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Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1587a

Author: John Lothrop Motley

Release date: January 1, 2004 [eBook #4851]
                Most recently updated: December 28, 2020

Language: English

Credits: This eBook was produced by David Widger


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1587A ***



This eBook was produced by David Widger



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HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609

By John Lothrop Motley



MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 51

History of the United Netherlands, 1587




CHAPTER XIII.

     Barneveld's Influence in the Provinces--Unpopularity of Leicester
     intrigues--of his Servants--Gossip of his Secretary--
     Its mischievous Effects--The Quarrel of Norris and Hollock--
     The Earl's Participation in the Affair--His increased Animosity to
     Norris--Seizure of Deventer--Stanley appointed its Governor--York
     and Stanley--Leicester's secret Instructions--Wilkes remonstrates
     with Stanley--Stanley's Insolence and Equivocation--Painful Rumours
     as to him and York--Duplicity of York--Stanley's Banquet at
     Deventer--He surrenders the City to Tassis--Terms of the Bargain--
     Feeble Defence of Stanley's Conduct--Subsequent Fate of Stanley and
     York--Betrayal of Gelder to Parma--These Treasons cast Odium on the
     English--Miserable Plight of the English Troops--Honesty and Energy
     of Wilkes--Indignant Discussion in the Assembly.

The government had not been laid down by Leicester on his departure. It
had been provisionally delegated, as already mentioned to the state-
council.  In this body-consisting of eighteen persons--originally
appointed by the Earl, on nomination by the States, several members were
friendly to the governor, and others were violently opposed to him.  The
Staten of Holland, by whom the action of the States-General was mainly
controlled, were influenced in their action by Buys and Barneveld.  Young
Maurice of Nassau, nineteen years of age, was stadholder of Holland and
Zeeland.  A florid complexioned, fair-haired young man, of sanguine-
bilious temperament; reserved, quiet, reflective, singularly self-
possessed; meriting at that time, more than his father had ever done, the
appellation of the taciturn; discreet, sober, studious.  "Count Maurice
saith but little, but I cannot tell what he thinketh," wrote Leicester's
eaves-dropper-in-chiefs.  Mathematics, fortification, the science of war
--these were his daily pursuits.  "The sapling was to become the tree,"
and meantime the youth was preparing for the great destiny which he felt,
lay before him.  To ponder over the works and the daring conceptions of
Stevinus, to build up and to batter the wooden blocks of mimic citadels;
to arrange in countless combinations, great armies of pewter soldiers;
these were the occupations of his leisure-hours.  Yet he was hardly
suspected of bearing within him the germs of the great military
commander.  "Small desire hath Count Maurice to follow the wars," said
one who fancied himself an acute observer at exactly this epoch.  "And
whereas it might be supposed that in respect to his birth and place, he
would affect the chief military command in these countries, it is found
by experience had of his humour, that there is no chance of his entering
into competition with the others."  A modest young man, who could bide
his time--but who, meanwhile, under the guidance of his elders, was doing
his best, both in field and cabinet, to learn the great lessons of the
age--he had already enjoyed much solid practical instruction, under such
a desperate fighter as Hohenlo, and under so profound a statesman as
Barneveld.  For at this epoch Olden-Barneveld was the preceptor, almost
the political patron of Maurice, and Maurice, the official head of the
Holland party, was the declared opponent of the democratic-Calvinist
organization.  It is not necessary, at this early moment, to foreshadow
the changes which time was to bring.  Meantime it would be seen, perhaps
ere long, whether or no, it would be his humour to follow the wars.  As
to his prudent and dignified deportment there was little doubt.  "Count
Maurice behaveth himself very discreetly all this while," wrote one, who
did not love him, to Leicester, who loved him less: "He cometh every day
to the council, keeping no company with Count Hollock, nor with any of
them all, and never drinks himself full with any of them, as they do
every day among themselves."

Certainly the most profitable intercourse that Maurice could enjoy with
Hohenlo was upon the battle-field.  In winter-quarters, that hard-
fighting, hard-drinking, and most turbulent chieftain, was not the best
Mentor for a youth whose destiny pointed him out as the leader of a free
commonwealth.  After the campaigns were over--if they ever could be over-
-the Count and other nobles from the same country were too apt to indulge
in those mighty potations, which were rather characteristic of their
nation and the age.

"Since your Excellency's departure," wrote Leicester's secretary, "there
hath been among the Dutch Counts nothing but dancing and drinking, to the
grief of all this people; which foresee that there can come no good of
it.  Specially Count Hollock, who hath been drunk almost a fortnight
together."

Leicester had rendered himself unpopular with the States-General, and
with all the leading politicians and generals; yet, at that moment, he
had deeply mortgaged his English estates in order to raise funds to
expend in the Netherland cause.  Thirty thousand pounds sterling--
according to his own statement--he was already out of pocket, and, unless
the Queen would advance him the means to redeem his property; his broad
lands were to be brought to the hammer.  But it was the Queen, not the
States-General, who owed the money; for the Earl had advanced these sums
as a portion of the royal contingent.  Five hundred and sixty thousand
pounds sterling had been the cost of one year's war during the English
governor's administration; and of this sum one hundred and forty thousand
had been paid by England.  There was a portion of the sum, over and above
their monthly levies; for which the States had contracted a debt, and
they were extremely desirous to obtain, at that moment, an additional
loan of fifty thousand pounds from Elizabeth; a favour which--Elizabeth
was very firmly determined not to grant.  It was this terror at the
expense into which the Netherland war was plunging her, which made the
English sovereign so desirous for peace, and filled the anxious mind of
Walsingham with the most painful forebodings.

Leicester, in spite of his good qualities--such as they were--had not
that most necessary gift for a man in his position, the art of making
friends.  No man made so many enemies.  He was an excellent hater, and
few men have been more cordially hated in return.  He was imperious,
insolent, hot-tempered.  He could brook no equal.  He had also the fatal
defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station.  Adroit
intriguers burned incense to him as a god, and employed him as their
tool.  And now he had mortally offended Hohenlo, and Buys, and Barneveld,
while he hated Sir John Norris with a most passionate hatred.  Wilkes,
the English representative, was already a special object of his aversion.
The unvarnished statements made by the stiff counsellor, of the expense
of the past year's administration, and the various errors committed, had
inspired Leicester with such ferocious resentment, that the friends of
Wilkes trembled for his life.

     ["It is generally bruited here," wrote Henry Smith to his brother-
     in-law Wilkes, "of a most heavy displeasure conceived by my Lord of
     Leicester against you, and it is said to be so great as that he hath
     protested to be revenged of you; and to procure you the more
     enemies, it is said he hath revealed to my Lord Treasurer, and
     Secretary Davison some injurious speeches (which I cannot report)
     you should have used of them to him at your last being with him.
     Furthermore some of the said Lord's secretaries have reported here
     that it were good for you never to return hither, or, if their Lord
     be appointed to go over again, it will be too hot for you to tarry
     there.  These things thus coming to the ears of your friends have
     stricken a great fear and grief into the minds of such as love you,
     lest the wonderful force and authority of this man being bent
     against you, should do you hurt, while there is none to answer for
     you."  Smith to Wilkes, 26 Jan.  1587.  (S. P.  Office MS.)]

Cordiality between the governor-general and Count Maurice had become
impossible.  As for Willoughby and Sir William Pelham, they were both
friendly to him, but Willoughby was a magnificent cavalry officer, who
detested politics, and cared little for the Netherlands, except as the
best battle-field in Europe, and the old marshal of the camp--the only
man that Leicester ever loved--was growing feeble in health, was broken
down by debt, and hardly possessed, or wished for, any general influence.

Besides Deventer of Utrecht, then, on whom, the Earl chiefly relied
during his, absence, there were none to support him cordially, except two
or three members of the state-council.  "Madame de Brederode hath sent
unto you a kind of rose," said his intelligencer, "which you have asked
for, and beseeches you to command anything she has in her garden, or
whatsoever.  M. Meetkerke, M. Brederode, and Mr. Dorius, wish your return
with all, their hearts.  For the rest I cannot tell, and will not swear.
But Mr. Barneveld is not your very great friend, whereof I can write no
more at this time."

This certainly was a small proportion out of a council of eighteen, when
all the leading politicians of the country were in avowed hostility to
the governor.  And thus the Earl was, at this most important crisis, to
depend upon the subtle and dangerous Deventer, and upon two inferior
personages, the "fellow Junius"  and a non-descript, whom Hohenlo
characterized as a "long lean Englishman, with a little black beard."
This meagre individual however seems to have been of somewhat doubtful
nationality.  He called himself Otheman, claimed to be a Frenchman, had
lived much in England, wrote with great fluency and spirit, both in
French and English, but was said, in reality, to be named Robert Dale.

It was not the best policy for the representative of the English Queen to
trust to such counsellors at a moment when the elements of strife between
Holland and England were actively at work; and when the safety, almost
the existence, of the two commonwealths depended upon their acting
cordially in concert.  "Overyssel, Utrecht, Friesland, and Gelderland,
have agreed to renew the offer of sovereignty to her Majesty," said
Leicester.  "I shall be able to make a better report of their love and
good inclination than I can of Holland."  It was thought very desirable
by the English government that this great demonstration should be made
once more, whatever might be the ultimate decision of her Majesty upon so
momentous a measure.  It seemed proper that a solemn embassy should once
more proceed to England in order to confer with Elizabeth; but there was
much delay in regard to the step, and much indignation, in consequence,
on the part of the Earl.  The opposition came, of course, from the
Barneveld party.  "They are in no great haste to offer the sovereignty,"
said Wilkes.  "First some towns of Holland made bones thereat, and now
they say that Zeeland is not resolved."

