WILLIAM AND MALY.

117

who served him most faithfully served him without enthusiasm,without personal attachment, and merely from a sense of public •duty. In their hearts they were sorry that they had no choicebut between an English tyrant and a Dutch deliverer. All wasnow changed. William was among a population by which hewas adored, as Elizabeth had been adored when she rodethrough her army at Tilbury, as Charles the Second had beenadored when he landed at Dover. It is true that the old enemiesof the House of Orange had not been inactive during the ab-sence of the Stadtholder. There had been, not indeed clamours,but mutterings against him. He had, it was said, neglectedhis native land for his new kingdom. Whenever the dignity ofthe English flag, whenever the prosperity of the English tradewas concerned, he forgot that he was a Hollander. But, assoon as his well remembered face was again seen, alljealousy,all coldness, was at an end. There was not a boor, not afisherman, not an artisan, in the crowds which lined the roadfrom Honslaerdyk to the Hague, whose heart did not swell withpride at the thought that the first minister of Holland hadbecome a great King, had freed the English, and had con-quered the Irish. It w’ould have been madness in William totravel from Hampton Court to Westminster without a guard;hut in his own land he needed no swords or carbines to defendhim. “Do not keep the people off;” he cried: “let them comeclose to me: they are all my good friends.” He soon learnedthat sumptuous preparations were making for his entrance intothe Hague. At first he murmured and objected. He detested,he said, noise and display. The necessary cost of the war wasquite heavy enough. He hoped that his kind fellow townsmenwould consider him as a neighbour, born and bred among them,and would not pay him so bad a compliment as to treat himceremoniously. But all his expostulations were vain. TheHollanders, simple and parsimonious as their ordinary habits

CTIAP.

XVII.

1601 .

■William’sentranceinto theIlague.