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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4878.txt b/4878.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bc7fd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/4878.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2439 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands, 1605-07 +#78 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1605-07 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4878] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 15, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1605-07 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS +From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609 + +By John Lothrop Motley + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 78 + +History of the United Netherlands, 1605-1607 + + + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + + Preparations for the campaign of 1606--Diminution of Maurice's + popularity--Quarrel between the pope and the Venetian republic-- + Surprise of Sluys by Du Terrail--Dilatoriness of the republic's + operations--Movements of Spinola--Influence of the weather on the + military transactions of the year--Endeavours of Spinola to obtain + possession of the Waal and Yssel--Surrender of Lochem to Spinola-- + Siege of Groll--Siege and loss of Rheinberg--Mutiny in the Catholic + army--Recovery of Lochem by Maurice--Attempted recovery of Groll-- + Sudden appearance of the enemy--Withdrawal of the besieging army + Close of the campaign--End of the war of independence--Motives of + the Prince in his actions before Groll--Cruise of Admiral Haultain + to the coast of Spain and Portugal--His encounter with the war-- + ships of Fazardo--Courageous conduct of the vice-admiral--Deaths of + Justus Lipsius, Hohenlo, and Count John of Nassau. + +After the close of the campaign of 1605 Spinola had gone once more to +Spain. On his passage through Paris he had again been received with +distinguished favour by that warm ally of the Dutch republic, Henry IV., +and on being questioned by that monarch as to his plans for the next +campaign had replied that he intended once more to cross the Rhine, and +invade Friesland. Henry, convinced that the Genoese would of course not +tell him the truth on such an occasion, wrote accordingly to the States- +General that they might feel safe as to their eastern frontier. Whatever +else might happen, Friesland and the regions adjacent would be safe next +year from attack. The immediate future was to show whether the subtle +Italian had not compassed as neat a deception by telling the truth as +coarser politicians could do by falsehood. + +Spinola found the royal finances in most dismal condition. Three hundred +thousand dollars a month were the least estimate of the necessary +expenses for carrying on the Netherland war, a sum which could not +possibly be spared by Lerma, Uceda, the Marquis of the Seven Churches, +and other financiers then industriously occupied in draining dry the +exchequer for their own uses. Once more the general aided his sovereign +with purse and credit, as well as with his sword. Once more the exchange +at Genoa was glutted with the acceptances of Marquis Spinola. Here at +least was a man of a nature not quite so depraved as that of the +parasites bred out of the corruption of a noble but dying commonwealth, +and doubtless it was with gentle contempt that the great favourite and +his friends looked at the military and financial enthusiasm of the +volunteer. It was so much more sagacious to make a princely fortune than +to sacrifice one already inherited, in the service of one's country. + +Spinola being thus ready not only to fight but to help to pay for the +fighting, found his plans of campaigns received with great benignity by +the king and his ministers. Meantime there was much delay. The enormous +labours thus devolved upon one pair of shoulders by the do-nothing king +and a mayor of the palace whose soul was absorbed by his own private +robberies, were almost too much for human strength. On his return to the +Netherlands Spinola fell dangerously ill in Genoa. + +Meantime, during his absence and the enforced idleness of the Catholic +armies, there was an opportunity for the republicans to act with +promptness and vigour. They displayed neither quality. Never had there +been so much sluggishness as in the preparations for the campaign of +1606. The States' exchequer was lower than it had been for years. The +republic was without friends. Left to fight their battle for national +existence alone, the Hollanders found themselves perpetually subjected to +hostile censure from their late allies, and to friendly advice still more +intolerable. There were many brave Englishmen and Frenchmen sharing in +the fatigues of the Dutch war of independence, but the governments of +Henry and of James were as protective, as severely virtuous, as +offensive, and, in their secret intrigues with the other belligerent, as +mischievous as it was possible for the best-intentioned neutrals to be. + +The fame and the popularity of the stadholder had been diminished by the +results of the past campaign. The States-General were disappointed, +dissatisfied, and inclined to censure very unreasonably the public +servant who had always obeyed their decrees with docility. While Henry +IV. was rapidly transferring his admiration from Maurice to Spinola, the +disagreements at home between the Advocate and the Stadholder were +becoming portentous. + +There was a want of means and of soldiers for the new campaign. Certain +causes were operating in Europe to the disadvantage of both belligerents. +In the south, Venice had almost drawn her sword against the pope in her +settled resolution to put down the Jesuits and to clip the wings of the +church party, before, with bequests and donations, votive churches and +magnificent monasteries, four-fifths of the domains of the republic +should fall into mortmain, as was already the case in Brabant. + +Naturally there was a contest between the ex-Huguenot, now eldest son of +the Church, and the most Catholic king, as to who should soonest defend +the pope. Henry offered thorough protection to his Holiness, but only +under condition that he should have a monopoly of that protection. +He lifted his sword, but meantime it was doubtful whether the blow was to +descend upon Venice or upon Spain. The Spanish levies, on their way to +the Netherlands, were detained in Italy by this new exigency. The +States-General offered the sister republic their maritime assistance, and +notwithstanding their own immense difficulties, stood ready to send a +fleet to the Mediterranean. The offer was gratefully declined, and the +quarrel with the pope arranged, but the incident laid the foundation of +a lasting friendship between the only two important republics then +existing. The issue of the Gunpowder Plot, at the close of the preceding +year, had confirmed James in his distaste for Jesuits, and had effected +that which all the eloquence of the States-General and their ambassador +had failed to accomplish, the prohibition of Spanish enlistments in his +kingdom. Guido Fawkes had served under the archduke in Flanders. + +Here then were delays additional to that caused by Spinola's illness. +On the other hand, the levies of the republic were for a season paralysed +by the altercation, soon afterwards adjusted, between Henry IV. and the +Duke of Bouillon, brother-in-law of the stadholder and of the Palatine, +and by the petty war between the Duke and Hanseatic city of Brunswick, +in which Ernest of Nassau was for a time employed. + +During this period of almost suspended animation the war gave no signs of +life, except in a few spasmodic efforts on the part of the irrepressible +Du Terrail. Early in the spring, not satisfied with his double and +disastrous repulse before Bergen-op-Zoom, that partisan now determined to +surprise Sluy's. That an attack was impending became known to the +governor of that city, the experienced Colonel Van der Noot. Not +dreaming, however, that any mortal--even the most audacious of Frenchmen +and adventurers--would ever think of carrying a city like Sluy's by +surprise, defended as it was by a splendid citadel and by a whole chain +of forts and water-batteries, and capable of withstanding three months +long, as it had so recently done, a siege in form by the acknowledged +master of the beleaguering science, the methodical governor event calmly +to bed one fine night in June. His slumbers were disturbed before +morning by the sound of trumpets sounding Spanish melodies in the +streets, and by a, great uproar and shouting. Springing out of bed, he +rushed half-dressed to the rescue. Less vigilant than Paul Bax had been +the year before in Bergen, he found that Du Terrail had really effected a +surprise. At the head of twelve hundred Walloons and Irishmen, that +enterprising officer had waded through the drowned land of Cadzand, with +the promised support of a body of infantry under Frederic Van den Berg, +from Damm, had stolen noiselessly by the forts of that island +unchallenged and unseen, had effected with petards a small breach through +the western gate of the city, and with a large number of his followers, +creeping two and two through the gap, had found himself for a time master +of Sluys. + +The profound silence of the place had however somewhat discouraged the +intruders. The whole population were as sound asleep as was the +excellent commandant, but the stillness in the deserted streets suggested +an ambush, and they moved stealthily forward, feeling their way with +caution towards the centre of the town. + +It so happened, moreover, that the sacristan had forgotten to wind up the +great town clock. The agreement with the party first entering and making +their way to the opposite end of the city, had been that at the striking +of a certain hour after midnight they should attack simultaneously and +with a great outcry all the guardhouses, so that the garrison might be +simultaneously butchered. The clock never struck, the signal was never +given, and Du Terrail and his immediate comrades remained near the +western gate, suspicious and much perplexed. The delay was fatal. The +guard, the whole garrison, and the townspeople flew to arms, and half- +naked, but equipped with pike and musket, and led on by Van der Noot in +person, fell upon the intruders. A panic took the place of previous +audacity in the breasts of Du Terrail's followers. Thinking only of +escape, they found the gap by which they had crept into the town much +less convenient as a means of egress in the face of an infuriated +multitude. Five hundred of them were put to death in a very few minutes. +Almost as many were drowned or suffocated in the marshes, as they +attempted to return by the road over which they had come. A few +stragglers June, of the fifteen hundred were all that were left to tell +the tale. + +It would seem scarcely worth while to chronicle such trivial incidents in +this great war--the all-absorbing drama of Christendom--were it not that +they were for the moment the whole war. It might be thought that +hostilities were approaching their natural termination, and that the war +was dying of extreme old age, when the Quixotic pranks of a Du Terrail +occupied so large a part of European attention. + +The winter had passed, another spring had come and gone, and Maurice had +in vain attempted to obtain sufficient means from the States to take the +field in force. Henry, looking on from the outside, was becoming more +and more exasperated with the dilatoriness which prevented the republic +from profiting by the golden moments of Spinola's enforced absence. Yet +the best that could be done seemed to be to take measures for defensive +operations. + +Spinola never reached Brussels until the beginning of June, yet, during +all the good campaigning weather which had been fleeting away, not a blow +had been struck, nor a wholesome counsel taken by the stadholder or the +States. It was midsummer before the armies were in the field. The plans +of the Catholic general however then rapidly developed themselves. +Having assembled as large a force as had ever been under his command, he +now divided it into two nearly equal portions. Bucquoy, with ten +thousand foot, twelve hundred cavalry, and twelve guns, arrived on the +18th July at Nook, on the Meuse. Spinola, with eleven thousand infantry, +two thousand horse, and eight guns, crossed the Rhine at the old redoubts +of Ruhrort, and on the same 18th July took position at Goor, in +Overyssel. The first plan of the commander-in-chief was to retrace +exactly his campaign of the previous year, even as he had with so much +frankness stated to Henry. But the republic, although deserted by her +former friends, and looked upon askance by the monarch of Britain, and +by the most Christian king, had this year a most efficient ally in the +weather. Jupiter Pluvius had descended from on high to the rescue of the +struggling commonwealth, and his decrees were omnipotent as to the course +of the campaign. The seasons that year seemed all fused into one. It +was difficult to tell on midsummer day whether it were midwinter, spring, +or autumn. The rain came down day after day, week after week, as if the +contending armies and the very country which was to be invaded and +defended were to be all washed out of existence together. Friesland +resolved itself into a vast quagmire; the roads became fluid, the rivers +lakes. Spinola turned his face from the east, and proceeded to carry out +a second plan which he had long meditated, and even a more effective one, +in the west. + +The Waal and the Yssel formed two sides of a great quadrilateral; and +furnished for the natural fortress, thus enclosed, two vast and admirable +moats. Within lay Good-meadow and Foul-meadow--Bet-uwe and Vel-uwe--one, +the ancient Batavian island which from time immemorial had given its name +to the commonwealth, the other, the once dismal swamp which toil and +intelligence had in the course of centuries transformed into the wealthy +and flowery land of Gueldres. + +Beyond, but in immediate proximity, lay the ancient episcopal city and +province of Utrecht, over which lay the road to the adjacent Holland and +Zeeland. The very heart of the republic would be laid bare to the +conqueror's sword if he could once force the passage, and obtain the +control of these two protecting streams. With Utrecht as his base, and +all Brabant and Flanders--obedient provinces--at his back, Spinola might +accomplish more in one season than Alva, Don John, and Alexander Farnese +had compassed in forty years, and destroy at a blow what was still called +the Netherland rebellion. The passage of the rivers once effected, the +two enveloping wings would fold themselves together, and the conquest +would be made. + +Thus reasoned the brilliant young general, and his projects, although +far-reaching, did not seem wild. The first steps were, however, the most +important as well as the most difficult, and he had to reckon with a wary +and experienced antagonist. Maurice had at last collected and reviewed +at Arnhem an army of nearly fifteen thousand men, and was now watching +closely from Doesburg and Deventer every movement of the foe. + +Having been forced to a defensive campaign, in which he was not likely at +best to gain many additional laurels, he was the more determined to lay +down his own life, and sacrifice every man he could bring into the field, +before Spinola should march into the cherished domains of Utrecht and +Holland. Meantime the rain, which had already exerted so much influence +on the military movements of the year, still maintained the supremacy +over human plans. The Yssel and the Waal, always deep, broad, sluggish, +but dangerous rivers--the Rhine in its