[***]
[** Page 212.]
[*** Order. Vitalis, p. 507]
It is evident that the chief reason of this alteration in the sentiments
of the English must be ascribed to the departure of William, who was
alone able to curb the violence of his captains, and to overawe the
mutinies of the people. Nothing indeed appears more strange than that
this prince, in less than three months after the conquest of a great,
warlike, and turbulent nation, should absent himself in order to revisit
his own country, which remained in profound tranquillity, and was not
menaced by any of its neighbors; and should so long leave his jealous
subjects at the mercy of an insolent and licentious army. Were we not
assured of the solidity of his genius, and the good sense displayed in
all other circumstances of his conduct, we might ascribe this measure to
a vain ostentation, which rendered him impatient to display his pomp and
magnificence among his ancient subjects. It is therefore more natural to
believe that, in so extraordinary a step, he was guided by a concealed
policy; and that though he had thought proper at first to allure the
people to submission by the semblance of a legal administration, he
found that he could neither satisfy his rapacious captains, nor
secure his unstable government, without farther exerting the rights of
conquest, and seizing the possessions of the English.
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