The Prince and his little country, were all alone.  “Even if we should not only see ourselves deserted by all the world, but also all the world against us,” he said, “we should not cease to defend ourselves even to the last man.  Knowing the justice of our cause, we repose, entirely in the mercy of God.”  He determined, however, once more to have recourse to the powerful of the earth, being disposed to test the truth of his celebrated observation, that “there would be no lack of suitors for the bride that he had to bestow.”  It was necessary, in short, to look the great question of formally renouncing Philip directly in the face.

Hitherto the fiction of allegiance had been preserved, and, even by the enemies of the Prince, it, was admitted:  that it had been retained with no disloyal intent.  The time however, had come when it was necessary. to throw off allegiance, provided another could be found strong enough and frank enough to accept the authority which Philip had forfeited.  The question was, naturally, between France and England; unless the provinces could effect their re-admission into the body of the Germanic Empire.  Already in June the Prince had laid the proposition formally before the states, “whether they should not negotiate with the Empire on the subject of their admission, with maintenance of their own constitutions,” but it was understood that this plan was not to be carried out, if the protection of the Empire could be obtained under easier conditions.

Nothing came of the proposition at that time.  The nobles and the deputies of South Holland now voted, in the beginning of the ensuing month, “that it was their duty to abandon the King, as a tyrant who sought to oppress and destroy his subjects; and that it behooved them to seek another protector.”  This was while the Breda negotiations were still pending, but when their inevitable result was very visible.  There was still a reluctance at taking the last and decisive step in the rebellion, so that the semblance of loyalty was still retained; that ancient scabbard, in which the sword might yet one day be sheathed.  The proposition was not adopted at the diet.  A committee of nine was merely appointed to deliberate with the Prince upon the “means of obtaining foreign assistance, without accepting foreign authority, or severing their connexion with his Majesty.”  The estates were, however, summoned a few months later, by the Prince, to deliberate on this important matter at Rotterdam.  On the 1st of October he then formally proposed, either to make terms with their enemy, and that the sooner the better, or else, once for all, to separate entirely from the King of Spain, and to change their sovereign, in order, with the assistance and under protection of another Christian potentate, to maintain the provinces against their enemies.  Orange, moreover, expressed the opinion that upon so important a subject it was decidedly incumbent upon them all to take the sense