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HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

VII.

1687 .

and perseverance with which he devoted himself to his missionhave scarcely any parallel in history. In comparison with hisgreat object he held the lives of other men as cheap as hisown. It was but too much the habit, even of the most humaneand generous soldiers of that age, to think very lightly of thebloodshed and devastation inseparable from great martialexploits; and the heart of William was steeled, not only byprofessional insensibility, but by that sterner insensibilitywhich is the effect of a sense of duty. Three great coalitions,three long and bloody wars in which all Europe from the Vis-tula to the Western Ocean was in ailns, are to be ascribed tohis unconquerable energy. When in 1678 the States General,exhausted and disheartened, were desirous of repose, hisvoice was still against sheathing the sword. If peace wasmade, it was made only because he could not breathe intoother men a spirit as fierce and determined as his own. Atthe very last moment, in the hope of breaking off the negotia-tion which he knew to be all but concluded, he fought oneof the most bloody and obstinate battles of that age. Fromthe day on which the treaty of Nimeguen was signed, he beganto meditate a second coalition. His contest with Lewis,transferred from the field to the cabinet, was soon exasperatedby a private feud. In talents, temper, manners and opinions,the rivals were diametrically opposed to each other. Lewis,polite and dignified, profuse and voluptuous, fond of displayand averse from danger, a munificent patron of arts andletters, and a cruel persecutor of Calvinists, presented aremarkable contrast to William, simple in tastes, ungraciousin demeanour, indefatigable and intrepid in war, regardlessof all the ornamental branches of knowledge, and firmlyattached to the theology of Geneva. The enemies did notlong observe those courtesies which men of their rank, evenwhen opposed to each other at the head of armies, seldomneglect. William, indeed, went through the form of tender-ing his best services to Lewis. But this civility was rated atits true value, and requited with a dry reprimand. The greatKing affected contempt for the petty Prince who was the ser-vant of a confederacy of trading towns; and to every mark