a complete reconciliation
with the Spanish sovereign, but it did mean the beginning of a breach
between the Calvinist north and the Catholic south, which the
statecraft of Parma gradually widened into an impossible chasm. Before
this took place, Anjou, Matthias and John Casimir had alike withdrawn
from the scene of anarchic confusion, in which for a brief time each had
been trying to compass his own ambitious ends in selfish indifference
to the welfare of the people they were proposing to deliver from the
Spanish yoke. The opening of the year 1579 saw Orange and Parma face to
face preparing to measure their strength in a grim struggle for the
mastery.

In the very same month as witnessed the signing of the Union of Arras, a
rival union had been formed in the northern Netherlands, which was
destined to be much more permanent. The real author however of the Union
of Utrecht was not Orange, but his brother, John of Nassau. In March,
1578, John had been elected Stadholder of Gelderland. He, like William,
had devoted himself heart and soul to the cause of Netherland freedom,
but his Calvinism was far more pronounced than his brother's. From the
moment of his acceptance of the stadholdership he set to work to effect
a close union between Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht with Gelderland and
the adjoining districts which lay around the Zuyder Zee. It was a
difficult task, since the eastern provinces were afraid (and not
unjustly) that its much greater wealth would give Holland predominance
in the proposed confederation. Nevertheless it was accomplished, and an
Act of Union was drawn up and signed at Utrecht, January 29, 1579, by
the representatives of Holland, Zeeland, the town and district
(_sticht_) of Utrecht, Gelderland and Zutphen, by which they agreed to
defend their rights and liberties and to resist all foreign intervention
in their affairs by common action as if they were one province, and to
establish and maintain freedom of conscience and of worship within their
boundaries. William does not seem at first to have been altogether
pleased with his brother's handiwork. He still hoped that a
confederation on a much wider scale might have been formed, comprising
the greater part of those who had appended their signatures to the
Pacification of Ghent. It was not until some months had passed and he
saw that his dreams of a larger union were not to be realised, that he
signed, on May 3, the Act of Union drawn up at Utrecht. By th