neighborhood, merely at the head of a reconnoitring party. If the story
were true, it would be chiefly important as indicating that the Prince of
Orange was one of the many historical characters, originally of an
excitable and even timorous physical organization, whom moral courage and
a strong will have afterwards converted into dauntless heroes. Certain
it is that he was destined to confront open danger in every form, that
his path was to lead through perpetual ambush, yet that his cheerful
confidence and tranquil courage were to become not only unquestionable
but proverbial. It may be safely asserted, however, that the story was
an invention to be classed with those fictions which made him the
murderer of his first wife, a common conspirator against Philip's crown
and person, and a crafty malefactor in general, without a single virtue.
It must be remembered that even the terrible Alva, who lived in harness
almost from the cradle to the grave, was, so late as at this period,
censured for timidity, and had been accused in youth of flat cowardice.
He despised the insinuation, which for him had no meaning. There is no
doubt too that caution was a predominant characteristic of the Prince.
It was one of the chief sources of his greatness. At that period,
perhaps at any period, he would have been incapable of such brilliant and
dashing exploits as had made the name of Egmont so famous. It had even
become a proverb, "the counsel of Orange, the execution of Egmont," yet
we shall have occasion to see how far this physical promptness which had
been so felicitous upon the battle-field was likely to avail the hero of
St. Quentin in the great political combat which was approaching.

As to the talents of the Prince, there was no difference of opinion. His
enemies never contested the subtlety and breadth of his intellect, his
adroitness and capacity in conducting state affairs, his knowledge of
human nature, and the profoundness of his views. In many respects it
must be confessed that his surname of The Silent, like many similar