the
Turks and Hungarians. It was evident that France could expect no more
from diversions in that quarter. At the same time the discontent of
the English and the ambitions of the Prince of Orange, who hoped from
his accession to the throne of England no ordinary personal
aggrandizement, but the fulfilment of his strongest political wish and
conviction, in curbing forever the power of Louis XIV., became more
and more plain. But for his expedition into England, William needed
ships, money, and men from the United Provinces; and they hung back,
knowing that the result would be war with the French king, who
proclaimed James his ally. Their action was at last decided by the
course of Louis, who chose this moment to revoke concessions made at
Nimeguen to Dutch trade. The serious injury thus done to Holland's
material interests turned the wavering scale. "This violation of the
conventions of Nimeguen," says a French historian,[67] "by giving a
severe blow to Dutch commerce, reducing her European trade more than
one fourth, removed the obstacle that religious passions still
encountered in material interests, and put all Holland at the
disposition of William, none having reason longer to conciliate
France." This was in November, 1687. In the summer of the following
year the birth of an heir to the English throne brought things to an
issue. English loyalty might have put up with the reign of the father,
now advanced in years, but could not endure the prospect of a
continued Roman Catholic royalty.

Matters had at last reached the crisis to which they had been tending
for years. Louis and William of Orange, long-standing enemies, and at
the moment the two chief figures in European politics, alike from
their own strong personalities and the cause which either represented,
stood on the brink of great actions, whose effects were to be felt
through many generations. William, despotic in temper himself, stood
on the shores of Holland looking hopefully toward free England, from
which he was separated by the narrow belt of water that was the
defence of the island kingdom, and might yet be an impassable barrier
to his own high aims; for the French king at that moment could control
the sea if he would. Louis, holding all the power of France in his
single grasp, facing eastward as before, saw the continent gathering
against him; while on his flank was England heartily hostile, longing
to enter on the strife against him, but as yet without