The decree was surely a most severe one.

They had been guilty of no actual crime, and only in case of high treason could an intention to commit a crime be considered, by the laws of the state, an offence punishable with death.

But it was exactly because it was important to make the crime high treason that the prisoners were condemned.

The offence was considered as a crime not against Leyden, but as an attempt to levy war upon a city which was a member of the States of Holland and of the United States.

If the States were sovereign, then this was a lesion of their sovereignty.