CHAPTER XVII.

A Deputation from Utrecht to Maurice—­The Fair at Utrecht—­Maurice and the States’ Deputies at Utrecht—­Ogle refuses to act in Opposition to the States—­The Stadholder disbands the Waartgelders—­ The Prince appoints forty Magistrates—­The States formally disband the Waartgelders.

The eventful midsummer had arrived.  The lime-tree blossoms were fragrant in the leafy bowers overshadowing the beautiful little rural capital of the Commonwealth.  The anniversary of the Nieuwpoort victory, July 2, had come and gone, and the Stadholder was known to be resolved that his political campaign this year should be as victorious as that memorable military one of eighteen years before.

Before the dog-days should begin to rage, the fierce heats of theological and political passion were to wax daily more and more intense.

The party at Utrecht in favour of a compromise and in awe of the Stadholder sent a deputation to the Hague with the express but secret purpose of conferring with Maurice.  They were eight in number, three of whom, including Gillis van Ledenberg, lodged at the house of Daniel Tressel, first clerk of the States-General.

The leaders of the Barneveld party, aware of the purport of this mission and determined to frustrate it, contrived a meeting between the Utrecht commissioners and Grotius, Hoogerbeets, de Haan, and de Lange at Tressel’s house.

Grotius was spokesman.  Maurice had accused the States of Holland of mutiny and rebellion, and the distinguished Pensionary of Rotterdam now retorted the charges of mutiny, disobedience, and mischief-making upon those who, under the mask of religion, were attempting to violate the sovereignty of the States, the privileges and laws of the province, the authority of the, magistrates, and to subject them to the power of others.  To prevent such a catastrophe many cities had enlisted Waartgelders.  By this means they had held such mutineers to their duty, as had been seen at Leyden, Haarlem, and other places.  The States of Utrecht had secured themselves in the same way.  But the mischiefmakers and the ill-disposed had been seeking everywhere to counteract these wholesome measures and to bring about a general disbanding of these troops.  This it was necessary to resist with spirit.  It was the very foundation of the provinces’ sovereignty, to maintain which the public means must be employed.  It was in vain to drive the foe out of the country if one could not remain in safety within one’s own doors.  They had heard with sorrow that Utrecht was thinking of cashiering its troops, and the speaker proceeded therefore to urge with all the eloquence he was master of the necessity of pausing before taking so fatal a step.

The deputies of Utrecht answered by pleading the great pecuniary burthen which the maintenance of the mercenaries imposed upon that province, and complained that there was no one to come to their assistance, exposed as they were to a sudden and overwhelming attack from many quarters.  The States-General had not only written but sent commissioners to Utrecht insisting on the disbandment.  They could plainly see the displeasure of the Prince.  It was a very different affair in Holland, but the States of Utrecht found it necessary of two evils to choose the least.