[494] The seals which had been taken from Sunderland were delivered to Preston.

The same Gazette which announced this change contained the official intelligence of the disaster which had befallen the Dutch fleet.

[495] That disaster was serious, though far less serious than the King and his few adherents, misled by their wishes, were disposed to believe.
On the sixteenth of October, according to the English reckoning, was held a solemn sitting of the States of Holland.

The Prince came to bid them farewell.

He thanked them for the kindness with which they had watched over him when he was left an orphan child, for the confidence which they had reposed in him during his administration, and for the assistance which they had granted to him at this momentous crisis.