“Why?” he asked, speaking slowly by reason of the control he was exercising. He kept his eyes still on the whip.
“Because it hath been decreed by law—a law that I have sworn to—that all discussion even of your election to this office be deferred till you are twenty-two.”
“Are you going to stand to that, Mynheer? I am twenty-one.”
“I hold,” answered John de Witt, “to the letter of the law.”
William raised his wonderful eyes.
“And yet you speak of friendship.… You have always opposed me … always,” he pressed his handkerchief to his lips and coughed. “You opposed my election to the Council of State.”
“I should again oppose the election of a Prince of eighteen to the Assembly of the Republic.”
“You opposed my journey to England,” continued the Prince, “because you thought my uncle would seduce me into furthering his designs.” He drew a quick breath and looked away from M. de Witt,—“Is it because you still have such suspicions of me that you withhold the Captain Generalship?”
There was an instant’s pause before the Grand Pensionary answered—