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.

Certainly the selection of Leicester to fill so important a post had not been a very fortunate one; and the enthusiasm which had greeted him, “as if he had been a Messiah,” on his arrival, had very rapidly dwindled away, as his personal character became known.  The leading politicians of the country had already been aware of the error which they had committed in clothing with almost sovereign powers the delegate of one who had refused the sovereignty.  They, were too adroit to neglect the opportunity, which her Majesty’s anger offered them, of repairing what they considered their blunder.  When at last the quarrel, which looked so much like a lovers’ quarrel, between Elizabeth and ‘Sweet Robin,’ had been appeased to the satisfaction of Robin, his royal mistress became more angry with the States for circumscribing than she had before been for their exaggeration of his authority.  Hence the implacable hatred of Leicester to Paul Buys and Barneveld.