seemed to be keeping himself hedged, in view of the King of Spain's death, feeling it impossible, he said, with propriety and honor, to go contrary to the faith of the treaties which united him to his father-in-law.

"That which can be kept secret for some time cannot be forever, nor be concealed from posterity," he said to Count d'Estrades, in a private letter: "any how, there are certain things which are good to do and bad to commit to writing." An understanding was come to without any writing.

Louis XIV.

well understood the noble heart and great mind with which he had to deal, when he wrote to Count d'Estrades, April 20, 1663, "It is clear that God caused M.de Witt to be born [in 1632] for great things, seeing that, at his age, he has already for many years deservedly been the most considerable person in his state; and I believe, too, that my having obtained so good a friend in him was not a simple result of chance, but of Divine Providence, who is thus early arranging the instruments of which He is pleased to make use for the glory of this crown, and for the advantage of the United Provinces.
The only complaint I make of him is, that, having so much esteem and affection as I have for his person, he will not be kind enough to let me have the means of giving him some substantial tokens of it, which I would do with very great joy." Louis XIV.

was not accustomed to meet, at foreign courts, with the high-spirited disinterestedness of the burgess-patrician, who, since the age of five and twenty, had been governing the United Provinces.
Thus, then, it was a case of strict partnership between France and Holland, and Louis XIV.