ostrate the
powers on earth without consulting the King above; and the fickleness
and caprice of the Dutch combined with the terror inspired by Louis
XIV., in repealing the Perpetual Edict, and re-establishing the office
of Stadtholder in favour of William of Orange, for whom the hand of
Providence had traced out ulterior destinies on the hidden map of the
future.

The Grand Pensionary bowed before the will of his fellow citizens;
Cornelius de Witt, however, was more obstinate, and notwithstanding all
the threats of death from the Orangist rabble, who besieged him in his
house at Dort, he stoutly refused to sign the act by which the office of
Stadtholder was restored. Moved by the tears and entreaties of his wife,
he at last complied, only adding to his signature the two letters V. C.
(Vi Coactus), notifying thereby that he only yielded to force.

It was a real miracle that on that day he escaped from the doom intended
for him.

John de Witt derived no advantage from his ready compliance with the
wishes of his fellow citizens. Only a few days after, an attempt
was made to stab him, in which he was severely although not mortally
wounded.

This by no means suited the views of the Orange faction. The life of
the two brothers being a constant obstacle to their plans, they changed
their tactics, and tried to obtain by calumny what they had not been
able to effect by the aid of the poniard.

How rarely does it happen that, in the right moment, a great man is
found to head the execution of vast and noble designs; and for that
reason, when such a providential concurrence of circumstances does
occur, history is prompt to record the name of the chosen one, and to
hold him up to the admiration of posterity. But when Satan interposes
in human affairs to cast a shadow upon some happy existence, or to
overthrow a kingdom, it seldom happens that he does not find at his side
some miserable tool, in whose ear he has but to whisper a word to set
him at once about his task.

The wretched tool who was at hand to be the agent of this dastardly
plot was one Tyckelaer whom we have already mentioned, a surgeon by
profession.

He lodged an information against Cornelius de Witt, setting forth that
the warden--who, as he had shown by the letters added to his signature,
was fuming at the repeal of the Perpetual Edict--had, from hatred
against William of Orange, hired an assassin to deliver the new Republic
of its new Stadtholder; and he,