And certainly some in speaking of him of late years belittle his birth no less than his exploits, when they call him Dutch William, and the like; speaking in terms unworthy of a sovereign, and as if he had drawn his blood from that merchant race, instead of--as the fact was--from the princely houses of Stuart, Bourbon, Nassau, and Medici; and from such ancestors as the noble Coligny and King Charles the Martyr. But of his birth, enough. For the rest, having a story to tell, and not history to write, I refrain from recalling how great he was as a statesman, how resourceful as a strategist, how indomitable as a commander, how valiant when occasion required in the pitched field. Nor is it necessary, seeing that before the rise of my Lord Marlborough (who still survives, but alas, _quantum mutatus ab illo!_) he had no rival in any of these capacities, nor in the first will ever be excelled. Nor, as a fact, looking on him in the flesh as I then did for the first time, can I say that I saw anything to betoken greatness, or the least outside evidence of the fiery spirit that twice in two great wars stayed all the power of Louis and of France; that saved Holland; that united all Europe in three great leagues; finally, that leaping the bounds of the probable, won a kingdom, only to hold it cheap, and a means to farther ends. I say I saw in him not the least trace of this, but only a plain, thin, grave, and rather peevish gentleman, in black and a large wig, who coughed much between his words, spoke with a foreign accent, and often lapsed into French or some strange tongue. He waited until the door had fallen to behind the child, and the long gallery lay silent, and then bade my lord speak. "I breathe better here," he said. "I hate small rooms. What is the news you have brought?" "No good news, sir," my patron answered. "And yet I can scarcely call it bad. In the country it will have a good effect." "_Bien!_ But what is it?" "I have seen Ferguson, sir." "Then you have seen a d----d scoundrel!" the King exclaimed, with an energy I had not expected from him; and, indeed, such outbreaks were rare with him. "He is arrested, then?" "No, sir," the Duke answered. "I trust, however, that he will be before night." "But if he be free, how came you in his company?" the King asked, somewhat sharply. My lord hesitated, and seemed for a moment at a loss how to answer. Being behind him, I could not see his face, but I fancied that he grew red, and that the fourth person present, a stout, burly gentleman, marked with the small-pox, who had advanced and now stood near the King, was hard put to it not to smile. At last, "I received a letter, sir," my lord said, speaking stiffly and with constraint, "purporting to come from a third person----" "Ah!" said the King, drawling the word, and nodding dry comprehension. "On the faith of which, believing it to be from that other--if you understand, sir----" "I understand perfectly," said the King, and coughed.