“What has Your Highness to say to me?”
“You know, Mynheer, what question it is that agitates the Assembly—I put it to you three years ago and you refused——”
“Then I refuse it now,” answered John de Witt.
“The times have changed,” remarked William laconically.
“But I have not,” replied the Grand Pensionary gravely.
“Still, I will again ask you, Mynheer, to consent to my appointment to the Captain Generalship.”
The Prince picked up his whip from among the papers and looked at it as he spoke.
The angry colour rushed into John de Witt’s worn face.
“My answer is no,” he replied sternly; “and I am surprised at these presumptuous pretensions.”
The whip shook a little in William’s hands.