WILLIAM TITJ3 TITIED.

3

the statesmen of Europe therefore agreed in thinking that his chap.position, difficult and dangerous at best, had been made farmore difficult and more dangerous by the death of the Queen.

But all the statesmen of Europe were deceived; and, strangeto say, his reign was decidedly more prosperous and moretranquil after the decease of Mary than during her life.

A few hours after he had lost the most tender and beloved Dcalh o(

Luxcm-

of all his friends, he was delivered from the most formidable of burg,all his enemies. Death had been busy at Paris as well as inLondon. While Tenison was praying by the bed of Mary,Bourdaloue was administering the last unction to Luxemburg.

The great French general had never been a favourite at theFrench Court: but when it was known that his feeble frame,exhausted by war'and pleasure, was sinking under a dangerousdisease, the value of his services was, for the first time, fullyappreciated: the royal physicians were sent to prescribe forhim: the sisters of Saint Cyr were ordered to pray for him: butprayers and prescriptions were vain. “How glad the Prince ofOrange will be,” said Lewis, “when the news of our lossreaches him.” He was mistaken. That news found AVilliamunable to think of any loss but his own.*

During the month which followed the death of Mary theKing was incapable of exertion. Even to the addresses of the Ham.two Houses of Parliament he replied only by a few inarticulatesounds. The answers which appear in the Journals were notuttered by him, hut were delivered in writing. Such businessas could not be deferred was transacted by the intervention ofPortland, who was himself oppressed with sorrow. Duringsome weeks the important and confidential correspondencebetween the King and Heinsius was suspended. At lengthWilliam forced himself to resume that correspondence: but hisfirst letter was the letter of a heartbroken man. Even his* Saint Simon; Dangcau; Monthly Mercury for January 1695.

1*