He claimed the right to employ about his person soldiers and civil functionaries of any nation he might choose, and he exacted from the states a promise to prevent the Prince of Orange from removing his son, Count van Buren, forcibly or fraudulently, from his domicile in Spain.
The deputies were naturally indignant at this elaborate trifling.

They had, in reality, asked him but one question, and that a simple one--Would he maintain the treaty of Ghent?
Here were twenty-seven articles in reply, and yet no answer to that question.

They sat up all night, preparing a violent protocol, by which the Governor's claims were to be utterly demolished.

Early in the morning, they waited upon his Highness, presented the document, and at the same time asked him plainly, by word of mouth, did he or did he not intend to uphold the treaty.

Thus pressed into a corner in presence of the deputies, the members of the State Council who were in attendance from Brussels, and the envoys whom the Emperor had recently sent to assist at these deliberations, the Governor answered, No.