CHAP. III.]

THE FRENCH INVADE HOLLAND.

89

released, during the year 1672, from his obligation to furnish the French army with a corps of infantry. A few days before the declaration of war, Admiral Sir Robert Holmes had attacked the Dutch Smyrna fleet at the back of the Isle of Wight, but with such small success as was a poor compensation for this shameful breach of international law.

Early in May 1672, the French marched against the United Netherlands in three divisions. Louis himself accompanied the main division, which, under the command of Turenne and Condé, advanced to Viset on the Meuse, a place between Liége and Maestricht. The King was accompanied by Louvois, his minister of war, and Vauban the celebrated engineer. The Dutch had only about 20,000 ill-disciplined men to oppose to ten times that number of French, under generals like Condé and Turenne. It is not our intention to detail at any length the campaigns of Louis XIV. They have now lost much of their interest through the grander and more important ones of modern times; and we shall content ourselves with indicating some of the chief results. The French army, leaving Maestricht on one side, into which the Dutch had thrown a strong garrison, advanced into the duchy of Clèves, occupied with little or no resistance Orsoy, Rheinberg, Buderich and Wesel, and penetrated into the province of Gelderland. The passage of the Rhine, or Lech, at Tolhuys, June 12th, which the flatterers of Louis magnified into a grand exploit, and which was celebrated in all the forms of poetry, painting, and sculpture, has since been estimated at its true value.40 The river, with the exception of a few yards in the middle, was fordable by cavalry, and the passage of the French was disputed only by some 1,200 men under Würz; the Prince of Orange, with the main body of the Dutch army, having retired to Utrecht. The passage cost the French only a score or two of troopers. The operation was, however, important in its consequences, since the French, with the assistance of their allies from Cologne and Münster, occupied in a few weeks the provinces of Gelderland, Utrecht, Overyssel, and part of Holland. Amsterdam itself might probably have been surprised, had Condé's bold advice been followed to direct against it a body of 6000 cavalry.

So sudden and overwhelming an invasion, which might be compared to the bursting of their dikes and irruption of the sea, filled the Hollanders with consternation. Every man, says a Dutch

40

Napoleon characterised it as an operation of the fourth order. Mémoires, t. v. p. 129, ap. Martin, Hist. de France,

t. xiii. p. 385.

235.

Valkenier, ap. Van Kampen, B. ii. S.

90

ARROGANT DEMANDS OF LOUVOIS.

[Book V.

Manu

writer, seemed to have received sentence of death.41 factures and trade were suspended; all the shops were closed, as well as the schools, universities, and courts of law; the churches alone remained open, but sufficed not to contain the anxious crowds that thronged to them. Many sent their wives and children to England, Brabant, Denmark, nay even to France, together with their treasures, which others buried. In this low ebb of their fortunes, the dejection of the Dutch prompted them to make the most submissive proposals to the conqueror, in order to secure what remained to them. The plenipotentiaries of the States-General offered to surrender to Louis Maestricht and its dependencies, together with Dutch Brabant and Flanders, and to pay him six millions for the expenses of the war. Pomponne pressed the King to accept these offers, but Louis listened in preference to the violent counsels of Louvois. By the advice of this minister, counter-proposals were made of the most extravagant nature. The cession of Dutch Brabant and Flanders was accepted; only, as the King was bound by treaty to make over Sluys and Cadsand to the English, Delfzyl and its dependencies, near the mouth of the Ems, was demanded in their stead. In like manner, instead of Maestricht, Louvois required Nimeguen and the Isles of Batavia and Bommel; that is the Lech for a frontier instead of the Meuse; a proposition which, while it was more injurious to the Dutch, was in reality less advantageous to the French. He also demanded Grave on the Meuse and the county of Meurs; and he doubled the indemnity to be paid for the expenses of the war. But more offensive to the Dutch than all these demands were others that injured their commerce, shocked their religious prejudices, and wounded their pride. The prohibitions and new customs duties on French goods were to be revoked, without any reciprocity; the public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion was to be restored throughout the United Provinces, and, in all places which had more than one church, one was to be consecrated to the Popish worship; while, in acknowledgment of the King's goodness in granting them a peace, the Dutch were to present him every year with a gold medal, bearing an inscription that they owed to him the preservation of that liberty which his predecessors had helped them to ac quire.42

The injustice and arrogance of these demands inspired the Dutch with a resolution to defend themselves to the last extremity. They determined to pierce the dikes, and lay the country under 42 Basnage, Annales des Prov. Unies, t. ii. p. 246 sqq.; Mignet, t. iv. p. 31 sqq.

CHAP. III.]

REVOLUTION IN HOLLAND.

91

water; a heavy sacrifice, but which would at least secure them till the frosts of winter. They even resolved, if these measures should prove useless, to abandon their homes, and seek in their possessions beyond the seas that civil and religious freedom which was denied to them in Europe. An account was taken of the shipping in the harbours, and it was found that they had the means of transporting 50,000 families to the East Indies.

These events were accompanied with a revolution which proved fatal to the Pensionary and his brother Cornelius. The advance of the French had roused the popular resentment against the De Witts to the highest pitch. They were denounced from the pulpits as the enemies and betrayers of their country; the Pensionary was even suspected by many to be in the pay of France. On the night of the 12th of June, he was attacked by four assassins and wounded, but not mortally, though he was obliged for some weeks to keep his bed. Among his assailants were two sons of Van der Graaf, a member of the Council, the younger of whom was captured. Great interest was made to save his life, and it was thought that De Witt would have interceded with the judges in his favour. But it lay not in his nature. "The pardoning of such a crime," he observed, "would be followed by the worst consequences for the administration of justice. take its course. Fiat justitia et pereat mundus." Graaf was condemned and beheaded, June 29th. lighted up the train. A cry was raised in the little town of Vere in Zealand, and ran through the other provinces, that the Perpetual Edict must be abolished, and the Prince of Orange appointed Stadtholder. Cornelius de Witt, who was confined to his bed by sickness, was compelled by the people to sign the abolition of the Edict. It was abrogated by the States of Holland, July 3rd, and on the 8th of the same month, the States-General recognised William Prince of Orange as Stadtholder, Captain-General, and Admiral for life.

