hile every one else was bowing low before this formidable
man, William of Orange stood erect.

This man, without a kingdom and without an army, was nevertheless more
powerful than the king. Like him, he had been a disciple of Charles
V., and had learned the art of elevating thrones and hurling them
down; like him, he was cunning and inscrutable, and yet he divined the
future with keener intellectual vision than Philip. Like his enemy, he
had the power of reading men's souls, but he also had the ability to
win their hearts. He had a good cause to uphold, but he was acquainted
with all the artifices that are used to maintain bad causes. Philip
II., who spied into every one's affairs, was spied on in his turn and
had his purposes divined by William. The designs of the great king
were discovered and thwarted before they were put into execution;
mysterious hands ransacked his drawers and pockets and investigated
his secret papers. William in Holland read the mind of Philip in the
Escurial; he anticipated, hindered, and embroiled all his plots; he
dug the ground from beneath his feet, provoked him, and then escaped,
only to return before his eyes like a phantom which he saw and could
not seize, which he seized and could not destroy. At last William
died, but even when dead the victory was his, and the enemy who
survived was defeated. Holland remained for a short time without a
head, but the Spanish monarchy had received such a blow that it was
not able to rise again.

In this wonderful struggle the figure of the Great King gradually
dwindles until it entirely disappears, while that of William of Orange
becomes greater and greater by slow degrees until it grows to be the
most glorious figure of his age. From the day when, as a hostage to
the king of France, he discovered Philip's design of establishing the
Inquisition in the Netherlands he devoted himself to defend the
liberty of his country, and throughout his life he never wavered for a
moment on the road he had entered. The advantages of his noble birth,
a regal fortune, peace, and the splendid life which by habit and
nature were dear to him, all these he sacrificed to the cause; he was
reduced to poverty and exiled, yet in both poverty and exile he
constantly refused the offers of pardon and of favor that were made
from many sides and in many ways by the enemy who hated and feared
him. Surrounded by assassins, made the target of the most atrocious
calumnies, accused of c