the close of the year 1813, these were the unanimous wishes
of the Dutch nation.

Napoleon, lost in the labyrinths of his exorbitant ambition,
afforded at length a chance of redress to the nations he had
enslaved. Elevated so suddenly and so high, he seemed suspended
between two influences, and unfit for either. He might, in a
moral view, be said to have breathed badly, in a station which
was beyond the atmosphere of his natural world, without being
out of its attraction; and having reached the pinnacle, he soon
lost his balance and fell. Driven from Russia by the junction of
human with elemental force, in 1812, he made some grand efforts
in the following year to recover from his irremediable reverses.
The battles of Bautzen and Lutzen were the expiring efforts of
his greatness. That of Leipzig put a fatal negative upon the
hopes that sprang from the two former; and the obstinate ambition,
which at this epoch made him refuse the most liberal offers of
the allies, was justly punished by humiliation and defeat. Almost
all the powers of Europe now leagued against him; and France
itself being worn out by his wasteful expenditure of men and
money, he had no longer a chance in resistance. The empire was
attacked at all points. The French troops in Holland were drawn
off to reinforce the armies in distant directions; and the whole
military force in that country scarcely exceeded ten thousand
men. The advance of the combined armies toward the frontiers
became generally known: parties of Cossacks had entered the north
of Holland in November, and were scouring the country beyond the
Yssel. The moment for action on the part of the Dutch confederate
patriots had now arrived; and it was not lost or neglected.

A people inured to revolutions for upward of two centuries, filled
with proud recollections, and urged on by well-digested hopes,
were the most likely to understand the best period and the surest
means for success. An attempt that might have appeared to other
nations rash was proved to be wise, both by the reasonings of its
authors and its own results. The intolerable tyranny of France
had made the population not only ripe, but eager for revolt.
This disposition was acted on by a few enterprising men, at once
partisans of the House of Orange and patriots in the truest sense
of the word. It would be unjust to omit the mention of some of
their names in even this sketch of the events which sprang from
their courage and sagaci