old age--were swollen into +enormous proportions, their currents flowing for the time with the vigour +of their far away youth. + +Maurice had confided the defence of the Waal to Warner Du Bois, under +whose orders he placed a force of about seven thousand men, and whose +business it was to prevent Bucquoy's passage. His own task was to baffle +Spinola. + +Bucquoy's ambition was to cross the Waal at a point as near as possible +to the fork of that stream with the true Rhine, seize the important city +of Nymegen, and then give the hand to Spinola, so soon as he should be on +the other side of the Yssel. At the village of Spardorp or Kekerdom, he +employed Pompeio Giustiniani to make a desperate effort, having secured a +large number of barges in which he embarked his troops. As the boatmen +neared the opposite bank, however, they perceived that Warner Du Bois had +made effective preparations for their reception. They lost heart, and, +on pretence that the current of the river was too rapid to allow them to +reach the point proposed for their landing, gradually dropped down the +stream, and, in spite of the remonstrances of the commanders, pushed +their way back to the shore which they had left. From that time forth, +the States' troops, in efficient numbers, fringed the inner side of the +Waal, along the whole length of the Batavian island, while armed vessels +of the republic patrolled the stream itself. In vain Count Bucquoy +watched an opportunity, either by surprise or by main strength, to effect +a crossing. The Waal remained as impassable as if it were a dividing +ocean. + +On the other side of the quadrilateral, Maurice's dispositions were as +effective as those of his lieutenant on the Waal. The left shore of the +Yssel, along its whole length, from Arnhem and Doesburg quite up to Zwoll +and Campen, where the river empties itself into the Zuyder Zee, was now +sprinkled thickly with forts, hastily thrown up, but strong enough to +serve the temporary purpose of the stadholder. In vain the fleet-footed +and audacious Spinola moved stealthily or fiercely to and fro, from one +point to another, seeking an opening through which to creep, or a weak +spot where he might dash himself against the chain. The whole line was +securely guarded. The swollen river, the redoubts, and the musketeers of +Maurice, protected the heart of the republic from the impending danger. + +Wearied of this fruitless pacing up and down, Spinola, while apparently +intending an assault upon Deventer, and thus attracting his adversary's +attention to that important city, suddenly swerved to the right, and came +down upon Lochem. The little town, with its very slender garrison, +surrendered at once. It was not a great conquest, but it might possibly +be of use in the campaign. It was taken before the stadholder could move +a step to its assistance, even had he deemed it prudent to leave Yssel- +side for an hour. The summer was passing away, the rain was still +descending, and it was the 1st of August before Spinola left Lochem. +He then made a rapid movement to the north, between Zwoll and Hasselt, +endeavouring to cross the Blackwater, and seize Geelmuyden, on the Zuyder +Zee. Had he succeeded, he might have turned Maurice's position. But the +works in that direction had been entrusted to an experienced campaigner, +Warmelo, sheriff of Zalant, who received the impetuous Spinola and his +lieutenant, Count Solre, so warmly, that they reeled backwards at last, +after repeated assaults and great loss of men, and never more attempted +to cross the Yssel. + +Obviously, the campaign had failed. Utrecht and Holland were as far out +of the Catholic general's reach as the stars in the sky, but at least, +with his large armies, he could earn a few trophies, barren or +productive, as it might prove, before winter, uniting with the deluge, +should drive him from the field. + +On the 3rd August, he laid siege to Groll (or Groenlo), a fortified town +of secondary importance in the country of Zutphen, and, squandering his +men with much recklessness, in his determination not to be baffled, +reduced the place in eleven days. Here he paused for a breathing spell, +and then, renouncing all his schemes upon the inner defences of the +republic, withdrew once more to the Rhine and laid siege to Rheinberg. + +This frontier place had been tossed to and fro so often between the +contending parties in the perpetual warfare, that its inhabitants must +have learned to consider themselves rather as a convenient circulating +medium for military operations than as burghers who had any part in the +ordinary business of life. It had old-fashioned defences of stones +which, during the recent occupation by the States, had been much +improved, and had been strengthened with earthworks. + +Before it was besieged, Maurice sent his brother Frederic Henry, with +some picked companies, into the place, so that the garrison amounted to +three thousand effective men. + +The Prince de Soubise, brother of the Duc de Rohan, and other French +volunteers of quality, also threw themselves into the place, in order to +take lessons in the latest methods of attack and defence. It was now +admitted that no more accomplished pupil of the stadholder in the +beleaguering art had appeared in Europe than his present formidable +adversary. On this occasion, however, there was no great display of +science. Maurice obstinately refused to move to the relief of the place, +despite all the efforts of a deputation of the States-General who visited +his camp in September, urging him strenuously to take the chances of a +stricken field. + +Nothing could induce the stadholder, who held an observing position at +Wesel, with his back against the precious watery quadrilateral, to risk +the defence of those most vital lines of the Yssel and the Waal. While +attempting to save Rheinberg, he felt it possible that he might lose +Nymegen, or even Utrecht. The swift but wily Genoese was not to be +trifled with or lost sight of an instant. The road to Holland might +still be opened, and the destiny of the republic might hang on the +consequences of a single false move. That destiny, under God, was in his +hands alone, and no chance of winning laurels, even from his greatest +rival's head, could induce him to shrink from the path of duty, however +obscure it might seem. There were a few brilliant assaults and sorties, +as in all sieges, the French volunteers especially distinguishing +themselves; but the place fell at the end of forty days. The garrison +marched out with the honours of war. In the modern practice, armies were +rarely captured in strongholds, nor were the defenders, together with the +population, butchered. + +The loss, after a six weeks' siege, of Rheinberg, which six years before, +with far inferior fortifications, had held out a much longer time against +the States, was felt as a bitter disappointment throughout the republic. +Frederic Henry, on leaving the place, made a feeble and unsuccessful +demonstration against Yenlo, by which the general dissatisfaction was +not diminished. Soon afterwards, the war became more languid than ever. +News arrived of a great crisis on the Genoa exchange. A multitude of +merchants, involved in pecuniary transactions with Spinola, fell with +one tremendous crash. The funds of the Catholic commander-in-chief were +already exhausted, his acceptances could no longer be negotiated. + +His credit was becoming almost as bad as the king's own. The inevitable +consequence of the want of cash and credit followed. Mutiny, for the +first time in Spinola's administration, raised its head once more, and +stalked about defiant. Six hundred veterans marched to Breda, and +offered their services to Justinus of Nassau. The proposal was accepted. +Other bands, established their quarters in different places, chose their +Elettos and lesser officers, and enacted the scenes which have been so +often depicted in these pages. The splendid army of Spinola melted like +April snow. By the last week of October there hardly seemed a Catholic +army in the field. The commander-in-chief had scattered such companies +as could still be relied upon in the villages of the friendly arch- +episcopate of Cologne, and had obtained, not by murders and blackmail-- +according to the recent practice of the Admiral of Arragon, at whose grim +name the whole country-side still shuddered--but from the friendship of +the leading inhabitants and by honest loans, a sufficient sum to put +bread into the mouths of the troops still remaining faithful to him. + +The opportunity had at last arrived for the stadholder to strike a blow +before the season closed. Bankruptcy and mutiny had reduced his enemy to +impotence in the very season of his greatest probable success. On the +24th October Maurice came before Lochem, which he recaptured in five +days. Next in the order of Spinola's victories was Groll, which the +stadholder at once besieged. He had almost fifteen thousand infantry and +three thousand horse. A career of brief triumph before winter should +close in upon those damping fields, seemed now assured. But the rain, +which during nearly the whole campaign had been his potent ally, had of +late been playing him false. The swollen Yssel, during a brief period of +dry weather, had sunk so low in certain shallows as not to be navigable +for his transports, and after his trains of artillery and munitions had +been dragged wearily overland as far as Groll, the deluge had returned in +such force, that physical necessity as well as considerations of humanity +compelled him to defer his entrenching operations until the weather +should moderate. As there seemed no further danger to be apprehended +from the broken, mutinous, and dispersed forces of the enemy, the siege +operations were conducted in a leisurely manner. What was the +astonishment, therefore, among the soldiers, when a rumour flew about the +camp in the early days of November that the indomitable Spinola was again +advancing upon them! It was perfectly true. With extraordinary +perseverance he had gathered up six or seven thousand infantry and twelve +companies of horse--all the remnants of the splendid armies with which he +had taken the field at midsummer--and was now marching to the relief of +Groll, besieged as it was by a force at least doubly as numerous as his +own. It was represented to the stadholder, however, that an impassable +morass lay between him and the enemy, and that there would therefore be +time enough to complete his entrenchments before Spinola could put his +foolhardy attempt into execution. But the Catholic general, marching +faster than rumour itself, had crossed the impracticable swamp almost +before a spadeful of earth had been turned in the republican camp. His +advance was in sight even while the incredulous were sneering at the +absurdity of his supposed project. Informed by scouts of the weakest +point in the stadholder's extended lines, Spinola was directing himself +thither with beautiful precision. Maurice hastily contracted both his +wings, and concentrated himself in the village of Lebel. At last the +moment had come for a decisive struggle. There could be little doubt of +the result. All the advantage was with the republican army. The +Catholics had arrived in front of the enemy fatigued by forced marches +through quagmires, in horrible weather, over roads deemed impassable. +The States' troops were fresh, posted on ground of their own choosing, +and partially entrenched. To the astonishment, even to the horror of the +most eager portion of the army, the stadholder deliberately, and despite +the groans of his soldiers, refused the combat, and gave immediate orders +for raising the siege and abandoning the field. + +On the 12th of November he broke up his camp and withdrew to a village +called Zelem. On the same day the marquis, having relieved the city, +without paying the expected price, retired in another direction, and +established what was left of his army in the province of Munster. The +campaign was closed. And thus the great war which had run its stormy +course for nearly forty years, dribbled out of existence, sinking away +that rainy November in the dismal fens of Zutphen. The long struggle for +independence had come, almost unperceived, to an end. + +Peace had not arrived, but the work of the armies was over for many a +long year. Freedom and independence were secured. A deed or two, never +to be forgotten by Netherland hearts, was yet to be done on the ocean, +before the long and intricate negotiations for peace should begin, and +the weary people permit themselves to rejoice; but the prize was already +won. + +Meantime, the conduct of Prince Maurice in these last days of the +campaign was the subject of biting censure by friend and foe. The +military fame of Spinola throughout Europe grew apace; and the fame of +his great rival seemed to shrink in the same proportion. + +Henry of France was especially indignant at what he considered the +shortcomings of the republic and of its chief. Already, before the close +of the summer, the agent Aerssens had written from Paris that his Majesty +was very much displeased with Spinola's prosperity, ascribing it to the +want of good councils on the part of the States' Government that so fine +an army should lie idle so long, without making an attempt to relieve the +beleaguered places, so that Spinola felt assured of taking anything as +soon as he made his appearance. "Your Mightinesses cannot believe," +continued the agent, "what a trophy is made by the Spanish ministers out +of these little exploits, and they have so much address at this court, +that if such things continue they may produce still greater results." + +In December he wrote that the king was so malcontent concerning the siege +of Groll as to make it impossible to answer him with arguments, that he +openly expressed regret at not having employed the money lent to the +States upon strengthening his own frontiers, so distrustful was he of +their capacity for managing affairs, and that he mentioned with disgust +statements received from his ambassador at Brussels and from the Duc de +Rohan, to the effect that Spinola had between five and six thousand men +only at the relief of Groll, against twelve thousand in the stadholder's +army. + +The motives of the deeds and the omissions of the prince at this supreme +moment must be pondered with great caution. The States-General had +doubtless been inclined for vigorous movements, and Olden-Barneveld, with +some of his colleagues, had visited the camp late in September to urge +the relief of Rheinberg. Maurice was in daily correspondence with the +Government, and regularly demanded their advice, by which, on many former +occasions, he had bound himself, even when it was in conflict with his +own better judgment. + +But throughout this campaign, the responsibility was entirely, almost +ostentatiously, thrown by the States-General upon their commander-in- +chief, and, as already indicated, their preparations in the spring and +early summer had been entirely inadequate. Should he lose the army with +which he had so quietly but completely checked Spinola in all his really +important moves during the summer and autumn, he might despair of putting +another very soon into the field. That his force in that November week +before Groll was numerically far superior to the enemy is certain, but he +had lost confidence in his cavalry since their bad behaviour at Mulheim +the previous year, and a very large proportion of his infantry was on the +sick-list at the moment of Spinola's approach. "Lest the continual bad +weather should entirely consume the army," he said, "we are resolved, +within a day or two after we have removed the sick who are here in great +numbers, to break up, unless the enemy should give us occasion to make +some attempt