The unfortunate negotiations with Anjou, to which no man was more opposed than Count John, proceeded therefore. In the meantime, the sovereignty over the united provinces was provisionally held by the national council, and, at the urgent solicitation of the states-general, by the Prince. The Archduke Matthias, whose functions were most unceremoniously brought to an end by the transactions which we have been recording, took his leave of the states, and departed in the month of October. Brought to the country a beardless boy, by the intrigues of a faction who wished to use him as a tool against William of Orange, he had quietly submitted, on the contrary, to serve as the instrument of that great statesman. His personality during his residence was null, and he had to expiate, by many a petty mortification, by many a bitter tear, the boyish ambition which brought him to the Netherlands. He had certainly had ample leisure to repent the haste with which he had got out of his warm bed in Vienna to take his bootless journey to Brussels. Nevertheless, in a country where so much baseness, cruelty, and treachery was habitually practised by men of high position, as was the case in the Netherlands; it is something in favor of Matthias that he had not been base, or cruel, or treacherous. The states voted him, on his departure, a pension of fifty thousand guldens annually, which was probably not paid with exemplary regularity. CHAPTER V. Policy of electing Anjou as sovereign--Commode et incommode--Views of Orange--Opinions at the French Court,--Anjou relieves Cambray-- Parma besieges Tourney--Brave defence by the Princess of Espinoy-- Honorable capitulation--Anjou's courtship in England--The Duke's arrival in the Netherlands--Portrait of Anjou--Festivities in Flushing--Inauguration at Antwerp--The conditions or articles subscribed to by the Duke--Attempt upon the life of Orange--The assassin's papers--Confession of Venero--Gaspar Anastro--His escape --Execution of Venero and Zimmermann--Precarious condition of the Prince--His recovery--Death of the Princess--Premature letters of Parma--Further negotiations with Orange as to the sovereignty of Holland and Zealand--Character of the revised Constitution-- Comparison of the positions of the Prince before and after his acceptance of the countship.