eventy years of age. Ryhove, his celebrated
colleague, died in Holland some years later.

But the fate of so insignificant a person as Hembyse passed almost
unnoticed, in the agitation caused by an event which shortly
preceded his death.

From the moment of their abandonment by the duke of Anjou, the
United Provinces considered themselves independent; and although
they consented to renew his authority over the country at large,
at the solicitation of the Prince of Orange, they were resolved
to confirm the influence of the latter over their particular
interests, which they were now sensible could acquire stability
only by that means. The death of Anjou left them without a sovereign;
and they did not hesitate in the choice which they were now called
upon to make. On whom, indeed, could they fix but William of
Nassau, without the utmost injustice to him, and the deepest
injury to themselves? To whom could they turn, in preference to
him who had given consistency to the early explosion of their
despair; to him who first gave the country political existence,
then nursed it into freedom, and now beheld it in the vigor and
prime of independence? He had seen the necessity, but certainly
overrated the value, of foreign support, to enable the new state
to cope with the tremendous tyranny from which it had broken.
He had tried successively Germany, England and France. From the
first and the last of these powers he had received two governors,
to whom he cheerfully resigned the title. The incapacity of both,
and the treachery of the latter, proved to the states that their
only chance for safety was in the consolidation of William's
authority; and they contemplated the noblest reward which a grateful
nation could bestow on a glorious liberator. And is it to be
believed that he who for twenty years had sacrificed his repose,
lavished his fortune, and risked his life, for the public cause,
now aimed at absolute dominion, or coveted a despotism which
all his actions prove him to have abhorred? Defeated bigotry
has put forward such vapid accusations. He has been also held
responsible for the early cruelties which, it is notorious, he
used every means to avert, and frequently punished. But while
these revolting acts can only be viewed in the light of reprisals
against the bloodiest persecution that ever existed, by exasperated
men driven to vengeance by a bad example, not one single act of
cruelty or bad faith has ever been made good