"I give you an opportunity of making your merit known," said Louis XIV.

to his son: "exhibit it to all Europe, so that when I come to die it shall not be perceived that the king is dead." The dauphin was already tasting the pleasures of conquest, and the coalition had not stirred.

They were awaiting their chief; William of Orange was fighting for them in the very act of taking possession of the kingdom of England.

Weary of the narrow-minded and cruel tyranny of their king, James II., disquieted at his blind zeal for the Catholic religion, the English nation had summoned to their aid the champion of Protestantism; it was in the name of the political liberties and the religious creed of England that the Prince of Orange set sail on the 11th of November, 1688; on the flags of his vessels was inscribed the proud device of his house, I will maintain; below were the words, _Pro libertate et Protestante religione._ William landed without obstacle at Torbay, on the 15th of November; on the 4th of January, King James, abandoned by everybody, arrived in France, whither he had been preceded by his wife, Mary of Modena, and the little Prince of Wales; the convention of the two Houses in England proclaimed William and Mary _kings_ (rois--?
king and queen); the Prince of Orange had declined the modest part of mere husband of the queen.

"I will never be tied to a woman's apron-strings," he had said.
By his personal qualities as well as by the defects and errors of his mind Louis XIV.