History of the United Netherlands, 1586c | Page 5

in his own opinion and that of the other deputies, of reconciling the
Provinces with Spain.
Leicester received from the States--as a magnificent parting present-- a
silver gilt vase "as tall as a man," and then departed for Flushing to take
shipping for England.

CHAPTER XII
.
Ill-timed Interregnum in the Provinces--Firmness of the English and
Dutch People--Factions during Leicester's Government--Democratic
Theories of the Leicestriana--Suspicions as to the Earl's Designs--

Extreme Views of the Calvinists--Political Ambition of the Church--
Antagonism of the Church and States--The States inclined to
Tolerance--Desolation of the Obedient Provinces--Pauperism and
Famine--Prosperity of the Republic--The Year of Expectation.
It was not unnatural that the Queen should desire the presence of her
favourite at that momentous epoch, when the dread question, "aut fer
aut feri," had at last demanded its definite solution. It was inevitable,
too, that Leicester should feel great anxiety to be upon the spot where
the great tragedy, so full of fate to all Christendom, and in which his
own fortunes were so closely involved, was to be enacted. But it was
most cruel to the Netherlands--whose well-being was nearly as
important to Elizabeth as that of her own realm--to plunge them into
anarchy at such a moment. Yet this was the necessary result of the
sudden retirement of Leicester.
He did not resign his government. He did not bind himself to return.
The question of sovereignty was still unsettled, for it was still hoped by
a large and influential party, that the English Queen would accept the
proposed annexation. It was yet doubtful, whether, during the period of
abeyance, the States-General or the States-Provincial, each within their
separate sphere, were entitled to supreme authority. Meantime, as if
here were not already sufficient elements of dissension and doubt, came
a sudden and indefinite interregnum, a provisional, an abnormal, and an
impotent government. To the state-council was deputed the executive
authority. But the state-council was a creature of the States-General,
acting in concert with the governor-general, and having no actual life of
its own. It was a board of consultation, not of decision, for it could
neither enact its own decrees nor interpose a veto upon the decrees of
the governor.
Certainly the selection of Leicester to fill so important a post had not
been a very fortunate one; and the enthusiasm which had greeted him,
"as if he had been a Messiah," on his arrival, had very rapidly dwindled
away, as his personal character became known. The leading politicians
of the country had already been aware of the error which they had
committed in clothing with almost sovereign powers the delegate of
one who had refused the sovereignty. They, were too adroit to neglect
the opportunity, which her Majesty's anger offered them, of repairing
what they considered their blunder. When at last the quarrel, which

looked so much like a lovers' quarrel, between Elizabeth and 'Sweet
Robin,' had been appeased to the satisfaction of Robin, his royal
mistress became more angry with the States for circumscribing than she
had before been for their exaggeration of his authority. Hence the
implacable hatred of Leicester to Paul Buys and Barneveld.
Those two statesmen, for eloquence, learning, readiness, administrative
faculty, surpassed by few who have ever wielded the destinies of free
commonwealths, were fully equal to the task thrown upon their hands
by the progress of events. That task was no slight one, for it was to the
leading statesmen of Holland and England, sustained by the
indomitable resistance to despotism almost universal in the English and
Dutch nations, that the liberty of Europe was entrusted at that,
momentous epoch. Whether united under one crown, as the
Netherlands ardently desired, or closely allied for aggression and
defence, the two peoples were bound indissolubly together. The clouds
were rolling up from the fatal south, blacker and more portentous than
ever; the artificial equilibrium of forces, by which the fate of France
was kept in suspense, was obviously growing every day more uncertain;
but the prolonged and awful interval before the tempest should burst
over the lands of freedom and Protestantism, gave at least time for the
prudent to prepare. The Armada was growing every day in the ports of
Spain and Portugal, and Walsingham doubted, as little as did Buys or
Barneveld, toward what shores that invasion was to be directed.
England was to be conquered in order that the rebellious Netherlands
might be reduced; and 'Mucio' was to be let slip upon the unhappy
Henry III. so soon as it was thought probable that the Bearnese and the
Valois had sufficiently exhausted each other. Philip was to reign in
Paris, Amsterdam, London, and Edinburgh, without stirring from the
Escorial. An excellent programme, had there not been some English
gentlemen, some subtle secretaries of state, some Devonshire skippers,
some Dutch