On the following day, Leicester, being somewhat indisposed, requested a deputation of the States-General to wait upon him in his own house.  This was done, and a formal and affectionate farewell was then read to him by his secretary, Mr. Atye.  It was responded to in complimentary fashion by Advocate Barneveld, who again took occasion at this parting interview to impress upon the governor the utter impossibility, in his own opinion and that of the other deputies, of reconciling the Provinces with Spain.

Leicester received from the States—­as a magnificent parting present—­ a silver gilt vase “as tall as a man,” and then departed for Flushing to take shipping for England.

CHAPTER XII.

     Ill-timed Interregnum in the Provinces—­Firmness of the English and
     Dutch People—­Factions during Leicester’s Government—­Democratic
     Theories of the Leicestriana—­Suspicions as to the Earl’s Designs—­
     Extreme Views of the Calvinists—­Political Ambition of the Church—­
     Antagonism of the Church and States—­The States inclined to
     Tolerance—­Desolation of the Obedient Provinces—­Pauperism and
     Famine—­Prosperity of the Republic—­The Year of Expectation.

It was not unnatural that the Queen should desire the presence of her favourite at that momentous epoch, when the dread question, “aut fer aut feri,” had at last demanded its definite solution.  It was inevitable, too, that Leicester should feel great anxiety to be upon the spot where the great tragedy, so full of fate to all Christendom, and in which his own fortunes were so closely involved, was to be enacted.  But it was most cruel to the Netherlands—­whose well-being was nearly as important to Elizabeth as that of her own realm—­to plunge them into anarchy at such a moment.  Yet this was the necessary result of the sudden retirement of Leicester.

He did not resign his government.  He did not bind himself to return.  The question of sovereignty was still unsettled, for it was still hoped by a large and influential party, that the English Queen would accept the proposed annexation.  It was yet doubtful, whether, during the period of abeyance, the States-General or the States-Provincial, each within their separate sphere, were entitled to supreme authority.  Meantime, as if here were not already sufficient elements of dissension and doubt, came a sudden and indefinite interregnum, a provisional, an abnormal, and an impotent government.  To the state-council was deputed the executive authority.  But the state-council was a creature of the States-General, acting in concert with the governor-general, and having no actual life of its own.  It was a board of consultation, not of decision, for it could neither enact its own decrees nor interpose a veto upon the decrees of the governor.