"WILLIAM AUD HABY.

69

C HAP TER XIX.

While England was agitated , first by the dread of an in- chap.vasion, and then by joy at the deliverance wrought for her by | C92 . ~the valour of her seamen, important events were taking place Foreignon the Continent. On the sixth of March the King had arrived wiiilim!at the Hague, and had proceeded to make his arrangementsfor the approaching campaign.*

The prospect which lay before him was gloomy. The coali-tion of which he was the author and the chief had, during somemonths, been in constant danger of dissolution. By whatstrenuous exertions, by what ingenious expedients, by whatblandishments, by what bribes, he succeeded in preventing hisallies from throwing themselves, one by one, at the feet ofFrance, can be but imperfectly known. The fullest and mostauthentic record of the labours and sacrifices by which he kepttogether, during eight years, a crowd of faint-hearted andtreacherous potentates, negligent of the common interest andjealous of each other, is to be found in his correspondence withHeinsius. In that correspondence William is all himself. Hehad, in the course of his eventful life, to sustain some high partsfor which he was not eminently qualified; and, in those parts,his success was imperfect. As Sovereign of England, he showedabilities and virtues which entitle him to honourable mention inhistory: but his deficiencies were great. He was to the last astranger among us, cold, reserved, never in good spirits, neverat his ease. His kingdom was a place of exile. His finest pa-laces -were prisons. He was always counting the days which* London Gazette, March 14. 1692.