HISTORY OF EUROPE. 41 



hold out as long as they were able. 

 The French assembled no less than 

 30,000 men for the attack of this 

 place ; which was defended with a 

 yalour and obstinacy that ought 

 and might, in the opinion of good 

 judges, have been exerted orj 

 several occasions of the sanie na- 

 ture. The artillery brought against 

 it was truly formidable } and it sus- 

 tained a bombardment that lasted 

 from the beginning to the end of 

 the siege. The garrison surrender- 

 ed on th/s 15 th of July. 



The war was now become, on 

 the side of the allies, purely defen- 

 sive. Those who coolly viewed 

 iheir situation, and wae competent 

 to judge of it, were of opinion, 

 that, by concentraiing their force 

 and acting on a plan unanimously 

 supported by every part of the 

 confederacy, they might put a stop 

 to the progress of the French, and 

 secure the Seven yniled Provinces, 

 and the adjacent countries between 

 the Meuse and the Ilhine. Those 

 provinces, it was alleged, had, in 

 the infancy of the Putch republic, 

 withstood, with a proportion of 

 .strength comparatively much less 

 than they had at present, the ve- 

 teran and victorious armies of 

 Spain, commanded by the best Ge- 

 nerals of the age. To this, how- 

 ever, it was replied, that the Dutch 

 y.'ere at th.'-t time an united peo- 

 ple, animated with the double en- 

 thusiasm of liberty and of religion, 

 either of\vhich principles was singly 

 (Capable of inspiring men with the 

 ninst desperate and invincible re- 

 H.kuioii : but il was notorious, that 

 Ml prest-t.t the Dutch were actuated 

 by neither. I'he attention of the 

 Xjrttives of those provinces was very 

 little occupied with the active ser- 

 v-'T of their country : their armies 

 were mude up of iuiy foreigners 



th3t would tajke their pay; and,what 

 was worse, they themselves were 

 divided into two irreconcileable 

 parties, one of which was deter, 

 mined to side openly with the 

 French the moment it could do it 

 with safety, and even to bring them 

 into ihecouptry rather tjian submit 

 to the present government. 



As this representation of the state 

 of Hojiand at this time could not 

 be denied, no reliance could be 

 placed on its co-operation against 

 a po\A er to which a majority of the 

 people was friendly. Nor did the 

 allies, even while the Dutch troops 

 were with them, put any confi- 

 dence in the Dutch themselves : 

 their troops being chiefly Germans, 

 lopked upon the United States ra- 

 ther as paymasters than as sove- 

 reigns ; and felt of course none of 

 that patriotic warmth which only 

 accompatiies men wlio are really 

 figiiting for their country. 



The Stadtholder used frequent 

 endeavours to excite his country- 

 men to unite cordially against the 

 French. He had repeatedly, du- 

 ring the campaign, is-ued addresses 

 and exhortations to the inhabitants 

 of the Seven United Provinces, on 

 the necessity of exerting their 

 strength in common with their al- 

 lies, in order to arrest the career of 

 so dangerous a power as France, 

 When the tide of success liad 

 brought the- French to the frontier* 

 of Hollapd, he renewed his appli- 

 cations witli additional fervour: — 

 he reminded the Dutch of the tor- 

 titude with which their ancestors 

 had resisted the potent monarchs 

 with whom they had at several times 

 contended. Ihe liberty and inde- 

 pendence of Holland, he observed, 

 Imd beenesiab'ishcdand maintained 

 in themidstofeverydifficulty. Spain 

 fiiiit, and France next, had -.ain 



stroiy 



