For a time it seemed to him that resistance was hopeless.

He looked round for succour, and looked in vain.

Spain was unnerved, Germany distracted, England corrupted.

Nothing seemed left to the young Stadtholder but to perish sword in hand, or to be the Aeneas of a great emigration, and to create another Holland in countries beyond the reach of the tyranny of France.

No obstacle would then remain to check the progress of the House of Bourbon.