rich by extortion, treason, and corruption, of having gorged himself with
plunder at home and bribery from the enemy, of being the great pensioner
of Europe and the Marshal d'Ancre of the Netherlands--he alluded to the
exact condition of his private affairs and the growth and sources of his
revenue, giving, as it were, a kind of schedule of his property, has in
it something half humorous, half touching in its simplicity.

He set forth the very slender salaries attached to his high offices of
Advocate of Holland, Keeper of the Seals, and other functions. He
answered the charge that he always had at his disposition 120,000 florins
to bribe foreign agents withal by saying that his whole allowance for
extraordinary expenses and trouble in maintaining his diplomatic and
internal correspondence was exactly 500 florins yearly. He alluded to
the slanders circulated as to his wealth and its sources by those who
envied him for his position and hated him for his services.

"But I beg you to believe, My Lords," he continued, "that my property is
neither so great nor so small as some people represent it to be.

"In the year '75 I married my wife," he said. "I was pleased with her
person. I was likewise pleased with the dowry which was promptly paid
over to me, with firm expectation of increase and betterment . . . .
I ac knowledge that forty-three years ago my wife and myself had got
together so much of real and personal property that we could live
honourably upon it. I had at that time as good pay and practice as any
advocate in the courts which brought me in a good 4000 florins a year;
there being but eight advocates practising at the time, of whom I was
certainly not the one least employed. In the beginning of the year '77
I came into the service of the city of Rotterdam as 'Pensionary. Upon my
salary from that town I was enabled to support my family, having then but