Catholics should be left in peaceable possession of their churches, and that places outside the town should be reserved for the New Faith. At Utrecht, where he found the foreign levies of Brunswick already proceeding, he made the same arrangement between the two religions; and in spite of the objection of the Duchess, he obtained her assent "If by exhortation, warnings, or any other means," she wrote, "you can put down these preachings of the Gospel, you will confer a service, not only to God, to the Catholic Faith, and the country, but a service peculiarly grateful to the King." The business, however, of William was exactly the reverse,—it was to secure the preachings in peace and quietness; and he compelled the Regent to endure them.
Thence he went to Amsterdam, where the populace had sacked the convent of the Cordeliers and other churches. The Government at Brussels insisted on their restoration to the Catholics, and that the preachings should be suppressed, or not permitted within the walls. The churches were restored. The preachings could not be suppressed. "Madam," he wrote, "there are so vast a number in Amsterdam, most of them non-citizens from the seaboard, mariners and ignorant men, rude and unable to reason, that it is impossible to suppress the preachings, they are accustomed to hold; and, in this winter time, outside the walls, there is nothing but water."—"We cannot change the ancient religion of our State for these sectaries," wrote the Duchess; "let them go to preaching in boats outside the city."—"Preaching in boats is a preposterous invention—who could put that in your Highness's head?" replies William, forgetful perhaps of a famous sermon on the lake from a boat "They
