as those of saints; and that oil was poured habitually into holes drilled in the heads of statues, that the populace might believe in their miraculous sweating.  For these reasons, and to avoid the tumult and possible bloodshed to which the disgust excited by such charlatanry might give rise, the Roman Catholic worship was suspended until the country should be restored to greater tranquillity.  Similar causes led to similar proclamations in other cities.  The Prince of Orange lamented the intolerant spirit thus showing itself among those who had been its martyrs, but it was not possible at that moment to keep it absolutely under control.

A most important change was now to take place in his condition, a most vital measure was to be consummated by the provinces.  The step, which could never be retraced was, after long hesitation, finally taken upon the 26th of July, 1581, upon which day the united provinces, assembled at the Hague, solemnly declared their independence of Philip, and renounced their allegiance for ever.

This act was accomplished with the deliberation due to its gravity.  At the same time it left the country in a very divided condition.  This was inevitable.  The Prince had done all that one man could do to hold the Netherlands together and unite them perpetually into one body politic, and perhaps, if he had been inspired by a keener personal ambition, this task might have been accomplished.—­The seventeen provinces might have accepted his dominion, but they would agree to that of no other sovereign.  Providence had not decreed that the country, after its long agony, should give birth to a single and perfect commonwealth.  The Walloon provinces had already fallen off from the cause, notwithstanding the entreaties of the Prince.  The other Netherlands, after long and tedious negotiation with Anjou, had at last consented to his supremacy, but from this arrangement Holland and Zealand held themselves aloof.  By a somewhat anomalous proceeding, they sent deputies along with those of the other provinces, to the conferences with the Duke, but it was expressly understood that they would never accept him as sovereign.  They were willing to contract with him and with their sister provinces—­over which he was soon to exercise authority—­a firm and perpetual league, but as to their own chief, their hearts were fixed.  The Prince of Orange should be their lord and master, and none other.  It lay only in his self-denying character that he had not been clothed with this dignity long before.  He had, however, persisted in the hope that all the provinces might be brought to acknowledge the Duke of Anjou as their sovereign, under conditions which constituted a free commonwealth with an hereditary chief, and in this hope he had constantly refused concession to the wishes of the northern provinces.  He in reality exercised sovereign power over nearly the whole population, of the Netherlands.  Already in 1580, at the assembly held in April, the states