whether, the five were like to hunt in company with him as harmoniously
as he hoped. As to the other counsellors, he expressed a willingness
that candidates should be proposed for him, as to whose qualifications he
would make up his mind at leisure.

This matter being satisfactorily adjusted-and certainly unless the game
pursued by the Earl was a crown royal, he ought to have been satisfied
with his success--the States received a letter from their committee at
Leyden, informing them that his Excellency, after some previous
protestations, had accepted the government (24th January, 1586).

It was agreed that he should be inaugurated Governor-General of the
United Provinces of Gelderland and Zutphen, Flanders, Holland, Zeeland,
Utrecht, Friesland, and all others in confederacy with them. He was to
have supreme military command by land and sea. He was to exercise
supreme authority in matters civil and political, according to the
customs prevalent in the reign of the Emperor Charles V. All officers,
political, civil, legal, were to be appointed by him out of a double or
triple nomination made by the States of the Provinces in which vacancies
might occur. The States-General were to assemble whenever and wherever
he should summon them. They were also--as were the States of each
separate Province--competent to meet together by their own appointment.
The Governor-General was to receive an oath of fidelity from the States,
and himself to swear the maintenance of the ancient laws, customs, and
privileges of the country.

The deed was done. In vain had an emissary of the French court been
exerting his utmost to prevent the consummation of this close alliance.
For the wretched government of Henry III., while abasing itself before
Philip II., and offering the fair cities and fertile plains of France as