s of terms but what were advantageous to
France; and the prince of Orange believed them to have
always been concerted with the French ambassador. Vol. i. p.
439.

In Sir John Dalrymple's Appendix, (p. 103,) it appears, that
the king had signed himself, without the participation of
his ministers, a secret treaty with France, and had obtained
a pension on the promise of his neutrality; a tact which
renders his royal word, solemnly given to his subjects, one
of the most dishonorable and most scandalous acts that ever
proceeded from a throne.

Negotiations meanwhile were carried on between France and Holland, and
an eventual treaty was concluded; that is all their differences were
adjusted, provided they could after wards satisfy their allies on both
sides. This work, though in appearance difficult, seemed to be extremely
forwarded, by further bad successes on the part of the confederates, and
by the great impatience of the Hollanders; when a new event happened,
which promised a more prosperous issue to the quarrel with France, and
revived the hopes of all the English who understood the interests of
their country.

The king saw with regret the violent discontents which prevailed in the
nation, and which seemed every day to augment upon him. Desirous by his
natural temper to be easy himself, and to make every body else easy,
he sought expedients to appease those murmurs, which, as they were
very disagreeable for the present, might in their consequences prove
extremely dangerous. He knew that, during the late war with Holland, the
malecontents at home had made applications to the prince of Orange; and
if he continued still to neglect the prince's interests, and to thwart
the inclinations of his own people, he apprehended lest their common
complaints should cement a lasting union between them. He saw that the
religion of the duke inspired the nation with dismal apprehensions; and
though he had obliged his brother to allow the young princesses to be
educated in the Protestant faith, something further, he thought, was
necessary, in order to satisfy the nation. He entertained, therefore,
proposals for marrying the prince of Orange to the lady Mary, the elder
princess, and heir apparent to the crown, (for the duke had no male
issue;) and he hoped, by so tempting an offer, to engage him entirely
in his interests. A peace he purposed to make; such as would satisfy
France, and sti