Genoese captain of much experience in the service of the
republic, Adolphus de Meetkerke, former president of Flanders, who had
been, by the States, deprived of the seat in the great council to which
the Earl had appointed him; Doctor Saravia, professor of theology in the
university, with other deacons, preachers, and captains, went at
different times from Leyden to Utrecht, and had secret interviews with
Leicester.

A plan was at last agreed upon, according to which, about the middle of
October, a revolution should be effected in Leyden. Captain Nicholas de
Maulde, who had recently so much distinguished himself in the defence of
Sluys, was stationed with two companies of States' troops in the city. He
had been much disgusted--not without reason--at the culpable negligence
through which the courageous efforts of the Sluys garrison had been set
at nought, and the place sacrificed, when it might so easily have been
relieved; and he ascribed the whole of the guilt to Maurice, Hohenlo, and
the States, although it could hardly be denied that at least an equal
portion belonged to Leicester and his party. The young captain listened,
therefore, to a scheme propounded to him by Colonel Cosine, and Deacon
Volmar, in the name of Leicester. He agreed, on a certain day, to muster
his company, to leave the city by the Delft gate--as if by command of
superior authority--to effect a junction with Captain Heraugiere, another
of the distinguished malcontent defenders of Sluys, who was stationed,
with his command, at Delft, and then to re-enter Leyden, take possession
of the town-hall, arrest all the magistrates, together with Adrian van
der Werff, ex-burgomaster, and proclaim Lord Leicester, in the name of
Queen Elizabeth, legitimate master of the city. A list of burghers, who
were to be executed, was likewise agreed upon, at a final meeting of the
conspirators in a hostelry, which bore the ominous name of 'The
Thunderbolt.' A desire had been signified by Leicester, in the
preliminary interviews at Utrecht, that all bloodshed, if possible,
should be spared, but it was certainly an extravagant expectation,
considering the, temper, the political convictions, and the known courage
of the Leyden burghers, that the city would submit, without a struggle,
to this invasion of all their rights. It could hardly be doubted that the
streets would run red with blood, as those of Antwerp had done, when a
similar attempt, on the part of Anjou, had been