s; and although each was,
perforce, captain of a host, his signal service was as shaper of a
realm.

Here lies William the Silent's chosen might. He was born diplomat.
Philip himself kept State secrets behind no more impenetrable reserve
than William. His statesmanship was wrought into his patriotism like
glancing colors in silk; and he stands a patriot whose services no one
can overestimate, and a champion of liberty the most valiant and
sagacious known prior to the Puritan Rebellion. Seventeen provinces
constituted the Netherlands. By the pacification of Ghent, in 1576, a
union was formed among certain of these, in which, for the first time,
religious tolerance was asserted and applied--Catholics to allow
Protestants to worship as they would, and Protestants to do the like by
Catholics. This pacification, in its specifications, was an unheard-of
gain for Protestantism and for liberty, and constituted William's chief
triumph up to that date. The Netherlands were peopled with varied
populations, with all but innumerable conflicting interests and
dispositions, so much so that union seemed impossible. This is partial
explanation why Prince William suffered more from the inaction and
suspicion of his own countrymen than from all Philip's machinations.
His patience was something godlike. No people known to history appear
to less advantage or show less love of liberty, or even common
self-respect, than these Belgic provinces through many years. They
were so abject, so schooled to suffer and resent nothing, that even the
horrors of the Spanish Inquisition did not lift them into rebellion,
nor yet the savage cruelties of Alva, nor the execution of Count Egmont
and Count Horn, though the atrocities of Spanish mutineers did at last
expedite those deliberations which ultimated in the pacification of
Ghent. I have wondered many, many times. Orange did not lose faith in
his countrymen and give them over to their servitude. His fortitude
sustained him, and his patience held as if it had been a steel cable,
and his natural cheerfulness was of unquestionable service in keeping
him from losing heart. Almost every leader proved false to him, some
of his own relations included, and he kept on! He must use the men he
had. A great cause requires and equips a great leader. It was so in
William. His country and its cause had him, and in him was rich. He
saw worth in men, and built on that. That men betrayed him did not
un