The nature and the causes of the opposition offered by Barneveld and the
States of Holland have been sufficiently explained.  Buys, maddened by
his long and unjustifiable imprisonment, had just been released by the
express desire of Hohenlo; and that unruly chieftain, who guided the
German and Dutch magnates; such as Moeurs and Overstein, and who even
much influenced Maurice and his cousin Count Lewis William, was himself
governed by Barneveld.  It would have been far from impossible for
Leicester, even then, to conciliate the whole party.  It was highly
desirable that he should do so, for not one of the Provinces where he
boasted his strength was quite secure for England.  Count Moeurs, a
potent and wealthy noble, was governor of Utrecht and Gelderland, and he
had already begun to favour the party in Holland which claimed for that
Province a legal jurisdiction over the whole ancient episcopate.  Under
these circumstances common prudence would have suggested that as good an
understanding as possible might be kept up with the Dutch and German
counts, and that the breach might not be rendered quite irreparable.

Yet, as if there had not been administrative blunders enough committed in
one year, the unlucky lean Englishman, with the black beard, who was the
Earl's chief representative, contrived--almost before his master's back
was turned--to draw upon himself the wrath of all the fine ladies in
Holland.  That this should be the direful spring of unutterable
disasters, social and political, was easy to foretell.

Just before the governor's departure Otheman came to pay his farewell
respects, and receive his last commands.  He found Leicester seated at
chess with Sir Francis Drake.

"I do leave you here, my poor Otheman," said the Earl, "but so soon as I
leave you I know very well that nobody will give you a good look."

"Your Excellency was a true prophet," wrote the secretary a few weeks
later, "for, my good Lord, I have been in as great danger of my life as
ever man was.  I have been hunted at Delft from house to house, and then
besieged in my lodgings four or five hours, as though I had been the
greatest thief, murderer, and traitor in the land."

And why was the unfortunate Otheman thus hunted to his lair?  Because he
had chosen to indulge in 'scandalum magnatum,' and had thereby excited
the frenzy of all the great nobles whom it was most important for the
English party to conciliate.

There had been gossip about the Princess of Chimay and one Calvaert, who
lived in her house, much against the advice of all her best friends.  One
day she complained bitterly to Master Otheman of the spiteful ways of the
world.

"I protest," said she, "that I am the unhappiest lady upon earth to have
my name thus called in question."

So said Otheman, in order to comfort her: "Your Highness is aware that
such things are said of all.  I am sure I hear every day plenty of
speeches about lords and ladies, queens and princesses.  You have little
cause to trouble yourself for such matters, being known to live honestly,
and like a good Christian lady.  Your Highness is not the only lady
spoken of."

The Princess listened with attention.

"Think of the stories about the Queen of England and my Lord of
Leicester!" said Otheman, with infinite tact.  "No person is exempted
from the tongues of evil, speakers; but virtuous and godly men do put all
such foolish matter under their feet.  Then there is the Countess of
Hoeurs, how much evil talk does one hear about her!"

The Princess seemed still more interested and even excited; and the
adroit Otheman having thus, as he imagined, very successfully smoothed
away her anger, went off to have a little more harmless gossip about the
Princess and the Countess, with Madame de Meetkerke, who had sent
Leicester the rose from her garden.

But, no sooner, had he gone, than away went her Highness to Madame de
Moeurs, "a marvellous wise and well-spoken gentlewoman and a grave," and
informed her and the Count, with some trifling exaggeration, that the
vile Englishman, secretary to the odious Leicester, had just been there,
abusing and calumniating the Countess in most lewd and abominable
fashion.  He had also, she protested, used "very evil speeches of all the
ladies in the country."  For her own part the Princess avowed her
determination to have him instantly murdered.  Count Moeurs was quite of
the same mind, and desired nothing better than to be one of his
executioners.  Accordingly, the next Sunday, when the babbling secretary
had gone down to Delft to hear the French sermon, a select party,
consisting of Moeurs, Lewis William of Nassau, Count Overstein, and
others, set forth for that city, laid violent hands on the culprit, and
brought him bodily before Princess Chimay.  There, being called upon to
explain his innuendos, he fell into much trepidation, and gave the names
of several English captains, whom he supposed to be at that time in
England.  "For if I had denied the whole matter," said he, "they would
have given me the lie, and used me according to their evil mind."  Upon
this they relented, and released their prisoner, but, the next day they
made another attack upon him, hunted him from house to house, through the
whole city of Delft, and at last drove him to earth in his own lodgings,
where they kept him besieged several hours.  Through the intercession of
Wilkes and the authority of the council of state, to which body he
succeeded in conveying information of his dangerous predicament, he was,
in his own language, "miraculously preserved," although remaining still in
daily danger of his life.  "I pray God keep me hereafter from the anger
of a woman," he exclaimed, "quia non est ira supra iram mulieris."

He was immediately examined before the council, and succeeded in clearing
and justifying himself to the satisfaction of his friends.  His part was
afterwards taken by the councillors, by all the preachers and godly men,
and by the university of Leyden.  But it was well understood that the
blow and the affront had been levelled at the English governor and the
English nation.

"All your friends do see," said Otheman, "that this disgrace is not meant
so much to me as to your Excellency; the Dutch Earls having used such
speeches unto me, and against all law, custom, and reason, used such
violence to me, that your Excellency shall wonder to hear of it."

Now the Princess Chimay, besides being of honourable character, was a
sincere and exemplary member of the Calvinist church, and well inclined
to the Leicestrians.  She was daughter of Count Meghem, one of the
earliest victims of Philip II., in the long tragedy of Netherland
independence, and widow of Lancelot Berlaymont.  Count Moeurs was
governor of Utrecht, and by no means, up to that time, a thorough
supporter of the Holland party; but thenceforward he went off most
abruptly from the party of England, became hand and glove with Hohenlo,
accepted the influence of Barneveld, and did his best to wrest the city
of Utrecht from English authority.  Such was the effect of the
secretary's harmless gossip.

"I thought Count Moeurs and his wife better friends to your Excellency
than I do see them to be," said Otheman afterwards.  "But he doth now
disgrace the English nation many ways in his speeches--saying that they
are no soldiers, that they do no good to this country, and that these
Englishmen that are at Arnheim have an intent to sell and betray the town
to the enemy."

But the disgraceful squabble between Hohenlo and Edward Norris had been
more unlucky for Leicester than any other incident during the year, for
its result was to turn the hatred of both parties against himself.  Yet
the Earl of all men, was originally least to blame for the transaction.
It has been seen that Sir Philip Sidney had borne Norris's cartel to
Hohenlo, very soon after the outrage had been committed.  The Count had
promised satisfaction, but meantime was desperately wounded in the attack
on Fort Zutphen.  Leicester afterwards did his best to keep Edward Norris
employed in distant places, for he was quite aware that Hohenlo, as
lieutenant-general and count of the empire, would consider himself
aggrieved at being called to the field by a simple English captain,
however deeply he might have injured him.  The governor accordingly
induced the Queen to recall the young man to England, and invited him--
much as he disliked his whole race--to accompany him on his departure for
that country.

The Captain then consulted with his brother Sir John, regarding the
pending dispute with Hohenlo.  His brother advised that the Count should
be summoned to keep his promise, but that Lord Leicester's permission
should previously be requested.

A week before the governor's departure, accordingly, Edward Norris
presented himself one morning in the dining-room, and, finding the Earl
reclining on a window-seat, observed to him that "he desired his
Lordship's favour towards the discharging of his reputation."

"The Count Hollock is now well," he proceeded, "and is fasting and
banqueting in his lodgings, although he does not come abroad."

"And what way will you take?"  inquired Leicester, "considering that he
keeps his house."

"'Twill be best, I thought," answered Norris, "to write unto him, to
perform his promise he made me to answer me in the field."

"To whom did he make that promise?"  asked the Earl.

"To Sir Philip Sidney," answered the Captain.

"To my nephew Sidney," said Leicester, musingly; "very well; do as you
think best, and I will do for you what I can."

And the governor then added many kind expressions concerning the interest
he felt in the young man's reputation.  Passing to other matters, Morris
then spoke of the great charges he had recently been put to by reason of
having exchanged out of the States' service in order to accept a
commission from his Lordship to levy a company of horse.  This levy had
cost him and his friends three hundred pounds, for which he had not been
able to "get one groat."

"I beseech your Lordship to stand good for me," said he; "considering the
meanest captain in all the country hath as good entertainment as I."

"I can do but little for you before my departure," said Leicester; "but
at my return I will advise to do more."

After this amicable conversation Morris thanked his Lordship, took his
leave, and straightway wrote his letter to Count Hollock.

That personage, in his answer, expressed astonishment that Norris should
summon him, in his "weakness and indisposition;" but agreed to give him
the desired meeting; with sword and dagger, so soon as he should be
sufficiently recovered.  Morris, in reply, acknowledged his courteous
promise, and hoped that he might be speedily restored to health.

The state-council, sitting at the Hague, took up the matter at once
however, and requested immediate information of the Earl.  He accordingly
sent for Norris and his brother Sir John, who waited upon him in his bed-
chamber, and were requested to set down in writing the reasons which had
moved them in the matter.  This statement was accordingly furnished,
together with a copy of the correspondence.  The Earl took the papers,
and promised to allow most honourably of it in the Council.

Such is the exact narrative, word for word, as given by Sir John and
Edward Norris, in a solemn memorial to the Lords of Her Majesty's privy
council, as well as to the state-council of the United Provinces.  A very
few days afterwards Leicester departed for England, taking Edward Norris
with him.

