r, for the rainy season, precursor of the winter, had now set in.
Leicester, leaving Sir William Stanley, with twelve hundred English and
Irish horse, in command of Deventer; Sir John Burrowes, with one thousand
men, in Doesburg; and Sir Robert Yorke, with one thousand more, in the
great sconce before Zutphen; took his departure for the Hague. Zutphen
seemed so surrounded as to authorize the governor to expect ere long its
capitulation. Nevertheless, the results of the campaign had not been
encouraging. The States had lost ground, having been driven from the
Meuse and Rhine, while they had with difficulty maintained themselves on
the Flemish coast and upon the Yssel.

It is now necessary to glance at the internal politics of the Republic
during the period of Leicester's administration and to explain the
position in which he found himself at the close of the year.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight
Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils
High officers were doing the work of private, soldiers
I did never see any man behave himself as he did
There is no man fitter for that purpose than myself

CHAPTER X. 1586

Should Elizabeth accept the Sovereignty?--The Effects of her Anger--
Quarrels between the Earl and the Staten--The Earl's three
Counsellors--Leicester's Finance--Chamber--Discontent of the
Mercantile Classes--Paul Buys and the Opposition--Been Insight of
Paul Buys--Truchsess becomes a Spy upon him--Intrigues of Buys with
Denmark--His Imprisonment--The Earl's Unpopularity--His Quarrels
with the States--And with the Norrises--His Counsellors Wilkes and
Clerke--Letter from the Queen to Leicester--A Supper Party at
Hohenlo's--A drunken Quarrel--Hohenlo's Assault upon Edward Norris--
Ill Effects of the Riot.

The brief period of sunshine had been swiftly followed by storms. The
Governor Absolute had, from the outset, been placed in a false position.
Before he came to the Netherlands the Queen had refused the sovereignty.
Perhaps it was wise in her to decline so magnificent an offer; yet
certainly her acceptance would have been perfectly honourable. The
constituted authorities of the Provinces formally made the proposition.
There is no doubt whatever that the whole population ardently desired to
become her subjects. So far as the Netherlands were concerned, then, she
would have bee