upon him." + +Maurice was the servant of a small republic, contending single-handed +against an empire still considered the most formidable power in the +world. His cue was not necessarily to fight on all occasions; for delay +often fights better than an army against a foreign invader. When a +battle and a victory were absolutely necessary we have seen the +magnificent calmness which at Nieuport secured triumph under the shadow +of death. Had he accepted Spinola's challenge in November, he would +probably have defeated him and have taken Groll. He might not, however, +have annihilated his adversary, who, even when worsted, would perhaps +have effected his escape. The city was of small value to the republic. +The principal advantage of a victory would have been increased military +renown for himself. Viewed in this light, there is something almost +sublime in the phlegmatic and perfectly republican composure with which +he disdained laurels, easily enough, as it would stem, to have been +acquired, and denied his soldiers the bloodshed and the suffering for +which they were clamouring. + +And yet, after thoroughly weighing and measuring all these circumstances, +it is natural to regret that he did not on that occasion rise upon +Spinola and smite him to the earth. The Lord had delivered him into +his hands. The chances of his own defeat were small, its probable +consequences, should it occur, insignificant. It is hardly conceivable +that he could have been so completely overthrown as to allow the Catholic +commander to do in November what he had tried all summer in vain to +accomplish, cross the Yssel and the Waal, with the dregs of his army, and +invade Holland and Zeeland in midwinter, over the prostrate bodies of +Maurice and all his forces. On the other hand, that the stadholder would +have sent the enemy reeling back to his bogs, with hardly the semblance +of an army at his heels, was almost certain: The effect of such a blow +upon impending negotiations, and especially upon the impressible +imagination of Henry and the pedantic shrewdness of James, would have +been very valuable. It was not surprising that the successful soldier +who sat on the French throne, and who had been ever ready to wager life +and crown on the results of a stricken field, should be loud in his +expressions of disapprobation and disgust. Yet no man knew better than +the sagacious Gascon that fighting to win a crown, and to save a +republic, were two essentially different things. + +In the early summer of this year Admiral Haultain, whom we lately saw +occupied with tossing Sarmiento's Spanish legion into the sea off the +harbour of Dover, had been despatched to the Spanish coast on a still +more important errand. The outward bound Portuguese merchantmen and the +home returning fleets from America, which had been absent nearly two +years, might be fallen in with at any moment, in the latitude of 36-38 +deg. The admiral, having received orders, therefore, to cruise carefully +in those regions, sailed for the shores of Portugal with a squadron of +twenty-four war-ships. His expedition was not very successful. He +picked up a prize or two here and there, and his presence on the coast +prevented the merchant-fleet from sailing out of Lisbon for the East +Indies, the merchandise already on board being disembarked and the voyage +postponed to a more favourable opportunity. + +He saw nothing, however, of the long-expected ships from the golden West +Indies--as Mexico, Peru, and Brazil were then indiscriminately called-- +and after parting company with six of his own ships, which were dispersed +and damaged in a gale, and himself suffering from a dearth of provisions, +he was forced to return without much gain or glory. + +In the month of September he was once more despatched on the same +service. He had nineteen war-galleots of the first class, and two +yachts, well equipped and manned. Vice-admiral of the fleet was Regnier +Klaaszoon (or Nicholson), of Amsterdam, a name which should always be +held fresh in remembrance, not only by mariners and Netherlanders, but +by all men whose pulses can beat in sympathy with practical heroism. + +The admiral coasted deliberately along the shores of Spain and Portugal. +It seemed impossible that the golden fleets, which, as it was +ascertained, had not yet arrived, could now escape the vigilance of the +Dutch cruisers. An occasional merchant-ship or small war-galley was met +from time to time and chased into the harbours. A landing was here and +there effected and a few villages burned. But these were not the prizes +nor the trophies sought. On the 19th September a storm off the +Portuguese coast scattered the fleet; six of the best and largest ships +being permanently lost sight of and separated from the rest. With the +other thirteen Haultain now cruised off Cape St. Vincent directly across +the ordinary path of the homeward-bound treasure ships. + +On the 6th October many sails were descried in the distance, and the +longing eyes of the Hollanders were at last gratified with what was +supposed to be the great West India commercial squadrons. The delusion +was brief. Instead of innocent and richly Freighted merchantmen, the new +comers soon proved to be the war-ships of Admiral Dan Luis de Fazardo, +eighteen great galleons and eight galleys strong, besides lesser vessels +--the most formidable fleet that for years had floated in those waters. +There had been time for Admiral Haultain to hold but a very brief +consultation with his chief officers. As it was manifest that the +Hollanders were enormously over-matched, it was decided to manoeuvre as +well as possible for the weather-gage, and then to fight or to effect an +escape, as might seem most expedient after fairly testing the strength of +the enemy. It was blowing a fresh gale, and the Netherland fleet had as +much as they could stagger with under close-reefed topsails. The war- +galleys, fit only for fair weather, were soon forced to take refuge under +the lee of the land, but the eighteen galleons, the most powerful vessels +then known to naval architecture, were bearing directly down, full before +the wind, upon the Dutch fleet. + +It must be admitted that Admiral Haultain hardly displayed as much energy +now as he had done in the Straits of Dover against the unarmed transports +the year before. His ships were soon scattered, right and left, and the +manoeuvres for the weather-gage resolved themselves into a general +scramble for escape. Vice-Admiral Klaaszoon alone held firm, and met the +onset of the first comers of the Spanish fleet. A fierce combat, yard- +arm to yard-arm, ensued. Klaaszoon's mainmast went by the board, but +Haultain, with five ships, all that could be rallied, coming to the +rescue, the assailants for a moment withdrew. Five Dutch vessels of +moderate strength were now in action against the eighteen great galleons +of Fazardo. Certainly it was not an even game, but it might have been +played with more heart and better skill. There was but a half-hour of +daylight left when Klaaszoon's crippled ship was again attacked. This +time there was no attempt to offer him assistance; the rest of the Dutch +fleet crowding all the sails their masts would bear, and using all the +devices of their superior seamanship, not to harass the enemy, but to +steal as swiftly as possible out of his way. Honestly confessing that +they dared not come into the fight, they bore away for dear life in every +direction. Night came on, and the last that the fugitives knew of the +events off Cape St. Vincent was that stout Regnier Klaaszoon had been +seen at sunset in the midst of the Spanish fleet; the sound of his +broadsides saluting their ears as they escaped. + +Left to himself, alone in a dismasted ship, the vice-admiral never +thought of yielding to the eighteen Spanish galleons. To the repeated +summons of Don Luis Fazardo that he should surrender he remained +obstinately deaf. Knowing that it was impossible for him to escape, and +fearing that he might blow up his vessel rather than surrender, the enemy +made no attempt to board. Spanish chivalry was hardly more conspicuous +on this occasion than Dutch valour, as illustrated by Admiral Haultain. +Two whole days and nights Klaaszoon drifted about in his crippled ship, +exchanging broadsides with his antagonists, and with his colours flying +on the stump of his mast. The fact would seem incredible, were it not +attested by perfectly trustworthy contemporary accounts. At last his +hour seemed to have come. His ship was sinking; a final demand for +surrender, with promise of quarter, was made. Out of his whole crew but +sixty remained alive; many of them badly wounded. + +He quietly announced to his officers and men his decision never to +surrender, in which all concurred. They knelt together upon the deck, +and the admiral made a prayer, which all fervently joined. With his own +hand Klaaszoon then lighted the powder magazine, and the ship was blown +into the air. Two sailors, all that were left alive, were picked out of +the sea by the Spaniards and brought on board one of the vessels of the +fleet. Desperately mutilated, those grim Dutchmen lived a few minutes to +tell the tale, and then died defiant on the enemy's deck. + +Yet it was thought that a republic, which could produce men like Regnier +Klaaszoon and his comrades, could be subjected again to despotism, after +a war for independence of forty years, and that such sailors could be +forbidden to sail the eastern and western seas. No epigrammatic phrase +has been preserved of this simple Regnier, the son of Nicholas. He only +did what is sometimes talked about in phraseology more or less melo- +dramatic, and did it in a very plain way. + +Such extreme deeds may have become so much less necessary in the world, +that to threaten them is apt to seem fantastic. Exactly at that crisis +of history, however, and especially in view of the Dutch admiral +commanding having refused a combat of one to three, the speechless self- +devotion of the vice-admiral was better than three years of eloquent +arguments and a ship-load of diplomatic correspondence, such as were +already impending over the world. + +Admiral Haultain returned with all his ships uninjured--the six missing +vessels having found their way at last safely back to the squadron--but +with a very great crack to his reputation. It was urged very justly, +both by the States-General and the public, that if one ship under a +determined commander could fight the whole Spanish fleet two days and +nights, and sink unconquered at last, ten ships more might have put the +enemy to flight, or at least have saved the vice-admiral from +destruction. + +But very few days after the incidents just described, the merchant fleet +which, instead of Don Luis Fazardo's war galleons, Admiral Haultain had +so longed to encounter, arrived safely at San Lucar. It was the most +splendid treasure-fleet that had ever entered a Spanish port, and the +Dutch admiral's heart might well have danced for joy, had he chanced to +come a little later on the track. There were fifty ships, under charge +of General Alonzo de Ochares Galindo and General Ganevaye. They had on +board, according to the registers, 1,914,176 dollars worth of bullion for +the king, and 6,086,617 dollars for merchants, or 8,000,000 dollars in +all, besides rich cargoes of silk, cochineal, sarsaparilla, indigo, +Brazil wood, and hides; the result of two years of pressure upon +Peruvians, Mexicans, and Brazilians. Never had Spanish finances been +at so low an ebb. Never was so splendid an income more desirable. The +king's share of the cargo was enough to pay half the arrearages due to +his mutinous troops; and for such housekeeping this was to be in funds. + +There were no further exploits on land or sea that year. There were, +however, deaths of three personages often mentioned in this history. The +learned Justus Lipsius died in Louvain, a good editor and scholar, and as +sincere a Catholic at last as he had been alternately a bigoted Calvinist +and an earnest Lutheran. His reputation was thought to have suffered by +his later publications, but the world at large was occupied with sterner +stuff than those classic productions, and left the final decision to +posterity. + +A man of a different mould, the turbulent, high-born, hard fighting, +hard-drinking Hohenlo, died also this year, brother-in-law and military +guardian, subsequently rival and political and personal antagonist, of +Prince Maurice. His daring deeds and his troublesome and mischievous +adventures have been recounted in these pages. His name will be always +prominent in the history of the republic, to which he often rendered +splendid service, but he died, as he had lived, a glutton and a +melancholy sot. + +The third remarkable personage who passed away was one whose name will be +remembered as long as the Netherlands have a history, old Count John of +Nassau, only surviving brother of William the Silent. He had been ever +prominent and deeply interested in the great religious and political +movements of upper and lower Germany, and his services in the foundation +of the Dutch commonwealth were signal, and ever generously acknowledged. +At one period, as will be recollected, he was stadholder of Gelderland, +and he was ever ready with sword, purse, and counsel to aid in the great +struggle for independence. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + + General desire for peace--Political aspect of Europe--Designs of the + kings of England, France, and Spain concerning the United Provinces + --Matrimonial schemes of Spain--Conference between the French + ministers and the Dutch envoy--Confidential revelations--Henry's + desire to annex the Netherlands to France--Discussion of the + subject--Artifice of Barneveld--Impracticability of a compromise + between the Provinces and Spain--Formation of a West India Company-- + Secret mission from the archdukes to the Hague--Reply of the States- + General--Return of the archdukes' envoy--Arrangement of an eight + months' armistice. + +The general tendency towards a pacification in Europe at the close of the +year could hardly be mistaken. The languor of fatigue, rather than any +sincere desire for peace seemed to make negotiations possible. It was +not likely that great truths would yet be admitted, or that ruling +individuals or classes would recognise the rise of a new system out of +the rapidly dissolving elements of the one which had done its work. War +was becoming more and more expensive, while commerce, as the world slowly +expanded itself, and manifested its unsuspected resources, was becoming +more and more lucrative. It was not, perhaps, that men hated each other +less, but that they had for a time exhausted their power and their love +for slaughter. Meanwhile new devices for injuring humanity and retarding +its civilization were revealing themselves out of that very intellectual +progress which ennobled the new era. Although war might still be +regarded as the normal condition of the civilized world, it was possible +for the chosen ones to whom the earth and its fulness belonged, to +inflict general damage otherwise than by perpetual battles. + +In the east, west, north, and south of Europe peace was thrusting itself +as it were uncalled for and unexpected upon the general attention. +Charles and his nephew Sigismund, and the false Demetrius, and the +intrigues of the Jesuits, had provided too much work for Sweden, Poland, +and Russia to leave those countries much leisure for mingling in the more +important business of Europe at this epoch, nor have their affairs much +direct connection with this history. Venice, in its quarrels with the +Jesuits, had brought Spain, France, and all Italy into a dead lock, out +of which a compromise had been made not more satisfactory to the various +parties