Count Hohenlo was furious at the indignity, notwithstanding the polite
language in which he had accepted the challenge.  "'T was a matter
punishable with death," he said, "in all kingdoms and countries, for a
simple captain to send such a summons to a man of his station, without
consent of the supreme authority.  It was plain," he added, "that the
English governor-general had connived at the affront," for Norris had been
living in his family and dining at his table.  Nay, more, Lord Leicester
had made him a knight at Flushing just before their voyage to England.
There seems no good reason to doubt the general veracity of the brothers
Norris, although, for the express purpose of screening Leicester, Sir
John represented at the time to Hohenlo and others that the Earl had not
been privy to the transaction.  It is very certain, however, that so soon
as the general indignation of Hohenlo and his partizans began to be
directed against Leicester, he at once denied, in passionate and abusive
language, having had any knowledge whatever of Norris's intentions.  He
protested that he learned, for the first time, of the cartel from
information furnished to the council of state.

The quarrel between Hohenlo and Norris was afterwards amicably arranged
by Lord Buckhurst, during his embassy to the States, at the express
desire of the Queen.  Hohenlo and Sir John Norris became very good
friends, while the enmity between them and Leicester grew more deadly
every day.  The Earl was frantic with rage whenever he spoke of the
transaction, and denounced Sir John Norris as "a fool, liar, and coward"
on all occasions, besides overwhelming his brother, Buckhurst, Wilkes,
and every other person who took their part, with a torrent of abuse; and
it is well known that the Earl was a master of Billingsgate.

"Hollock says that I did procure Edward Norris to send him his cartel,"
observed Leicester on one occasion, "wherein I protest before the Lord,
I was as ignorant as any man in England.  His brother John can tell
whether I did not send for him to have committed him for it; but that, in
very truth, upon the perusing of it" (after it had been sent), "it was
very reasonably written, and I did consider also the great wrong offered
him by the Count, and so forbore it.  I was so careful for the Count's
safety after the brawl between him and Norris, that I charged Sir John,
if any harm came to the Count's person by any of his or under him, that
he should answer it.  Therefore, I take the story to be bred in the bosom
of some much like a thief or villain, whatsoever he were."

And all this was doubtless true so far as regarded the Earl's original
exertions to prevent the consequences of the quarrel, but did not touch
the point of the second correspondence preceded by the conversation in
the dining-room, eight days before the voyage to England.  The affair, in
itself of slight importance, would not merit so much comment at this late
day had it not been for its endless consequences.  The ferocity with
which the Earl came to regard every prominent German, Hollander, and
Englishman, engaged in the service of the States, sprang very much from
the complications of this vulgar brawl.  Norris, Hohenlo, Wilkes,
Buckhurst, were all denounced to the Queen as calumniators, traitors, and
villains; and it may easily be understood how grave and extensive must
have been the effects of such vituperation upon the mind of Elizabeth,
who, until the last day of his life, doubtless entertained for the Earl
the deepest affection of which her nature was susceptible.  Hohenlo, with
Count Maurice, were the acknowledged chiefs of the anti-English party,
and the possibility of cordial cooperation between the countries may be
judged of by the entanglement which had thus occurred.

Leicester had always hated Sir John Norris, but he knew that the mother
had still much favour with the Queen, and he was therefore the more
vehement in his denunciations of the son the more difficulty be found in
entirely destroying his character, and the keener jealousy he felt that
any other tongue but his should influence her Majesty.  "The story of
John Norris about the cartel is, by the Lord God, most false," he
exclaimed; "I do beseech you not to see me so dealt withal, but that
especially her Majesty may understand these untruths, who perhaps, by the
mother's fair speeches and the son's smooth words, may take some other
conceit of my doings than I deserve."

He was most resolute to stamp the character of falsehood upon both the
brothers, for he was more malignant towards Sir John than towards any man
in the world, not even excepting Wilkes.  To the Queen, to the Lords of
the Privy Council, to Walsingham, to Burghley, he poured forth endless
quantities of venom, enough to destroy the characters of a hundred honest
men.

"The declaration of the two Norrises for the cartel is most false, as I
am a Christian," he said to Walsingham.  "I have a dozen witnesses, as
good and some better than they, who will testify that they were present
when I misliked the writing of the letter before ever I saw it.  And by
the allegiance I owe to her Majesty, I never knew of the letter, nor gave
consent to it, nor heard of it till it was complained of from Count
Hollock.  But, as they are false in this, so you will find J. N. as false
in his other answers; so that he would be ashamed, but that his old
conceit hath made him past shame, I fear.  His companions in Ireland, as
in these countries, report that Sir John Norris would often say that he
was but an ass and a fool, who, if a lie would serve his turn, would
spare it.  I remember I have heard that the Earl of Sussex would say so;
and indeed this gentleman doth imitate him in divers things."

But a very grave disaster to Holland and England was soon the fruit of
the hatred borne by Leicester to Sir John Norris.  Immediately after the
battle of Zutphen and the investment of that town by the English and
Netherlanders, great pains were taken to secure the city of Deventer.
This was, after Amsterdam and Antwerp, the most important mercantile
place in all the Provinces.  It was a large prosperous commercial and
manufacturing capital, a member of the Hanseatic League, and the great
centre of the internal trade of the Netherlands with the Baltic nations.
There was a strong Catholic party in the town, and the magistracy were
disposed to side with Parma.  It was notorious that provisions and
munitions were supplied from thence to the beleaguered Zutphen; and
Leicester despatched Sir William Pelham, accordingly, to bring the
inhabitants to reason.  The stout Marshal made short work of it.  Taking
Sir William Stanley and the greater part of his regiment with him, he
caused them, day by day, to steal into the town, in small parties of ten
and fifteen.  No objection was made to this proceeding on the part of the
city government.  Then Stanley himself arrived in the morning, and the
Marshal in the evening, of the 20th of October.  Pelham ordered the
magistrates to present themselves forthwith at his lodgings, and told
them, with grim courtesy, that the Earl of Leicester excused himself from
making them a visit, not being able, for grief at the death of Sir Philip
Sidney, to come so soon near the scene of his disaster.  His Excellency
had therefore sent him to require the town to receive an English
garrison.  "So make up your minds, and delay not," said Pelham; "for I
have many important affairs on my hands, and must send word to his
Excellency at once.  To-morrow morning, at eight o'clock, I shall expect
your answer."

Next day, the magistrates were all assembled in the townhouse before six.
Stanley had filled the great square with his troops, but he found that
the burghers-five thousand of whom constituted the municipal militia--had
chained the streets and locked the gates.  At seven o'clock Pelham
proceeded, to the town-house, and, followed by his train, made his
appearance before the magisterial board.  Then there was a knocking at
the door, and Sir William Stanley entered, having left a strong guard of
soldiers at the entrance to the hall.

"I am come for an answer," said the Lord Marshal; "tell me straight."
The magistrates hesitated, whispered, and presently one of them slipped
away.

"There's one of you gone," cried the Marshal.  "Fetch him straight back;
or, by the living God, before whom I stand, there is not one of you shall
leave this place with life."

So the burgomasters sent for the culprit, who returned.

"Now, tell me," said Pelham, "why you have, this night, chained your
streets and kept such strong watch while your friends and defenders were
in the town?  Do you think we came over here to spend our lives and our
goods, and to leave all we have, to be thus used and thus betrayed by
you?  Nay, you shall find us trusty to our friends, but as politic as
yourselves.  Now, then; set your hands to this document," he proceeded,
as he gave them a new list of magistrates, all selected from stanch
Protestants.

"Give over your government to the men here nominated, Straight; dally
not!"  The burgomasters signed the paper.

"Now," said Pelham, "let one of you go to the watch, discharge the guard,
bid them unarm, and go home to their lodgings."

A magistrate departed on the errand.

"Now fetch me the keys of the gate," said Pelham, "and that straightway,
or, before God, you shall die."

The keys were brought, and handed to the peremptory old Marshal.  The old
board of magistrates were then clapped into prison, the new ones
installed, and Deventer was gained for the English and Protestant party.

There could be no doubt that a city so important and thus fortunately
secured was worthy to be well guarded.  There could be no doubt either
that it would be well to conciliate the rich and influential Papists in
the place, who, although attached to the ancient religion, were not
necessarily disloyal to the republic; but there could be as little that,
under the circumstances of this sudden municipal revolution, it would be
important to place a garrison of Protestant soldiers there, under the
command of a Protestant officer of known fidelity.

To the astonishment of the whole commonwealth, the Earl appointed Sir
William Stanley to be governor of the town, and stationed in it a
garrison of twelve hundred wild Irishmen.

Sir William was a cadet of one of the noblest English houses.  He was the
bravest of the brave.  His gallantry at the famous Zutphen fight had
attracted admiration, where nearly all had performed wondrous exploits,
but he was known to be an ardent Papist and a soldier of fortune, who had
fought on various sides, and had even borne arms in the Netherlands under
the ferocious Alva.  Was it strange that there should be murmurs at the
appointment of so dangerous a chief to guard a wavering city which had so
recently been secured?

The Irish kernes--and they are described by all contemporaries, English
and Flemish, in the same language--were accounted as the wildest and
fiercest of barbarians.  There was something grotesque, yet appalling,
in the pictures painted of these rude, almost naked; brigands, who ate
raw flesh, spoke no intelligible language, and ranged about the country,
burning, slaying, plundering, a terror to the peasantry and a source of
constant embarrassment to the more orderly troops in the service of the
republic.  "It seemed," said one who had seen them, "that they belonged
not to Christendom, but to Brazil."  Moreover, they were all Papists,
and, however much one might be disposed to censure that great curse of
the age, religious intolerance--which was almost as flagrant in the
councils of Queen Elizabeth as in those of Philip--it was certainly a
most fatal policy to place such a garrison, at that critical juncture, in
the newly-acquired city.  Yet Leicester, who had banished Papists from
Utrecht without cause and without trial, now placed most notorious
Catholics in Deventer.

