CHAPTER VII.

Proud Position of the Republic--France obeys her--Hatred of Carleton
--Position and Character of Aerssens--Claim for the "Third"--Recall
of Aerssens--Rivalry between Maurice and Barneveld, who always
sustains the separate Sovereignties of the Provinces--Conflict
between Church and State added to other Elements of Discord in the
Commonwealth--Religion a necessary Element in the Life of all
Classes.

Thus the Republic had placed itself in as proud a position as it was
possible for commonwealth or kingdom to occupy. It had dictated the
policy and directed the combined military movements of Protestantism.
It had gathered into a solid mass the various elements out of which
the great Germanic mutiny against Rome, Spain, and Austria had been
compounded. A breathing space of uncertain duration had come to
interrupt and postpone the general and inevitable conflict.
Meantime the Republic was encamped upon the enemy's soil.

France, which had hitherto commanded, now obeyed. England, vacillating
and discontented, now threatening and now cajoling, saw for the time at
least its influence over the councils of the Netherlands neutralized by
the genius of the great statesman who still governed the Provinces,
supreme in all but name. The hatred of the British government towards
the Republic, while in reality more malignant than at any previous
period, could now only find vent in tremendous, theological pamphlets,
composed by the King in the form of diplomatic instructions, and hurled
almost weekly at the heads of the States-General, by his ambassador,
Dudley Carleton.