History of the United Netherlands, 1585 part 5 | Page 5

this lamentable war, to maintain for you liberty
of conscience, and to see that law and justice are preserved."
All this, and more, with great eagerness of expression and gesture, was
urged by the Queen, much to the discomfiture of the envoys. In vain
they attempted to modify and to explain. Their faltering excuses were
swept rapidly away upon the current of royal wrath; until at last
Elizabeth stormed herself into exhaustion and comparative tranquillity.
She then dismissed them with an assurance that her goodwill towards
the States was not diminished, as would be found to be the case, did
they not continue to prove themselves unworthy of her favour that a
permanent force of five thousand foot and one thousand horse should
serve in the Provinces at the Queen's expense; and that the cities of

Flushing and Brill should be placed in her Majesty's hands until the
entire reimbursement of the debt thus incurred by the States. Elizabeth
also--at last overcoming her reluctance--agreed that the force necessary
to garrison these towns should form an additional contingent, instead of
being deducted from the general auxiliary force.
Count Maurice of Nassau had been confirmed by the States of Holland
and Zeeland as permanent stadholder of those provinces. This measure
excited some suspicion on the part of Leicester, who, as it was now
understood, was the "personage of quality" to be sent to the
Netherlands as representative of the Queen's authority. "Touching the
election of Count Maurice," said the Earl, "I hope it will be no
impairing of the authority heretofore allotted to me, for if it will be, I
shall tarry but awhile."
Nothing, however, could be more frank or chivalrously devoted than
the language of Maurice to the Queen. "Madam, if I have ever had
occasion," he wrote, "to thank God for his benefits, I confess that it was
when, receiving in all humility the letters with which it pleased your
Majesty to honour me, I learned that the great disaster of my lord and
father's death had not diminished the debonaire affection and favour
which it has always pleased your Majesty to manifest to my father's
house. It has been likewise grateful to me to learn that your Majesty,
surrounded by so many great and important affairs, had been pleased to
approve the command which the States-General have conferred upon
me. I am indeed grieved that my actions cannot correspond with the
ardent desire which I feel to serve your Majesty and these Provinces,
for which I hope that my extreme youth will be accepted as an excuse.
And although I find myself feeble enough for the charge thus imposed
upon me, yet God will assist my efforts to supply by diligence and
sincere intention the defect of the other qualities requisite for my
thorough discharge of my duty to the contentment of your Majesty. To
fulfil these obligations, which are growing greater day by day, I trust to
prove by my actions that I will never spare either my labour or life."
When it was found that the important town of Flushing was required as
part of the guaranty to the Queen, Maurice, as hereditary seignor and
proprietor of the place--during the captivity of his elder brother in
Spain--signified his concurrence in the transfer, together with the most
friendly feelings towards the Earl of Leicester, and to Sir Philip Sidney,

appointed English governor of the town. He wrote to Davison, whom
he called "one of the best and most certain friends that the house of
Nassau possessed in England," begging that he would recommend the
interests of the family to the Queen, "whose favour could do more than
anything else in the world towards maintaining what remained of the
dignity of their house." After solemn deliberation with his step-mother,
Louisa de Coligny, and the other members of his family, he made a
formal announcement of adhesion on the part of the House of Nassau to
the arrangements concluded with the English government, and asked
the benediction of God upon the treaty. While renouncing, for the
moment, any compensation for his consent to the pledging of Flushing
his "patrimonial property, and a place of such great importance"--he
expressed a confidence that the long services of his father, as well as
those which he himself hoped to render, would meet in time with
"condign recognition." He requested the Earl of Leicester to consider
the friendship which had existed between himself and the late Prince of
Orange, as an hereditary affection to be continued to the children, and
he entreated the Earl to do him the honour in future to hold him as a
son, and to extend to him counsel and authority; declaring, on his part,
that he should ever deem it an honour to be allowed to call him father.
And