It was this memorable resistance to vastly superior forces, and readiness to make any sacrifices, which gave immortal fame to William of Orange, and imperishable glory also to the little state over which he ruled.  What a spectacle!—­a feeble mercantile state, without powerful allies, bracing itself up to a life-and-death struggle with the mightiest potentate of Europe.  I know no parallel to it in the history of modern times.  Our fathers in the Revolutionary war could retreat to forests and mountains; but Holland had neither mountains nor forests.  There was no escape from political ruin but by the inundation of fertile fields, the destruction to an unprecedented degree of private property, and the decimation of the male part of the population.  Nor did the noble defenders dream of victory; they only hoped to make a temporary stand.  William knew he would be beaten in every battle; his courage was moral rather than physical.  He lost no ground by defeat, while Louis lost ground by victory, since it required a large part of his army to guard the prisoners and garrison the fortresses he had taken.

Some military writers say that Louis should have persevered until he had taken Amsterdam.  As well might Napoleon have remained in Russia after the conflagration of Moscow.  In May, Louis entered Holland; in July, all Europe was in confederacy against him, through the negotiations of the Prince of Orange.  Louis hastened to quit the army when no more conquests could be made in a country overflowed with water, leaving Turenne and Luxembourg to finish the war in Franche-Comte.  The able generals of the French king were obliged to evacuate Holland.  That little state, by an act of supreme self-sacrifice, saved itself when all seemed lost.  I do not read of any military mistakes on the part of the generals of Louis.  They were baffled by an unforeseen inundation; and when they were compelled to evacuate the flooded country, the Dutch quietly closed their dykes and pumped the water out again into their canals by their windmills, and again restored fertility to their fields; and by the time Louis was prepared for fresh invasions, a combination existed against him so formidable that he found it politic to make peace.  The campaigns of Turenne on the Rhine were indeed successful; but he was killed in an insignificant battle, from a chance cannonball, while the Prince of Conde retired forever from military service after the bloody battle of Senif.  On the whole, the French were victorious in the terrible battles which followed the evacuation of Holland, and Louis dictated peace to Europe apparently in the midst of victories at Nimeguen, in 1678, after six years of brilliant fighting on both sides.