“Ah, is it over, the glory, the peace, the happiness?—must disgrace and shame end a life that was so pure and noble!”
Jacob de Witt is dazed. He cares nothing for the great events that tear the country; he has but one thing to say to his younger son—
“Where is Cornelius?… Why do they not set him free?”
He cannot understand that his once powerful son is helpless.
John de Witt, desperate, tries to save his brother by disarming the resentment of his enemies. He goes to the Assembly and resigns the post he has held most nobly for twenty years.
The States accept it. They ask the Prince if they may thank him for his services.… The Stadtholder, absorbed in the war, sends answer “Yes.”
Still he cannot save Cornelius.
The people want blood.
The elder de Witt is put to the torture, which is a thing beyond credence, horrible; no confession is extorted from him. The unjust judges are defeated in their endeavours to please the mob.