Zutphen, which was still besieged by the English and the patriots, was
much crippled by the loss of the great fort, the capture of which, mainly
through the brilliant valour of Stanley's brother Edward, has already
been related.  The possession of Deventer and of this fort gave the
control of the whole north-eastern territory to the patriots; but, as if
it were not enough to place Deventer in the hands of Sir William Stanley,
Leicester thought proper to confide the government of the fort to Roland
York.  Not a worse choice could be made in the whole army.

York was an adventurer of the most audacious and dissolute character.  He
was a Londoner by birth, one of those "ruing blades" inveighed against by
the governor-general on his first taking command of the forces.  A man of
desperate courage, a gambler, a professional duellist, a bravo, famous in
his time among the "common hacksters and swaggerers" as the first to
introduce the custom of foining, or thrusting with the rapier in single
combats--whereas before his day it had been customary among the English
to fight with sword and shield, and held unmanly to strike below the
girdle--he had perpetually changed sides, in the Netherland wars, with
the shameless disregard to principle which characterized all his actions.
He had been lieutenant to the infamous John Van Imbyze, and had been
concerned with him in the notorious attempt to surrender Dendermonde and
Ghent to the enemy, which had cost that traitor his head.  York had been
thrown into prison at Brussels, but there had been some delay about his
execution, and the conquest of the city by Parma saved him from the
gibbet.  He had then taken service under the Spanish commander-in-chief,
and had distinguished himself, as usual, by deeds of extraordinary
valour, having sprung on board the, burning volcano-ship at the siege of
Antwerp.  Subsequently returning to England, he had, on Leicester's
appointment, obtained the command of a company in the English contingent,
and had been conspicuous on the field of Warnsveld; for the courage which
he always displayed under any standard was only equalled by the audacity
with which he was ever ready to desert from it.  Did it seem credible
that the fort of Zutphen should be placed in the hands of Roland York?

Remonstrances were made by the States-General at once.  With regard to
Stanley, Leicester maintained that he was, in his opinion, the fittest
man to take charge of the whole English army, during his absence in
England.  In answer to a petition made by the States against the
appointment of York, "in respect to his perfidious dealings before," the
Earl replied that he would answer for his fidelity as for his own
brother; adding peremptorily--"Do you trust me?  Then trust York."

But, besides his other qualifications for high command, Stanley possessed
an inestimable one in Leicester's eyes.  He was, or at least had been, an
enemy of Sir John Norris.  To be this made a Papist pardonable.  It was
even better than to be a Puritan.

But the Earl did more than to appoint the traitor York and the Papist
Stanley to these important posts.  On the very day of his departure, and
immediately after his final quarrel with Sir John about the Hohenlo
cartel, which had renewed all the ancient venom, he signed a secret
paper, by which he especially forbade the council of state to interfere
with or set aside any appointments to the government of towns or forts,
or to revoke any military or naval commissions, without his consent.

Now supreme executive authority had been delegated to the state-council
by the Governor-General during his absence.  Command in chief over all
the English forces, whether in the Queen's pay or the State's pay, had
been conferred upon Norris, while command over the Dutch and German
troops belonged to Hohenlo; but, by virtue of the Earl's secret paper,
Stanley and York were now made independent of all authority.  The evil
consequences natural to such a step were not slow in displaying
themselves.

Stanley at once manifested great insolence towards Norris.  That
distinguished general was placed in a most painful position.  A post of
immense responsibility was confided to him.  The honour of England's
Queen and of England's soldiers was entrusted to his keeping; at a moment
full of danger, and in a country where every hour might bring forth some
terrible change; yet he knew himself the mark at which the most powerful
man in England was directing all his malice, and that the Queen, who was
wax in her great favourite's hands, was even then receiving the most
fatal impressions as to his character and conduct.  "Well I know," said
he to Burghley, "that the root of the former malice borne me is not
withered, but that I must look for like fruits therefrom as before;"
and he implored the Lord-Treasurer, that when his honour and reputation
should be called in question, he might be allowed to return to England
and clear himself.  "For myself," said he, "I have not yet received any
commission, although I have attended his Lordship of Leicester to his
ship.  It is promised to be sent me, and in the meantime I understand
that my Lord hath granted separate commissions to Sir William Stanley and
Roland York, exempting them from obeying of me.  If this be true, 'tis
only done to nourish factions, and to interrupt any better course in our
doings than before hath been."  He earnestly requested to be furnished
with a commission directly from her Majesty.  "The enemy is reinforcing,"
he added.  "We are very weak, our troops are unpaid these three months,
and we are grown odious, to our friends."

Honest Councillor Wilkes, who did his best to conciliate all parties, and
to do his duty to England and Holland, to Leicester and to Norris, had
the strongest sympathy with Sir John.  "Truly, besides the value, wisdom,
and many other good parts that are in him," he said, "I have noted
wonderful patience and modesty in the man, in bearing many apparent
injuries done unto him, which I have known to be countenanced and
nourished, contrary to all reason, to disgrace him.  Please therefore
continue your honourable opinion of him in his absence, whatsoever may be
maliciously reported to his disadvantage, for I dare avouch, of my own
poor skill, that her Majesty hath not a second subject of his place and
quality able to serve in those countries as he .  .  .  .  .  I doubt not
God will move her Majesty, in despite of the devil, to respect him as he
deserves."

Sir John disclaimed any personal jealousy in regard to Stanley's
appointment, but, within a week or two of the Earl's departure, he
already felt strong anxiety as to its probable results.  "If it prove no
hindrance to the service," he said, "it shall nothing trouble me.  I
desire that my doings may show what I am; neither will I seek, by
indirect means to calumniate him or any other, but will let them show
themselves."

Early in December he informed the Lord-Treasurer that Stanley's own men
were boasting that their master acknowledged no superior authority to his
own, and that he had said as much himself to the magistracy of Deventer.
The burghers had already complained, through the constituted guardians of
their liberties, of his insolence and rapacity, and of the turbulence of
his troops, and had appealed to Sir John; but the colonel-general's
remonstrances had been received by Sir William with contumely and abuse,
and by daunt that he had even a greater commission than any he had yet
shown.

"Three sheep, an ox, and a whole hog," were required weekly of the
peasants for his table, in a time of great scarcity, and it was
impossible to satisfy the rapacious appetites of the Irish kernes.  The
paymaster-general of the English forces was daily appealed to by Stanley
for funds--an application which was certainly not unreasonable, as her
Majesty's troops had not received any payment for three months--but there
"was not a denier in the treasury," and he was therefore implored to
wait.  At last the States-General sent him a month's pay for himself and
all his troops, although, as he was in the Queen's service, no claim
could justly be made upon them.

Wilkes, also, as English member of the state council, faithfully conveyed
to the governor-general in England the complaints which came up to all
the authorities of the republic, against Sir William Stanley's conduct in
Deventer.  He had seized the keys of the gates, he kept possession of the
towers and fortifications, he had meddled with the civil government, he
had infringed all their privileges.  Yet this was the board of
magistrates, expressly set up by Leicester, with the armed hand, by the
agency of Marshal Pelham and this very Colonel Stanley--a board of
Calvinist magistrates placed but a few weeks before in power to control a
city of Catholic tendencies.  And here was a papist commander displaying
Leicester's commission in their faces, and making it a warrant for
dealing with the town as if it were under martial law, and as if he were
an officer of the Duke of Parma.  It might easily be judged whether such
conduct were likely to win the hearts of Netherlanders to Leicester and
to England.

"Albeit, for my own part," said Wilkes, "I do hold Sir William Stanley to
be a wise and a discreet gent., yet when I consider that the magistracy
is such as was established by your Lordship, and of the religion, and
well affected to her Majesty, and that I see how heavily the matter is
conceived of here by the States and council, I do fear that all is not
well.  The very bruit of this doth begin to draw hatred upon our nation.
Were it not that I doubt some dangerous issue of this matter, and that I
might be justly charged with negligence, if I should not advertise you
beforehand, I would, have forborne to mention this dissension, for the
States are about to write to your Lordship and to her Majesty for
reformation in this matter."  He added that he had already written
earnestly to Sir William, "hoping to persuade him to carry a mild hand
over the people."

Thus wrote Councillor Wilkes, as in duty bound, to Lord Leicester, so
early as the 9th December, and the warning voice of Norris had made
itself heard in England quite as soon.  Certainly the governor-general,
having, upon his own responsibility; and prompted, it would seem, by
passion more than reason, made this dangerous appointment, was fortunate
in receiving timely and frequent notice of its probable results.

And the conscientious Wilkes wrote most earnestly, as he said he had
done, to the turbulent Stanley.

