o latter conditions were certainly degrading to Holland; and
the conditions of the treaty prove that an absurd point of honor
was the only real cause for the short but bloody and ruinous war
which plunged the Provinces into overwhelming difficulties.

For several years after the conclusion of this inglorious peace,
universal discontent and dissension spread throughout the republic.
The supporters of the House of Orange, and every impartial friend
of the national honor, were indignant at the act of exclusion.
Murmurs and revolts broke out in several towns; and all was once
more tumult, agitation, and doubt. No event of considerable
importance marks particularly this epoch of domestic trouble.
A new war was at last pronounced inevitable, and was the means
of appeasing the distractions of the people, and reconciling by
degrees contending parties. Denmark, the ancient ally of the
republic, was threatened with destruction by Charles Gustavus,
king of Sweden, who held Copenhagen in blockade. The interests
of Holland were in imminent peril should the Swedes gain the
passage of the Sound. This double motive influenced De Witt;
and he persuaded the states-general to send Admiral Opdam with
a considerable fleet to the Baltic. This intrepid successor of
the immortal Tromp soon came to blows with a rival worthy to
meet him. Wrangel, the Swedish admiral, with a superior force,
defended the passage of the Sound; and the two castles of Cronenberg
and Elsenberg supported his fleet with their tremendous fire.
But Opdam resolutely advanced; though suffering extreme anguish
from an attack of gout, he had himself carried on deck, where he
gave his orders with the most admirable coolness and precision,
in the midst of danger and carnage. The rival monarchs witnessed
the battle; the king of Sweden from the castle of Cronenberg,
and the king of Denmark from the summit of the highest tower in
his besieged capital. A brilliant victory crowned the efforts
of the Dutch admiral, dearly bought by the death of his second in
command, the brave De Witt, and Peter Florizon, another admiral
of note. Relief was poured into Copenhagen. Opdam was replaced
in the command, too arduous for his infirmities, by the still
more celebrated De Ruyter, who was greatly distinguished by his
valor in several successive affairs: and after some months more
of useless obstinacy, the king of Sweden, seeing his army perish
in the island of Funen, by a combined attack of t