Having triumphantly shaken off the yoke of a powerful king, they would scarcely consent now to accept the rule of any personal sovereign.
The desire to save themselves from the claws of Spain had led them formerly to offer the dominion over them to various potentates.

Now that they had achieved peace and independence and were delivered from the fears of Spanish ferocity and French intrigue, they shuddered at the dangers from royal hands out of which they had at last escaped.

He believed that they would be capable of tearing in pieces any one who might make the desired proposition.

After all, he urged, Maurice was a hundred times more fortunate as he was than if he should succeed in desires so opposed to his own good.

This splendour of sovereignty was a false glare which would lead him to a precipice.