His health, naturally delicate, sank for a time under the emotions which his desolate situation had produced.
Such situations bewilder and unnerve the weak, but call forth all the strength of the strong.

Surrounded by snares in which an ordinary youth would have perished, William learned to tread at once warily and firmly.
Long before he reached manhood he knew how to keep secrets, how to baffle curiosity by dry and guarded answers, how to conceal all passions under the same show of grave tranquillity.

Meanwhile he made little proficiency in fashionable or literary accomplishments.

The manners of the Dutch nobility of that age wanted the grace which was found in the highest perfection among the gentlemen of France, and which, in an inferior degree, embellished the Court of England; and his manners were altogether Dutch.

Even his countrymen thought him blunt.