18/58 He thus describes William's lifelong enemy and rival, whose name he already spells after his own fashion. He was not a great legislator. But he was, in one sense of the words, a great king. He was a perfect master of all the mysteries of the science of royalty,--of all the arts which at once extend power and conciliate popularity,--which most advantageously display the merits, or most dexterously conceal the deficiencies, of a sovereign. He was surrounded by great men, by victorious commanders, by sagacious statesmen. |