"Good Sir William," said he, "the magistrates and burgesses of Deventer
complain to this council, that you have by violence wrested from them the
keys of one of their gates, that you assemble your garrison in arms to
terrify them, that you have seized one of their forts, that the Irish
soldiers do commit many extortions and exactions upon the inhabitants,
that you have imprisoned their burgesses, and do many things against
their laws and privileges, so that it is feared the best affected, of the
inhabitants towards her Majesty will forsake the town.  Whether any of
these things be true, yourself doth best know, but I do assure you that
the apprehension thereof here doth make us and our government hateful.
For mine own part, I have always known you for a gentleman of value,
wisdom; and judgment, and therefore should hardly believe any such thing.
.  .  .  .  I earnestly require you to take heed of consequences, and to
be careful of the honour of her Majesty and the reputation of our nation.
You will consider that the gaining possession of the town grew by them
that are now in office, who being of the religion, and well affected to
his Excellency's government, wrought his entry into the same .  .  .  .
I know that Lord Leicester is sworn to maintain all the inhabitants of
the Provinces in their ancient privileges and customs.  I know further
that your commission carreeth no authority to warrant you to intermeddle
any further than with the government of the soldiers and guard of the
town.  Well, you may, in your own conceipt, confer some words to
authorize you in some larger sort, but, believe me, Sir, they will not
warrant you sufficiently to deal any further than I have said, for I have
perused a copy of your commission for that purpose.  I know the name
itself of a governor of a town is odious to this people, and hath been
ever since the remembrance of the Spanish government, and if we, by any
lack of foresight, should give the like occasion, we should make
ourselves as odious as they are; which God forbid.

"You are to consider that we are not come into these countries for their
defence only, but for the defence of her Majesty and our own native
country, knowing that the preservation of both dependeth altogether upon
the preserving of these.  Wherefore I do eftsoons intreat and require you
to forbear to intermeddle any further.  If there shall follow any
dangerous effect of your proceedings, after this my friendly advice,
I shall be heartily sorry for your sake, but I shall be able to testify
to her Majesty that I have done my duty in admonishing you."

Thus spake the stiff councillor, earnestly and well, in behalf of
England's honour and the good name of England's Queen.

But the brave soldier, whose feet were fast sliding into the paths of
destruction, replied, in a tone of indignant innocence, more likely to
aggravate than to allay suspicion.  "Finding," said Stanley, "that you
already threaten, I have gone so far as to scan the terms of my
commission, which I doubt not to execute, according to his Excellency's
meaning and mine honour.  First, I assure you that I have maintained
justice, and that severely; else hardly would the soldiers have been
contented with bread and bare cheese."

He acknowledged possessing himself of the keys of the town, but defended
it on the ground of necessity; and of the character of the people, "who
thrust out the Spaniards and Almaynes, and afterwards never would obey
the Prince and States."  "I would be," he said, "the sorriest man that
lives, if by my negligence the place should be lost.  Therefore I thought
good to seize the great tower and ports.  If I meant evil, I needed no
keys, for here is force enough."

With much effrontery, he then affected to rely for evidence of his
courteous and equitable conduct towards the citizens, upon the very
magistrates who had been petitioning the States-General, the state-
council, and the English Queen, against his violence:

"For my courtesy and humanity," he said, "I refer me unto the magistrates
themselves.  But I think they sent rhetoricians, who could, allege of
little grief, and speak pitiful, and truly I find your ears have been as
pitiful in so timorously condemning me.  I assure you that her Majesty
hath not a better servant than I nor a more faithful in these parts.
This I will prove with my flesh and blood.  Although I know there be
divers flying reports spread by my enemies, which are come to my ears, I
doubt not my virtue and truth will prove them calumniators and men of
little.  So, good Mr. Wilkes, I pray you, consider gravely, give ear
discreetly, and advertise into England soundly.  For me, I have been and
am your friend, and glad to hear any admonition from one so wise as
yourself."

He then alluded ironically to the "good favour and money" with which he
had been so contented of late, that if Mr. Wilkes would discharge him of
his promise to Lord Leicester, he would take his leave with all his
heart.  Captain, officers, and soldiers, had been living on half a pound
of cheese a day.  For himself, he had received but one hundred and twenty
pounds in five months, and was living at three pounds by the day.  "This
my wealth will not long hold out," he observed, "but yet I will never
fail of my promise to his Excellency, whatsoever I endure.  It is for her
Majesty's service and for the love I bear to him."

He bitterly complained of the unwillingness of the country-people to
furnish vivers, waggons, and other necessaries, for the fort before
Zutphen.  "Had it not been," he said, "for the travail extraordinary of
myself, and patience of my brother, Yorke, that fort would have been in
danger.  But, according to his desire and forethought, I furnished that
place with cavalry and infantry; for I know the troops there be
marvellous weak."

In reply, Wilkes stated that the complaints had been made "by no
rhetorician," but by letter from the magistrates themselves (on whom he
relied so confidently) to the state-council.  The councillor added,
rather tartly, that since his honest words of defence and of warning,
had been "taken in so scoffing a manner," Sir William might be sure of
not being troubled with any more of his letters.

But, a day or two before thus addressing him, he had already enclosed to
Leicester very important letters addressed by the council of Gelderland
to Count Moeurs, stadholder of the Province, and by him forwarded to the
state-council.  For there were now very grave rumours concerning the
fidelity of "that patient and foreseeing brother York," whom Stanley had
been so generously strengthening in Fort Zutphen.  The lieutenant of
York, a certain Mr. Zouch, had been seen within the city of Zutphen, in
close conference with Colonel Tassis, Spanish governor of the place.
Moreover there had been a very frequent exchange of courtesies--by which
the horrors of war seemed to be much mitigated--between York on the
outside and Tassis within.  The English commander sent baskets of
venison, wild fowl, and other game, which were rare in the market of a
besieged town.  The Spanish governor responded with baskets of excellent
wine and barrels of beer.  A very pleasant state of feeling, perhaps, to
contemplate--as an advance in civilization over the not very distant days
of the Haarlem and Leyden sieges, when barrels of prisoners' heads, cut
off, a dozen or two at a time, were the social amenities usually
exchanged between Spaniards and Dutchmen--but somewhat suspicious to
those who had grown grey in this horrible warfare.

The Irish kernes too, were allowed to come to mass within the city, and
were received there with as much fraternity by, the Catholic soldiers of
Tassis as the want of any common dialect would allow--a proceeding which
seemed better perhaps for the salvation of their souls, than--for the
advancement of the siege.

The state-council had written concerning these rumours to Roland York,
but the patient man had replied in a manner which Wilkes characterized as
"unfit to have been given to such as were the executors of the Earl of
Leicester's authority."  The councillor implored the governor-general
accordingly to send some speedy direction in this matter, as well to
Roland York as to Sir William Stanley; for he explicitly and earnestly
warned him, that those personages would pay no heed to the remonstrances
of the state-council.

Thus again and again was Leicester--on whose head rested, by his own
deliberate act, the whole responsibility--forewarned that some great
mischief was impending.  There was time enough even then--for it was but
the 16th December--to place full powers in the hands of the state-
council, of Norris, or of Hohenlo, and secretly and swiftly to secure the
suspected persons, and avert the danger.  Leicester did nothing.  How
could he acknowledge his error?  How could he manifest confidence in the
detested Norris?  How appeal to the violent and deeply incensed Hohenlo?

Three weeks more rolled by, and the much-enduring Roland York was still
in confidential correspondence with Leicester and Walsingham, although
his social intercourse with the Spanish governor of Zutphen continued to
be upon the most liberal and agreeable footing.  He was not quite
satisfied with the general, aspect of the Queen's cause in the
Netherlands, and wrote to the Secretary of State in a tone of
despondency, and mild expostulation.  Walsingham would have been less
edified by these communications, had he been aware that York, upon first
entering Leicester's service, had immediately opened  a correspondence
with the Duke of Parma, and had secretly given him to understand that his
object was to serve the cause of Spain.  This was indeed the fact, as the
Duke informed the King, "but then he is such a scatter-brained, reckless
dare-devil," said Parma, "that I hardly expected much of him."  Thus the
astute Sir Francis had been outwitted, by  the adventurous Roland, who
was perhaps destined also to surpass the anticipations of the Spanish
commander-in-chief.

Meantime York informed his English patrons, on the 7th January, that
matters were not proceeding so smoothly in the political world as he
could wish.  He had found "many cross and indirect proceedings," and so,
according to Lord Leicester's desire, he sent him a "discourse" on the
subject, which he begged Sir Francis to "peruse, add to, or take away
from," and then to inclose to the Earl.  He hoped he should be forgiven
if the style of the production was not quite satisfactory; for, said he,
"the place where I am doth too much torment my memory, to call every
point to my remembrance."

It must, in truth, have been somewhat a hard task upon his memory, to
keep freshly in mind every detail of the parallel correspondence which he
was carrying on with the Spanish and with the English government.  Even a
cool head like Roland's might be forgiven for being occasionally puzzled.
"So if there be anything hard to be understood," he observed to
Walsingham, "advertise me, and I will make it plainer."  Nothing could be
more ingenuous.  He confessed, however, to being out of pocket.  "Please
your honour," said he, "I have taken great pains to make a bad place
something, and it has cost me all the money I had, and here I can receive
nothing but discontentment.  I dare not write you all lest you should
think it impossible," he added--and it is quite probable that even
Walsingham would have been astonished, had Roland written all.  The game
playing by York and Stanley was not one to which English gentlemen were
much addicted.

"I trust the bearer, Edward Stanley; a discreet, brave gentleman," he
said, "with details."  And the remark proves that the gallant youth who
had captured this very Fort Zutphen in, so brilliant a manner was not
privy to the designs of his brother and of York; for the object of the
"discourse" was to deceive the English government.

"I humbly beseech that you will send for me home," concluded Roland,
"for true as I humbled my mind to please her Majesty, your honour, and
the dead, now am I content to humble myself lower to please myself, for
now, since his, Excellency's departure, there is no form of proceeding
neither honourably nor honestly."

