6

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

VII.

J6S7.

his personal courage. Courage, in the degree which is ne-cessary to carry a soldier without disgrace through a cam-paign, is possessed, or might, under proper training, be ac-quired, by the great majority of men. But courage like thatof William is rare indeed. He was proved by every test; bywar, by wounds, by painful and depressing maladies, byraging seas, by the imminent and constant risk of assassina-tion, a risk which has shaken very strong nerves, a risk whichseverely tried even the adamantine fortitude of Cromwell.Yet none could ever discover what that thing was which thePrince of Orange feared. His advisers could with difficultyinduce him to take any precaution against the pistols anddaggers of conspirators.* Old sailors were amazed at thecomposure which he preserved amidst roaring breakers on aperilous coast. In battle his bravery made him conspicuouseven among tens of thousands of brave warriors, drew forththe generous applause of hostile armies, and was never ques-tioned even by the injustice of hostile factions. During hisfirst campaigns he exposed himself like a man who sought fordeath, was always foremost in the charge and last in the re-treat, fought, sword in hand, in the thickest press, and, witha musket ball in his arm and the blood streaming over hiscuirass, still stood his ground and waved his hat under thehottest fire. His friends adjured him to take more care of alife invaluable to his country; and his most illustrious an-tagonist, the great Cond^, remarked, after the bloody day ofSeneflT, that the Prince of Orange had in all things bornehimself like an old general, except in exposing himself like ayoung soldier. William denied that he was guilty of temerity.It was, he said, from a sense of duty and on a cool calculation

* William was earnestly intreated by his friends, after the peace ofRyswick, to speak seriously to the French ambassador about the schemesof assassination which the Jacobites of St. Germains were constantlycontriving. The cold magnanimity with which these intimations ofdanger were received is singularly characteristic. To Bentinck, whohad sent from Paris very alarming intelligence, William merely replied,at the end of a long letter of business, — “ Pour les assasins je ne luy enay pas voulu parler, croiant que c’dtoit au desous de moy.” May d,.1098. I keep the original orthography, if it is to be so called.