ing. "O God!"
cried De Barneveldt, "what then is man?" as he bent his head to
the sword that severed it from his body, and sent the inquiring
spirit to learn the great mystery for which it longed.

CHAPTER XVII

TO THE DEATH OF PRINCE MAURICE

A.D. 1619--1625

The princess-dowager of Orange, and Du Maurier, the French
ambassador, had vainly implored mercy for the innocent victim at
the hands of the inexorable stadtholder. Maurice refused to see
his mother-in-law: he left the ambassador's appeal unanswered.
This is enough for the rigid justice of history that cannot be
blinded by partiality, but hands over to shame, at the close
of their career, even those whom she nursed in the very cradle
of heroism. But an accusation has become current, more fatal
to the fame of Prince Maurice, because it strikes at the root
of his claims to feeling, which could not be impugned by a mere
perseverance in severity that might have sprung from mistaken
views. It is asserted, but only as general belief, that he witnessed
the execution of Barneveldt. The little window of an octagonal
tower, overlooking the square of the Binnenhof at The Hague,
where the tragedy was acted, is still shown as the spot from
which the prince gazed on the scene. Almost concealed from view
among the clustering buildings of the place, it is well adapted
to give weight to the tradition; but it may not, perhaps, even
now be too late to raise a generous incredulity as to an assertion
of which no eye-witness attestation is recorded, and which might
have been the invention of malignity. There are many statements
of history which it is immaterial to substantiate or disprove.
Splendid fictions of public virtue have often produced their
good if once received as fact; but, when private character is
at stake, every conscientious writer or reader will cherish his
"historic doubts," when he reflects on the facility with which
calumny is sent abroad, the avidity with which it is received,
and the careless ease with which men credit what it costs little
to invent and propagate, but requires an age of trouble and an
almost impossible conjunction of opportunities effectually to
refute.

Grotius and Hoogerbeets were confined in the castle of Louvestein.
Moersbergen, a leading patriot of Utrecht, De Haan, pensionary
of Haarlem, and Uitenbogaard, the chosen confidant of Maurice,
but the friend of Barneveldt, were next accused and sentenced
to imprisonment or banishmen