with them on religion, but purely from his manly, just, and generous disposition.
At this time in his twenty-seventh year, William was very rich, prosperous, and powerful. Few perhaps realized that there lay within him the seeds of future greatness. But though he had a thoughtful and an intellectual nature, he also had a pleasure-*loving, easygoing nature, and nothing could exceed the luxury and magnificence of the life he led in his great palace at Brussels. It was a life full of color, variety, and amusement, with masquerades, banquets, chases, and tourneys from morning till night. Twenty-four noblemen and eighteen pages of gentle birth served in his household. One day, in order to economize, Orange dismissed twenty-eight cooks! Princely houses in Germany sent their cooks to learn in his kitchen, so celebrated was the excellence of his dishes. He kept, as princes and noblemen did in those days, open house, but he did not keep his money. A contemporary historian—a Catholic and an opponent—describes him at this time:
Never did arrogant or indiscreet word issue from his
mouth under the impulse of anger or other passion. If
any of his servants committed a fault, he was satisfied
to admonish them gently, without resorting to menace or
to abusive language. He was master of a sweet and winning
power of persuasion, by means of which he gave
form to the great ideas within him, and thus he succeeded
in bending to his will the other lords about the court as he
chose, beloved and in high favour above all men with the
