The enthusiasm with which men of all classes had welcomed William to London at Christmas had greatly abated before the close of February.

The new king had, at the very moment at which his fame and fortune reached the highest point, predicted the coming reaction.

That reaction might, indeed, have been predicted by a less sagacious observer of human affairs.

For it is to be chiefly ascribed to a law as certain as the laws which regulate the succession of the seasons and the course of the trade winds.

It is the nature of man to overrate present evil, and to underrate present good; to long for what he has not, and to be dissatisfied with what he has.