than compromises are apt to prove. The Dutch republic still +maintained the position which it had assumed, a quarter of a century +before, of actual and legal independence; while Spain, on the other hand, +still striving after universal monarchy, had not, of course, abated one +jot of its pretensions to absolute dominion over its rebellious subjects +in the Netherlands. + +The holy Roman and the sublime Ottoman empires had also drifted into +temporary peace; the exploits of the Persians and other Asiatic movements +having given Ahmed more work than was convenient on his eastern frontier, +while Stephen Botshkay had so completely got the better of Rudolph in +Transylvania as to make repose desirable. So there was a treaty between +the great Turk and the great Christian on the basis of what each +possessed; Stephen Botshkay was recognized as prince of Transylvania with +part of Hungary, and, when taken off soon afterwards by family poison, he +recommended on his death-bed the closest union between Hungary and +Transylvania, as well as peace with the emperor, so long as it might be +compatible with the rights of the Magyars. + +France and England, while suspecting each other, dreading each other, and +very sincerely hating each other, were drawn into intimate relations by +their common detestation of Spain, with which power both had now formal +treaties of alliance and friendship. This was the result of their mighty +projects for humbling the house of Austria and annihilating its power. +England hated the Netherlands because of the injuries she had done them, +the many benefits she had conferred upon them, and more than all on +account of the daily increasing commercial rivalry between the two most +progressive states in Christendom, the two powers which, comparatively +weak as they were in territory, capital, and population, were most in +harmony with the spirit of the age. + +The Government of England was more hostile than its people to the United +Provinces. James never spoke of the Netherlanders but as upstarts and +rebels, whose success ought to be looked upon with horror by the Lord's +anointed everywhere. He could not shut his eyes to the fact that, with +the republic destroyed, and a Spanish sacerdotal despotism established +in Holland and Zeeland, with Jesuit seminaries in full bloom in Amsterdam +and the Hague, his own rebels in Ireland might prove more troublesome +than ever, and gunpowder plots in London become common occurrences. + +The Earl of Tyrone at that very moment was receiving enthusiastic +hospitality at the archduke's court, much to the disgust of the +Presbyterian sovereign of the United Kingdom, who nevertheless, despite +his cherished theology, was possessed with an unconquerable craving for a +close family alliance with the most Catholic king. His ministers were +inclined to Spain, and the British Government was at heart favourable to +some kind of arrangement by which the Netherlands might be reduced to the +authority of their former master, in case no scheme could be carried +into, effect for acquiring a virtual sovereignty over those provinces by +the British crown. Moreover, and most of all, the King of France being +supposed to contemplate the annexation of the Netherlands to his own +dominions, the jealousy excited by such ambition made it even possible +for James's Government to tolerate the idea of Dutch independence. Thus +the court and cabinet of England were as full of contradictory hopes and +projects as a madman's brain. + +The rivalry between the courts of England and France for the Spanish +marriages and by means of them to obtain ultimately the sovereignty +of all the Netherlands, was the key to most of the diplomacy and +interpalatial intrigue of the several first years of the century. The +negotiations of Cornwallis at Madrid were almost simultaneous with the +schemes of Villeroy and Rosny at Paris. + +A portion of the English Government, so soon as its treaty with Spain had +been signed, seemed secretly determined to do as much injury to the +republic as might lie in its power. While at heart convinced that the +preservation of the Netherlands was necessary for England's safety, it +was difficult for James and the greater part of his advisers to overcome +their repugnance to the republic, and their jealousy of the great +commercial successes which the republic had achieved. + +It was perfectly plain that a continuance of the war by England and the +Netherlands united would have very soon ended in the entire humiliation +of Spain. Now that peace had been made, however, it was thought possible +that England might make a bargain with her late enemy for destroying the +existence and dividing the territory of her late ally. Accordingly the +Spanish cabinet lost no time in propounding, under seal of secrecy, and +with even more mystery than was usually employed by the most Catholic +court, a scheme for the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Infanta; +the bridal pair, when arrived at proper age, to be endowed with all the +Netherlands, both obedient and republican, in full sovereignty. One +thing was necessary to the carrying out of this excellent plot, the +reduction of the republic into her ancient subjection to Spain before her +territory could be transferred to the future Princess of Wales. + +It was proposed by the Spanish Government that England should undertake +this part of the job, and that King James for such service should receive +an annual pension of one million ducats a year. It was also stipulated +that certain cities in the republican dominions should be pledged to him +as security for the regular payment of that stipend. Sir Charles +Cornwallis, English ambassador in Spain, lent a most favourable ear to +these proposals, and James eagerly sanctioned them so soon as they were +secretly imparted to that monarch. "The king here," said Cornwallis, +"hath need of the King of Great Britain's arm. Our king . . . hath +good occasion to use the help of the King of Spain's purse. The +assistance of England to help that nation out of that quicksand of the +Low Countries, where so long they have struggled to tread themselves out, +and by proof find that deeper in, will be a sovereign medicine to the +malady of this estate. The addition of a million of ducats to the +revenue of our sovereign will be a good help to his estate." + +The Spanish Government had even the effrontery to offer the English envoy +a reward of two hundred thousand crowns if the negotiations should prove +successful. Care was to be taken however that Great Britain, by this +accession of power, both present and in prospect, should not grow too +great, Spain reserving to herself certain strongholds and maritime +positions in the Netherlands, for the proper security of her European and +Indian commerce. + +It was thought high time for the bloodshed to cease in the provinces; and +as England, by making a treaty of peace with Spain when Spain was at the +last gasp, had come to the rescue of that power, it was logical that she +should complete the friendly work by compelling the rebellious provinces +to awake from their dream of independence. If the statesmen of Holland +believed in the possibility of that independence, the statesmen of +England knew better. If the turbulent little republic was not at +last convinced that it had no right to create so much turmoil and +inconvenience for its neighbours and for Christendom in general in order +to maintain its existence, it should be taught its duty by the sovereigns +of Spain and Britain. + +It was observed, however, that the more greedily James listened day after +day to the marriage propositions, the colder became the Spanish cabinet +in regard to that point, the more disposed to postpone those nuptials "to +God's providence and future event." + +The high hopes founded on these secret stratagems were suddenly dashed to +the earth before the end of the year; the explosion of the Gunpowder Plot +blowing the castles in Spain into the air. + +Of course the Spanish politicians vied with each other in expressions of +horror and indignation at the Plot, and the wicked contrivers thereof, +and suggested to Cornwallis that the King of France was probably at the +bottom of it. + +They declined to give up Owen and Baldwin, however, and meantime the +negotiations for the marriage of the Prince of Wales and the Infanta, the +million ducats of yearly pension for the needy James, and the reduction +of the Dutch republic to its ancient slavery to Spain "under the eye and +arm of Britain," faded indefinitely away. Salisbury indeed was always +too wise to believe in the possibility of the schemes with which James +and some of his other counsellors had been so much infatuated. + +It was almost dramatic that these plottings between James and the +Catholic king against the life of the republic should have been signally +and almost simultaneously avenged by the conspiracy of Guido Fawkes. + +On the other hand, Rosny had imparted to the Dutch envoy the schemes of +Henry and his ministers in regard to the same object, early in 1605. +"Spain is more tired of the war," said he to Aerssens, under seal of +absolute secrecy, "than you are yourselves. She is now negotiating for a +marriage between the Dauphin and the Infanta, and means to give her the +United Provinces, as at present constituted, for a marriage portion. +Villeroy and Sillery believe the plan feasible, but demand all the +Netherlands together. As for me I shall have faith in it if they send +their Infanta hither at once, or make a regular cession of the territory. +Do you believe that my lords the States will agree to the proposition?" + +It would be certainly difficult to match in history the effrontery of +such a question. The republican envoy was asked point blank whether his +country would resign her dearly gained liberty and give herself as a +dowry for Philip the Second's three-years-old grand daughter. Aerssens +replied cautiously that he had never heard the matter discussed in the +provinces. It had always been thought that the French king had no +pretensions to their territory, but had ever advocated their +independence. He hinted that such a proposition was a mere apple of +discord thrown between two good allies by Spain. Rosny admitted the +envoy's arguments, and said that his Majesty would do nothing without the +consent of the Dutch Government, and that he should probably be himself +sent ere long to the Hague to see if he could not obtain some little +recognition from the States. + +Thus it was confidentially revealed to the agent of the republic that her +candid adviser and ally was hard at work, in conjunction with her ancient +enemy, to destroy her independence, annex her territory, and appropriate +to himself all the fruits of her great war, her commercial achievements, +and her vast sacrifices; while, as we have just seen, English politicians +at the same moment were attempting to accomplish the same feat for +England's supposed advantage. All that was wished by Henry to begin with +was a little, a very little, recognition of his sovereignty. "You will +do well to reflect on this delicate matter in time," wrote Aerssens to +the Advocate; "I know that the King of Spain is inclined to make this +offer, and that they are mad enough in this place to believe the thing +feasible. For me, I reject all such talk until they have got the +Infanta--that is to say, until the Greek Kalends. I am ashamed that they +should believe it here, and fearful that there is still more evil +concealed than I know of." + +Towards the close of the year 1606 the French Government became still +more eager to carry out their plans of alliance and absorption. +Aerssens, who loved a political intrigue better than became a republican +envoy, was perfectly aware of Henry's schemes. He was disposed to humour +them, in order to make sure of his military assistance, but with the +secret intention of seeing them frustrated by the determined opposition +of the States. + +The French ministers, by command of their sovereign, were disposed to +deal very plainly. They informed the Dutch diplomatist, with very little +circumlocution, that if the republic wished assistance from France she +was to pay a heavy price for it. Not a pound of flesh only, but the +whole body corporate, was to be surrendered if its destruction was to be +averted by French arms. + +"You know," said Sillery, "that princes in all their actions consider +their interests, and his Majesty has not so much affection for your +conservation as to induce him to resign his peaceful position. Tell me, +I pray you, what would you do for his Majesty in case anything should be +done for you? You were lately in Holland. Do you think that they would +give themselves to the king if he assisted them? Do you not believe that +Prince Maurice has designs on the sovereignty, and would prevent the +fulfilment of the king's hopes? What will you do for us in return for +our assistance?" + +Aerssens was somewhat perplexed, but he was cunning at fence. "We will +do all we can," said he, "for any change is more supportable than the +yoke of Spain." + +"What can you do then?" persisted Sillery. "Give us your opinion in +plain French, I beg of you, and lay aside all passion; for we have both +the same object--your preservation. Besides interest, his Majesty has +affection for you. Let him only see some advantage for himself to induce +to assist you more powerfully. Suppose you should give us what you have +and what you may acquire in Flanders with the promise to treat secretly +with us when the time comes. Could you do that?" + +The envoy replied that this would be tearing the commonwealth in pieces. +If places were given away, the jealousy of the English would be excited. +Certainly it would be no light matter to surrender Sluys, the fruit of +Maurice's skill and energy, the splendidly earned equivalent for the loss +of Ostend. "As to Sluys and other places in Flanders," said Aerssens, +"I don't know if towns comprised in our Union could be transferred or +pledged without their own consent and that of the States. Should such a +thing get wind we might be ruined. Nevertheless I will write to learn +what his Majesty may hope." + +"The people," returned Sillery, "need know nothing of this transfer; for +it might be made secretly by Prince Maurice, who could put the French +quietly into Sluys and other Flemish places. Meantime you had best make +a journey to Holland to arrange matters so that the deputies, coming +hither, may be amply instructed in regard to Sluys, and no time be lost. +His Majesty is determined to help you if you know how to help +yourselves." + +The two men then separated, Sillery enjoining it upon the envoy to see +the king next morning, "in order to explain to his Majesty, as he had +just been doing to himself, that this sovereignty could not be +transferred, without the consent of the whole people, nor the people +be consulted in secret." + +"It is necessary therefore to be armed," continued Henry's minister very +significantly, "before aspiring to the sovereignty." + +Thus there was a faint glimmer of appreciation at the French court of the +meaning of popular sovereignty. It did not occur to the minister that +the right of giving consent was to be respected. The little obstacle was +to be overcome by stratagem and by force. Prince Maurice was to put +French garrisons stealthily into Sluys and other towns conquered by the +republic in Flanders. Then the magnanimous ally was to rise at the right +moment and overcome all resistance by force of arms. The plot was a good +one. It is passing strange, however, that the character of the Nassaus +and of the Dutch nation should after the last fifty years have been still +so misunderstood. It seemed in France possible that Maurice would thus +defile his honour and the Netherlanders