"Are we to listen to this milksop prattle ?" Nick Trenchard, who had hitherto been silent, cleared his throat so noisily that he drew all eyes to himself.
"Your Grace," Mr.Wilding pursued, his air calm and dignified, and gathering more dignity from the circumstance that he proceeded as if there had been no interruption, "when I had the honour of conferring with you at The Hague two months ago, it was agreed that you should spend the summer in Sweden--away from politics and scheming, leaving the work of preparation to your accredited agents here.

That work I have been slowly but surely pushing forward.

It was not to be hurried; men of position are not to be won over in a day; men with anything to lose need some guarantee that they are not wantonly casting their possessions to the winds.

By next spring, as was agreed, all would have been ready.
Delay could not have hurt you.

Indeed, with every day by which you delayed your coming you did good service to your cause, you strengthened its prospects of success; for every day the people's burden of oppression and persecution grows more heavy, and the people's temper more short; every day, by the methods that he is pursuing, King James brings himself into deeper hatred.