g was ever attempted.

But the battle of Southwold Bay, though it relieved the immediate naval
danger, could do nothing to stay the advancing tide of invasion on land.
The situation appeared absolutely desperate; trade was at a standstill;
and the rapid fall in the State securities and in the East India
Company's stock gave alarming evidence of the state of public opinion.
In these circumstances De Witt persuaded the States-General and the
Estates of Holland to consent to the sending of two special embassies to
Louis, who was now at Doesburg, and to London, to sue for peace. They
left the Hague on June 13, only to meet with a humiliating rebuff.
Charles II refused to discuss the question apart from France. Pieter de
Groot and his colleagues were received at Doesburg with scant courtesy
and sent back to the Hague to seek for fuller powers. When they arrived
they found the council-pensionary lying on a sick-bed. The country's
disasters had been attributed to the De Witts, and the strong feeling
against them led to a double attempt at assassination. John de Witt,
while walking home at the close of a busy day's work was (June 21)
attacked by four assailants and badly wounded. The leader, Jacob van der
Graeff, was seized and executed; the others were allowed to escape, it
was said by the prince's connivance. A few days later an attack upon
Cornells de Witt at Dordrecht likewise failed to attain its object. That
such dastardly acts could happen without an outburst of public
indignation was ominous of worse things to come. It was a sign that the
whole country had turned its back upon the States party and the whole
system of government of which for nineteen years John de Witt had been
the directing spirit, and had become Orangist. Revolutionary events
followed one another with almost bewildering rapidity. On July 2 the
Estates of Zeeland appointed William to the office of Stadholder. The
Estates of Holland repealed the Eternal Edict on July 3; and on the next
day it was resolved on the proposal of Amsterdam to revive the
stadholdership with all its former powers and prerogatives in favour of
the Prince of Orange. The other provinces followed the lead of Holland
and Zeeland; and on July 8 the States-General appointed the young
stadholder captain-and admiral-general of the Union. William thus found
himself invested with all the offices and even more than the authority
that had been possessed by his ancestors. Young and inexperienc