The contest seemed as desperate as the cause was certainly sacred; but it had ceased to be a local contest.

For the history which is to occupy us in these volumes is not exclusively the history of Holland.

It is the story of the great combat between despotism, sacerdotal and regal, and the spirit of rational human liberty.

The tragedy opened in the Netherlands, and its main scenes were long enacted there; but as the ambition of Spain expanded, and as the resistance to the principle which she represented became more general, other nations were, of necessity, involved in the struggle.

There came to be one country, the citizens of which were the Leaguers; and another country, whose inhabitants were Protestants.