seat his faith in men. He did what every statesman does, had faith
in men, appealed to their possibilities, to their prospective rather
than their present selves, and so helped them to what they ought to be.
He lifted them up to his levels, and they stood peers in manhood and
patriotism. Many failed him; but many did not. Much discouraged, but,
specially later in his career, much encouraged him. Deeds of heroism
so incredible as to read like a romance,--such deeds were not rare,
rather common. The siege of Maestrich takes rank among the heroic
episodes in the battles for human liberty. One's blood grows fairly
frantic in reading the thrilling story, and a man is glad he is a man
and brother to men who could do feats so superb; and the flooding of
the lands in raising the siege of Leyden is to be classed among the
deathless sacrifices for dear liberty. For these and all such lofty
flights of courage and success, William was the inspiration. He was
never defeated by defeat. Liberty must not fail. The Provinces
trusted him in their hearts, and so long as he remained firm,
self-sacrificing, undisturbed, the people (so he argued) could be
relied on to trust in him and to justify his trust in them. In behalf
of freedom, no sacrifice or achievement was other than feasible to him.
He loaded his estate with debt for the common good. Through many years
penury was his portion. Great events marshaled themselves about him as
if he were their necessary captain. He knew the art of inspiring men,
which is, at last, the mightiest resource of a great soul. He knew how
to deal with men,--the finest of the arts. In his roused moments his
eloquence, whether spoken or written, swayed men's judgments and nerved
their hearts. Motley says, "His influence on his auditors was
unexampled in the annals of his country or age." His memory lost
nothing; his ability to read men ranks him with Richelieu; he was
cautious, politic, but not slow, though his uniform habit of caution
robbed his acts of the fine flavor of spontaneity; he was painstaking,
and as laborious as Philip, which is the last effort of comparison,
seeing Philip's industry was all but without precedent. If he flooded
coasts and inlands by the seas he emptied on them as if the seas were
his, he also inundated courts of kings and assemblies of nobles with
appeals, remonstrances, or letters of instruction or information. He
lacked nothing of being ubiquitous, and was the