that secret, preparations were making to annihilate the authority of the
states; to restore the edicts, to put strangers into high places, and to
set up again the scaffold and the whole machinery of persecution.

In consequence of the seizure of Namur Castle, and the accusations made
by Don John against Orange, in order to justify that act, the Prince had
already despatched Taffin and Saint Aldegonde to the states-general with
a commission to declare his sentiments upon the subject. He addressed,
moreover, to the same body a letter full of sincere and simple eloquence.
"The Seigneur Don John," said he, has accused me of violating the peace,
and of countenancing attempts against his life, and in endeavouring to
persuade you into joining him in a declaration of war against me and
against Holland and Zealand; but I pray you, most affectionately, to
remember our mutual and solemn obligations to maintain the treaty of
Ghent." He entreated the states, therefore, to beware of the artifices
employed to seduce them from the only path which led to the tranquillity
of their common country, and her true splendor and prosperity.
"I believe there is not one of you," he continued, "who can doubt me,
if he will weigh carefully all my actions, and consider closely the
course which I am pursuing and have always pursued. Let all these be
confronted with the conduct of Don John, and any man will perceive that
all my views of happiness, both for my country and myself, imply a
peaceable enjoyment of the union, joined with the legitimate restoration
of our liberties, to which all good patriots aspire, and towards which
all my designs have ever tended. As all the grandeur of Don John, on the
contrary, consists in war, as there is nothing which he so much abhors as
repose, as he has given ample proof of these inclinations in all his
designs and enterprises, both before and after the Treaty of Marche en
Famine, both within the country and beyond its borders, as it is most
manifest that his purpose is, and ever has been, to embroil us with our