While England was agitated, first by the dread of an invasion, and then by joy at the deliverance wrought for her by the valour of her seamen, important events were taking place on the Continent.  On the sixth of March the King had arrived at the Hague, and had proceeded to make his arrangements for the approaching campaign.284

The prospect which lay before him was gloomy.  The coalition of which he was the author and the chief had, during some months, been in constant danger of dissolution.  By what strenuous exertions, by what ingenious expedients, by what blandishments, by what bribes, he succeeded in preventing his allies from throwing themselves, one by one, at the feet of France, can be but imperfectly known.  The fullest and most authentic record of the labours and sacrifices by which he kept together, during eight years, a crowd of fainthearted and treacherous potentates, negligent of the common interest and jealous of each other, is to be found in his correspondence with Heinsius.  In that correspondence William is all himself.  He had, in the course of his eventful life, to sustain some high parts for which he was not eminently qualified; and, in those parts, his success was imperfect.  As Sovereign of England, he showed abilities and virtues which entitle him to honourable mention in history; but his deficiencies were great.  He was to the last a stranger amongst us, cold, reserved, never in good spirits, never at his ease.  His kingdom was a place of exile.  His finest palaces were prisons.  He was always counting the days which must elapse before he should again see the land of his birth, the clipped trees, the wings of the innumerable windmills, the nests of the storks on the tall gables, and the long lines of painted villas reflected in the sleeping canals.  He took no pains to hide the preference which he felt for his native soil and for his early friends; and therefore, though he rendered great services to our country, he did not reign in our hearts.  As a general in the field, again, he showed rare courage and capacity; but, from whatever cause, he was, as a tactician, inferior to some of his contemporaries, who, in general powers of mind, were far inferior to him.  The business for which he was preeminently fitted was diplomacy, in the highest sense of the word.  It may be doubted whether he has ever had a superior in the art of conducting those great negotiations on which the welfare of the commonwealth of nations depends.  His skill in this department of politics was never more severely tasked or more signally proved than during the latter part of 1691 and the earlier part of 1692.