tors had made their entrance into that
town in February 1676. The treaty had not been signed till February
1679. Yet the negotiation of Nimeguen had not proceeded more slowly
than the negotiation of Ryswick. It seemed but too probable that the
eighteenth century would find great armies still confronting each other
on the Meuse and the Rhine, industrious populations still ground down
by taxation, fertile provinces still lying waste, the ocean still made
impassable by corsairs, and the plenipotentiaries still exchanging
notes, drawing up protocols, and wrangling about the place where this
minister should sit, and the title by which that minister should be
called.

But William was fully determined to bring this mummery to a speedy
close. He would have either peace or war. Either was, in his view,
better than this intermediate state which united the disadvantages of
both. While the negotiation was pending there could be no diminution
of the burdens which pressed on his people; and yet he could expect
no energetic action from his allies. If France was really disposed to
conclude a treaty on fair terms, that treaty should be concluded in
spite of the imbecility of the Catholic King and in spite of the selfish
cunning of the Emperor. If France was insecure, the sooner the truth was
known, the sooner the farce which was acting at Ryswick was over, the
sooner the people of England and Holland,--for on them every thing
depended,--were told that they must make up their minds to great
exertions and sacrifices, the better.

Pembroke and Villiers, though they had now the help of a veteran
diplomatist, Sir Joseph Williamson, could do little or nothing to
accelerate the proceedings of the Congress. For, though France had
promised that, whenever peace should be made, she would recognise the
Prince of Orange as King of Great Britain and Ireland, she had not yet
recognised him. His ministers had therefore had no direct intercourse
with Harlay, Crecy and Cailleres. William, with the judgment and
decision of a true statesman, determined to open a communication
with Lewis through one of the French Marshals who commanded in the
Netherlands. Of those Marshals Villeroy was the highest in rank. But
Villeroy was weak, rash, haughty, irritable. Such a negotiator was
far more likely to embroil matters than to bring them to an amicable
settlement. Boufflers was a man of sense and temper; and fortunately he
had, during the few days which he had pas