nd when this is done;" said the rueful
burgomaster, "he and his turbulent fellows may make what terms they like
with Spain, to the disadvantage of the Queen and of us poor wretches."

But there was nothing farther from the thoughts of the turbulent fellows
than any negotiations with Spain. Maurice was ambitious enough, perhaps,
but his ambition ran in no such direction. Willoughby knew better; and
thought that by humouring the petulant young man it might be possible to
manage him.

"Maurice is young," he said, "hot-headed; coveting honour. If we do but
look at him through our fingers, without much words, but with providence
enough, baiting his hook a little to his appetite, there is no doubt but
he might be caught and kept in a fish-pool; while in his imagination he
may judge it a sea. If not, 'tis likely he will make us fish in troubled
waters."

Maurice was hardly the fish for a mill-pond even at that epoch, and it
might one day be seen whether or not he could float in the great ocean of
events. Meanwhile, he swam his course without superfluous gambols or
spoutings.

The commander of her Majesty's forces was not satisfied with the States,
nor their generals, nor their politicians. "Affairs are going 'a malo in
pejus,'" he said. "They embrace their liberty as apes their young. To
this end are Counts Hollock and Maurice set upon the stage to entertain
the popular sort. Her Majesty and my Lord of Leicester are not forgotten.
The Counts are in Holland, especially Hollock, for the other is but the
cipher. And yet I can assure you Maurice hath wit and spirit too much for
his time."

As the troubles of the interregnum increased Willoughby was more
dissatisfied than ever with the miserable condition of the Provinces, but
chose to ascribe it to the machinations of the States' party, rather than
to the ambiguous conduct of Leicester. "These evils," he said, "are
especially, derived from the childish ambition of the young Count
Maurice, from the covetous and furious counsels of the proud Hollanders,
now chief of the States-General, and, if with pardon it may be said, from
our slackness and coldness to entertain our friends. The provident and
wiser sort--weighing what a slender ground the appetite of a young man
is, unfurnished with the sinews of war to manage so great a cause--for a
good space after my Lord of Leicester's departure, gave him far looking
on, to see him play has part on the stage."

Willoughby's spleen caus