commonwealth. It is sufficiently grave that he knew the colour of the
king's money, and that in a momentous crisis of history he accepted a
reward for former professional services, and that the broker in the
transaction, President Jeannin, seriously charged him by Henry's orders
to keep the matter secret. It would be still more dismal if Jeannin, in
his private letters, had ever intimated to Villeroy or his master that he
considered it a mercantile transaction, or if any effort had ever been
made by the Advocate to help Henry to the Batavian throne. This however
is not the case.

In truth, neither Maurice nor Barneveld was likely to assist the French
king in his intrigues against the independence of their fatherland. Both
had higher objects of ambition than to become the humble and well-paid
servants of a foreign potentate. The stadholder doubtless dreamed of a
crown which might have been his father's, and which his own illustrious
services might be supposed to have earned for himself. If that tempting
prize were more likely to be gained by a continuance of the war, it is
none the less certain that he considered peace, and still more truce, as
fatal to the independence of the provinces.

The Advocate, on the other hand, loved his country well. Perhaps he
loved power even better. To govern the city magistracies of Holland,
through them the provincial estates; and through them again the States-
General of the whole commonwealth; as first citizen of a republic to
wield; the powers of a king; as statesman, diplomatist, and financier, to
create a mighty empire out of those slender and but recently emancipated
provinces of Spain, was a more flattering prospect for a man of large
intellect, iron will, and infinite resources, than to sink into the
contemptible position of stipendiary to a foreign master. He foresaw
change, growth, transformation in the existing condition of things.