There again fortune served his ability and firmness. The war with Holland continued, and was generally favorable to the English arms. "Why should I remain silent longer?" Cornelis de Witt said in an open assembly of the States. "I am here before my sovereigns; it is my duty to tell them that the English are now masters of us and of the seas." The struggle still continued, negotiations being meanwhile attempted. Tromp was killed on the 31st of July, 1653, in the midst of a desperate combat. "It is all over with me," he said as he fell, "but you, take courage." Ruyter, Cornelis de Witt, Floretz, and Ewertz continued the struggle, which every day became more fierce on the part of the English. Cromwell, however, was resolved to put an end to it. The hesitations of diplomacy ceased with the government of Parliament; the Protector wished for peace with the United Provinces, and for an alliance with the Protestant States. He set himself without delay to work, to realize the two indispensable conditions of the greatness of his country and of his own influence in Europe. The conditions imposed by the Protector were harsh, and they wounded the legitimate pride of the United Provinces: he renounced the idea of the incorporation of the two Republics; he admitted the allies of the Dutch to the advantages of the treaty, but he demanded of the States an undertaking never to receive upon their territory any enemy of the Commonwealth, thus closing against the Stuarts theîr last place of refuge. {252} He at the same time forbade the United Provinces ever to raise the young prince, William of Orange, or his descendants, to the office of Stadtholder or of commander of the land or sea forces. The States-General declined to assent to this stipulation. Cromwell then had recourse to indirect negotiations: he obtained, not without difficulty, a private and secret agreement from the States of the Province of Holland, which were sufficiently powerful to decide the question alone in the general assembly. On the 5th of June, 1654, the articles being at length ratified, the treaty of peace became definitive, to the general satisfaction of the English as well as of the Netherlanders. During this time Whitelocke was negotiating with Queen Christiana of Sweden, who was struck and touched with the rare faculties which she recognized in Cromwell. "In the end, I think that your general will be king of England," she said. On the 28th of April, 1654, the English envoy signed, in common with Chancellor Oxçnstiern, a treaty of friendship and alliance between the two countries. On the 30th of May, the Queen of Sweden, seduced by the vague charms of a free life, solemnly abdicated before the Diet of Upsal, while Whitelocke, embarking for England, brought back to Cromwell an important success for his policy and stories invented to flatter his pride.