Well might Duplessis Mornay observe, that the commonwealth had been rather strangled than embraced by the English Queen.

Sonoy, in the name of Leicester, took arms against Maurice and the States; Maurice marched against him; and Lord Willoughby, commander-in-chief of the English forces, was anxious to march against Maurice.

It was a spectacle to make angels weep, that of Englishmen and Hollanders preparing to cut each other's throats, at the moment when Philip and Parma were bending all their energies to crush England and Holland at once.
Indeed, the interregnum between the departure of Leicester and his abdication was diligently employed by his more reckless partizans to defeat and destroy the authority of the States.

By prolonging the interval, it was hoped that no government would be possible except the arbitrary rule of the Earl, or of a successor with similar views: for a republic--a free commonwealth--was thought an absurdity.

To entrust supreme power to advocates; merchants, and mechanics, seemed as hopeless as it was vulgar.