of light or hope could pierce the universal darkness, that the little
commonwealth was left without a chief. The English Earl departed,
shaking the dust from his feet; but he did not resign. The supreme
authority--so far as he could claim it--was again transferred,--with his
person, to England.

The consequences were immediate and disastrous. All the Leicestrians
refused to obey the States-General. Utrecht, the stronghold of that
party, announced its unequivocal intention to annex itself, without any
conditions whatever, to the English crown, while, in Holland, young
Maurice was solemnly installed stadholder, and captain-general of the
Provinces, under the guidance of Hohenlo and Barneveld. But his
authority was openly defied in many important cities within his
jurisdiction by military chieftains who had taken the oaths of allegiance
to Leicester as governor, and who refused to renounce fidelity to the man
who had deserted their country, but who had not resigned his authority.
Of these mutineers the most eminent was Diedrich Sonoy, governor of North
Holland, a soldier of much experience, sagacity, and courage, who had
rendered great services to the cause of liberty and Protestantism, and
had defaced it by acts of barbarity which had made his name infamous.
Against this refractory chieftain it was necessary for Hohenlo and
Maurice to lead an armed force, and to besiege him in his stronghold--
the important city of Medenblik--which he resolutely held for Leicester,
although Leicester had definitely departed, and which he closed against
Maurice, although Maurice was the only representative of order and
authority within the distracted commonwealth. And thus civil war had
broken out in the little scarcely-organized republic, as if there were
not dangers and bloodshed enough impending over it from abroad. And the
civil war was the necessary consequence of the Earl's departure.