120

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XVII.

1691 .

Congressat theHague.

among them theKingof three kingdoms, the head of the greatest• coalition that Europe had seen during a hundred and eightyyears; and nothing was heard in the hall but applause andcongratulations. *

By this time the streets of the Hague were overflowing withthe equipages and retinues of princes and ambassadors whocame flocking to the great Congress. First appeared the ambi-tious and ostentatious Frederic, Elector of Brandenburg, who,a few years later, took the title of King of Prussia. Thenarrived the young Elector of Bavaria, the Regent of Wirtem-berg, the Landgraves of Hesse Cassel and Hesse Darmstadt,and a long train of sovereign princes, sprung from the illustrioushouses of Brunswick, of Saxony, of Holstein, and of Nassau. TheMarquess of Gastanaga, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands,repaired to the assembly from the viceregal Court of Brussels.Extraordinary ministers had been sent by the Emperor, by theKings of Spain, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden, and by theDuke of Savoy. There was scarcely room in the town and theneighbourhood for the English Lords and gentlemen and theGerman Counts and Barons whom curiosity or official duty hadbrought to the place of meeting. The grave capital of the mostthrifty and industrious of nations was as gay as Venice in theCarnival. The walks cut among those noble limes and elms inwhich the villa of the Princes of Orange is embosomed were gaywith the plumes, the stars, the flowing wigs, the embroideredcoats and the gold hilted swords of gallants from London,Berlin and Vienna. With the nobles were mingled sharpersnot less gorgeously attired than they. At night the hazardtables were thronged; and the theatre was filled to the roof.

* London Gazette, Feb. 5. 169J; Ilis Majesty’s Speech to the Assemblyof the States General of the United Provinces at the Hague, the 7th ofFebruary N. S., together with the Answer of their High and Mighty Lord-ships, as both are extracted out of the Register of the Resolutions of theStates General, 1G91.