municipal revolution which had been effected by the Stadholder had not
penetrated to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit
from their garden. One day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to
him. On slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside
it. Within the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest
handwriting in Latin. It was to this effect.

"Don't rely upon the States of Holland, for the Prince of Orange has
changed the magistracies in many cities. Dudley Carleton is not your
friend."

A sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put
a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. The letter,
copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them,
was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for
the future.

Secretary Ledenberg, who had been brought to the Hague in the early days
of September, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination.
He was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have
exclaimed with many sighs, "Oh Barneveld, Barneveld, what have you
brought us to!"

He confessed that the Waartgelders at Utrecht had been enlisted on
notification by the Utrecht deputies in the Hague with knowledge of
Barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the States in order to
prevent internal tumults. He said that the Advocate had advised in the
previous month of March a request to the Prince not to come to Utrecht;
that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the
Waartgelders, to his Excellency had been postponed after the deputies of