Three other weeks passed over, weeks of anxiety and dread throughout the
republic.  Suspicion grew darker than ever, not only as to York and
Stanley, but as to all the English commanders, as to the whole English
nation.  An Anjou plot, a general massacre, was expected by many, yet
there were no definite grounds for such dark anticipations.  In vain had
painstaking, truth-telling Wilkes summoned Stanley to his duty, and
called on Leicester, time after time, to interfere.  In vain did Sir John
Norris, Sir John Conway, the members of the state-council, and all others
who should have had authority, do their utmost to avert a catastrophe.
Their hands were all tied by the fatal letter of the 24th November.  Most
anxiously did all implore the Earl of Leicester to return.  Never was a
more dangerous moment than this for a country to be left to its fate.
Scarcely ever in history was there a more striking exemplification of the
need of a man--of an individual--who should embody the powers and wishes,
and concentrate in one brain and arm, the whole energy, of a
commonwealth.  But there was no such man, for the republic had lost its
chief when Orange died.  There was much wisdom and patriotism now.
Olden-Barneveld was competent, and so was Buys, to direct the councils of
the republic, and there were few better soldiers than Norris and Hohenlo
to lead her armies against Spain.  But the supreme authority had been
confided to Leicester.  He had not perhaps proved himself extraordinarily
qualified for his post, but he was the governor-in-chief, and his
departure, without resigning his powers, left the commonwealth headless,
at a moment when singleness of action was vitally important.

At last, very late in January, one Hugh Overing, a haberdasher from
Ludgate Hill, was caught at Rotterdam, on his way to Ireland, with a
bundle of letters from Sir William Stanley, and was sent, as a suspicious
character, to the state-council at the Hague.  On the same day, another
Englishman, a small youth, "well-favoured," rejoicing in a "very little
red beard, and in very ragged clothes," unknown by name; but ascertained
to be in the service of Roland York and to have been the bearer of
letters to Brussels, also passed through Rotterdam.  By connivance of the
innkeeper, one Joyce, also an Englishman, he succeeded in making his
escape.  The information contained in the letters thus intercepted was
important, but it came too late, even if then the state-council could
have acted without giving mortal offence to Elizabeth and to Leicester.

On the evening of 28th January (N. S.), Sir William Stanley entertained
the magistrates of Deventer at a splendid banquet.  There was free
conversation at table concerning the idle suspicions which had been rife
in the Provinces as to his good intentions and the censures which had
been cast upon him for the repressive measures which he had thought
necessary to adopt for the security of the city.  He took that occasion
to assure his guests that the Queen of England had not a more loyal
subject than himself, nor the Netherlands a more devoted friend.  The
company expressed themselves fully restored to confidence in his
character and purposes, and the burgomasters, having exchanged pledges of
faith and friendship with the commandant in flowing goblets, went home
comfortably to bed, highly pleased with their noble entertainer and with
themselves.

Very late that same night, Stanley placed three hundred of his wild Irish
in the Noorenberg tower, a large white structure which commanded the
Zutphen gate, and sent bodies of chosen troops to surprise all the
burgher-guards at their respective stations.  Strong pickets of cavalry
were also placed in all the principal thoroughfares of the city.  At
three o'clock in the following morning he told his officers that he was
about to leave Deventer for a few hours, in order to bring in some
reinforcements for which he had sent, as he had felt much anxiety for
some time past as to the disposition of the burghers.  His officers,
honest Englishmen, suspecting no evil and having confidence in their
chief, saw nothing strange in this proceeding, and Sir William rode
deliberately out of Zutphen.  After he had been absent an hour or two,
the clatter of hoofs and the tramp of infantry was heard without, and
presently the commandant returned, followed by a thousand musketeers and
three or four hundred troopers.  It was still pitch dark; but, dimly
lighted by torches, small detachments of the fresh troops picked their
way through the black narrow streets, while the main body poured at once
upon the Brink, or great square.  Here, quietly and swiftly, they were
marshalled into order, the cavalry, pikemen, and musketeers, lining all
sides of the place, and a chosen band--among whom stood Sir William
Stanley, on foot, and an officer of high rank on horseback--occupying the
central space immediately in front of the town-house.

The drums then beat, and proclamation went forth through the city that
all burghers, without any distinction--municipal guards and all--were to
repair forthwith to the city-hall, and deposit their arms.  As the
inhabitants arose from their slumbers, and sallied forth into the streets
to inquire the cause of the disturbance, they soon discovered that they
had, in some mysterious manner, been entrapped.  Wild Irishmen, with
uncouth garb, threatening gesture, and unintelligible jargon, stood
gibbering at every corner, instead of the comfortable Flemish faces of
the familiar burgher-guard.  The chief burgomaster, sleeping heavily
after Sir William's hospitable banquet, aroused himself at last, and sent
a militia-captain to inquire the cause of the unseasonable drum-beat and
monstrous proclamation.  Day was breaking as the trusty captain made his
way to the scene of action.  The wan light of a cold, drizzly January
morning showed him the wide, stately square--with its leafless lime-trees
and its tall many storied, gable-ended houses rising dim and spectral
through the mist-filled to overflowing with troops, whose uniforms and
banners resembled nothing that he remembered in Dutch and English
regiments.  Fires were lighted at various corners, kettles were boiling,
and camp-followers and sutlers were crouching over them, half perished
with cold--for it had been raining dismally all night--while burghers,
with wives and children, startled from their dreams by the sudden
reveillee, stood gaping about, with perplexed faces and despairing
gestures.  As he approached the town-house--one of those magnificent,
many-towered, highly-decorated, municipal palaces of the Netherlands--he
found troops all around it; troops guarding the main entrance, troops on
the great external staircase leading to the front balcony, and officers,
in yellow jerkin and black bandoleer, grouped in the balcony itself.

The Flemish captain stood bewildered, when suddenly the familiar form of
Stanley detached itself from the central group and advanced towards him.
Taking him by the hand with much urbanity, Sir William led the militia-
man through two or three ranks of soldiers, and presented him to the
strange officer on horseback

"Colonel Tassis," said he, "I recommend to you a very particular friend
of mine.  Let me bespeak your best offices in his behalf."

"Ah God!"  cried the honest burgher, "Tassis!  Tassis!  Then are we
indeed most miserably betrayed."

Even the Spanish colonel who was of Flemish origin, was affected by the
despair of the Netherlander.

"Let those look to the matter of treachery whom it concerns," said he;
"my business here is to serve the King, my master."

"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the
things which are God's," said Stanley, with piety.

The burgher-captain was then assured that no harm was intended to the
city, but that it now belonged to his most Catholic Majesty of Spain--
Colonel Stanley, to whom its custody had been entrusted, having freely
and deliberately restored it to its lawful owner.  He was then bid to go
and fetch the burgomasters and magistrates.

Presently they appeared--a dismal group, weeping and woe-begone--the same
board of strict Calvinists forcibly placed in office but three months
before by Leicester, through the agency of this very Stanley, who had so
summarily ejected their popish predecessors, and who only the night
before had so handsomely feasted themselves.  They came forward, the
tears running down their cheeks, crying indeed so piteously that even
Stanley began to weep bitterly himself.  "I have not done this," he
sobbed, "for power or pelf.  Not the hope of reward, but the love of God
hath moved me."

Presently some of the ex-magistrates made their appearance, and a party
of leading citizens went into a private house with Tassis and Stanley to
hear statements and explanations--as if any satisfactory ones were
possible.

Sir William, still in a melancholy tone, began to make a speech, through
an interpreter, and again to protest that he had not been influenced by
love of lucre.  But as he stammered and grew incoherent as he approached
the point, Tassis suddenly interrupted the conference.  "Let us look
after our soldiers,"  said he, "for they have been marching in the foul
weather half the night."  So the Spanish troops, who had been, standing
patiently to be rained upon after their long march, until the burghers
had all deposited their arms in the city-hall, were now billeted on the
townspeople.  Tassis gave peremptory orders that no injury should be
offered to persons or property on pain of death; and, by way of wholesome
example, hung several Hibernians the same day who had been detected in
plundering the inhabitants.

The citizens were, as usual in such cases, offered the choice between
embracing the Catholic religion or going into exile, a certain interval
being allowed them to wind up their affairs.  They were also required to
furnish Stanley and his regiment full pay for the whole period of their
service since coming to the Provinces, and to Tassis three months' wages
for his Spaniards in advance.  Stanley offered his troops the privilege
of remaining with him in the service of Spain, or of taking their
departure unmolested.  The Irish troops were quite willing to continue
under their old chieftain, particularly as it was intimated to them that
there was an immediate prospect of a brisk campaign in their native
island against the tyrant Elizabeth, under the liberating banners of
Philip.  And certainly, in an age where religion constituted country,
these fervent Catholics could scarcely be censured for taking arms
against the sovereign who persecuted their religion and themselves.
These honest barbarians had broken no oath, violated no trust, had
never pretended sympathy with freedom; or affection for their Queen.
They had fought fiercely under the chief who led them into battle--they
had robbed and plundered voraciously as opportunity served, and had been
occasionally hanged for their exploits; but Deventer and Fort Zutphen had
not been confided to their keeping; and it was a pleasant thought to
them, that approaching invasion of Ireland.  "I will ruin the whole
country from Holland to Friesland," said Stanley to Captain Newton, "and
then I will play such a game in Ireland as the Queen has never seen the
like all the days of her life."

Newton had already been solicited by Roland York to take service under
Parma, and had indignantly declined.  Sir Edmund Carey and his men, four
hundred in all, refused, to a man, to take part in the monstrous treason,
and were allowed to leave the city.  This was the case with all the
English officers.  Stanley and York were the only gentlemen who on this
occasion sullied the honour of England.

Captain Henchman, who had been taken prisoner in a skirmish a few days
before the surrender of Deventer, was now brought to that city, and
earnestly entreated by Tassis and by Stanley to seize this opportunity
of entering the service of Spain.