barter their liberty, by +accepting a new tyrant in place of the one so long ago deposed. + +"This is the marrow of our conference," said Aerssens to Barneveld, +reporting the interview, "and you may thus perceive whither are tending +the designs of his Majesty. It seems that they are aspiring here to the +sovereignty, and all my letters have asserted the contrary. If you will +examine a little more closely, however, you will find that there is no +contradiction. This acquisition would be desirable for France if it +could be made peacefully. As it can only be effected by war you may make +sure that it will not be attempted; for the great maxim and basis of this +kingdom is to preserve repose, and at the same time give such occupation +to the King of Spain that his means shall be consumed and his designs +frustrated. All this will cease if we make peace. + +"Thus in treating with the king we must observe two rules. The first is +that we can maintain ourselves no longer unless powerfully assisted, and +that, the people inclining to peace, we shall be obliged to obey the +people. Secondly, we must let no difficulty appear as to the desire +expressed by his Majesty to have the sovereignty of these provinces. +We ought to let him hope for it, but to make him understand that by +ordinary and legitimate means he cannot aspire to it. We will make him +think that we have an equal desire with himself, and we shall thus take +from those evil-disposed counsellors the power to injure us who are +always persuading him that he is only making us great for ourselves, and +thus giving us the power to injure him. In short, the king can hope +nothing from us overtly, and certainly nothing covertly. By explaining +to him that we require the authorization of the people, and by showing +ourselves prompt to grant his request, he will be the very first to +prevent us from taking any steps, in order that his repose may not be +disturbed. I know that France does not wish to go to war with Spain. +Let us then pretend that we wish to be under the dominion of France, and +that we will lead our people to that point if the king desires it, but +that it cannot be done secretly. Believe me, he will not wish it on such +conditions, while we shall gain much by this course. Would to God that +we could engage France in war with Spain. All the utility would be ours; +and the accidents of arms would so press them to Spain, Italy, and other +places, that they would have little leisure to think of us. Consider all +this and conceal it from Buzanval." + +Buzanval, it is well known, was the French envoy at the Hague, and it +must be confessed that these schemes and paltry falsehoods on the part of +the Dutch agent were as contemptible as any of the plots contrived every +day in Paris or Madrid. Such base coin as this was still circulating in +diplomacy as if fresh from the Machiavellian mint; but the republican +agent ought to have known that his Government had long ago refused to +pass it current. + +Soon afterwards this grave matter was discussed at the Hague between +Henry's envoy and Barneveld. It was a very delicate negotiation. The +Advocate wished to secure the assistance of a powerful but most +unscrupulous ally, and at the same time to conceal his real intention to +frustrate the French design upon the independence of the republic. + +Disingenuous and artful as his conduct unquestionably was, it may at +least be questioned whether in that age of deceit any other great +statesman would have been more frank. If the comparatively weak +commonwealth, by openly and scornfully refusing all the insidious and +selfish propositions of the French king, had incurred that monarch's +wrath, it would have taken a noble position no doubt, but it would have +perhaps been utterly destroyed. The Advocate considered himself +justified in using the artifices of war against a subtle and dangerous +enemy who wore the mask of a friend. When the price demanded for +military protection was the voluntary abandonment of national +independence in favour of the protector, the man who guided the affairs +of the Netherlands did not hesitate to humour and to outwit the king who +strove to subjugate the republic. At the same time--however one may be +disposed to censure the dissimulation from the standing-ground of a lofty +morality--it should not be forgotten that Barneveld never hinted at any +possible connivance on his part with an infraction of the laws. Whatever +might be the result of time, of persuasion, of policy, he never led +Henry or his ministers to believe that the people of the Netherlands +could be deprived of their liberty by force or fraud. He was willing to +play a political game, in which he felt himself inferior to no man, +trusting to his own skill and coolness for success. If the tyrant were +defeated, and at the same time made to serve the cause of the free +commonwealth, the Advocate believed this to be fair play. + +Knowing himself surrounded by gamblers and tricksters, he probably did +not consider himself to be cheating because he did not play his cards +upon the table. + +So when Buzanval informed him early in October that the possession of +Sluys and other Flemish towns would not be sufficient for the king, but +that they must offer the sovereignty on even more favourable conditions +than had once been proposed to Henry III., the Advocate told him roundly +that my lords the States were not likely to give the provinces to any +man, but meant to maintain their freedom and their rights. The envoy +replied that his Majesty would be able to gain more favour perhaps with +the common people of the country. + +When it is remembered that the States had offered the sovereignty of the +provinces to Henry III., abjectly and as it were without any conditions +at all, the effrontery of Henry IV. may be measured, who claimed the same +sovereignty, after twenty years of republican independence, upon even +more favourable terms than those which his predecessor had rejected. + +Barneveld, in order to mitigate the effect of his plump refusal of the +royal overtures, explained to Buzanval, what Buzanval very well knew, +that the times had now changed; that in those days, immediately after the +death of William the Silent, despair and disorder had reigned in the +provinces, "while that dainty delicacy--liberty--had not so long been +sweetly tickling the appetites of the people; that the English had not +then acquired their present footing in the country, nor the house of +Nassau the age, the credit, and authority to which it had subsequently +attained." + +He then intimated--and here began the deception, which certainly did not +deceive Buzanval--that if things were handled in the right way, there was +little doubt as to the king's reaching the end proposed, but that all +depended on good management. It was an error, he said, to suppose that +in one, two, or three months, eight provinces and their principal +members, to wit, forty good cities all enjoying liberty and equality, +could be induced to accept a foreign sovereign. + +Such language was very like irony, and probably not too subtle to escape +the fine perception of the French envoy. + +The first thing to be done, continued the Advocate, is to persuade the +provinces to aid the king with all their means to conquer the disunited +provinces--to dispose of the archdukes, in short, and to drive the +Spaniards from the soil--and then, little by little, to make it clear +that there could be no safety for the States except in reducing the whole +body of the Netherlands under the authority of the king. Let his Majesty +begin by conquering and annexing to his crown the provinces nearest him, +and he would then be able to persuade the others to a reasonable +arrangement. + +Whether the Advocate's general reply was really considered by Buzanval +as a grave sarcasm, politely veiled, may be a question. That envoy, +however, spoke to his Government of the matter as surrounded with +difficulties, but not wholly desperate. Barneveld was, he said, inclined +to doubt whether the archdukes would be able, before any negotiations +were begun, to comply with the demand which he had made upon them to have +a declaration in writing that the United Provinces were to be regarded as +a free people over whom they pretended to no authority. If so, the +French king would at once be informed of the fact. Meantime the envoy +expressed the safe opinion that, if Prince Maurice and the Advocate +together should take the matter of Henry's sovereignty in hand with zeal, +they might conduct the bark to the desired haven. Surely this was an +'if' with much virtue in it. And notwithstanding that he chose to +represent Barneveld as, rich, tired, at the end of his Latin, and willing +enough to drop his anchor in a snug harbour, in order to make his fortune +secure, it was obvious enough that Buzanval had small hope at heart of +seeing his master's purpose accomplished. + +As to Prince Maurice, the envoy did not even affect to believe him +capable of being made use of, strenuous as the efforts of the French +Government in that direction had been. "He has no private designs that +I can find out," said Buzanval, doing full justice to the straightforward +and sincere character of the prince. "He asks no change for himself or +for his country." The envoy added, as a matter of private opinion +however, that if an alteration were to be made in the constitution of +the provinces, Maurice would prefer that it should be made in favour +of France than of any other Government. + +He lost no opportunity, moreover, of impressing it upon his Government +that if the sovereignty were to be secured for France at all, it could +only be done by observing great caution, and by concealing their desire +to swallow the republic of which they were professing themselves the +friends. The jealousy of England was sure to be awakened if France +appeared too greedy at the beginning. On the other hand, that power +"might be the more easily rocked into a profound sleep if France did not +show its appetite at the very beginning of the banquet." That the policy +of France should be steadily but stealthily directed towards getting +possession of as many strong places as possible in the Netherlands had +long been his opinion. "Since we don't mean to go to war," said he a +year before to Villeroy, "let us at least follow the example of the +English, who have known how to draw a profit out of the necessities of +this state. Why should we not demand, or help ourselves to, a few good +cities. Sluys, for example, would be a security for us, and of great +advantage." + +Suspicion was rife on this subject at the court of Spain. Certainly +it would be less humiliating to the Catholic crown to permit the +independence of its rebellious subjects than to see them incorporated +into the realms of either France or England. It is not a very striking +indication of the capacity of great rulers to look far into the future +that both, France and England should now be hankering after the +sovereignty of those very provinces, the solemn offer of which by the +provinces themselves both France and England had peremptorily and almost +contemptuously refused. + +In Spain itself the war was growing very wearisome. Three hundred +thousand dollars a month could no longer be relied upon from the royal +exchequer, or from the American voyages, or from the kite-flying +operations of the merchant princes on the Genoa exchange. + +A great fleet, to be sure, had recently arrived, splendidly laden, from +the West Indies, as already stated. Pagan slaves, scourged to their +dreadful work, continued to supply to their Christian taskmasters the +hidden treasures of the New World in exchange for the blessings of the +Evangel as thus revealed; but these treasures could never fill the +perpetual sieve of the Netherland war, rapidly and conscientiously as +they were poured into it, year after year. + +The want of funds in the royal exchequer left the soldiers in Flanders +unpaid, and as an inevitable result mutiny admirably organized and calmly +defiant was again established throughout the obedient provinces. This +happened regularly once a year, so that it seemed almost as business-like +a proceeding for an Eletto to proclaim mutiny as for a sovereign to +declare martial law. Should the whole army mutiny at once, what might +become of the kingdom of Spain? + +Moreover, a very uneasy feeling was prevalent that, as formerly, the +Turks had crossed the Hellespont into Europe by means of a Genoese +alliance and Genoese galleys, so now the Moors were contemplating the +reconquest of Granada, and of their other ancient possessions in Spain, +with the aid of the Dutch republic and her powerful fleets.--[Grotius, +xv. 715] + +The Dutch cruisers watched so carefully on the track of the homeward- +bound argosies, that the traffic was becoming more dangerous than +lucrative, particularly since the public law established by Admiral +Fazardo, that it was competent for naval commanders to hang, drown, or +burn the crews of the enemy's merchantmen. + +The Portuguese were still more malcontent than the Spaniards. They had +gained little by the absorption of their kingdom by Spain, save +participation in the war against the republic, the result of which had +been to strip them almost entirely of the conquests of Vasco de Gama and +his successors, and to close to them the ports of the Old World and the +New. + +In the republic there was a party for peace, no doubt, but peace only +with independence. As for a return to their original subjection to Spain +they were unanimously ready to accept forty years more of warfare rather +than to dream of such a proposition. There were many who deliberately +preferred war to peace. Bitter experience had impressed very deeply on +the Netherlanders the great precept that faith would never be kept with +heretics. The present generation had therefore been taught from their +cradles to believe that the word peace in Spanish mouths simply meant the +Holy Inquisition. It was not unnatural, too, perhaps, that a people who +had never known what it was to be at peace might feel, in regard to that +blessing, much as the blind or the deaf towards colour or music; as +something useful and agreeable, no doubt, but with which they might the +more cheerfully dispense, as peculiar circumstances had always kept them +in positive ignorance of its nature. The instinct of commercial +greediness made the merchants of Holland and Zeeland, and especially +those of Amsterdam, dread the revival of Antwerp in case of peace, to the +imagined detriment of the great trading centres of the republic. It was +felt also to be certain that Spain, in case of negotiations, would lay +down as an indispensable preliminary the abstinence on the part of the +Netherlanders from all intercourse with the Indies, East or West; and +although such a prohibition would be received by those republicans with +perfect contempt, yet the mere discussion of the subject moved their +spleen. They had already driven the Portuguese out of a large portion of +the field in the east, and they were now preparing by means of the same +machinery to dispute the monopoly of the Spaniards in the west. To talk +of excluding such a people as this from intercourse with any portion of +the Old World or the New was the mumbling of dotage; yet nothing could be +more certain than that such would be the pretensions of Spain. + +As for the stadholder, his vocation was war, his greatness had been +derived from war, his genius had never turned itself to pacific pursuits. +Should a peace be negotiated, not only would his occupation be gone, but +he might even find himself hampered for means. It was probable that his +large salaries, as captain and admiral-general of the forces of the +republic, would be seriously curtailed, in case his services in