ves, your wives, your
children, and all your descendants, to the latest generations; that you
will bring sin and shame upon yourselves, and destruction upon us who
have so heartily striven to assist you. Think what scorn you will incur
from foreign nations, what a crime you will commit against the Lord God,
what a bloody yoke ye will impose forever upon yourselves and your
children, if you now seek for subterfuges; if you now prevent us from
taking the field with the troops which we have enlisted. On the other
hand, what inexpressible benefits you will confer on your country, if you
now help us to rescue that fatherland from the power of Spanish vultures
and wolves."

This and similar missives, circulated throughout the province of Holland,
produced a deep impression. In accordance with his suggestions, the
deputies from the nobility and from twelve cities of that province
assembled on the 15th July, at Dort. Strictly speaking, the estates or
government of Holland, the body which represented the whole people,
consisted of the nobler and six great cities. On this occasion, however,
Amsterdam being still in the power of the King, could send no deputies,
while, on the other hand, all the small towns were invited to send up
their representatives to the Congress. Eight accepted the proposal; the
rest declined to appoint delegates, partly from motives of economy,
partly from timidity.'

These estates were the legitimate representatives of the people, but they
had no legislative powers. The people had never pretended to sovereignty,
nor did they claim it now. The source from which the government of the
Netherlands was supposed to proceed was still the divine mandate. Even
now the estates silently conceded, as they had ever done, the supreme
legislative and executive functions to the land's master. Upon Philip of
Spain, as representative of Count Dirk the First of Holland, had
descended, through many tortuous channels, the divine effluence
originally supplied by Charles the Simple of France. That supernatural
power was not contested, but it was now ingeniously turned against the
sovereign. The King's authority was invoked against himself in the person
of the Prince of Orange, to whom, thirteen years before, a portion of
that divine right had been delegated. The estates of Holland met at Dort
on the 15th July, as representatives of the people; but they were
summoned by Orange, royally commissioned in 1559 as stadholder, and
th