The Prince therefore summoned the board before him according to his usual style of proceeding and dismissed them all.  They submitted without a word of remonstrance.

Ex-Burgomaster Hooft, a man of seventy-two-father of the illustrious Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, one of the greatest historians of the Netherlands or of any country, then a man of thirty-seven-shocked at the humiliating silence, asked his colleagues if they had none of them a word to say in defence of their laws and privileges.

They answered with one accord “No.”

The old man, a personal friend of Barneveld and born the same year, then got on his feet and addressed the Stadholder.  He spoke manfully and well, characterizing the summary deposition of the magistracy as illegal and unnecessary, recalling to the memory of those who heard him that he had been thirty-six years long a member of the government and always a warm friend of the House of Nassau, and respectfully submitting that the small minority in the municipal government, while differing from their colleagues and from the greater number of the States-General, had limited their opposition to strictly constitutional means, never resorting to acts of violence or to secret conspiracy.

Nothing could be more truly respectable than the appearance of this ancient magistrate, in long black robe with fur edgings, high ruff around his thin, pointed face, and decent skull-cap covering his bald old head, quavering forth to unsympathetic ears a temperate and unanswerable defence of things which in all ages the noblest minds have deemed most valuable.

His harangue was not very long.  Maurice’s reply was very short.

“Grandpapa,” he said, “it must be so this time.  Necessity and the service of the country require it.”

With that he dismissed the thirty-six magistrates and next day appointed a new board, who were duly sworn to fidelity to the States-General.  Of course a large proportion of the old members were renominated.

Scarcely had the echo of the Prince’s footsteps ceased to resound through the country as he tramped from one city to another, moulding each to his will, when the States of Holland, now thoroughly reorganized, passed a solemn vote of thanks to him for all that he had done.  The six cities of the minority had now become the majority, and there was unanimity at the Hague.  The Seven Provinces, States-General and States-Provincial, were as one, and the Synod was secured.  Whether the prize was worth the sacrifices which it had cost and was still to cost might at least be considered doubtful.

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