judge according to your own discretion.

"Recognition of our sovereignty is the foundation-stone of these
negotiations.

"Let every man be assured that, with such mighty enemies, we can do
nothing by halves. We cannot afford to retract, mutilate, or moderate
our original determination. He who swerves from the straight road at the
beginning is lost; he who stumbles at the first step is apt to fall down
the whole staircase. If, on account of imaginable necessity, we postpone
that most vital point, the assurance of our freedom, we shall very easily
allow less important points to pass muster, and at last come tamely into
the path of reconciliation. That was exactly the danger which our
ancestors in similar negotiations always feared, and against which we too
have always done our best to guard ourselves.

"Wherefore, if the preservation of our beloved fatherland is dear to you,
I exhort you to maintain that great fundamental resolution, at all times
and against all men, even if this should cause the departure of the
enemy's commissioners. What can you expect from them but evil fruit?"

He then advised all the estates and magistracies which he was addressing
to instruct their deputies, at the approaching session of the States-
General, to hold on to the first article of the often-cited preliminary
resolution without allowing one syllable to be altered. Otherwise
nothing could save the commonwealth from dire and notorious confusion.
Above all, he entreated them to act in entire harmony and confidence with
himself and his cousin, even as they had ever done with his illustrious
father.