"I have been fain of late," he said, "to set the better leg foremost, to handle some of my masters somewhat plainly; for they thought I would droop; and whatsoever becomes of me, you shall hear I will keep my reputation, or die for it." But one great accusation, made against the churls and tinkers, and bakers and hired advocates, and Mr.Paul Buys at their head, was that they were liberal towards the Papists.

They were willing that Catholics should remain in the country and exercise the rights of citizens, provided they, conducted themselves like good citizens.

For this toleration--a lesson which statesmen like Buys and Barneveld had learned in the school of William the Silent--the opposition-party were denounced as bolsterers of Papists, and Papists themselves at heart, and "worshippers of idolatrous idols." From words, too, the government of Leicester passed to acts.

Seventy papists were banished from the city of Utrecht at the time of the arrest of Buys.

The Queen had constantly enforced upon Leicester the importance of dealing justly with the Catholics in the Netherlands, on the ground that they might be as good patriots and were as much interested in the welfare of their country as were the Protestants; and he was especially enjoined "not to meddle in matters of religion." This wholesome advice it would have been quite impossible for the Earl, under the guidance of Reingault, Burgrave, and Stephen Perret, to carry out.