Barneveld was vastly his superior in practical statesmanship, in law, in
the science of government, and above all in force of character, while
certainly not his equal in theology, nor making any pretensions to
poetry. Although a ripe scholar, he rarely wrote in Latin, and not often
in French. His ambition was to do his work thoroughly according to his
view of duty, and to ask God's blessing upon it without craving overmuch
the applause of men.

Such were the two men, the soldier and the statesman. Would the
Republic, fortunate enough to possess two such magnificent and widely
contrasted capacities, be wise enough to keep them in its service, each
supplementing the other, and the two combining in a perfect whole?

Or was the great law of the Discords of the World, as potent as that
other principle of Universal Harmony and planetary motion which an
illustrious contemporary--that Wurtemberg astronomer, once a soldier of
the fierce Alva, now the half-starved astrologer of the brain-sick
Rudolph--was at that moment discovering, after "God had waited six
thousand years for him to do it," to prevail for the misery of the
Republic and shame of Europe? Time was to show.

The new state had forced itself into the family of sovereignties somewhat
to the displeasure of most of the Lord's anointed. Rebellious and
republican, it necessarily excited the jealousy of long-established and
hereditary governments.

The King of Spain had not formally acknowledged the independence of the
United Provinces. He had treated with them as free, and there was
supposed to be much virtue in the conjunction. But their sovereign
independence was virtually recognized by the world. Great nations had