long period of differences with the Stadtholder Maurice, son of William
the Silent. His arrest, as we have seen, followed the Synod of Dort,
Grotius being also removed by force. Barneveldt's imprisonment,
trial and execution resemble Spanish methods of injustice more
closely than one likes to think. I quote Davies' fine account of
the old statesman's last moments: "Leaning on his staff, and with
his servant on the other side to support his steps, grown feeble
with age, Barneveldt walked composedly to the place of execution,
prepared before the great saloon of the court-house. If, as it is not
improbable, at the approach of death in the midst of life and health,
when the intellect is in full vigour, and every nerve, sense and fibre
is strung to the highest pitch of tension, a foretaste of that which
is to come is sometimes given to man, and his over-wrought mind is
enabled to grasp at one single effort the events of his whole past
life--if, at this moment and on this spot, where Barneveldt was now
to suffer a felon's death,--where he had first held out his fostering
hand to the infant republic, and infused into it strength and vigour
to conquer the giant of Europe,--where he had been humbly sued for
peace by the oppressor of his country,--where the ambassadors of the
most powerful sovereigns had vied with each other in soliciting his
favour and support,--where the wise, the eloquent, and the learned,
had bowed in deference to his master-spirit;--if, at this moment, the
memory of all his long and glorious career on earth flashed upon his
mind in fearful contrast to the present reality, with how deep feeling
must he have uttered the exclamation as he ascended the scaffold,
'Oh God! what then is man?'

"Here he was compelled to suffer the last petty indignity that man
could heap upon him. Aged and infirm as he was, neither stool nor
cushion had been provided to mitigate the sense of bodily weakness as