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Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

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hour produced a second William of Orange, who,<br />

devot<strong>in</strong>g himself to the cause of his country and of<br />

Christendom, when the condition of both seemed<br />

desperate, turned the tide of the French victories<br />

which were overflow<strong>in</strong>g Europe, uplifted the<br />

s<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g balance of the Protestant <strong>in</strong>terests <strong>in</strong><br />

England, and elevated the cause of the Reformation<br />

to so stable a position, that of the second William it<br />

may be truly said that he crowned the great<br />

struggle which the first William had commenced<br />

more than a century before.<br />

We cannot follow <strong>in</strong> its details the progress of<br />

this great struggle, we can only <strong>in</strong>dicate the<br />

direction and flow of its current. The veteran<br />

warriors of the French k<strong>in</strong>g had to retreat before<br />

the soldiers of the young Stadtholder, and the<br />

laurels which Louis XIV had reaped on so many<br />

bloody fields, he had at last to lay at the feet of the<br />

young pr<strong>in</strong>ce. The English, who had conducted<br />

their operations by sea with as little glory as the<br />

French had carried on theirs by land, found it<br />

expedient <strong>in</strong> 1674 to conclude a peace with<br />

Holland. The union between England and France<br />

434

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