HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER VII.

The place which William Henry, Prince of Orange Nassau, c ^ ] p -occupies in the history of England and of mankind is so great - 1667 -that it may be desirable to portray with some minuteness the william,strong lineaments of his character. * oi'angs ° f

He was now in his thirty-seventh year. But both in body Hi ' >p _and in mind he was older than other men of the same age. pearance.Indeed it might be said that he had never been young. Hisexternal appearance is almost as well known to us as to hisown captains and counsellors. Sculptors, painters, andmedallists exerted their utmost skill in the work of trans-mitting his features to posterity; and his features were such asno artist could fail to seize, and such as, once seen, couldnever be forgotten. His name at once calls up before us aslender and feeble frame, a lofty and ample forehead, a nosecurved like the beak of an eagle, and eye rivalling that of aneagle in brightness and keenness, a thoughtful and somewhatsullen brow, a firm and somewhat peevish mouth, a cheekpale, thin, and deeply furrowed by sickness and by care.

That pensive, severe, and solemn aspect could scarcely havebelonged to a happy or a good-humoured man. But it indicates

* The chief materials from which I have taken my description of thePrince of Orange will be found in Burnet’s History, in Temple’s andGourville’s Memoirs, in the Negotiations of the Counts ofEstrades andAvaux, in Sir George Downing’s Letters to Lord Chancellor Clarendon,in Wagenaar’s voluminous History, in Van Kamper’s Karakterkunde derVaderlandsche Geschiudenis, and, above all, in William’s own confi-dential correspondence, of which the Duke of Portland permitted SirJames Mackintosh to take a copy.

Macaulay, History. III. ^