the field +were no longer demanded, while such secret hopes as he might entertain of +acquiring that sovereign power which Barneveld had been inclined to +favour, were more likely to be fulfilled if the war should be continued. +At the same time, if sovereignty were to be his at all, he was distinctly +opposed to such limitations of his authority as were to have been +proposed by the States to his father. Rather than reign on those +conditions, he avowed that he would throw himself head foremost +from the great tower of Hague Castle. + +Moreover, the prince was smarting under the consciousness of having lost +military reputation, however undeservedly, in the latter campaigns, and +might reasonably hope to gain new glory in the immediate future. Thus, +while his great rival, Marquis Spinola, whose fame had grown to so +luxuriant a height in so brief a period, had many reasons to dread the +results of future campaigning, Maurice seemed to have personally much to +lose and nothing to hope for in peace. Spinola was over head and ears in +debt. In the past two years he had spent millions of florins out of his +own pocket. His magnificent fortune and boundless credit were seriously +compromised. He had found it an easier task to take Ostend and relieve +Grol than to bolster up the finances of Spain. + +His acceptances were becoming as much a drug upon the exchanges of +Antwerp, Genoa, or Augsburg, as those of the most Catholic king or their +Highnesses the archdukes. Ruin stared him in the face, notwithstanding +the deeds with which he had startled the world, and he was therefore +sincerely desirous of peace, provided, of course, that all those +advantages for which the war had been waged in vain could now be +secured by negotiation. + +There had been, since the arrival of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, +just forty years of fighting. Maurice and the war had been born in the +same year, and it would be difficult for him to comprehend that his whole +life's work had been a superfluous task, to be rubbed away now with a +sponge. Yet that Spain, on the entrance to negotiations, would demand +of the provinces submission to her authority, re-establishment of the +Catholic religion, abstinence from Oriental or American commerce, and the +toleration of Spanish soldiers over all the Netherlands, seemed +indubitable. + +It was equally unquestionable that the seven provinces would demand +recognition of their national independence by Spain, would refuse public +practice of the Roman religion within their domains, and would laugh to +scorn any proposed limitations to their participation in the world's +traffic. As to the presence of Spanish troops on their soil, that was, +of course, an inconceivable idea. + +Where, then, could even a loophole be found through which the possibility +of a compromise could be espied? The ideas of the contending parties +were as much opposed to each other as fire and snow. Nevertheless, the +great forces of the world seemed to have gradually settled into such an +equilibrium as to make the continuance of the war for the present +impossible. + +Accordingly, the peace-party in Brussels had cautiously put forth its +tentacles late in 1606, and again in the early days of the new year. +Walrave van Wittenhorst and Doctor Gevaerts had been allowed to come to +the Hague, ostensibly on private business, but with secret commission +from the archdukes to feel and report concerning the political +atmosphere. They found that it was a penal offence in the republic to +talk of peace or of truce. They nevertheless suspected that there might +be a more sympathetic layer beneath the very chill surface which they +everywhere encountered. Having intimated in the proper quarters that the +archdukes would be ready to receive or to appoint commissioners for peace +or armistice, if becoming propositions should be made, they were allowed +on the 10th of January, 1607, to make a communication to the States- +General. They indulged in the usual cheap commonplaces on the effusion +of blood, the calamities of war, and the blessings of peace, and assured +the States of the very benignant disposition of their Highnesses at +Brussels. + +The States-General, in their reply, seventeen days afterwards, remarking +that the archdukes persisted in their unfounded pretensions of authority +over them, took occasion to assure their Highnesses that they had no +chance to obtain such authority except by the sword. Whether they +were like to accomplish much in that way the history of the past might +sufficiently indicate, while on the other hand the States would always +claim the right, and never renounce the hope, of recovering those +provinces which had belonged to their free commonwealth since the +union of Utrecht, and which force and fraud had torn away. + +During twenty-five years that union had been confirmed as a free state by +solemn decrees, and many public acts and dealings with the mightiest +potentates of Europe, nor could any other answer now be made to the +archdukes than the one always given to his holy Roman Imperial Majesty, +and other princes, to wit, that no negotiations could be had with powers +making any pretensions in conflict with the solemn decrees and well- +maintained rights of the United Netherlands. + +It was in this year that two words became more frequent in the mouths of +men than they had ever been before; two words which as the ages rolled on +were destined to exercise a wider influence over the affairs of this +planet than was yet dreamed of by any thinker in Christendom. Those +words were America and Virginia. Certainly both words were known before, +although India was the more general term for these auriferous regions of +the west, which, more than a century long, had been open to European +adventure, while the land, baptized in honour of the throned Vestal, had +been already made familiar to European ears by the exploits of Raleigh. +But it was not till 1607 that Jamestown was founded, that Captain John +Smith's adventures with Powhattan, "emperor of Virginia," and his +daughter the Princess Pocahontas, became fashionable topics in England, +that the English attempts to sail up the Chickahominy to the Pacific +Ocean--as abortive as those of the Netherlanders to sail across the North +Pole to Cathay--were creating scientific discussion in Europe, and that +the first cargo of imaginary gold dust was exported from the James River. + +With the adventurous minds of England all aflame with enthusiasm for +those golden regions, with the thick-coming fancies for digging, washing, +refining the precious sands of Virginia rivers, it was certain that a +great rent was now to be made in the Borgian grant. It was inevitable +that the rivalry of the Netherlanders should be excited by the +achievements and the marvellous tales of Englishmen beyond the Atlantic, +and that they too should claim their share of traffic with that golden +and magnificent Unknown which was called America. The rivalry between +England and Holland, already so conspicuous in the spicy Archipelagos of +the east, was now to be extended over the silvery regions of the west. +The two leading commercial powers of the Old World were now to begin +their great struggle for supremacy in the western hemisphere. + +A charter for what was called a West India Company was accordingly +granted by the States-General. West India was understood to extend from +the French settlements in Newfoundland or Acadia, along the American +coast to the Straits of Magellan, and so around to the South Sea, +including the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, besides all of Africa lying +between the tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope. At least, within +those limits the West India Company was to have monopoly of trade, all +other Netherlanders being warned off the precincts. Nothing could be +more magnificent, nor more vague. + +The charter was for thirty-six years. The company was to maintain armies +and fleets, to build forts and cities, to carry on war, to make treaties +of peace and of commerce. It was a small peripatetic republic of +merchants and mariners, evolved out of the mother republic--which had at +last established its position among the powers of Christendom--and it was +to begin its career full grown and in full armour. + +The States-General were to furnish the company at starting with one +million of florins and with twenty ships of war. The company was to add +twenty other ships. The Government was to consist of four chambers of +directors. One-half the capital was to be contributed by the chamber of +Amsterdam, one-quarter by that of Zeeland, one-eighth respectively by the +chambers of the Meuse and of North Holland. The chambers of Amsterdam, +of Zeeland, of the Meuse, and of North Holland were to have respectively +thirty, eighteen, fifteen, and fifteen directors. Of these seventy- +eight, one-third were to be replaced every sixth year by others, while +from the whole number seventeen persons were to be elected as a permanent +board of managers. Dividends were to be made as soon as the earnings +amounted to ten per cent. on the capital. Maritime judges were to decide +upon prizes, the proceeds of which were not to be divided for six years, +in order that war might be self-sustaining. Afterwards, the treasury of +the United Provinces should receive one-tenth, Prince Maurice one- +thirtieth, and the merchant stockholders the remainder. Governors and +generals were to take the oath of fidelity to the States-General. The +merchandize of the company was to be perpetually free of taxation, so far +as regarded old duties, and exempt from war-taxes for the first twenty +years. + +Very violent and conflicting were the opinions expressed throughout the +republic in regard to this project. It was urged by those most in favour +of it that the chief sources of the greatness of Spain would be thus +transferred to the States-General; for there could be no doubt that the +Hollanders, unconquerable at sea, familiar with every ocean-path, and +whose hardy constitutions defied danger and privation and the extremes of +heat and cold, would easily supplant the more delicately organized +adventurers from Southern Europe, already enervated by the exhausting +climate of America. Moreover, it was idle for Spain to attempt the +defence of so vast a portion of the world. Every tribe over which she +had exercised sway would furnish as many allies for the Dutch company as +it numbered men; for to obey and to hate the tyrannical Spaniard were +one. The republic would acquire, in reality, the grandeur which with +Spain was but an empty boast, would have the glory of transferring the +great war beyond the limits of home into those far distant possessions, +where the enemy deemed himself most secure, and would teach the true +religion to savages sunk in their own superstitions, and still further +depraved by the imported idolatries of Rome. Commerce was now world- +wide, and the time had come for the Netherlanders, to whom the ocean +belonged, to tear out from the pompous list of the Catholic king's titles +his appellation of Lord of the Seas. + +There were others, however, whose language was not so sanguine. They +spoke with a shiver of the inhabitants of America, who hated all men, +simply because they were men, or who had never manifested any love for +their species except as an article of food. To convert such cannibals to +Christianity and Calvinism would be a hopeless endeavour, and meanwhile +the Spaniards were masters of the country. The attempt to blockade half +the globe with forty galleots was insane; for, although the enemy had not +occupied the whole territory, he commanded every harbour and position of +vantage. Men, scarcely able to defend inch by inch the meagre little +sandbanks of their fatherland, who should now go forth in hopes to +conquer the world, were but walking in their sleep. They would awake to +the consciousness of ruin. + +Thus men in the United Provinces spake of America. Especially Barneveld +had been supposed to be prominent among the opponents of the new Company, +on the ground that the more violently commercial ambition excited itself +towards wider and wilder fields of adventure, the fainter grew +inclinations for peace. The Advocate, who was all but omnipotent in +Holland and Zeeland, subsequently denied the imputation of hostility to +the new corporation, but the establishment of the West India Company, +although chartered, was postponed. + +The archdukes had not been discouraged by the result of their first +attempts at negotiation, for Wittenhorst had reported a disposition +towards peace as prevalent in the rebellious provinces, so far as he had +contrived, during his brief mission, to feel the public pulse. + +On the 6th February, 1607, Werner Cruwel, an insolvent tradesman of +Brussels, and a relative of Recorder Aerssens, father of the envoy at +Paris, made his appearance very unexpectedly at the house of his kinsman +at the Hague. Sitting at the dinner-table, but neither eating nor +drinking, he was asked by his host what troubled him. He replied that +he had a load on his breast. Aerssens begged him, if it was his recent +bankruptcy that oppressed him, to use philosophy and patience. The +merchant answered that he who confessed well was absolved well. He then +took from his pocket-book a letter from President Richardot, and said he +would reveal what he had to say after dinner. The cloth being removed, +and the wife and children of Aerssens having left the room, Cruwel +disclosed that he had been sent by Richardot and Father Neyen on a secret +mission. The recorder, much amazed and troubled, refused to utter a +word, save to ask if Cruwel would object to confer with the Advocate. +The merchant expressing himself as ready for such an interview, the +recorder, although it was late, immediately sent a message to the great +statesman. Barneveld was in bed and asleep, but was aroused to receive +the communication of Aerssens. "We live in such a calumnious time," said +the recorder, "that many people believe that you and I know more of the +recent mission of Wittenhorst than we admit. You had best interrogate +Cruwel in the presence of witnesses. I know not the man's humour, but it +seems to me since his failure, that, in spite of his shy and lumpish +manner, he is false and cunning." + +The result was a secret interview, on the 8th February, between Prince +Maurice, Barneveld, and the recorder, in which Cruwel was permitted to +state the object of his mission. He then produced a short memorandum, +signed by Spinola and by Father Neyen, to the effect that the archdukes +were willing to treat for a truce of ten or twelve years, on the sole +condition that the States would abstain from the India navigation. He +exhibited also another paper, signed only by Neyen, in which that friar +proposed to come secretly to the Hague, no one in Brussels to know of the +visit save the archdukes and Spinola; and all in the United Provinces to +be equally ignorant except the prince, the Advocate, and the recorder. +Cruwel was then informed that if Neyen expected to discuss such grave +matters with the prince, he must first send in a written proposal that +could go on all fours and deserve attention. A week afterwards Cruwel +came back with a paper in which Neyen declared himself authorized by the +archdukes to treat with the States on the basis of their liberty and +independence, and to ask what they would give in return for so great a +concession as this renunciation of all right to "the so-called United +Provinces." + +This being a step in advance, it was decided to permit the visit of +Neyen. It was, however, the recorded opinion of the distinguished +personages to whom the proposal was made that it was a trick and a +deception. The archdukes would, no doubt, it