The names of the commissioners, and even the supposed articles of a treaty already concluded, were flying from town to town, from mouth to mouth, so that the Earl pronounced it impossible for one, not on the spot, to imagine the excitement which existed.
He had sent a state-counsellor, one Bardesius, to the Hague, to open the matter; but that personage had only ventured to whisper a word to one or two members of the States, and was assured that the proposition, if made, would raise such a tumult of fury, that he might fear for his life.

So poor Bardesius came back to Leicester, fell on his knees, and implored him; at least to pause in these fatal proceedings.

After an interval, he sent two eminent statesmen, Valk and Menin, to lay the subject before the assembly.

They did so, and it was met by fierce denunciation.

On their return, the Earl, finding that so much violence had been excited, pretended that they had misunderstood his meaning, and that he had never meant to propose peace-negotiations.