242 WILLIAM THE SILENT CHAT.

Prince of Orange on the Rhone, was in Brabant a mere
Baron of Breda; and for such an one to claim the
splendid succession of the great House of Burgundy in
the Netherlands was simply to abandon all prospect of
union between the seventeen Provinces at all. William
therefore abstained, and wisely abstained, from any
suggestion that he looked to be titular Prince of the
entire Netherlands, though he fully and frankly accepted
the reaLand paramount authority.

Long before his death he saw that even this was not
possible or lasting. And slowly, reluctantly, and with
reserve he accepted the simple Countship of Holland,
which in effect was to fall back on the seven Northern
Provinces, arid to take up for himself and hia successors
the sovereign rule. At last—almost, as it were, with his
dying breath—he recognised the logic of events, founded
the smaller nation which for three centuries has had so
glorious a history, and transmitted to his descendants
under various titles, and with some rude intervals of
break, the throne of Holland, which the young Queen
now fills amidst the devotion of her own people, and the
cordial friendship of the Powers of Europe.

Gloomy as were the prospects of William's family as
they followed his body to the tomb in the groat church
of Delft, the future had in store for them much that was
beyond all hope in the dark hour of their bereavement.
The forlorn widow, left destitute in a strange land with
her infant of hardly six months and ten young step-
children, the only son a lad at college, bravely set her-
self to her overwhelming task. For thirty-six years
more she lived, toiled, protected, and guided that largo
household, a pattern of all wisdom, goodness, and grace.