d saved; and De Witt and his
officers were released. William was in some measure consoled for
his disgrace by the condolence of the army, the thanks of the
province of Zealand, and a new treaty with France, strengthened by
promises of future support from Cardinal Mazarin; but, before he
could profit by these encouraging symptoms, domestic and foreign,
a premature death cut short all his projects of ambition.
Over-violent exercise in a shooting party in Guelders brought
on a fever, which soon terminated in an attack of smallpox. On
the first appearance of his illness, he was removed to The Hague;
and he died there on the 6th of November, 1650, aged twenty-four
years and six months.

The death of this prince left the state without a stadtholder,
and the army without a chief. The whole of Europe shared more or
less in the joy or the regret it caused. The republican party,
both in Holland and in England, rejoiced in a circumstance which
threw back the sovereign power into the hands of the nation;
the partisans of the House of Orange deeply lamented the event.
But the birth of a son, of which the widowed princess of Orange
was delivered within a week of her husbands death, revived the
hopes of those who mourned his loss, and offered her the only
consolation which could assuage her grief. This child was, however,
the innocent cause of a breach between his mother and grandmother,
the dowager-princess, who had never been cordially attached to
each other. Each claimed the guardianship of the young prince;
and the dispute was at length decided by the states, who adjudged
the important office to the elector of Brandenburg and the two
princesses jointly. The states of Holland soon exercised their
influence on the other provinces. Many of the prerogatives of
the stadtholder were now assumed by the people; and, with the
exception of Zealand, which made an ineffectual attempt to name
the infant prince to the dignity of his ancestors under the title
of William III., a perfect unanimity seemed to have reconciled
all opposing interests. The various towns secured the privileges
of appointing their own magistrates, and the direction of the
army and navy devolved to the states-general.

The time was now arrived when the wisdom, the courage, and the
resources of the republic were to be put once more to the test,
in a contest hitherto without example, and never since equalled in
its nature. The naval wars between Holland and England had t