n under the
government of Philip II. That ambition you restrained, that strength you
resisted. I, alas! was seduced by her perfidious Court, and by the
necessity of affairs in that system of policy which I had adopted, to ask
her assistance, to rely on her favour, and to make the commonwealth,
whose counsels I directed, subservient to her greatness. Permit me, sir,
to explain to you the motives of my conduct. If all the Princes of
Orange had acted like you, I should never have been the enemy of your
house. But Prince Maurice of Nassau desired to oppress the liberty of
that State which his virtuous father had freed at the expense of his
life, and which he himself had defended against the arms of the House of
Austria with the highest reputation of military abilities. Under a
pretence of religion (the most execrable cover of a wicked design) he put
to death, as a criminal, that upright Minister, Barneveldt, his father's
best friend, because, he refused to concur with him in treason against
the State. He likewise imprisoned several other good men and lovers of
their country, confiscated their estates, and ruined their families. Yet,
after he had done these cruel acts of injustice with a view to make
himself sovereign of the Dutch Commonwealth, he found they had drawn such
a general odium upon him that, not daring to accomplish his iniquitous
purpose, he stopped short of the tyranny to which he had sacrificed his
honour and virtue; a disappointment so mortifying and so painful to his
mind that it probably hastened his death.

_William_.--Would to Heaven he had died before the meeting of that
infamous Synod of Dort, by which he not only dishonoured himself and his
family, but the Protestant religion itself! Forgive this interruption--my
grief forced me to it--I desire you to proceed.

_De Witt_.--The brother of Maurice, Prince Henry, who succeeded to his
dignities in the Republic, acted with more moderation. But the son of
that good prince, your Majesty's father (I am sorry to speak what I know
you hear with pain), resumed, in the pride and fire of his youth, the
ambitious designs of his uncle. He failed in his undertaking, and soon
afterwards died, but left in the hearts of the whole Republican party an
incurable jealousy and dread of his family. Full of these prejudices,
and zealous for liberty, I thought it my duty as Pensionary of Holland to
prevent for ever, if I could, your restoration to the power your
anc