moving spirit of all
occasions where liberty had followers. Nothing eluded nor bewildered
him, from which observations Motley's estimate stands justified; for he
called him "The first statesman of his age." Compare him with Don John
of Austria, hero of Lepanto, who was natural son of Emperor Charles V,
vivacious, romantic, brilliant, and conqueror of the Turks at Lepanto,
whence his name had risen, like a star, to flame at the eastern window
of every court in Christendom. Made governor of the Netherlands, he
found himself beset by difficulties through which sword and troop could
not cut his way. Harassed by the distrust, unfaithfulness, and
meanness of Philip; hedged by the sagacious statecraft of his
adversary, William of Orange, he attempted the role of war; found
himself defeated by an invisible antagonist, whose name haunted his
days and nights--the name was "Father William"--at last, flared up like
an expiring lamp, and died. Such the conqueror of Lepanto when brought
to cope with William the Silent. William stood possessed of vast
character-resources, so that what was lacking in supplies he made up in
himself.

William of Orange, and Philip, King of Spain and the Western
Hemisphere, challenge comparison. Philip was statesman in that his
powers were adapted to the cabinet rather than the battle; and Philip
may pass for a statesman in some particulars. Painstaking, laborious,
with real ability in choice of servants to execute his will, and
keeping eyes on the horizons of the greatest empire the world had seen,
he peopled this wide world of his with hopeless projects, since his
ambition was topless as skies of night. His claims were fantastic or
great, as you might elect to call them; for he claimed both England and
France as provinces of his empire, keeping at the respective courts
secret agents, with lavish gold for corrupting those sovereigns'
servants. His reign is a sort of free fight with him on everybody, he
keeping every item under his own surveillance, but displaying no
capacity to do other that baldly claim and attempt. He could not
compass his designs. There were no compensations in his reign. He
lost and never gained. England defeated him at home and abroad. The
Dutch defied him, and won their liberty after bitter years of struggle.
His every effort to subdue them failed. Though the Inquisition
murdered from fifty to one hundred thousand of his most industrious
subjects, this done, and st