Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

DE WITT MURDERS 99
of York's children from the succession, and make him
heir. He waited, then, till he saw such an expectation
was not worth waiting for, and that his wisest course
was to marry Mary. When the negotiations began
in earnest, he showed great care in avoiding any step
which might link him to the fortunes of the falling
house, and in letting it be known that his marriage was
to be no guarantee of support to the English throne.
Equally interesting is his attitude towards English
parties at the time of the Exclusion Bill. How early
he showed his determination to have sole power in
England, and with what delicate consideration for his
wife he let his determination be known, has already
been shown from Burnet. In these instancesIthink
we may observe what may be roughly and somewhat
vulgarly called meanness. Having thus hastily observed
some traits in the character of William of
Orange, we shall pass on to notice some affairs of
importance, his connection with which has served in
some quarters to discredit his memory.
William's relation to the murder of the De Witts is
a question which is still obscure. Iwill therefore only
quote and translate from one of the latest and ablest
studies of his life, that of M. le Comte de Lort-
Serignan. " The Prince of Orange hadlong known the
hatred of thepeople towards the De Witts. He ought
to have understood that his duty and his honour — the
respect which he owed to himself, to his name, to that
of his country — demanded that he shouldprotect from
causeless and groundless animosity the two foremost