f his country,
driving him back and recovering from him all he had conquered: to see
this done with an army in which a little before there was neither
discipline, courage, nor sense of honour! Ancient history has no exploit
superior to it; and it will ennoble the modern whenever a Livy or a
Plutarch shall arise to do justice to it, and set the hero who performed
it in a true light.

_William_.--Say, rather, when time shall have worn out that malignity and
rancour of party which in free States is so apt to oppose itself to the
sentiments of gratitude and esteem for their servants and benefactors.

_De Witt_.--How magnanimous was your reply, how much in the spirit of
true ancient virtue, when being asked, in the greatest extremity of our
danger, "How you intended to live after Holland was lost?" you said, "You
would live on the lands you had left in Germany, and had rather pass your
life in hunting there than sell your country or liberty to France at any
rate!" How nobly did you think when, being offered your patrimonial
lordships and lands in the county of Burgundy, or the full value of them
from France, by the mediation of England in the treaty of peace, your
answer was, "That to gain one good town more for the Spaniards in
Flanders you would be content to lose them all!" No wonder, after this,
that you were able to combine all Europe in a league against the power of
France; that you were the centre of union, and the directing soul of that
wise, that generous confederacy formed by your labours; that you could
steadily support and keep it together, in spite of repeated misfortunes;
that even after defeats you were as formidable to Louis as other generals
after victories; and that in the end you became the deliverer of Europe,
as you had before been of Holland.

_William_.--I had, in truth, no other object, no other passion at heart
throughout my whole life but to maintain the independence and freedom of
Europe against the ambition of France. It was this desire which formed
the whole plan of my policy, which animated all my counsels, both as
Prince of Orange and King of England.

_De Witt_.--This desire was the most noble (I speak it with shame) that
could warm the heart of a prince whose ancestors had opposed and in a
great measure destroyed the power of Spain when that nation aspired to
the monarchy of Europe. France, sir, in your days had an equal ambition
and more strength to support her vast designs than Spai