and it
was clear, from whatever side matters were regarded, that we were on the
eve of a war which could not but be of long duration, unless, by some
unforeseen accident, the houses of Bourbon and Austria should come to an
arrangement which would allow them to set themselves in accord touching
the Spanish succession; but there was no appearance of conciliation."

Louis XIV. had just done a deed which destroyed the last faint hopes of
peace. King James II. was dying at St. Germain, and the king went to see
him. The sick man opened his eyes for a moment when he was told that the
king was there [_Memoires de Dangeau,_ t. viii. p. 192], and closed them
again immediately. The king told him that he had come to assure him that
he might die in peace as regarded the Prince of Wales, and that he would
recognize him as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland. All the English
who were in the room fell upon their knees, and cried, "God save the
king!" James II. expired a week later, on the 16th of September, 1701,
saying to his son, as his last advice, "I am about to leave this world,
which has been to me nothing but a sea of tempests and storms. The
Omnipotent has thought right to visit me with great afflictions; serve
Him with all your heart, and never place the crown of England in the
balance with your eternal salvation." James II. was justified in giving
his son this supreme advice the solitary ray of greatness in his life and
in his soul had proceeded from his religious faith, and his unwavering
resolution to remain loyal to it at any price and at any risk.

"On returning to Marly," says St. Simon, "the king told the whole court
what he had just done. There was nothing but acclamations and praises.
It was a fine field for them: but reflections, too, were not less prompt,
if they were less public. The king still flattered himself that he would
hinder Holland and England, the former of which was so completely
dependent, from breaking with him in favor of the house of Austria; he
relied upon that to terminate before long the war in Italy, as well as
the whole affair of the succession in Spain and its vast dependencies,
which the emperor could not dispute with his own forces only, or even
with those of the empire. Nothing, therefore, could be more incompatible
with this position, and with the solemn recognition he had given, at the
peace of Ryswick, of the Prince of Orange as King of England. It was to
hurt him personall