Province. If they could not obtain this concession, they were directed
to insist as earnestly as possible upon their right to present a double.
list of candidates, from which he was to make nominations. And if the
one and the other proposition should be refused, the States were then to
agree that his Excellency should freely choose and appoint a council of
state, consisting of native residents from every Province, for the period
of one year. The committee was further authorised to arrange the
commission for the governor, in accordance with these points; and to draw
up a set of instructions for. the state-council, to the satisfaction of
his Excellency. The committee was also empowered to conclude the matter
at once, without further reference to the States.

Certainly a committee thus instructed was likely to be sufficiently
pliant. It had need to be, in order to bend to the humour of his
Excellency, which was already becoming imperious. The adulation which he
had received; the triumphal marches, the Latin orations, the flowers
strewn in his path, had produced their effect, and the Earl was almost
inclined to assume the airs of royalty. The committee waited upon him at
Leyden. He affected a reluctance to accept the "absolute" government,
but his coyness could not deceive such experienced statesmen as the "wise
old Leoliinus," or Menin, Maalzoon, Florin Thin, or Aitzma, who composed
the deputation. It was obvious enough to them that it was not a King Log
that had descended among them, but it was not a moment for complaining.
The governor elect insisted, of course, that the two Englishmen,
according to the treaty with her Majesty, should be members of, the
council. He also, at once, nominated Leoninus, Meetkerk, Brederode,
Falck, and Paul Buys, to the same office; thinking, no doubt, that these
were five keepers--if keepers he must have--who would not draw his nose
off the scent, nor prevent his reaching the game he hunted, whatever that
game might be. It was reserved for the future, however, to show,