d rear a snug "hermitage" to which he could
retire "from noise and tumult far." The passion for building is a
fearful passion, which often involves its victim in ruin. The plans of
the king expanded under his eye. The little hermitage became a
spacious palace, where a court could be entertained with all the
appliances of regal elegance.

But dark and stormy days were rapidly gathering around the path of the
king. He became involved in war with Germany. The complicated reasons
can scarcely be unraveled. The king sent his son, the dauphin, at the
head of one hundred thousand men, to invade Holland. Situated upon
both sides of the Rhine there was a territory called the Palatinate.
It embraced one thousand five hundred and ninety square miles, being
not quite so large as the State of Delaware. It contained an
intelligent, industrious, and prosperous population of a little over
three hundred thousand. The beautiful city of Manheim was the capital
of the province.

Though the dauphin was nominally at the head of the invading army,
that the glory of its victories might redound to his name, the ablest
of the French generals were associated with him, and they, in reality,
took the direction of affairs. One city after another speedily fell
into the hands of the French. The king mercilessly resolved, and
without any justification whatever, to convert the whole province into
a desert. An order was issued by the king that every city, village,
castle, and hut should be laid in ashes.

It was midwinter--the month of February, 1689. There were many
beautiful cities in the province, such as Manheim, Philipsbourg,
Franckendal, Spire, Treves, Worms, and Oppendeim. There were more than
fifty feudal castles in the territory, the ancestral homes of noble
families. The citizens had but short warning. Houses, furniture, food,
all were consumed. The flames rose to heaven, calling upon God for
vengeance. Smouldering ruins every where met the eye. Men, women, and
children wandered starving through the fields.

Nearly all Europe soon became banded against this haughty monarch, and
he found it necessary to raise an army of four hundred thousand men to
meet the exigencies.

Intoxicated by the pride of past success, he thought that he should be
able to force upon England a Roman Catholic king, and the Roman
Catholic faith, and thus expel _heresy_ from England, as he dreamed
that he had expelled it from France. He equipped a fleet, and manned
i