rocess it was Holland itself.
Neither the Advocate nor any one of his associates had done any act
except by authority, express or implied, of that sovereign State.
Supposing them unquestionably guilty of blackest crimes against the
Generality, the dilemma was there which must always exist by the very
nature of things in a confederacy. No sovereign can try a fellow
sovereign. The subject can be tried at home by no sovereign but his own.

The accused in this case were amenable to the laws of Holland only.

It was a packed tribunal. Several of the commissioners, like Pauw and
Muis for example, were personal enemies of Barneveld. Many of them were
totally ignorant of law. Some of them knew not a word of any language but
their mother tongue, although much of the law which they were to
administer was written in Latin.

Before such a court the foremost citizen of the Netherlands, the first
living statesman of Europe, was brought day by day during a period of
nearly three months; coming down stairs from the mean and desolate room
where he was confined to the comfortable apartment below, which had been
fitted up for the commission.

There was no bill of indictment, no arraignment, no counsel. There were
no witnesses and no arguments. The court-room contained, as it were, only
a prejudiced and partial jury to pronounce both on law and fact without a
judge to direct them, or advocates to sift testimony and contend for or
against the prisoner's guilt. The process, for it could not be called a
trial, consisted of a vast series of rambling and tangled interrogatories
reaching over a space of forty years without apparent connection or
relevancy, skipping fantastically about from one period to another, back
and forthwith apparently no other intent than to puzzle the prisoner,
throw him off his balance, and lead him into self-contradiction.

The spectacle was not a refreshing one. It was the attempt of a multitude
of pigmies to overthrow and bind the giant.

Barneveld was served with no articles of impeachment. He asked for a list
in writing of the charges against him, that he might ponder his answer.
The demand was refused. He was forbidden the use of pen and ink or any
writing materials. His papers and books were all taken from him.

He was allowed to consult neither with an advocate nor even with a single
friend. Alone in his chamber of bondage he was to meditate on his
defence. Out of his memory and brain, and from these alone