"You shall have great advancement and preferment," said Tassis.  "His
Catholic Majesty has got ready very many ships for Ireland, and Sir
William Stanley is to be general of the expedition."

"And you shall choose your own preferment," said Stanley, "for I know you
to be a brave man."

"I would rather," replied Henchman, "serve my prince in loyalty as a
beggar, than to be known and reported a rich traitor, with breach of
conscience."

"Continue so," replied Stanley, unabashed; "for this is the very
principle of my own enlargement: for, before, I served the devil,
and now I am serving God."

The offers and the arguments of the Spaniard and the renegade were
powerless with the blunt captain, and notwithstanding "divers other
traitorous alledgements by Sir William for his most vile facts," as
Henchman expressed it, that officer remained in poverty and captivity
until such time as he could be exchanged.

Stanley subsequently attempted in various ways to defend his character.
He had a commission from Leicester, he said, to serve whom he chose--as
if the governor-general had contemplated his serving Philip II. with that
commission; he had a passport to go whither he liked--as if his passport
entitled him to take the city of Deventer along with him; he owed no
allegiance to the States; he was discharged from his promise to the Earl;
he was his own master; he wanted neither money nor preferment; he had
been compelled by his conscience and his duty to God to restore the city
to its lawful master, and so on, and so on.

But whether he owed the States allegiance or not, it is certain that he
had accepted their money to relieve himself and his troops eight days
before his treason.  That Leicester had discharged him from his promises
to such an extent as to justify his surrendering a town committed to his
honour for safe keeping, certainly deserved no answer; that his duty to
conscience required him to restore the city argued a somewhat tardy
awakening of that monitor in the breast of the man who three months
before had wrested the place with the armed hand from men suspected of
Catholic inclinations; that his first motive however was not the mere
love of money, was doubtless true.  Attachment to his religion, a desire
to atone for his sins against it, the insidious temptings of his evil
spirit, York, who was the chief organizer of the conspiracy, and the
prospect of gratifying a wild and wicked ambition--these were the springs
that moved him.  Sums--varying from L30,000 to a pension of 1500
pistolets a year--were mentioned, as the stipulated price of his treason,
by Norris, Wilkes, Conway, and others;  but the Duke of Parma, in
narrating the whole affair in a private letter to the King, explicitly
stated that he had found Stanley "singularly disinterested."

"The colonel was only actuated by religious motives," he said, "asking
for no reward, except that be might serve in his Majesty's army
thenceforth--and this is worthy to be noted."

At the same time it appears from this correspondence, that the Duke,
recommended, and that the King bestowed, a "merced," which Stanley did
not refuse; and it was very well known that to no persons in, the world
was Philip apt to be so generous as to men of high rank, Flemish,
Walloon, or English, who deserted the cause of his rebellious subjects to
serve under his own banners.  Yet, strange to relate, almost at the very
moment that Stanley was communicating his fatal act of treason, in order
that he might open a high career for his ambition, a most brilliant
destiny was about to dawn upon him.  The Queen had it in contemplation,
in recompense for his distinguished services, and by advice of Leicester,
to bestow great honors and titles upon him, and to appoint him Viceroy of
Ireland--of that very country which he was now proposing, as an enemy to
his sovereign and as the purchased tool of a foreign despot, to invade.

Stanley's subsequent fate was obscure.  A price of 3000 florins was put
by the States upon his head and upon that of York.  He went to Spain, and
afterwards returned to the Provinces.  He was even reported to have
become, through the judgment of God, a lunatic, although the tale wanted
confirmation; and it is certain that at the close of the year he had
mustered his regiment under Farnese, prepared to join the Duke in the
great invasion of England.

Roland York, who was used to such practices, cheerfully consummated his
crime on the same day that witnessed the surrender of Deventer.  He rode
up to the gates of that city on the morning of the 29th January, inquired
quietly whether Tassis was master of the place, and then galloped
furiously back the ten miles to his fort.  Entering, he called his
soldiers together, bade them tear in pieces the colours of England, and
follow him into the city of Zutphen.  Two companies of States' troops
offered resistance, and attempted to hold the place; but they were
overpowered by the English and Irish, assisted by a force of Spaniards,
who, by a concerted movement, made their appearance from the town.  He
received a handsome reward, having far surpassed the Duke of Parma's
expectations, when he made his original offer of service.  He died very
suddenly, after a great banquet at Deventer, in the course of the sane
year, not having succeeded in making his escape into Spain to live at
ease on his stipend.  It was supposed that he was poisoned; but the
charge in those days was a common one, and nobody cared to investigate
the subject.  His body was subsequently exhumed when Deventer came into
the hands of the patriots--and with impotent and contemptible malice
hanged upon a gibbet.  This was the end of Roland York.

Parma was highly gratified, as may be imagined, at such successful
results.  "Thus Fort Zutphen," said he, "about which there have been so
many fisticuffs, and Deventer--which was the real object of the last
campaign, and which has cost the English so much blood and money, and is
the safety of Groningen and of all those Provinces--is now your
Majesty's.  Moreover, the effect of this treason must be to sow great
distrust between the English and the rebels, who will henceforth never
know in whom they can confide."

Parma was very right in this conjuncture.  Moreover, there was just then
a fearful run against the States.  The castle of Wauw, within a league of
Bergen-op-Zoom, which had been entrusted to one Le Marchand, a Frenchman
in the service of the republic, was delivered by him to Parma for 16,000
florins.  "'Tis a very important post," said the Duke, "and the money was
well laid out."

The loss of the city of Gelder, capital of the Province of the same name,
took place in the summer.  This town belonged to the jurisdiction of
Martin Schenk, and was, his chief place of deposit for the large and
miscellaneous property acquired by him during his desultory, but most
profitable, freebooting career.  The Famous partisan was then absent,
engaged in a lucrative job in the way of his profession.  He had made a
contract--in a very-business-like way--with the States, to defend the
city of Rheinberg and all the country, round against the Duke of Parma,
pledging himself to keep on foot for that purpose an army of 3300 foot
and 700 horse.  For this extensive and important operation, he was to
receive 20,000 florins a month from the general exchequer; and in
addition he was to be allowed the brandschatz--the black-mail, that is
to say--of the whole country-side, and the taxation upon all vessels
going up and down the river before Rheinberg; an ad valorem duty, in
short, upon all river-merchandise, assessed and collected in summary
fashion.  A tariff thus enforced was not likely to be a mild one; and
although the States considered that they had got a "good penny-worth" by
the job, it was no easy thing to get the better, in a bargain, of the
vigilant Martin, who was as thrifty a speculator as he was a desperate
fighter.  A more accomplished highwayman, artistically and
enthusiastically devoted to his pursuit, never lived.  Nobody did his
work more thoroughly--nobody got himself better paid for his work--and
Thomas Wilkes, that excellent man of business, thought the States not
likely to make much by their contract.  Nevertheless, it was a comfort to
know that the work would not be neglected.

Schenk was accordingly absent, jobbing the Rheinberg siege, and in his
place one Aristotle Patton, a Scotch colonel in the States' service, was
commandant of Gelders.  Now the thrifty Scot had an eye to business, too,
and was no more troubled with qualms of conscience than Rowland York
himself.  Moreover, he knew himself to be in great danger of losing his
place, for Leicester was no friend to him, and intended to supersede him.
Patton had also a decided grudge against Schenk, for that truculent
personage had recently administered to him a drubbing, which no doubt he
had richly deserved.  Accordingly, when; the Duke of Parma made a secret
offer to him of 36,000 florins if he would quietly surrender the city
entrusted to him, the colonel jumped at so excellent an opportunity of
circumventing Leicester, feeding his grudge against Martin, and making a
handsome fortune for himself.  He knew his trade too well, however, to
accept the offer too eagerly, and bargained awhile for better terms, and
to such good purpose, that it was agreed he should have not only the
36,000 florins, but all the horses, arms, plate, furniture, and other
moveables in the city belonging to Schenk, that he could lay his hands
upon.  Here were revenge and solid damages for the unforgotten assault
and battery--for Schenk's property alone made no inconsiderable fortune--
and accordingly the city, towards Midsummer, was surrendered to the
Seigneur d'Haultepenne.  Moreover, the excellent Patton had another and
a loftier motive.  He was in love.  He had also a rival.  The lady of his
thoughts was the widow of Pontus de Noyelle, Seigneur de Bours, who had
once saved the citadel of Antwerp, and afterwards sold that city and
himself.  His rival was no other than the great Seigneur de Champagny,
brother of Cardinal Granvelle, eminent as soldier, diplomatist, and
financier, but now growing old, not in affluent circumstances, and much
troubled with the gout.  Madame de Bours had, however, accepted his hand,
and had fixed the day for the wedding, when the Scotchman, thus suddenly
enriched, renewed a previously unsuccessful suit.  The widow then,
partially keeping her promise, actually celebrated her nuptials on the
appointed evening; but, to the surprise of the Provinces, she became not
the 'haulte et puissante dame de Champagny,' but Mrs. Aristotle Patton.

For this last treason neither Leicester nor the English were responsible.
Patton was not only a Scot, but a follower of Hohenlo, as Leicester
loudly protested.  Le Merchant was a Frenchman.  But Deventer and Zutphen
were places of vital importance, and Stanley an Englishman of highest
consideration, one who had been deemed worthy of the command in chief in
Leicester's absence.  Moreover, a cornet in the service of the Earl's
nephew, Sir Robert Sidney, had been seen at Zutphen in conference with
Tassis; and the horrible suspicion went abroad that even the illustrious
name of Sidney was to be polluted also.  This fear was fortunately false,
although the cornet was unquestionably a traitor, with whom the enemy had
been tampering; but the mere thought that Sir Robert Sidney could betray
the trust reposed in him was almost enough to make the still unburied
corpse of his brother arise from the dead.

