They both remained standing; the Prince with his hand resting on the little oak table beside him.
“I wrote to you, Mynheer, from Vlaardingen, to tell you that the Princess and the Elector had declared me of age—they have notified this to the Assembly.” William spoke quietly, looking down. “Therefore I do not consider it necessary to give an account of my actions to any one.”
“Neither the Princess nor the Elector are your guardians, but the States,” replied the Grand Pensionary sternly. “And Their High Mightinesses have fixed your majority in another four years; until then, I, representing them, am responsible for your education and your behaviour. It seems, Highness, that you will make my task difficult.”
William moved to the fire and seated himself in the chair the Ruard had occupied. It was not lost on M. de Witt that he did so easily, without invitation, as if in his own house.
“By going to Middelburg you have placed yourself at the head of the Malcontents,” continued M. de Witt, “and taken upon yourself the dangerous and troublesome part of a pretender.”
“Nay, Mynheer,” William glanced up, “I pretend to nothing; I went to Middelburg to enter upon an office mine by right.”
“You had not the sanction of the State.”
“Mynheer—I was within the law—the law of the Republic,” answered the Prince. “The State of Zeeland invited me, and I saw no reason to refuse. If Their High Mightinesses consider Zeeland did amiss—it is a matter for the Assembly.”
The Grand Pensionary seated himself the other side of the hearth and fixed his deep eyes on the Prince’s composed face.
“You did a daring thing, an ill-considered thing, and, I think, a dishonourable thing,” he said.