Consider, I pray you, therefore, what is to be done, and how unfit it will be in respect of my poor self, and how unacceptable to her Majesty, and how advantageous to enemies that will seek holes in my coat, if I should take so great a name upon me, and so little power.

They challenge acceptation already, and I challenge their absolute grant and offer to me, before they spoke of any instructions; for so it was when Leoninus first spoke to me with them all on New Years Day, as you heard--offering in his speech all manner of absolute authority.

If it please them to confirm this, without restraining instructions, I will willingly serve the States, or else, with such advising instructions as the Dowager of Hungary had." This was explicit enough, and Davison, who always acted for Leicester in the negotiations with the States, could certainly have no doubt as to the desires of the Earl, on the subject of "absolute" authority.

He did accordingly what he could to bring the States to his Excellency's way of thinking; nor was he unsuccessful.
On the 22nd January, a committee of conference was sent by the States to Leyden, in which city Leicester was making a brief visit.

They were instructed to procure his consent, if possible, to the appointment, by the States themselves, of a council consisting of members from each Province.