No human power could bridge the chasm.

The steep contrast between the league and the counter-league, between the systems of Philip and Mucio, and that of Elizabeth and Olden-Barneveld, ran through the whole world of thought, action, and life.
But still the negociation between Holland and England was a strange one.
Holland wished to give herself entirely, and England feared to accept.
Elizabeth, in place of sovereignty, wanted mortgages; while Holland was afraid to give a part, although offering the whole.

There was no great inequality between the two countries.

Both were instinctively conscious, perhaps, of standing on the edge of a vast expansion.

Both felt that they were about to stretch their wings suddenly for a flight over the whole earth.