This act was nothing short of a public declaration of war, not only against the reigning monarch of England, but against the established religion of our country.

The exiled prince was Roman Catholic.
Louis was the author of the most terrible persecution of the Protestants that ever occurred in Europe.

Thus the action of the French king rallied round William the Second all the Protestant feeling of the nation.

Both Houses of Parliament voted loyal addresses, and the nation prepared for the great struggle before it.

The king laboured to establish alliances and a plan for common action, and all was in readiness, when his sudden death left the guidance of affairs in other hands.
These hands were, happily for England, those of the Earl of Marlborough, the finest diplomatist, as well as the greatest soldier, of his time.
The struggle which was approaching was a gigantic one.