ind and to keep watch and
ward.

"I cannot quite believe in the French companies," said the Advocate in a
private billet to Ledenberg. "It would be extremely well that not only
good watch should be kept at the city gates, but also that one might from
above and below the river Lek be assuredly advised from the nearest
cities if any soldiers are coming up or down, and that the same might be
done in regard to Amersfoort." At the bottom of this letter, which was
destined to become historical and will be afterwards referred to, the
Advocate wrote, as he not unfrequently did, upon his private notes, "When
read, burn, and send me back the two enclosed letters."

The letter lies in the Archives unburned to this day, but, harmless as it
looked, it was to serve as a nail in more than one coffin.

In his confidential letters to trusted friends he complained of "great
physical debility growing out of heavy sorrow," and described himself as
entering upon his seventy-first year and no longer fit for hard political
labour. The sincere grief, profound love of country, and desire that some
remedy might be found for impending disaster, is stamped upon all his
utterances whether official or secret.

"The troubles growing out of the religious differences," he said, "are
running into all sorts of extremities. It is feared that an attempt will
be made against the laws of the land through extraordinary ways, and by
popular tumults to take from the supreme authority of the respective
provinces the right to govern clerical persons and regulate clerical
disputes, and to place it at the disposition of ecclesiastics and of a
National Synod.

"It is thought too that the soldiers will be forbidden to assist the
civil supreme power and the government of cities in defending themselves
from acts of violence which under pretext of religion will be attempted
against the law and the commands of the magistrates.

"This seems to conflict with the common law of the respective provinces,
each of which from all times had right of sovereignty and supreme
authority within its territory and specifically reserved it in all
treaties and especially in that of the Nearer Union . . . . The provinces
have always regulated clerical matters each for itself. The Province of
Utrecht, which under the pretext of religion is now most troubled, made
stipulations to this effect, when it took his Excellency for governor,
even more stringent than any others. As for Holland,