THE INTERREGNUM.

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freely, and from expressing what they thought, in private chap.circles, with the keen and delicate wit characteristic of their 1 16a ' 8 —nation and of their order. Their opinion of Mary was favour-able. They found her person agreeable and her deportmentdignified. They respected her courage and her maternalaffection; and they pitied her ill fortune. But James theyregarded with extreme contempt. They were disgusted byhis insensibility, by the cool way in which he talked to everybody of his ruin, and by the childish pleasure which he tookin the pomp and luxury of Versailles. This strange apathythey attributed, not to philosophy or religion, but to stupidityand meanness of spirit, and remarked that nobody who hadhad the honour to hear His Britannic Majesty tell his ownstory could wonder that he was at Saint Germains and his son-in-law at Saint James’s. *

In the United Provinces the excitement produced by the S[ale oftidings from England was even greater than in France. This feeling inwas the moment at which the Batavian federation reached the p' r o - mle<1highest point of power and glory. From the day on which the vinces -expedition sailed, the anxiety of the whole Dutch nation hadbeen intense. Never had there been such crowds in thechurches. Never had the enthusiasm of the preachers beenso ardent. The inhabitants of the Hague could not be re-strained from insulting Albeville. His house was so closelybeset by the populace, day and night, that scarcely anyperson ventured to visit him; and he was afraid that hischapel would be burned to the ground.** As mail after mailarrived with news of the Prince’s progress, the spirits of hiscountrymen rose higher and higher; and when at length itwas known that he had, on the invitation of the Lords and ofan assembly of eminent commoners, taken on himself theexecutive administration, a general cry of pride and joy rosefrom all the Dutch factions. An extraordinary mission was,with great speed, despatched to congratulate him. Dykvelt,

* My account of the reception of James and his wife in France istaken chiefly from the letters of Madame de Sdvignd and the Memoirs ofDangeau.

** Albeville to Preston, ^ 1688 , in the Mackintosh Collection.