But such men, while they fully acquitted him of the design attributed to him by factious malignity, could not acquit him of a partiality which it was natural that he should feel, but which it would have been wise in him to hide, and with which it was impossible that his subjects should sympathise.

He ought to have known that nothing is more offensive to free and proud nations than the sight of foreign uniforms and standards.
Though not much conversant with books, he must have been acquainted with the chief events in the history of his own illustrious House; and he could hardly have been ignorant that his great grandfather had commenced a long and glorious struggle against despotism by exciting the States General of Ghent to demand that all Spanish troops should be withdrawn from the Netherlands.

The final parting between the tyrant and the future deliverer was not an event to be forgotten by any of the race of Nassau.

"It was the States, Sir," said the Prince of Orange.

Philip seized his wrist with a convulsive grasp, and exclaimed, "Not the States, but you, you, you." William, however, determined to try whether a request made by himself in earnest and almost supplicating terms would induce his subjects to indulge his national partiality at the expense of their own.