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
Ambassador to communicate the story to Maurice. This advice had not been
taken, but he had kept the perilous stuff upon his breast. He now sought
to lay the blame, if it were possible to do so, upon the man to whom he
had communicated it and who had not believed it.

The business of the States-General, led by the Advocate's enemies this
winter, was to accumulate all kind of tales, reports, and accusations to
his discredit on which to form something like a bill of indictment. They
had demanded all his private and confidential correspondence with Caron
and Langerae. The ambassador in Paris had been served, moreover, with a
string of nine interrogatories which he was ordered to answer on oath and
honour. This he did and appended the reply to his letter.

The nine questions had simply for their object to discover what Barneveld
had been secretly writing to the Ambassador concerning the Synod, the
enlisted troops, and the supposed projects of Maurice concerning the
sovereignty. Langerac was obliged to admit in his replies that nothing
had been written except the regular correspondence which he endorsed, and
of which the reader has been able to see the sum and substance in the
copious extracts which have been given.

He stated also that he had never received any secret instructions save
the marginal notes to the list of questions addressed by him, when about
leaving for Paris in 1614, to Barneveld. Most of these were of a trivial
and commonplace nature.

They had however a direct bearing on the process to be instituted against
the Advoca