Thereupon after about six months people began to discuss sovereignty, in order to reduce the authority of His Excellency and to make it inferior to that of the States, as if he were only the lieutenant of the States and they the sovereign. Conversing familiarly with a burgomaster on this topic one day, I told him my sincere opinion, which I was sure was the truth. I said firstly that those called the States had never been sovereign, were not sovereign and could not be sovereign. The reason is clear: where he reigns a sovereign acknowledges only God over him, and he has to account for his actions to none except God. The States have as their masters the town-councils, whose attorneys and commissaries they are, from whom they have instructions which limit their power, and to whom they have to report and account for their actions. Their title of representative States is also sufficient indication that they are not the true States, but only their servants pending the assembly and only for those affairs with which they are especially charged.