At this time, too, on the 12th of April, the Prince of Orange was married, for the fourth time, to Louisa, widow of the Seigneur de Teligny, and daughter of the illustrious Coligny.

In the course of the summer, the states of Holland and Zealand, always bitterly opposed to the connection with Anjou, and more than ever dissatisfied with the resumption of negotiations since the Antwerp catastrophe, sent a committee to the Prince in order to persuade him to set his face against the whole proceedings.  They delivered at the same time a formal remonstrance, in writing (25th of August, 1583), in which they explained how odious the arrangement with the Duke had ever been to them.  They expressed the opinion that even the wisest might be sometimes mistaken, and that the Prince had been bitterly deceived by Anjou and by the French court.  They besought him to rely upon the assistance of the Almighty, and upon the exertions of the nation, and they again hinted at the propriety of his accepting that supreme sovereignty over all the united provinces which would be so gladly conferred, while, for their own parts, they voluntarily offered largely to increase the sums annually contributed to the common defence.

Very soon afterwards, in August, 1583, the states of the united provinces assembled at Middelburg formally offered the general government—­which under the circumstances was the general sovereignty—­to the Prince, warmly urging his acceptance of the dignity.  He manifested, however, the same reluctance which he had always expressed, demanding that the project should beforehand be laid before the councils of all the large cities, and before the estates of certain provinces which had not been represented at the Middelburg diet.  He also made use of the occasion to urge the necessity of providing more generously for the army expenses and other general disbursements.  As to ambitious views, he was a stranger to them, and his language at this moment was as patriotic and self-denying as at any previous period.  He expressed his thanks to the estates for this renewed proof of their confidence in his character, and this additional approbation of his course,—­a sentiment which he was always ready “as a good patriot to justify by his most faithful service.”  He reminded them, however, that he was no great monarch, having in his own hands the means to help and the power to liberate them; and that even were he in possession of all which God had once given him, he should be far from strong enough to resist, single-handed, their powerful enemy.  All that was left to him, he said, was an “honest and moderate experience in affairs.”  With this he was ever ready to serve them to the utmost; but they knew very well that the means to make that experience available were to be drawn from the country itself.  With modest simplicity, he observed that he had been at work fifteen or sixteen years, doing his best, with the grace of God, to secure the freedom of the fatherland and to