withdrawn from the disposition of that council. And now, alas, we see
the effects of these practices!

"Sir William Stanley, by you appointed governor of Deventer, and Rowland
York, governor of Fort Zutphen, have refused, by virtue of that secret
document, to acknowledge any authority in this country. And
notwithstanding that since your departure they and their soldiers have
been supported at our expense, and had just received a full month's pay
from the States, they have traitorously and villainously delivered the
city and the fortress to the enemy, with a declaration made by Stanley
that he did the deed to ease his conscience, and to render to the King of
Spain the city which of right was belonging to him. And this is a crime
so dishonourable, scandalous, ruinous, and treasonable, as that, during
this, whole war, we have never seen the like. And we are now, in daily
fear lest the English commanders in Bergen-op-Zoom, Ostend, and other
cities, should commit the same crime. And although we fully suspected
the designs of Stanley and York, yet your Excellency's secret document
had deprived us of the power to act.

"We doubt not that her Majesty and your Excellency will think this
strange language. But we can assure you, that we too think it strange
and grievous that those places should have been confided to such men,
against our repeated remonstrances, and that, moreover, this very Stanley
should have been recommended by your Excellency for general of all the
forces. And although we had many just and grave reasons for opposing
your administration--even as our ancestors were often wont to rise
against the sovereigns of the country--we have, nevertheless, patiently
suffered for a long time, in order not to diminish your authority, which
we deemed so important to our welfare, and in the hope that you would at
last be moved by the perilous condition of the commonwealth, and awake to