was said, nominally +recognise the provinces as a free State, but without really meaning it. +Meantime, they would do their best to corrupt the Government and to renew +the war after the republic had by this means been separated from its +friends. + +John Neyen, father commissary of the Franciscans, who had thus invited +himself to the momentous conference, was a very smooth Flemish friar, who +seemed admirably adapted, for various reasons, to glide into the rebel +country and into the hearts of the rebels. He was a Netherlander, born +at Antwerp, when Antwerp was a portion of the united commonwealth, of a +father who had been in the confidential service of William the Silent. +He was eloquent in the Dutch language, and knew the character of the +Dutch people. He had lived much at court, both in Madrid and Brussels, +and was familiar with the ways of kings and courtiers. He was a holy +man, incapable of a thought of worldly advancement for himself, but he +was a master of the logic often thought most conclusive in those days; +no man insinuating golden arguments more adroitly than he into half- +reluctant palms. Blessed with a visage of more than Flemish frankness, +he had in reality a most wily and unscrupulous disposition. Insensible +to contumely, and incapable of accepting a rebuff, he could wind back to +his purpose when less supple negotiators would have been crushed. + +He was described by his admirers as uniting the wisdom of the serpent +with the guilelessness of the dove. Who better than he then, in this +double capacity, to coil himself around the rebellion, and to carry the +olive-branch in his mouth? + +On the 25th February the monk, disguised in the dress of a burgher, +arrived at Ryswick, a village a mile and a half from the Hague. He was +accompanied on the journey by Cruwel, and they gave themselves out as +travelling tradesmen. After nightfall, a carriage having been sent to +the hostelry, according to secret agreement, by Recorder Aerssens, John +Neyen was brought to the Hague. The friar, as he was driven on through +these hostile regions, was somewhat startled, on looking out, to find +himself accompanied by two mounted musketeers on each side of the +carriage, but they proved to have been intended as a protective escort. +He was brought to the recorder's house, whence, after some delay, he was +conveyed to the palace. Here he was received by an unknown and silent +attendant, who took him by the hand and led him through entirely deserted +corridors and halls. Not a human being was seen nor a sound heard until +his conductor at last reached the door of an inner apartment through +which he ushered him, without speaking a syllable. The monk then found +himself in the presence of two personages, seated at a table covered with +books and papers. One was in military undress, with an air about him of +habitual command, a fair-complexioned man of middle age, inclining to +baldness, rather stout, with a large blue eye, regular features, and a +mouse-coloured beard. The other was in the velvet cloak and grave +habiliments of a civil functionary, apparently sixty years of age, with a +massive features, and a shaggy beard. The soldier was Maurice of Nassau, +the statesman was John of Olden-Barneveld. + +Both rose as the friar entered, and greeted him with cordiality. + +"But," said the prince, "how did you dare to enter the Hague, relying +only on the word of a Beggar?" + +"Who would not confide," replied Neyen, "in the word of so exalted, so +respectable a Beggar as you, O most excellent prince?" + +With these facetious words began the negotiations through which an +earnest attempt was at last to be made for terminating a seemingly +immortal war. The conversation, thus begun, rolled amicably and +informally along. The monk produced letters from the archdukes, in +which, as he stated, the truly royal soul of the writers shone +conspicuously forth. Without a thought for their own advantage, he +observed, and moved only by a contemplation of the tears shed by so many +thousands of beings reduced to extreme misery, their Highnesses, although +they were such exalted princes, cared nothing for what would be said by +the kings of Europe and all the potentates of the universe about their +excessive indulgence." + +"What indulgence do you speak of?" asked the stadholder. + +"Does that seem a trifling indulgence," replied John Neyen, "that they +are willing to abandon the right which they inherited from their +ancestors over these provinces, to allow it so easily to slip from their +fingers, to declare these people to be free, over whom, as their subjects +refusing the yoke, they have carried on war so long?" + +"It is our right hands that have gained this liberty," said Maurice, "not +the archdukes that have granted it. It has been acquired by our +treasure, poured forth how freely! by the price of our blood, by so many +thousands of souls sent to their account. Alas, how dear a price have +we paid for it! All the potentates of Christendom, save the King of +Spain alone, with his relatives the archdukes, have assented to our +independence. In treating for peace we ask no gift of freedom from the +archdukes. We claim to be regarded by them as what we are--free men. +If they are unwilling to consider us as such, let them subject us to +their dominion if they can. And as we have hitherto done, we shall +contend more fiercely for liberty than for life." + +With this, the tired monk was dismissed to sleep off the effects of his +journey and of the protracted discussion, being warmly recommended to the +captain of the citadel, by whom he was treated with every possible +consideration. + +Several days of private discussion ensued between Neyen and the leading +personages of the republic. The emissary was looked upon with great +distrust. All schemes of substantial negotiation were regarded by the +public as visions, while the monk on his part felt the need of all his +tact and temper to wind his way out of the labyrinth into which he felt +that he had perhaps too heedlessly entered. A false movement on his part +would involve himself and his masters in a hopeless maze of suspicion, +and make a pacific result impossible. + +At length, it having been agreed to refer the matter to the States- +General, Recorder Aerssens waited upon Neyen to demand his credentials +for negotiation. He replied that he had been forbidden to deliver his +papers, but that he was willing to exhibit them to the States-General. + +He came accordingly to that assembly, and was respectfully received. +All the deputies rose, and he was placed in a seat near the presiding +officer. Olden-Barneveld then in a few words told him why he had been +summoned. The monk begged that a want of courtesy might not be imputed +to him, as he had been sent to negotiate with three individuals, not with +a great assembly. + +Thus already the troublesome effect of publicity upon diplomacy was +manifesting itself. The many-headed, many-tongued republic was a +difficult creature to manage, adroit as the negotiator had proved himself +to be in gliding through the cabinets and council-chambers of princes and +dealing with the important personages found there. + +The power was, however, produced, and handed around the assembly, the +signature and seals being duly inspected by the members. Neyen was then +asked if he had anything to say in public. He replied in the negative, +adding only a few vague commonplaces about the effusion of blood and the +desire of the archdukes for the good of mankind. He was then dismissed. + +A few days afterwards a committee of five from the States-General, of +which Barneveld was chairman, conferred with Neyen. He was informed that +the paper exhibited by him was in many respects objectionable, and that +they had therefore drawn up a form which he was requested to lay before +the archdukes for their guidance in making out a new power. He was asked +also whether the king of Spain was a party to these proposals for +negotiation. The monk answered that he was not informed of the fact, +but that he considered it highly probable. + +John Neyen then departed for Brussels with the form prescribed by the +States-General in his pocket. Nothing could exceed the indignation with +which the royalists and Catholics at the court of the archdukes were +inspired by the extreme arrogance and obstinacy thus manifested by the +rebellious heretics. That the offer on the part of their master to +negotiate should be received by them with cavils, and almost with +contempt, was as great an offence as their original revolt. That the +servant should dare to prescribe a form for the sovereign to copy seemed +to prove that the world was coming to an end. But it was ever thus with +the vulgar, said the courtiers and church dignitaries, debating these +matters. The insanity of plebeians was always enormous, and never more +so than when fortune for a moment smiled. Full of arrogance and temerity +when affairs were prosperous, plunged in abject cowardice when dangers +and reverses came--such was the People--such it must ever be. + +Thus blustered the priests and the parasites surrounding the archduke, +nor need their sentiments amaze us. Could those honest priests and +parasites have ever dreamed, before the birth of this upstart republic, +that merchants, manufacturers, and farmers, mechanics and advocates--the +People, in short--should presume to meddle with affairs of state? Their +vocation had been long ago prescribed--to dig and to draw, to brew and to +bake, to bear burdens in peace and to fill bloody graves in war--what +better lot could they desire? + +Meantime their superiors, especially endowed with wisdom by the +Omnipotent, would direct trade and commerce, conduct war and diplomacy, +make treaties, impose taxes, fill their own pockets, and govern the +universe. Was not this reasonable and according to the elemental laws? +If the beasts of the field had been suddenly gifted with speech, and had +constituted themselves into a free commonwealth for the management of +public affairs, they would hardly have caused more profound astonishment +at Brussels and Madrid than had been excited by the proceedings of the +rebellious Dutchmen. + +Yet it surely might have been suggested, when the lament of the courtiers +over the abjectness of the People in adversity was so emphatic, that Dorp +and Van Loon, Berendrecht and Gieselles, with the men under their +command, who had disputed every inch of Little Troy for three years and +three months, and had covered those fatal sands with a hundred thousand +corpses, had not been giving of late such evidence of the People's +cowardice in reverses as theory required. The siege of Ostend had been +finished only three years before, and it is strange that its lessons +should so soon have been forgotten. + +It was thought best, however, to dissemble. Diplomacy in those days-- +certainly the diplomacy of Spain and Rome--meant simply dissimulation. +Moreover, that solid apothegm, 'haereticis non servanda fides,' the most +serviceable anchor ever forged for true believers, was always ready to be +thrown out, should storm or quicksand threaten, during the intricate +voyage to be now undertaken. + +John Neyen soon returned to the Hague, having persuaded his masters +that it was best to affect compliance with the preliminary demand of +the States. During the discussions in regard to peace, it would not be +dangerous to treat with the rebel provinces as with free states, over +which the archdukes pretended to no authority, because--so it was +secretly argued--this was to be understood with a sense of similitude. +"We will negotiate with them as if they were free," said the greyfriar to +the archduke and his counsellors, "but not with the signification of true +and legitimate liberty. They have laid down in their formula that we are +to pretend to no authority over them. Very well. For the time being we +will pretend that we do not pretend to any such authority. To negotiate +with them as if they were free will not make them free. It is no +recognition by us that they are free. Their liberty could never be +acquired by their rebellion. This is so manifest that neither the king +nor the archdukes can lose any of their rights over the United Provinces, +even should they make this declaration." + +Thus the hair-sputters at Brussels--spinning a web that should be stout +enough to entrap the noisy, blundering republicans at the Hague, yet so +delicate as to go through the finest dialectical needle. Time was to +show whether subtilty or bluntness was the best diplomatic material. + +The monk brought with him three separate instruments or powers, to be +used according to his discretion. Admitted to the assembly of the +States-General, he produced number one. + +It was instantly rejected. He then offered number two, with the same +result. He now declared himself offended, not on his own account, but +for the sake of his masters, and asked leave to retire from the assembly, +leaving with them the papers which had been so benignantly drawn up, and +which deserved to be more carefully studied. + +The States, on their parts, were sincerely and vehemently indignant. +What did all this mean, it was demanded, this producing one set of +propositions after another? Why did the archdukes not declare their +intentions openly and at once? Let the States depart each to the several +provinces, and let John Neyen be instantly sent out of the country. Was +it thought to bait a trap for the ingenuous Netherlanders, and catch them +little by little, like so many wild animals? This was not the way the +States dealt with the archdukes. What they meant they put in front-- +first, last, and always. Now and in the future they said and they would +say exactly what they wished, candidly and seriously. Those who pursued +another course would never come into negotiation with them. + +The monk felt that he had excited a wrath which it would be difficult +to assuage. He already perceived the difference between a real and an +affected indignation, and tried to devise some soothing remedy. Early +next morning he sent a petition in writing to the States for leave to +make an explanation to the assembly. Barneveld and Recorder Aerssens, in +consequence, came to him immediately, and heaped invectives upon his head +for his duplicity. + +Evidently it was a different matter dealing with this many-headed roaring +beast, calling itself a republic, from managing the supple politicians +with whom he was more familiar. The noise and publicity of these +transactions were already somewhat appalling to the smooth friar who was +accustomed to negotiate in comfortable secrecy. He now vehemently +protested that never man was more sincere than he, and implored for time +to send to Brussels for another power. It is true that number three was +still in his portfolio, but he had seen so much indignation on the +production of number two as to feel sure that the fury of the States +would know no bounds should he now confess that he had come provided with +a third. + +It was agreed accordingly to wait eight days, in which period he might +send for and receive the new power already in his possession. These +little tricks were considered masterly diplomacy in those days, and by +this kind of negotiators; and such was the way in which it was proposed +to terminate a half century of warfare. + + [The narrative is the monk's own, as preserved by his admirer, + the Jesuit Gallucci, (ubi sup.)] + +The friar wrote to his masters, not of course to ask for a new power, but +to dilate on the difficulties to be anticipated in procuring that which +the losing party is always most bent upon in circumstances like these, +and which was most ardently desired by the archdukes--an armistice. He +described Prince Maurice as sternly opposed to such a measure, believing +that temporary