He would have thought it sharper could he have seen how the pride of her Majesty and of Leicester was wounded by it to the quick.

Her list of grievances against the States seem to vanish into air.

Who had been tampering with the Spaniards now?
Had that "shadowy and imaginary authority" granted to Leicester not proved substantial enough?
Was it the States-General, the state-council, or was it the "absolute governor"-- who had carried off the supreme control of the commonwealth in his pocket--that was responsible for the ruin effected by Englishmen who had scorned all "authority" but his own?
The States, in another blunt letter to the Queen herself, declared the loss of Deventer to be more disastrous to them than even the fall of Antwerp had been; for the republic had now been split asunder, and its most ancient and vital portions almost cut away.

Nevertheless they were not "dazzled nor despairing," they said, but more determined than ever to maintain their liberties, and bid defiance to the Spanish tyrant.

And again they demanded of, rather than implored; her Majesty to be true to her engagements with them.
The interviews which followed were more tempestuous than ever.