PAGE The King's Commissioners arrive at Hungerford; Negotiation 298 He is advised to assume the Crown by Right of Conquest Debates and Resolutions of the Commoners summoned by the PAGE Schism between the Whigs and the Followers of Danby Meeting at the Earl of Devonshire's Debate in the Lords on the Question whether the Throne was vacant; Majority for the Negative; Agitation in London Letter of James to the Convention Debates; Negotiations; Letter of the Princess of Orange to Closing of the Gates of Londonderry Mountjoy sent to pacify Ulster James determines to go to Ulster; Journey of James to Ulster 541 The Fall of Londonderry expected HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER VII. THE place which William Henry, Prince of Orange Nassau, occupies in the history of England and of mankind is so great that it may be desirable to portray with some minuteness the strong lineaments of his character.* CHAP. VII. 1687. William, Orange. He was now in his thirty-seventh year. But both in body and in mind he was older than other men of the same age. His apIndeed it might be said that he had never been young. His pearance. external appearance is almost as well known to us as to his own captains and counsellors. Sculptors, painters, and medallists exerted their utmost skill in the work of transmitting his features to posterity; and his features were such as no artist could fail to seize, and such as, once seen, could never be forgotten. His name at once calls up before us a slender and feeble frame, a lofty and ample forehead, a nose curved like the beak of an eagle, an eye rivalling that of an eagle in brightness and keenness, a thoughtful and somewhat sullen brow, a firm and somewhat peevish mouth, a cheek pale, thin, and deeply furrowed by sickness and by care. That pensive, severe, and solemn aspect could scarcely have belonged to a happy or a goodhumoured man. But it indicates in a manner not to be mistaken capacity equal to the most arduous enterprises, and fortitude not to be shaken by reverses or dangers. Nature had largely endowed William with the qualities of The chief materials from which I have taken my description of the Prince of Orange will be found in Burnet's History, in Temple's and Gourville's Memoirs, in the Negotiations of the Counts of Estrades and Avaux, in Sir George Downing's Letters to Lord Chancellor VOL. II. B Clarendon, in Wagenaar's voluminous |