The sea, which beats like an inveterate enemy against their shores, had been subdued and made a useful servant; the land was to prove their destruction.

A long and fierce strife had been maintained with an enemy more cruel than the sea,--the Spanish kingdom; the successful ending, with its delusive promise of rest and peace, but sounded the knell of the Dutch Republic.

So long as the power of Spain remained unimpaired, or at least great enough to keep up the terror that she had long inspired, it was to the interest of England and of France, both sufferers from Spanish menace and intrigue, that the United Provinces should be strong and independent.
When Spain fell,--and repeated humiliations showed that her weakness was real and not seeming,--other motives took the place of fear.
England coveted Holland's trade and sea dominion; France desired the Spanish Netherlands.

The United Provinces had reason to oppose the latter as well as the former.
Under the combined assaults of the two rival nations, the intrinsic weakness of the United Provinces was soon to be felt and seen.

Open to attack by the land, few in numbers, and with a government ill adapted to put forth the united strength of a people, above all unfitted to keep up adequate preparation for war, the decline of the republic and the nation was to be more striking and rapid than the rise.