but the country was still in a state of revolution, and the party of the
Prince was gaining the upper hand.

It was the determination of that great statesman, according to that which
he considered the legitimate practice of the government, to restore the
administration to the State Council, which executive body ought of right
to be appointed by the states-general. In the states-general, as in the
states-particular, a constant care was to be taken towards strengthening
the most popular element, the "community" of each city, the aggregate,
that is to say, of its guild-representatives and its admitted burghers.
This was, in the opinion of the Prince, the true theory of the
government--republican in all but form--under the hereditary protection,
not the despotic authority, of a family, whose rights were now nearly
forfeited. It was a great step in advance that these views should come
to be thus formally announced, not in Holland and Zealand only, but by
the deputies of the states-general, although such a doctrine, to the
proud stomach of Don John, seemed sufficiently repulsive. Not less so
was the cool intimation with which the paper concluded, that if he should
execute his threat of resigning, the country would bear his loss with
fortitude, coupled as was that statement with a declaration that, until
his successor should be appointed, the State Council would consider
itself charged ad interim with the government. In the meantime,
the Governor was requested not to calumniate the estates to foreign
governments, as he had so recently done in his intercepted letter to the
Empress-dowager.

Upon receiving this letter, "Don John," says a faithful old chronicler,
"found that the cranes had invited the frog to dinner." In truth, the
illustrious soldier was never very successful in his efforts, for which
his enemies gave him credit, to piece out the skin of the lion with that