At the same time the men of Zealand repulsed a French raid from Ath on Ardenburg, and this infraction of the neutrality of the Spanish Netherlands served but to raise up another enemy for Louis.
Turenne was therefore despatched to Westphalia and Conde to Alsace, while a corps of observation was formed on the Meuse to watch the Spanish Netherlands.
William, however, speedily opened secret negotiations with France in the hope of securing the armed assistance of that power for the carrying out of his ambitious projects of a war of aggrandisement against the Spanish Netherlands and of a restoration of his brother-in-law, Charles II., to the throne of England.
He made one fatal mistake - he dreamt of the French frontier being the Rhine and the Scheldt, and that a Spanish princess might bring the Spanish Netherlands as dowry to Louis XIV.
The Belgic provinces therefore passed under the rule of Philip IV., and were henceforth known as the Spanish Netherlands.
