a foothold on the ocean; for a brief interval at least, acquired by Spain.  The Prince was inexpressibly chagrined by these circumstances, and felt that the moment had arrived when all honorable means were to be employed to obtain foreign assistance.  The Hollanders and Zealanders had fought the battles of freedom alone hitherto, and had fought them well, but poverty was fast rendering them incapable of sustaining much longer the unequal conflict.  Offers of men, whose wages the states were to furnish, were refused; as worse than fruitless.  Henry of Navarre, who perhaps deemed it possible to acquire the sovereignty of the provinces by so barren a benefit, was willing to send two or three thousand men, but not at his own expense.  The proposition was respectfully declined.

The Prince and his little country, were all alone.  “Even if we should not only see ourselves deserted by all the world, but also all the world against us,” he said, “we should not cease to defend ourselves even to the last man.  Knowing the justice of our cause, we repose, entirely in the mercy of God.”  He determined, however, once more to have recourse to the powerful of the earth, being disposed to test the truth of his celebrated observation, that “there would be no lack of suitors for the bride that he had to bestow.”  It was necessary, in short, to look the great question of formally renouncing Philip directly in the face.

Hitherto the fiction of allegiance had been preserved, and, even by the enemies of the Prince, it, was admitted:  that it had been retained with no disloyal intent.  The time however, had come when it was necessary to throw off allegiance, provided another could be found strong enough and frank enough to accept the authority which Philip had forfeited.  The question was, naturally, between France and England; unless the provinces could effect their re-admission into the body of the Germanic Empire.  Already in June the Prince had laid the proposition formally before the states, “whether they should not negotiate with the Empire on the subject of their admission, with maintenance of their own constitutions,” but it was understood that this plan was not to be carried out, if the protection of the Empire could be obtained under easier conditions.

Nothing came of the proposition at that time.  The nobles and the deputies of South Holland now voted, in the beginning of the ensuing month, “that it was their duty to abandon the King, as a tyrant who sought to oppress and destroy his subjects; and that it behooved them to seek another protector.”  This was while the Breda negotiations were still pending, but when their inevitable result was very visible.  There was still a reluctance at taking the last and decisive step in the rebellion, so that the semblance of loyalty was still retained; that ancient scabbard, in which the sword might yet one day be sheathed.  The proposition was not adopted at the diet.  A committee of nine was merely appointed to deliberate