The law must Young Van der This last spark

This revolution was soon followed by the massacre of the two De Witts. On the 24th of July, Cornelius was arrested on a charge of having plotted against the life of the Prince of Orange. The charge rested on the testimony of one Tichelaar, a barber or surgeon of Piershil, a man of infamous character, who deposed that Cornelius had attempted to bribe him to murder the Prince. Cornelius was cited before the Court of Holland, of which the father of Van der Graaf was a member, and by order of the judges was put to the rack. He endured the torture with the greatest fortitude, and displayed the unshaken constancy of his mind by

92

MASSACRE OF THE DE WITTS.

[BOOK V. reciting an ode of Horace in praise of the just and resolute man who can alike defy the frowns of a tyrant and the iniquitous decrees of a turbulent faction ("Justum et tenacem propositi virum," &c. (Od. Lib. iii. 3.) The evidence sufficed not to condemn the Admiral, and he should therefore have been discharged, for there is no middle term between guilt and innocence; but the judges being resolved to make him a victim, deprived him of all his offices and dignities, and sentenced him to perpetual banishment. As he lay in prison he was surprised by a visit from his brother, the Pensionary. "What, you here, brother?" "Did you not send for me?" "No." "Then we are both undone." The augury was only too true. The party in power, unable to murder the De Witts judicially, had resolved to sacrifice them to the fury of the populace, and had enticed the Pensionary by a false message to share his brother's fate. The States of Holland, indeed, made a show of protecting the De Witts by a guard of cavalry; but this was soon withdrawn, and the infuriated mob broke into the prison. The two brothers were dragged into the streets and massacred; their bodies, after being mutilated in the most frightful and disgusting manner, were hanged upon public gibbet; their hearts were torn out and put up to sale. A Gomarist preacher, Simon Simonides, presided, like a priest of Moloch, at these bloody orgies (August 20th). Thus miserably perished John De Witt, who had directed the counsels of the Dutch Republic during a period of twenty years with honest and single-minded patriotism, if not, in the last eventful crisis, with a wise and successful policy; whilst his brother Cornelius had sustained her honour upon the seas with bravery and reputation. Their murder may not be directly imputable to the Prince of Orange; but he at least accepted it, and made himself an accessory after the fact by protecting and rewarding the assassins. The Stadtholder proclaimed an amnesty; the principal leader of the riot was made mayor, or bailiff, of the Hague; and Tichelaar obtained a place and a yearly pension of 400 gilders, which was paid to him during the life of William.43

The Dutch entertained a hope that the appointment of the Prince of Orange as Stadtholder would disarm the anger of Charles II.; and this feeling was strengthened by the arrival of his two principal ministers, Buckingham and Arlington, at the Hague, early in July. The English ambassadors were received

43 Basnage, Ann. des Prov. Unies, t. ii. p. 317; Mignet, Succ. d'Espagne, t. iv. p. 71; Mém. de Gourville (Collect. Michaud,

3e Série, t. v. p. 575); Van Kampen, Gesch. der Niederlande, B. ii. S. 246 sq.

CHAP. III.]

DEMANDS OF ENGLAND.

93

by the people with enthusiasm and shouts of "Long live the King of England and the Prince of Orange!" But their expectations were doomed to disappointment. After an interview with William III., Buckingham and Arlington repaired to the camp of Louis, near Utrecht; and on the 16th of July, they signed a new treaty with the French King. The demands of England were as intolerable as before. Whole fleets were to strike to a single man-of-war; England was to receive an indemnity of a million sterling, and a yearly payment of 10,000l. for the herring fishery on the British coast; Sluys, with the Isles of Walcheren, Cadsand, Goree and Voorne, were to be made over to England as security for these conditions; and no separate peace was to be made by either Power. The Prince of Orange, whom the allies persisted in protecting in spite of himself, was to have the sovereignty, or at least the hereditary Stadtholdership, of the United Netherlands. Nor did France abate a single article of her former demands.44 When Buckingham and Arlington again went to the Prince of Orange with these conditions, and urged him to throw himself into the arms of their King, William answered, “My country confides in me, and I will never betray it for any unworthy objects of personal ambition. If I cannot avert its ruin, I can at least defend every ditch, and I will die in the last."

The confidence of the Prince in his valour and his cause was justified by the sequel. The Republic had already passed the most alarming crisis of its fortunes. At sea, the Dutch, if not absolutely victorious, had maintained a resistance which inspired good hopes for the future. In a great action fought off Solebay, on the coast of Suffolk, May 28th, De Ruyter had engaged the combined English and French fleets a whole day, and the losses on both sides were so equally balanced that neither could claim the victory. The French, indeed, had taken but little part in the action, by the secret orders, it is supposed, of Louis; who was not displeased to let the two Maritime Powers destroy each other's forces. The landing of the English at the Texel had been subsequently hindered by an extraordinary ebb tide of twelve hours, and then by a great storm. On land, the inundations had arrested the progress of the French. On July 26th Louis had taken his departure for St. Germain, leaving Turenne in command of the army, but with instructions to attempt nothing more that year.

The successes of the French had at length awakened the Emperor from his lethargy. Leopold entered into a defensive treaty with the Elector of Brandenburg June 23rd, by which each * Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 208