cessation of hostilities was apt to be attended with +mischievous familiarity between the opposing camps, with relaxation of +discipline, desertion, and various kinds of treachery, and that there was +no better path to peace than that which was trampled by contending hosts. + +Seven days passed, and then Neyen informed the States that he had at last +received a power which he hoped would prove satisfactory. Being admitted +accordingly to the assembly, he delivered an eloquent eulogy upon the +sincerity of the archdukes, who, with perhaps too little regard for their +own dignity and authority, had thus, for the sake of the public good, so +benignantly conceded what the States had demanded. + +Barneveld, on receiving the new power, handed to Neyen a draught of an +agreement which he was to study at his leisure, and in which he might +suggest alterations. At the same time it was demanded that within three +months the written consent of the King of Spain to the proposed +negotiations should be produced. The Franciscan objected that it did +not comport with the dignity of the archdukes to suppose the consent of +any other sovereign needful to confirm their acts. Barneveld insisted +with much vehemence on the necessity of this condition. It was perfectly +notorious, he said, that the armies commanded by the archdukes were +subject to the King of Spain, and were called royal armies. Prince +Maurice observed that all prisoners taken by him had uniformly called +themselves soldiers of the Crown, not of the archdukes, nor of Marquis +Spinola. + +Barneveld added that the royal power over the armies in the Netherlands +and over the obedient provinces was proved by the fact that all +commanders of regiments, all governors of fortresses, especially of +Antwerp, Ghent, Cambray, and the like, were appointed by the King of +Spain. These were royal citadels with royal garrisons. That without the +knowledge and consent of the King of Spain it would be impossible to +declare the United Provinces free, was obvious; for in the cession by +Philip II. of all the Netherlands it was provided that, without the +consent of the king, no part of that territory could be ceded, and this +on pain of forfeiting all the sovereignty. To treat without the king +was therefore impossible. + +The Franciscan denied that because the sovereigns of Spain sent funds and +auxiliary troops to Flanders, and appointed military commanders there of +various degrees, the authority of the archdukes was any the less supreme. +Philip II. had sent funds and troops to sustain the League, but he was +not King of France. + +Barneveld probably thought it not worth his while to reply that Philip, +with those funds and those troops, had done his best to become King of +France, and that his failure proved nothing for the argument either way. + +Neyen then returned once more to Brussels, observing as he took leave +that the decision of the archdukes as to the king's consent was very +doubtful, although he was sure that the best thing for all parties +would be to agree to an armistice out of hand. + +This, however, was far from being the opinion of the States or the +stadholder. + +After conferring with his masters, the monk came down by agreement from +Antwerp to the Dutch ships which lay in the, Scheld before Fort Lillo. +On board one of these, Dirk van der Does had been stationed with a +special commission from the States to compare documents. It was +expressly ordered that in these preliminary negotiations neither party +was to go on shore. On a comparison of the agreement brought by Neyen +from Brussels with the draught furnished by Barneveld, of which Van der +Does had a copy, so many discrepancies appeared that the document of the +archdukes was at once rejected. But of course the monk had a number two, +and this, after some trouble, was made to agree with the prescribed form. +Brother John then, acting upon what he considered the soundest of +principles--that no job was so difficult as not to be accomplished with +the help of the precious metals--offered his fellow negotiator a valuable +gold chain as a present from the archdukes. Dirk van der Does accepted +the chain, but gave notice of the fact to his Government. + +The monk now became urgent to accompany his friend to the Hague, but this +had been expressly forbidden by the States. Neyen felt sure, he said, +of being able by arguments, which he could present by word of mouth, to +overcome the opposition to the armistice were he once more to be admitted +to the assembly. Van der Does had already much overstaid his appointed +time, bound to the spot, as it were, by the golden chain thrown around +him by the excellent friar, and he now, in violation of orders, wrote to +the Hague for leave to comply with this request. Pending the answer, the +persuasive Neyen convinced him, much against his will, that they might +both go together as far as Delft. To Delft they accordingly went; but, +within half a league of that place, met a courier with strict orders that +the monk was at once to return to Brussels. Brother John was in great +agitation. Should he go back, the whole negotiation might come to +nought; should he go on, he might be clapped into prison as a spy. Being +conscious, however, that his services as a spy were intended to be the +most valuable part of his mission, he resolved to proceed in that +capacity. So he persuaded his friend Dirk to hide him in the hold of a +canal-boat. Van der Does was in great trepidation himself, but on +reaching the Hague and giving up his gold chain to Barneveld, he made his +peace, and obtained leave for the trembling but audacious friar to come +out of his hiding-place. + +Appearing once more before the States-General on the afternoon of 7th +May, Neyen urged with much eloquence the propriety of an immediate +armistice both by sea and land, insisting that it would be a sanguinary +farce to establish a cessation of hostilities upon one element while +blood and treasure were profusely flowing on the oceans. There were +potent reasons for this earnestness on the part of the monk to procure a +truce to maritime operations, as very soon was to be made evident to the +world. Meantime, on this renewed visit, the negotiator expressed himself +as no longer doubtful in regard to the propriety of requesting the +Spanish king's consent to the proposed negotiations. That consent, +however, would in his opinion depend upon the earnestness now to be +manifested by the States in establishing the armistice by sea and land, +and upon their promptness in recalling the fleets now infesting the coast +of Spain. No immediate answer was given to these representations, but +Neyen was requested to draw up his argument in writing, in order that it +might be duly pondered by the States of the separate provinces. + +The radical defect of the Dutch constitution--the independent sovereignty +claimed by each one of the provinces composing the confederation, each of +those provinces on its part being composed of cities, each again claiming +something very like sovereignty for itself--could not fail to be +manifested whenever, great negotiations with foreign powers were to be +undertaken. To obtain the unanimous consent of seven independent little +republics was a work of difficulty, requiring immense expenditure of time +in comparatively unimportant contingencies. How intolerable might become +the obstructions, the dissensions, and the delays, now that a series of +momentous and world-wide transactions was beginning, on the issue of +which the admission of a new commonwealth into the family of nations, +the international connections of all the great powers of Christendom, +the commerce of the world, and the peace of Europe depended. + +Yet there was no help for it but to make the best present use of the +institutions which time and great events had bestowed upon the young +republic, leaving to a more convenient season the task of remodelling the +law. Meanwhile, with men who knew their own minds, who meant to speak +the truth, and who were resolved to gather in at last the harvest +honestly and bravely gained by nearly a half-century of hard fighting, it +would be hard for a legion of friars, with their heads full of quirks and +their wallets full of bills of exchange, to carry the day for despotism. + +Barneveld was sincerely desirous of peace. He was well aware that his +province of Holland, where he was an intellectual autocrat, was +staggering under the burden of one half the expenses of the whole +republic. He knew that Holland in the course of the last nine years, +notwithstanding the constantly heightened rate of impost on all objects +of ordinary consumption, was twenty-six millions of florins behindhand, +and that she had reason therefore to wish for peace. The great Advocate, +than whom no statesman in Europe could more accurately scan the world's +horizon, was convinced that the propitious moment for honourable +straightforward negotiations to secure peace, independence, and free +commerce, free religion and free government, had come, and he had +succeeded in winning the reluctant Maurice into a partial adoption, +at least, of his opinions. + +The Franciscan remained at Delft, waiting, by direction of the States, +for an answer to his propositions, and doing his best according to the +instructions of his own Government to espy the condition and sentiments +of the enemy. Becoming anxious after the lapse of a fortnight, he wrote +to Barneveld. In reply the Advocate twice sent a secret messenger, +urging, him to be patient, assuring him that the affair was working well; +that the opposition to peace came chiefly from Zeeland and from certain +parties in Amsterdam vehemently opposed to peace or truce; but that the +rest of Holland was decidedly in favour of the negotiations. + +A few days passed, and Neyen was again summoned before the assembly. +Barneveld now informed him that the Dutch fleet would be recalled from +the coast of Spain so soon as the consent of his Catholic Majesty to +the negotiations arrived, but that it would be necessary to confine the +cessation of naval warfare within certain local limits. Both these +conditions were strenuously opposed by the Franciscan, who urged that +the consent of the Spanish king was certain, but that this new +proposition to localize the maritime armistice would prove to be fraught +with endless difficulties and dangers. Barneveld and the States +remaining firm, however, and giving him a formal communication of their +decision in writing, Neyen had nothing for it but to wend his way back +rather malcontent to Brussels. + +It needed but a brief deliberation at the court of the archdukes to bring +about the desired arrangement. The desire for an armistice, especially +for a cessation of hostilities by sea, had been marvellously stimulated +by an event to be narrated in the next chapter. Meantime, more than the +first three months of the year had been passed in these secret +preliminary transactions, and so softly had the stealthy friar sped to +and fro between Brussels and the Hague, that when at last the armistice +was announced it broke forth like a sudden flash of fine weather in the +midst of a raging storm. No one at the archduke's court knew of the +mysterious negotiations save the monk himself, Spinola, Richardot, +Verreycken, the chief auditor, and one or two others. The great Belgian +nobles, from whom everything had been concealed, were very wroth, but the +Belgian public was as much delighted as amazed at the prospects of peace. +In the United Provinces opinions were conflicting, but doubtless joy and +confidence were the prevailing emotions. + +Towards the middle of April the armistice was publicly announced. It was +to last for eight months from the 4th of May. During this period no +citadels were to be besieged, no camps brought near a city, no new +fortifications built, and all troops were to be kept carefully within +walls. Meantime commissioners were to be appointed by the archdukes to +confer with an equal number of deputies of the United Provinces for peace +or for a truce of ten, fifteen, or twenty years, on the express ground +that the archdukes regarded the United Provinces as free countries, over +which their Highnesses pretended to no authority. + +The armistice on land was absolute. On sea, hostilities were to cease in +the German Ocean and in the channel between England and France, while it +was also provided that the Netherland fleet should, within a certain +period, be recalled from the Spanish coast. + +A day of public fast, humiliation, thanksgiving, and prayer was ordered +throughout the republic for the 9th of May, in order to propitiate the +favour of Heaven on the great work to be undertaken; and, as a further +precaution, Prince Maurice ordered all garrisons in the strong places to +be doubled, lest the slippery enemy should take advantage of too much +confidence reposed in his good faith. The preachers throughout the +commonwealth, each according to his individual bias, improved the +occasion by denouncing the Spaniard from their pulpits and inflaming the +popular hatred against the ancient enemy, or by dilating on the blessings +of peace and the horrors of war. The peace party and the war party, the +believers in Barneveld and the especial adherents of Prince Maurice, +seemed to divide the land in nearly equal portions. + +While the Netherlands, both rebellious and obedient, were filled with +these various emotions, the other countries of Europe were profoundly +amazed at the sudden revelation. It was on the whole regarded as a +confession of impotence on the part of Spain that the archdukes should +now prepare to send envoys to the revolted provinces as to a free and +independent people. Universal monarchy, brought to such a pass as this, +was hardly what had been expected after the tremendous designs and the +grandiloquent language on which the world had so long been feeding as its +daily bread. The spectacle of anointed monarchs thus far humbling +themselves to the people of rebellion dictating terms, instead of +writhing in dust at the foot of the throne--was something new in history. +The heavens and earth might soon be expected to pass away, now that such +a catastrophe was occurring. + +The King of France had also been kept in ignorance of these events. It +was impossible, however, that the negotiations could go forward without +his consent and formal participation. Accordingly on receiving the news +he appointed an especial mission to the Hague--President Jeannin and De +Russy, besides his regular resident ambassador Buzanval. Meantime +startling news reached the republic in the early days of May. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A penal offence in the republic to talk of peace or of truce +Accepting a new tyrant in place of the one so long ago deposed +As if they were free will not make them free +As neat a deception by telling the truth +Cargo of imaginary gold dust was exported from the James River +Delay often fights better than an army against a foreign invader +Diplomacy of Spain and Rome--meant simply dissimulation +Draw a profit out of the necessities of this state +England hated the Netherlands +Friendly advice still more intolerable +Haereticis non servanda fides +He who confessed well was absolved well +Insensible to contumely, and incapable of accepting a rebuff +Languor of fatigue, rather than any sincere desire for peace +Much as the blind or the deaf towards colour or music +Subtle and dangerous enemy who wore the mask of a friend +Word peace in Spanish mouths simply meant the Holy Inquisition + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1605-07 *** + +************ This file should be named 4878.txt or 4878.zip ************ + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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