CHAPTER XVII.

A Deputation from Utrecht to Maurice--The Fair at Utrecht--Maurice
and the States' Deputies at Utrecht--Ogle refuses to act in
Opposition to the States--The Stadholder disbands the Waartgelders--
The Prince appoints forty Magistrates--The States formally disband
the Waartgelders.

The eventful midsummer had arrived. The lime-tree blossoms were fragrant
in the leafy bowers overshadowing the beautiful little rural capital of
the Commonwealth. The anniversary of the Nieuwpoort victory, July 2, had
come and gone, and the Stadholder was known to be resolved that his
political campaign this year should be as victorious as that memorable
military one of eighteen years before.

Before the dog-days should begin to rage, the fierce heats of theological
and political passion were to wax daily more and more intense.

The party at Utrecht in favour of a compromise and in awe of the
Stadholder sent a deputation to the Hague with the express but secret
purpose of conferring with Maurice. They were eight in number, three of
whom, including Gillis van Ledenberg, lodged at the house of Daniel
Tressel, first clerk of the States-General.

The leaders of the Barneveld party, aware of the purport of this mission
and determined to frustrate it, contrived a meeting between the Utrecht
commissioners and Grotius, Hoogerbeets, de Haan, and de Lange at
Tressel's house.