“You are no child now,” continued M. de Witt; “and must fairly well understand your position … and mine.”
“I understand both, Mynheer,” answered William.
“You have been educated as a citizen of Holland, and it is to the citizen of Holland that I have come to speak to-day.” M. de Witt paused a moment. He was slightly flushed, and his voice was full of emotion. “I have striven to make you worthy of your grandfather and of that ancestor of yours who secured us our liberty, and it is my wish to obtain for you those dignities that are the heritage of your House—all that are compatible with the safety of this Republic.”
William, still looking away, spoke slowly—
“The Republic has nothing to fear from me, Mynheer. I, surely, am of but little account in the State.”
M. de Witt was observing him very closely.
“You have the name, Highness,” he said; “you must know that. And it is a power, you must know that also. You are the heir of the family that once ruled Holland, and you are used as the rallying point of all the malcontents.”
William glanced up with a curious, intense expression.
“You speak very frankly, Mynheer.”
“I have no object to serve by dissimulation,” answered John de Witt. “I come to you single-mindedly. I can claim to have always spoken openly to you, Highness, since you first were of an age to understand these matters.”