The enemies did not long observe those courtesies which men of their rank, even when opposed to each other at the head of armies, seldom neglect.

William, indeed, went through the form of tendering his best services to Lewis.

But this civility was rated at its true value, and requited with a dry reprimand.
The great King affected contempt for the petty Prince who was the servant of a confederacy of trading towns; and to every mark of contempt the dauntless Stadtholder replied by a fresh defiance.

William took his title, a title which the events of the preceding century had made one of the most illustrious in Europe, from a city which lies on the banks of the Rhone not far from Avignon, and which, like Avignon, though inclosed on every side by the French territory, was properly a fief not of the French but of the Imperial Crown.

Lewis, with that ostentatious contempt of public law which was characteristic of him, occupied Orange, dismantled the fortifications, and confiscated the revenues.