DRAMATIS PERSONÆ (_in order of their appearance_).
CURTAIN: _December, 1795_.
_William V_: Last hereditary Stadholder, futile, well-meaning, but
without any conception of the events which during the latter half of the
eighteenth century brought about the new order of things. Unable to
institute the highly necessary centralization of the country and
emancipate the middle classes, which for the last three centuries have
been cut totally out of all political power. He is driven out by the
French Revolution more than by his own discontented countrymen. Dies,
forgotten, on his country estates in Germany.
_The Patriots_: Mildly revolutionary party, since the middle of the
eighteenth century working for a more centralized and somewhat more
representative government. Belong almost without exception to the
professional and higher middle classes. Represented in the new Batavian
Assemblies mostly under the name of Unionists.
_The Regents_: The old plutocratic oligarchy. Disappear with the triumph
of the Patriots. Continue opposition to the centralizing process, but
for all intents and purposes they have played their little rôle when the
old republic ceases to be.
_The Federalists_: Combine all the opposition elements in the new
Batavian Republic which work to maintain the old decentralization.
_Daendels_: Lawyer, cart-tail orator, professional exile. Fallen hero of
the Patriotic struggles; flees to Belgium when the Prussians in 1787
restore William V to his old dignities. Returns in 1795 as quite a hero
and a French major-general. Later with French help organizes a number of
_coups d'état_ which finally remove the opposing Federalists and give
the power to the Unionists. A capable man in many ways. An enthusiast
who spared others as little as he did himself.
_Krayenhoff_: Doctor, physicist, experiments in new medical theories
with same cheer he does in the new science of politics. Able and
efficient in everything he undertakes. Too much of a man of principle
and honesty to make much of a career during revolutionary days.
_Pieter Paulus_: The sort of man who twenty years before might have
saved the Republic if only the Stadholder had known how to avail himself
of such a simple citizen possessed of so much common sense. Trained
thoroughly in the intricate working of the Republic's government.
Scrupulously honest. So evidently the One and Only Man to lead the new
Batavian Republic that he was killed immediately by overwork.
_Schimmelpenninck_: Lawyer, man of unselfish patriotism, honest,
careful, no sense of humour, but a very sober sense of the practically
possible. No lover of extremes, but in no way blind to the
impossibility of maintaining the old, outworn system of government.
Tries at his own private inconvenience to save the country, but when he
fails keeps the everlasting respect of both his enemies and those who
were supposed to be his friends.
_France_, or, rather, the French Revolution, regards the Republic in the
same way in which a poor man looks upon a rich man with a beefsteak.
Being possessed of a strong club, it hits the rich man on the head,
grabs his steak, his clothes, everything he possesses, and then makes
him turn about and fight his former friends.
_Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity_: Trademark patented by the French
Republic between the years 1790 and 1809. The goods covered by this
trademark soon greatly deteriorate and finally cover a rank imitation of
the original article.
_Napoleon Bonaparte_: Chief salesman of the above article for the
territory abroad. Further references unnecessary. Gets a controlling
hold of the firm in which at first he was a subordinate. Removes the
article which made him successful from the market and introduces a new
brand, covered merely with a big N. Firm fails in 1815. The involuntary
customers pay the deficit.
_England_: Chief enemy of above. In self-defence against the
Franco-Dutch combination, it takes all of the Republic's outlying
territories.
_Louis Napoleon_: Second brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Only gentleman
of the family. Made King of Holland in anticipation of a complete French
annexation. Makes an honest but useless attempt to prevent this
annexation. Wife (Napoleon's stepdaughter) no good. Son, Napoleon III,
Emperor of the French.
_Le Brun, Duke of Plaisance_: Governor of the annexed Republic. Makes
the very best of a rather odious job. Far superior to the corps of
brigands who were his subordinates.
_Van Hogendorp_: Incarnation of the better elements of the old order;
supporter of William V, although very much aware of the uselessness of
that prince. Has seen a little more of the world than most of his
contemporaries. During the Batavian Republic and annexation refuses to
have anything to do with what he considers an illegitimate form of
government. Man of great strength who, practically alone, arranges the
Revolution of 1813, which drives out the French before the European
allies can conquer the Republic.
_William I_: First constitutional King of Holland, oldest son of William
V, has learned a good deal abroad, but only during the last ten years of
his exile. Personally a man of the Old Régime, but with too excellent a
business sense not to see that the times have changed. Rather too much a
business man and too little a statesman. Excellent organizer. In many
ways too energetic. Pity he did not live a hundred years later.
Of the real people we shall see very little. A small minority, very
small indeed, will try to make a noise like Jacobins. But their little
comedy is abruptly ended by the great French stage manager every time he
thinks that such rowdy acting is no longer suitable. Unfortunately for
themselves, they began their particular acting three years later than
Paris, and, fortunately for the rest of us, the sort of plays written
around the guillotine were no longer popular in France when the managers
in Holland wished to introduce them. The majority of the people,
however, gradually impoverished by eternal taxation, without the old
revenues from the colonies, with their sons enlisted and serving a bad
cause in foreign armies--the majority takes to a disastrous way of
vegetating at home, takes to leading an introspective and
non-constructive religious life, finally despairing of everything save
paternal despotism.
In the country everything becomes Frenchified. The fashions are the
fashions of Paris (two years late). Furniture, books, literature,
everything except an old-fashioned and narrow orthodoxy becomes a true
but clumsy copy of the French.
The other actors in our little play are foreigners: Sansculottes, French
soldiers of all arms, British and Russian invaders, captives from all of
the Lord's countries, French customs officers, French policemen, French
spies, adventurers of every sort and nationality; French bands playing
the "Carmagnole" and "Marseillaise," _ad infinitum_ and _ad nauseam_.
Finally Cossacks, Russian Infantry, Blücher Hussars, followed by a
sudden and wild crowd of citizens waving orange colours. And then, once
more for many years, dull, pious citizens, taking no interest in
anything but their own respectability, looking at the world from behind
closed curtains, so terribly hit by adversity that they no longer dare
to be active. Until this generation gradually takes the road to the
welcome cemetery, the curtains are pulled up, the windows are opened,
and a fresh spirit of energy and enterprise is allowed to blow through
the old edifice, and the old fear of living is replaced by the desire to
take an active part in the work of the greater world.