of it above all."

He then, after profuse and maudlin protestations of his most dutiful zeal
all the days of his life for "the service, honour, reputation, and
contentment of your princely Grace," observed that he had not thought it
necessary to give him notice of such idle and unfounded matters, as being
likely to give the Prince annoyance and displeasure. He had however
always kept within himself the resolution duly to notify him in case he
found that any belief was attached to the reports in Paris. "But the
reports," he said, "were popular and calumnious inventions of which no
man had ever been willing or able to name to him the authors."

The Ambassador's memory was treacherous, and he had doubtless neglected
to read over the minutes, if he had kept them, of his wonderful
disclosures on the subject of the sovereignty before thus exculpating
himself. It will be remembered that he had narrated the story of the
plot for conferring sovereignty upon Maurice not as a popular calumny
flying about Paris with no man to father it, but he had given it to
Barneveld on the authority of a privy councillor of France and of the
King himself. "His Majesty knows it to be authentic," he had said in his
letter. That letter was a pompous one, full of mystery and so secretly
ciphered that he had desired that his friend van der Myle, whom he was
now deriding for his efforts in Paris to save his father-inlaw from his
fate, might assist the Advocate in unravelling its contents. He had now
discovered that it had been idle gossip not worthy of a moment's
attention.

The reader will remember too that Barneveld, without attaching much
importance to the tale, had distinctly pointed out to Langerac that the
Prince himself was not implicated in the plot and had instructed the