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114 a far more complete punishment on the heartless ambition of Louis, and thus prevented the speedy recurrence of the horrors they now hoped were for a long time at an end.



CHAPTER IV.

met his parliament on the 3rd of December. He congratulated it on the achievement of a peace, in which the confederates had accomplished all they had fought for—the repression of the ambitious attempts of France to bring under its yoke the rest of the kingdoms of the continent. She had been compelled to yield up everything which she had seized from the commencement of the war. But he reminded them that this had not been accomplished except at a heavy cost. They had supported him nobly in furnishing that cost, and he trusted they would not now be less prompt to discharge the remaining unpaid claims, and in taking measures to liquidate by degrees the debts incurred. He expressed his hope that they would provide him for life with a sufficient civil list to maintain the necessary dignity of the crown. Though the war was over, he reminded them that there were many reasons why the army and navy should yet be maintained on a respectable footing.

The commons voted him an address, in which they united in the congratulations on the restoration of peace, but passed over the subject of the army. William noticed the omission, and felt it deeply. Nobody was more aware than himself that, though they had bound France by the treaty of Ryswick, no bonds of that kind ever held Louis XIV. any longer than it suited his necessities or his schemes of aggrandisement. He observed that Louis still kept on foot his large armies, that he still retained the ex-king and his court at St. Germains in open violation of the treaty; and the circumstances of Spain, whose king was gradually dying childless, with Louis intently watching to pounce on his