“The Prince cannot do the impossible,” answered John de Witt dryly.
“Ah, you blame him for the passage of the Rhine,” cried M. Fagel on a note of challenge.
“No … he has been but a few days with the Army … he has not proved himself.” The Grand Pensionary spoke sternly. “We need other measures.”
“And you wish to open negotiations with the French?” repeated Gaspard Fagel.
As the head of the party opposing M. de Witt in the Councils of the State, Fagel was bound to vote for war; the Grand Pensionary had not expected to find him tractable, yet by alarming him he hoped to gain him eventually.
“You cannot refuse to help me,” he said now firmly; “these embassies will at least gain us time—and you are not surely so infatuated as to suppose the Prince of Orange can withstand the progress of the French?”
The dismayed Secretary had no answer ready.
John de Witt saw his advantage and pushed it further.
“The alliances with Spain, with Brandenburg, might save us yet—had we time to conclude them——”
M. Fagel interrupted—