The Grand Pensionary gave a stern smile.
“You think I have been weak; I have only acted as I considered right, and as I should act again. Maybe even yet I may by persuasion overcome this youth’s worldly ambition. If not, we, the States and I, are capable of sterner measures.”
“They should have been used before.” M. de Montbas suppressed his impatient voice. “Where you have once been so utterly deceived, can you ever confide again? If William of Orange will do this, what will he not do?” The speaker’s sallow face flushed with the energy of his feelings. “France and England, who neglected him when he was nothing in the State, begin to court him now. Why should he not revenge himself on the party that deprived him of his inheritance by intriguing for sovereign power with our enemies——”
“M. de Montbas, you go too far,” interrupted the Grand Pensionary. “We have neither right nor reason to suspect the Prince of these deep designs. He is a boy, misled by his ambitions.”
“This is clever work for a boy,” replied the Count, with a sour smile. “He has outwitted you, Mynheer.”
“That is no shame to me.”
“It may be a danger to the State,” was the swift answer.
“You blame me,” said the Grand Pensionary quietly. “I do not doubt that, on all sides, I shall receive censure.”
He moved slowly back to his desk, and M. de Montbas sprang from his chair.
“Ay! You have been wrong from the first! You cannot tame an eagle with sugar and smiles; if you want to keep him you cage him, otherwise he will fly as soon as he is able, though he may have taken your friendliness while his wings were growing.”