The fantastic but most significant conflict in the territories of the dead Duke of Clove reflected the distant and gigantic war as in a mirage.

It will be necessary to direct the reader's attention at the proper moment to that episode, for it was one in which the beneficent sagacity of Barneveld was conspicuously exerted in the cause of peace and conservation.

Meantime it is not agreeable to reflect that this brief period of nominal and armed peace which the Republic had conquered after nearly two generations of warfare was employed by her in tearing her own flesh.

The heroic sword which had achieved such triumphs in the cause of freedom could have been bitter employed than in an attempt at political suicide.
In a picture of the last decade of Barneveld's eventful life his personality may come more distinctly forward perhaps than in previous epochs.

It will however be difficult to disentangle a single thread from the great historical tapestry of the Republic and of Europe in which his life and achievements are interwoven.