The Prince of Orange had received the announcement of the passing of the Eternal Edict without showing the slightest emotion, or making any protest.  He now, two months after the re-election of the council-pensionary, took the first step towards self-assertion.  Under cover of a visit to his ancestral town of Breda, William made his way to Middelburg, where the Estates of Zeeland were assembled.  Being now eighteen years of age he claimed his inherited right to take his seat as “first noble,” and after being duly installed he appointed his relative, Seigneur van Odijk, to act as his deputy.  This done, he quietly returned to the Hague, having given a clear indication of the course he meant to pursue.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle had left a deep feeling of humiliation and rancour in the heart of Louis XIV; and he was resolved to leave no stone unturned to wreak his vengeance on Holland and its council-pensionary.  The Triple Alliance was plainly an ill-assorted combination.  Charles II cared nothing about the fate of the Spanish Netherlands, and there was a strong party in England which hated the Dutch and wished to wipe out the memory of Chatham and to upset the treaty of Breda.  Grievances about the settlement of questions concerning the East Indies and Surinam were raked up.  Both Van Beuningen in London and Pieter de Groot in Paris sent warnings that the States should be prepared for war and at an early date, but the council-pensionary pinned his faith on Temple and the Alliance, and kept his eyes shut to the imminent danger.  Meanwhile Louis had been bribing freely both in England and Sweden, and he had no difficulty in detaching the latter power from the Alliance.  To England he sent over the beautiful Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, Charles’ favourite sister, on a secret mission to the king, and she was speedily successful.  The offer of an annual payment of 3,000,000 francs and the possession of Walcheren, which commanded the entrance to the Scheldt, effected their purpose.  A secret treaty was signed at Dover on December 31, 1670, between Louis and Charles, by which the latter agreed, on being called upon to do so, to declare war upon Holland in conjunction with the French.

Meanwhile De Witt was so absorbed in domestic politics and in the maintenance of the burgher-aristocratic party in power, that he seemed to have lost his usual statesmanlike acumen.  He never ceased to work for the general acceptance of the Concept of Harmony.  At last the three recalcitrant provinces (Friesland, Groningen and Zeeland), when William had reached his twenty-first year, agreed to accept it on condition that the prince were at once admitted to the Council of State.  Even now De Witt tried to prevent the prince from having more than an advisory vote, but he was overruled through the opposition of Amsterdam to his views.  All this time Louis was preparing his great plan for the crushing of the republic.  He succeeded in gaining the promised assistance of