he became their dupe. Though on
ordinary occasions frugal of words, when he did speak it was with
effect. His eloquence was of the most persuasive kind;[508] and as
towards his inferiors he was affable, and exceedingly considerate of
their feelings, he acquired an unbounded ascendancy over his
countrymen.[509] It must be admitted that the prince of Orange possessed
many rare qualities for the leader of a great revolution.

The course William took in respect to his wife's religion might lead one
to doubt whether he were at heart Catholic or Protestant; or indeed
whether he were not equally indifferent to both persuasions. The latter
opinion might be strengthened by a remark imputed to him, that "he would
not have his wife trouble herself with such melancholy books as the
Scriptures, but instead of them amuse herself with Amadis de Gaul, and
other pleasant works of the kind."[510] "The prince of Orange," says a
writer of the time, "passed for a Catholic among Catholics, a Lutheran
among Lutherans. If he could, he would have had a religion compounded of
both. In truth, he looked on the Christian religion like the ceremonies
which Numa introduced, as a sort of politic invention."[511] Granvelle,
in a letter to Philip, speaks much to the same purpose.[512] These
portraits were by unfriendly hands. Those who take a different view of
his character, while they admit that in his early days his opinions in
matters of faith were unsettled, contend that in time he became
sincerely attached to the doctrines which he defended with his sword.
This seems to be no more than natural. But the reader will have an
opportunity of judging for himself, when he has followed the great chief
through the changes of his stormy career.

It would be strange, indeed, if the leader in a religious revolution
should have been himself without any religious convictions. One thing is
certain, he possessed a spirit of toleration, the more honorable that in
that day it was so rare. He condemned the Calvinists as restless and
seditious; the Catholics, for their bigoted attachment to a dogma.
Persecution in matters of faith he totally condemned, for freedom of
judgment in such matters he regarded as the inalienable right of
man.[513] These conclusions, at which the world, after an incalculable
amount of human suffering, has been three centuries in arriving, (has it
altogether arrived at them yet?) must be allowed to reflect great credit
on the character of Wi