the imperious language of the enemy.  It was not without a hard struggle and a sharp pang that he made up his mind to consent to what France now proposed.  But he felt that it would be utterly impossible, even if it were desirable, to prevail on the House of Commons and on the States General to continue the war for the purpose of wresting from France a single fortress, a fortress in the fate of which neither England nor Holland had any immediate interest, a fortress, too, which had been lost to the Empire solely in consequence of the unreasonable obstinacy of the Imperial Court.  He determined to accept the modified terms, and directed his Ambassadors at Ryswick to sign on the prescribed day.  The Ambassadors of Spain and Holland received similar instructions.  There was no doubt that the Emperor, though he murmured and protested, would soon follow the example of his confederates.  That he might have time to make up his mind, it was stipulated that he should be included in the treaty if he notified his adhesion by the first of November.

Meanwhile James was moving the mirth and pity of all Europe by his lamentations and menaces.  He had in vain insisted on his right to send, as the only true King of England, a minister to the Congress.813 He had in vain addressed to all the Roman Catholic princes of the Confederacy a memorial in which he adjured them to join with France in a crusade against England for the purpose of restoring him to his inheritance, and of annulling that impious Bill of Rights which excluded members of the true Church from the throne.814 When he found that this appeal was disregarded, he put forth a solemn protest against the validity of all treaties to which the existing government of England should be a party.  He pronounced all the engagements into which his kingdom had entered since the Revolution null and void.  He gave notice that he should not, if he should regain his power, think himself bound by any of those engagements.  He admitted that he might, by breaking those engagements, bring great calamities both on his own dominions and on all Christendom.  But for those calamities he declared that he should not think himself answerable either before God or before man.  It seems almost incredible that even a Stuart, and the worst and dullest of the Stuarts, should have thought that the first duty, not merely of his own subjects, but of all mankind, was to support his rights; that Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, were guilty of a crime if they did not shed their blood and lavish their wealth, year after year, in his cause; that the interests of the sixty millions of human beings to whom peace would be a blessing were of absolutely no account when compared with the interests of one man.815

In spite of his protests the day of peace drew nigh.  On the tenth of September the Ambassadors of France, England, Spain and the United Provinces, met at Ryswick.  Three treaties were to be signed, and there was a long dispute on the momentous question which should be signed first.  It was one in the morning before it was settled that the treaty between France and the States General should have precedence; and the day was breaking before all the instruments had been executed.  Then the plenipotentiaries, with many bows, congratulated each other on having had the honour of contributing to so great a work.816