Thenceforth he was to be his evil demon.
"I didn't inherit property," said this diplomatist.

"My father and mother, thank God, are yet living.

I have enjoyed the King's liberality.
It was from an ally, not an enemy, of our country.

Were every man obliged to give a reckoning of everything he possesses over and above his hereditary estates, who in the government would pass muster?
Those who declare that they have served their country in her greatest trouble, and lived in splendid houses and in service of princes and great companies and the like on a yearly salary of 4000 florins, may not approve these maxims." It should be remembered that Barneveld, if this was a fling at the Advocate, had acquired a large fortune by marriage, and, although certainly not averse from gathering gear, had, as will be seen on a subsequent page, easily explained the manner in which his property had increased.

No proof was ever offered or attempted of the anonymous calumnies levelled at him in this regard.
"I never had the management of finances," continued Aerssens.