WILLIAM AND MARY.

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brutal, Dutch boor, who generally observed a sulky silence,and, when forced to speak, gave short testy answers in badEnglish. The French statesmen, on the other hand, judged ofWilliam’s faculties from an intimate knowledge of the way inwhich he had, during twenty years, conducted affairs of thegreatest moment and of the greatest difficulty. He had, eversince 1673, been playing against themselves a most complicatedgame of mixed chance and skill for an immense stake: theywere proud, and with reason, of their own dexterity at thatgame; yet they were conscious that in him they had found morethan their match. At the commencement' of the long contestevery advantage had been on their side. They had at their ab-solute command all the resources of the greatest kingdom inEurope; and he was merely the servant of a commonwealth, ofwhich the whole territory was inferior in extent to Normandy orGuienne. A succession of generals and diplomatists of eminentability had been opposed to him. A powerful faction in hisnative country had pertinaciously crossed his designs. He hadundergone defeats in the field and defeats in the senate: buthis wisdom and firmness had turned defeats into victories. Not-withstanding all that could be done to keep him down, his in-fluence and fame had been almost constantly rising and spread-ing. The most important and arduous enterprise in the historyof modern Europe had been planned and conducted to a pros-perous termination by him alone. The most extensive coalitionthat the world had seen for ages had been formed by him, andwould be instantly dissolved if his superintending care werewithdrawn. He had gained two kingdoms by statecraft, and athird by conquest; and he was still maintaining himself in thepossession of all three in spite of both foreign and domestic foes.That these things had been effected by a poor creature, a manof the most ordinary capacity, was an assertion which mighteasily find credence among the nonjuring parsons who congre-

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CHAP.

XX.