To avoid them indeed, he would have been obliged not only to fly his country, but to leave Europe.

He had a profound reverence for the memory of his father, Calbo y Calbanista, as William the Silent had called himself.

But the great prince had died before these fierce disputes had torn the bosom of the Reformed Church, and while Reformers still were brethren.

But if Maurice were a religious man, he was also a keen politician; a less capable politician, however, than a soldier, for he was confessedly the first captain of his age.

He was not rapid in his conceptions, but he was sure in the end to comprehend his opportunity.
The Church, the people, the Union--the sacerdotal, the democratic, and the national element--united under a name so potent to conjure with as the name of Orange-Nassau, was stronger than any other possible combination.