WILLIAM AND MAEY.

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in grandeur and boldness to those of Richelieu, and had carriedthem into effect with a tact and wariness worthy of Mazarin.Two countries, the seats of civil liberty and of the ReformedFaith, had been preserved by his wisdom and courage from ex-treme perils. Holland he had delivered from foreign, andEngland from domestic foes. Obstacles apparently insur-mountable had been interposed between him and the ends onwhich he was intent; and those obstacles his genius had turnedinto stepping stones. Under his dexterous management thehereditary enemies of his house had helped him to mount athrone; and the persecutors of hi3 religion had helped him torescue his religion from persecution. Fleets and armies, col-lected to withstand him, had, without a struggle, submittedto his orders. Factions and sects, divided by mortal anti-pathies, had recognised him as their common head. Withoutcarnage, without devastation, he had won a victory comparedwith which all the victories of Gustavus and Turenne were in-significant. In a few weeks he had changed the relative posi-tion of all the states inEurope, and had restored the equilibriumwhich the preponderance of one power had destroyed. F oreignnations did ample justice to his great qualities. In every Con-tinental country where Protestant congregations met, ferventthanks were offered to God, who, from among the progeny ofHis servants, Maurice, the deliverer of Germany, and William,the deliverer of Holland, had raised up a third deliverer, thewisest and mightiest of all. At Vienna, at Madrid, nay, atRome, the valiant and sagacious heretic was held in honour asthe chief of the great confederacy against the House of Bour-bon; and even at Versailles the hatred which he inspired waslargely mingled with admiration.

Here he was less favourably judged. In truth, our ancestorssaw him in the worst of all lights. By the French, the Germans,and the Italians, he was contemplated at such a distance thatMacaulay, History, IV, 4

cnAP.

XI.

1639 .