The answers which appear in the journals were not uttered by him, but were delivered in writing.
Such business as could not be deferred was transacted by the intervention of Portland, who was himself oppressed with sorrow.

During some weeks the important and confidential correspondence between the King and Heinsius was suspended.

At length William forced himself to resume that correspondence: but his first letter was the letter of a heartbroken man.

Even his martial ardour had been tamed by misery.

"I tell you in confidence," he wrote, "that I feel myself to be no longer fit for military command.