treason of the Advocate and the renewed tyranny of Spain.

The Prince made no such pretence, but simply took possession of the
fortress in order to be beforehand with the Waartgelders. The Contra-
Remonstrants in Brielle had desired that "men should see who had the
hardest fists," and it would certainly have been difficult to find harder
ones than those of the hero of Nieuwpoort.

Besides the Jesuits coming in so skilfully to triumph over the warring
sects of Calvinists, there were other engineers on whom the Spanish
government relied to effect the reconquest of the Netherlands.
Especially it was an object to wreak vengeance on Holland, that head and
front of the revolt, both for its persistence in rebellion and for the
immense prosperity and progress by which that rebellion had been
rewarded. Holland had grown fat and strong, while the obedient
Netherlands were withered to the marrow of their bones. But there was a
practical person then resident in Spain to whom the Netherlands were well
known, to whom indeed everything was well known, who had laid before the
King a magnificent scheme for destroying the commerce and with it the
very existence of Holland to the great advantage of the Spanish finances
and of the Spanish Netherlands. Philip of course laid it before the
Archduke as usual, that he might ponder it well and afterwards, if
approved, direct its execution.

The practical person set forth in an elaborate memoir that the Hollanders
were making rapid progress in commerce, arts, and manufactures, while the
obedient provinces were sinking as swiftly into decay. The Spanish
Netherlands were almost entirely shut off from the sea, the rivers
Scheldt and Meuse being hardly navigable for them on account of the
control of those waters by Holland. The Dutch were attracting to their