Lord Mordaunt was at the Hague, and pushed on the enterprise with that ardent and courageous spirit for which he was so eminent.

Even Sunderland, the king's favorite minister, is believed to have entered into a correspondence with the prince; and, at the expense of his own honor and his master's interests, to have secretly favored a cause which, he foresaw, was likely soon to predominate.[*] * D'Avaux was always of that opinion.

See his Negotiations, 6th and 20th of May, 18th, 27th of September, 22d of November, 1688.

On the whole, that opinion is the most probable.
The prince was easily engaged to yield to the applications of the English, and to embrace the defence of a nation which, during its present fears and distresses, regarded him as its sole protector.
The great object of his ambition was to be placed at the head of a confederate army, and by his valor to avenge the injuries which he himself, his country, and his allies, had sustained from the haughty Lewis.

But while England remained under the present government, he despaired of ever forming a league which would be able, with any probability of success, to make opposition against that powerful monarch.