William the Silent ; the sluices in the dikes were opened and the country flooded, so the French army was checked before it could take Amsterdam and advance into the north. The Emperor sent an army against Louis, and England deserted him and made peace with Holland. When a general peace was concluded at the end of six years, the chief provisions were that Holland should be left intact, and that France should this time retain Franche-Comte, which had been conquered by Louis XIV in person. This bit of the Burgundian heritage thus became at last a part of France, after France and Spain had quarreled over it for a century and a half. For the ten years following there was no open war, but Louis seized the important free city of Strassburg and made many other less conspicuous but equally unwarranted ad- ditions to his territory. The Emperor was unable to do more than protest against these outrageous encroachments, for he was fully occupied with the Turks, who had just laid siege to Vienna. Situation of the Hugue- nots at the beginning of Louis XIV's reign Section 124. Louis XIV and his Protestant Subjects Louis XIV exhibited as woeful a want of statesmanship in the treatment of his Protestant subjects as in the prosecution of disastrous wars. The Huguenots, deprived of their former military and political power, had turned to manufacture, trade,
