JAMES THE SECOND.

7

of what the public interest required that he was always at the chap.post of danger. The troops which he commanded had been — ■

little used to war, and shrank from a close encounter with theveteran soldiery of France. It was necessary that their leadershould show them how battles were to be won. And in truthmore than one day which had seemed hopelessly lost wasretrieved by the hardihood with which he rallied his brokenbattalions and cut down with his own hand the cowards whoset the example of flight. Sometimes, however, it seemedthat he had a strange pleasure in venturing his person. It wasremarked that his spirits were never so high and his mannersnever so gracious and easy as amidst the tumult and carnageof a battle. Even in his pastimes he liked the excitement ofdanger. Cards, chess, and billiards gave him no pleasure.

The chase was his favourite recreation; and he loved it mostwhen it was most hazardous. His leaps were sometimes suchthat his boldest companions did not like to follow him. Heseems even to have thought the most hardy field sports ofEngland effeminate, and to have pined in the Great Park ofWindsor for the game which he had been used to drive to bayin the forests of Guelders, wolves, and wild boars, and hugestags with sixteen antlers.*

The audacity of his spirit was the more remarkable be- His lonecause his physical organization was unusually delicate. From Sanger:a child he had been weak and sickly. In the prime of man- >£ dhood his complaints had been aggravated by a severe attackof small pox. He was asthmatic and consumptive. His slenderframe was shaken by a constant hoarse oough. He could notsleep unless his head was propped by several pillows, andcould scarcely draw his breath in any but the purest air.

Cruel headaches frequently tortured him. Exertion soon fa-

* From Windsor he wrote to Benlinck, then ambassador at Paris.

“J’ay pris avant hier un cerf dans la forest avec les chains du Pr. deDenm. et ay fait un assez iolie chasse, autant que ce vilain paiis le

. ,, March^O.

permest. April t 1698. The spelling is bad, but not worse thanNapoleon’s. William wrote in better humour from Loo. “Nousavonspris deux gros cerfs, le premier dans Dorewaert, qui est un des plusgros que je sache avoir jamais pris. II porte seize." 1697 .