Parma was right when he said that all confidence of the Netherlanders in
the Englishmen would now be gone, and that the Provinces would begin to
doubt their best friends.  No fresh treasons followed, but they were
expected every day.  An organized plot to betray the country was believed
in, and a howl of execration swept through the land.  The noble deeds of
Sidney and Willoughby, and Norris and Pelham, and Roger Williams, the
honest and valuable services of Wilkes, the generosity and courage of
Leicester, were for a season forgotten.  The English were denounced in
every city and village of the Netherlands as traitors and miscreants.
Respectable English merchants went from hostelry to hostelry, and from
town to town, and were refused a lodging for love or money.  The nation
was put under ban.  A most melancholy change from the beginning of the
year, when the very men who were now loudest in denunciation and fiercest
in hate, had been the warmest friends of Elizabeth, of England, and of
Leicester.

At Hohenlo's table the opinion was loudly expressed, even in the presence
of Sir Roger Williams, that it was highly improbable, if a man like
Stanley, of such high rank in the kingdom of England, of such great
connections and large means, could commit such a treason, that he could
do so without the knowledge and consent of her Majesty.

Barneveld, in council of state, declared that Leicester, by his
restrictive letter of 24th November, had intended to carry the authority
over the republic into England, in order to dispose of everything at his
pleasure, in conjunction with the English cabinet-council, and that the
country had never been so cheated by the French as it had now been by the
English, and that their government had become insupportable.

Councillor Carl Roorda maintained at the table of Elector Truchsess that
the country had fallen 'de tyrannide in tyrrannidem;' and--if they had
spurned the oppression of the Spaniards and the French--that it was now
time to, rebel against the English.  Barneveld and Buys loudly declared
that the Provinces were able to protect themselves without foreign
assistance, and that it was very injurious to impress a contrary opinion
upon the public mind.

The whole college of the States-General came before the state-council,
and demanded the name of the man to whom the Earl's restrictive letter
had been delivered--that document by which the governor had dared
surreptitiously to annul the authority which publicly he had delegated to
that body, and thus to deprive it of the power of preventing anticipated
crimes.  After much colloquy the name of Brackel was given, and, had not
the culprit fortunately been absent, his life might have, been in danger,
for rarely had grave statesmen been so thoroughly infuriated.

No language can exaggerate the consequences of this wretched treason.
Unfortunately, too; the abject condition to which the English troops had
been reduced by the niggardliness of their sovereign was an additional
cause of danger.  Leicester was gone, and since her favourite was no
longer in the Netherlands, the Queen seemed to forget that there was a
single Englishman upon that fatal soil.  In five months not one penny had
been sent to her troops.  While the Earl had been there one hundred and
forty thousand pounds had been sent in seven or eight months.  After his
departure not five thousand pounds were sent in one half year.

The English soldiers, who had fought so well in every Flemish battle-
field of freedom, had become--such as were left of them--mere famishing
half naked vagabonds and marauders.  Brave soldiers had been changed by
their sovereign into brigands, and now the universal odium which suddenly
attached itself to the English name converted them into outcasts.
Forlorn and crippled creatures swarmed about the Provinces, but were
forbidden to come through the towns, and so wandered about, robbing hen-
roosts and pillaging the peasantry.  Many deserted to the enemy.  Many
begged their way to England, and even to the very gates of the palace,
and exhibited their wounds and their misery before the eyes of that good
Queen Bess who claimed to be the mother of her subjects,--and begged for
bread in vain.

The English cavalry, dwindled now to a body of five hundred, starving and
mutinous, made a foray into Holland, rather as highwaymen than soldiers.
Count Maurice commanded their instant departure, and Hohenlo swore that
if the order were not instantly obeyed, he would put himself at the head
of his troops and cut every man of them to pieces.  A most painful and
humiliating condition for brave men who had been fighting the battles of
their Queen and of the republic, to behold themselves--through the
parsimony of the one and the infuriated sentiment of the other--compelled
to starve, to rob, or to be massacred by those whom they had left their
homes to defend.

At last, honest Wilkes, ever watchful of his duty, succeeded in borrowing
eight hundred pounds sterling for two months, by "pawning his own
carcase" as he expressed himself.  This gave the troopers about thirty
shillings a man, with which relief they became, for a time, contented and
well disposed.

Is this picture exaggerated?  Is it drawn by pencils hostile to the
English nation or the English Queen?  It is her own generals and
confidential counsellors who have told a story in all its painful
details, which has hardly found a place in other chronicles.  The
parsimony of the great Queen must ever remain a blemish on her character,
and it was never more painfully exhibited than towards her brave soldiers
in Flanders in the year 1587.  Thomas Wilkes, a man of truth, and a man
of accounts, had informed Elizabeth that the expenses of one year's war,
since Leicester had been governor-general, had amounted to exactly five
hundred and seventy-nine thousand three hundred and sixty pounds and
nineteen shillings, of which sum one hundred and forty-six thousand three
hundred and eighty-six pounds and eleven shillings had been spent by her
Majesty, and the balance had been paid, or was partly owing by the
States.  These were not agreeable figures, but the figures of honest
accountants rarely flatter, and Wilkes was not one of those financiers
who have the wish or the gift to make things pleasant.  He had
transmitted the accounts just as they had been delivered, certified by
the treasurers of the States and by the English paymasters, and the Queen
was appalled at the sum-totals.  She could never proceed with such a war
as that, she said, and she declined a loan of sixty thousand pounds which
the States requested, besides stoutly refusing to advance her darling
Robin a penny to pay off the mortgages upon two-thirds of his estates,
on which the equity of redemption was fast expiring, or to give him the
slightest help in furnishing him forth anew for the wars.

Yet not one of her statesmen doubted that these Netherland battles were
English battles, almost as much as if the fighting-ground had been the
Isle of Wight or the coast of Kent, the charts of which the statesmen and
generals of Spain were daily conning.

Wilkes, too, while defending Leicester stoutly behind his back, doing his
best, to explain his short-comings, lauding his courage and generosity,
and advocating his beloved theory of popular sovereignty with much
ingenuity and eloquence, had told him the truth to his face.  Although
assuring him that if he came back soon, he might rule the States "as a
schoolmaster doth his boys," he did not fail to set before him the
disastrous effects of his sudden departure and of his protracted absence;
he had painted in darkest colours the results of the Deventer treason,
he had unveiled the cabals against his authority, he had repeatedly and
vehemently implored his return; he had, informed the Queen, that
notwithstanding some errors of, administration, he was much the fittest
man to represent her in the Netherlands, and, that he could accomplish,
by reason of his experience, more in three months than any other man
could do in a year.  He bad done his best to reconcile the feuds which
existed between him and important personages in the Netherlands, he had
been the author of the complimentary letters sent to him in the name of
the States-General--to the great satisfaction of the Queen--but he had
not given up his friendship with Sir John Norris, because he said "the
virtues of the man made him as worthy of love as any one living, and
because the more he knew him, the more he had cause to affect and to
admire him."

This was the unpardonable offence, and for this, and for having told the
truth about the accounts, Leicester denounced Wilkes to the Queen as a
traitor and a hypocrite, and threatened repeatedly to take his life.  He
had even the meanness to prejudice Burghley against him--by insinuating
to the Lord-Treasurer that he too had been maligned by Wilkes--and thus
most effectually damaged the character of the plain-spoken councillor
with the Queen and many of her advisers; notwithstanding that he
plaintively besought her to "allow him to reiterate his sorry song, as
doth the cuckoo, that she would please not condemn her poor servant
unheard."

Immediate action was taken on the Deventer treason, and on the general
relations between the States-General and the English government.
Barneveld immediately drew up a severe letter to the Earl of Leicester.
On the 2nd February Wilkes came by chance into the assembly of the
States-General, with the rest of the councillors, and found Barneveld
just demanding the public reading of that document.  The letter was read.
Wilkes then rose and made a few remarks.

"The letter seems rather sharp upon his Excellency," he observed.  "There
is not a word in it," answered Barneveld curtly, "that is not perfectly
true;" and with this he cut the matter short, and made a long speech upon
other matters which were then before the assembly.

Wilkes, very anxious as to the effect of the letter, both upon public
feeling in England and upon his own position as English councillor,
waited immediately upon Count Maurice, President van der Myle, and upon
Villiers the clergyman, and implored their interposition to prevent the
transmission of the epistle.  They promised to make an effort to delay
its despatch or to mitigate its tone.  A fortnight afterwards, however,
Wilkes learned with dismay, that the document (the leading passages of
which will be given hereafter) had been sent to its destination.

Meantime, a consultation of civilians and of the family council of Count
Maurice was held, and it was determined that the Count should assume the
title of Prince more formally than he had hitherto done, in order that
the actual head of the Nassaus might be superior in rank to Leicester or
to any man who could be sent from England.  Maurice was also appointed by
the States, provisionally, governor-general, with Hohenlo for his
lieutenant-general.  That formidable personage, now fully restored to
health, made himself very busy in securing towns and garrisons for the
party of Holland, and in cashiering all functionaries suspected of
English tendencies.  Especially he became most intimate with Count
Moeurs, stadholder of Utrecht--the hatred of which individual and his
wife towards Leicester and the English nation; springing originally from
the unfortunate babble of Otheman, had grown more intense than ever,--
"banquetting and feasting" with him all day long, and concocting a
scheme; by which, for certain considerations, the province of Utrecht was
to be annexed to Holland under the perpetual stadholderate of Prince
Maurice.




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Defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station
The sapling was to become the tree







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