[Footnote 7:  The council of Spain gave De Ruyter the title and letters patent of duke.  The latter arrived in Holland after his death; and his children, with true republican spirit, refused to adopt the title.]

CHAPTER XX

FROM THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT

A.D. 1678—­1713

A few years passed over after this period, without the occurrence of any transaction sufficiently important to require a mention here.  Each of the powers so lately at war followed the various bent of their respective ambition.  Charles of England was sufficiently occupied by disputes with parliament, and the discovery, fabrication, and punishment of plots, real or pretended.  Louis XIV., by a stretch of audacious pride hitherto unknown, arrogated to himself the supreme power of regulating the rest of Europe, as if all the other princes were his vassals.  He established courts, or chambers of reunion as they were called, in Metz and Brisac, which cited princes, issued decrees, and authorized spoliation, in the most unjust and arbitrary manner.  Louis chose to award to himself Luxemburg, Chiny, and a considerable portion of Brabant and Flanders.  He marched a considerable army into Belgium, which the Spanish governors were unable to oppose.  The Prince of Orange, who labored incessantly to excite a confederacy among the other powers of Europe against the unwarrantable aggressions of France, was unable to arouse his countrymen to actual war; and was forced, instead of gaining the glory he longed for, to consent to a truce for twenty years, which the states-general, now wholly pacific and not a little cowardly, were too happy to obtain from France.  The emperor and the king of Spain gladly entered into a like treaty.  The fact was that the peace of Nimeguen had disjointed the great confederacy which William had so successfully brought about; and the various powers were laid utterly prostrate at the feet of the imperious Louis, who for a while held the destinies of Europe in his hands.

Charles II. died most unexpectedly in the year 1685; and his obstinately bigoted and unconstitutional successor, James II., seemed, during a reign of not four years’ continuance, to rush wilfully headlong to ruin.  During this period, the Prince of Orange had maintained a most circumspect and unexceptionable line of conduct; steering clear of all interference with English affairs; giving offence to none of the political factions; and observing in every instance the duty and regard which he owed to his father-in-law.  During Monmouth’s invasion he had despatched to James’s assistance six regiments of British troops which were in the Dutch service, and he offered to take the command of the king’s forces against the rebels.  It was from the application of James himself that William took any part in English affairs; for he was more