“I have given Gaspard Fagel the Grand Secretaryship,” answered John de Witt in an absorbed way, “to win him to us … but on every side they fall away from me.… It is strange that I should be so hated——”
“We are in the hands of God, who for His own ends tries us.”
The younger de Witt bent his head.
“I show myself a weakling, I am tired to-night. I saw the Prince this afternoon, and it saddened me—I have been disappointed in him.”
The one-time prisoner of Loevenstein answered sternly—
“He is a worldly, ambitious, and deceitful young man—a danger to the State. Little do I doubt he is in league with Charles Stewart, as little as I doubt he is behind such attacks as these.”
He struck the paper on the seat beside him.
“I believe nor one nor the other,” answered John de Witt. “It must be that he is honourable, and I know him God-fearing.”
“He is even as his father was!”
“The Captain Generalship is his claim now—and he is well supported.”