P R E F A C E.

naturally alarmed by each other's happy progress, which, by arousing the jealousy of the best friends, leads them to no longer assist the conqueror, or to help him only weakly, and even sometimes to change sides openly. What I have just said has happened so frequently in recent times that one has often seen conquerors stopped in the middle of their course, and forced to pass from the offensive to the defensive at a time when the glory of their arms seemed to promise them the greatest advantages. These incidents have sometimes been followed by unfortunate reverses, whereby the conqueror has seen himself obliged to make peace on onerous conditions and to restore all or the best part of what he had gained at the price of so many ruined countries and so much blood and treasure. If one wanted to push this matter further, and review what has happened in the world since men began to record the history of so many different wars in writing, one would find that it took much less time and effort to make oneself master of all of Asia than it took to conquer only a part of the Low Countries, which altogether would not be nearly the hundredth part of Asia. The reason for this is evident: it is that a battle in the Low Countries usually has little