The ambitious views of Louis XIV.—“_Le Grand Monarque_”—of France were for the moment paralysed, as he found himself outdone in his calculations by the unexpected turn of events in England—the overthrow of the Stuarts and the splendid triumphs of the House of Orange. Nettled by these disappointments, he readily entertained the schemes of James, not so much that he desired the restoration of that imbecile monarch—even although, as hitherto, enjoying the shadow of independent power, he should continue the tool of the Jesuits of France—but rather that he might find a favourable pretext to trouble the House of Orange, whom he had been long accustomed to regard as his natural and mortal foe. He aspired, moreover, to unite the Netherlands—the hereditary dominion of the Stadtholder—to France, perchance to reduce these sea-girt isles of ours to acknowledge his authority and become an appanage of his Crown. Whilst James—encouraged by the fair promises of Louis—laboured to fan into flame the discontents of the English Jacobites, the Scottish Clans, and the Irish Papists, Louis prepared formidable armaments by sea and land, with which he speedily assailed the Netherlands. Meanwhile, aided by the natural reaction which generally follows the outburst of strong feelings, James succeeded but too well in his malignant purpose; in Scotland, by the rebellion of the Highland Clans, under Viscount Dundee, and in Ireland, by the rebellion of Irish Papists, under Tyrconnell. It required all the firmness and ability of William to meet this formidable coalition, which threatened his dominions at home and abroad; but the King, who could point to times in his eventful history when, with far less promise of a successful issue, he had overthrown more powerful foes—sustained now, too, by the veteran experience of Schomberg and the rising genius of Marlborough—promptly prepared to uphold his new-gotten and extensive authority as the Champion of the Protestant cause, a title which he had long enjoyed, and a faith which, despite the wrathful persecution of kings, he had owned and protected.