order that through these tricks and snares the fatherland may not fall
into the clutch of the enemy, and thus into eternal and intolerable
slavery. God save us all from such a fate!"

Neither Barneveld nor Jeannin attempted to struggle against the almost
general indignation. The deputies of Zeeland withdrew from the assembly
of the States-General, protesting that they would never appear there
again so long as the Spanish commissioners remained in the country. The
door was opened wide, and it was plain that those functionaries must take
their departure. Pride would not allow them to ask permission of the
States to remain, although they intimated to the ambassadors their
intense desire to linger for ten or twelve days longer. This was
obviously inadmissible, and on the 30th September they appeared before
the Assembly to take leave.

There were but three of them, the Genoese, the Spaniard, and the
Burgundian--Spinola, Mancicidor; and Richardot. Of the two
Netherlanders, brother John was still in Spain, and Verreyken found it
convenient that day to have a lame leg.

President Richardot, standing majestically before the States-General,
with his robes wrapped around his tall, spare form, made a solemn
farewell speech of mingled sorrow, pity, and the resentment of injured
innocence. They had come to the Hague, he said, sent by the King of
Spain and the archdukes to treat for a good and substantial peace,
according to the honest intention of his Majesty and their Highnesses.
To this end they had sincerely and faithfully dealt with the gentlemen
deputed for that purpose by their High Mightinesses the States, doing
everything they could think of to further the cause of peace. They
lamented that the issue had not been such as they had hoped,