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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Life of John of Barneveld, 1613-15
+#91 in our series by John Lothrop Motley
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+Title: The Life of John of Barneveld, 1613-15
+
+Author: John Lothrop Motley
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4891]
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+[This file was first posted on April 22, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1613-15 ***
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+This eBook was produced by David Widger
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+
+THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND
+
+WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR
+
+By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D.
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 91
+
+Life of John of Barneveld, 1613-15
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     Aerssens remains Two Years longer in France--Derives many Personal
+     Advantages from his Post--He visits the States-General--Aubery du
+     Maurier appointed French Ambassador--He demands the Recall of
+     Aerssens--Peace of Sainte-Menehould--Asperen de Langerac appointed
+     in Aerssens' Place.
+
+Francis Aerssens had remained longer at his post than had been intended
+by the resolution of the States of Holland, passed in May 1611.
+
+It is an exemplification of the very loose constitutional framework of
+the United Provinces that the nomination of the ambassador to France
+belonged to the States of Holland, by whom his salary was paid, although,
+of course, he was the servant of the States-General, to whom his public
+and official correspondence was addressed.  His most important despatches
+were however written directly to Barneveld so long as he remained in
+power, who had also the charge of the whole correspondence, public or
+private, with all the envoys of the States.
+
+Aerssens had, it will be remembered, been authorized to stay one year
+longer in France if he thought he could be useful there.  He stayed two
+years, and on the whole was not useful.  He had too many eyes and too
+many ears.  He had become mischievous by the very activity of his
+intelligence.  He was too zealous.  There were occasions in France at
+that moment in which it was as well to be blind and deaf.  It was
+impossible for the Republic, unless driven to it by dire necessity, to
+quarrel with its great ally.  It had been calculated by Duplessis-Mornay
+that France had paid subsidies to the Provinces amounting from first to
+last to 200 millions of livres.  This was an enormous exaggeration.  It
+was Barneveld's estimate that before the truce the States had received
+from France eleven millions of florins in cash, and during the truce up
+to the year 1613, 3,600,000 in addition, besides a million still due,
+making a total of about fifteen millions.  During the truce France kept
+two regiments of foot amounting to 4200 soldiers and two companies of
+cavalry in Holland at the service of the States, for which she was bound
+to pay yearly 600,000 livres.  And the Queen-Regent had continued all the
+treaties by which these arrangements were secured, and professed sincere
+and continuous friendship for the States.  While the French-Spanish
+marriages gave cause for suspicion, uneasiness, and constant watchfulness
+in the States, still the neutrality of France was possible in the coming
+storm.  So long as that existed, particularly when the relations of
+England with Holland through the unfortunate character of King James were
+perpetually strained to a point of imminent rupture, it was necessary to
+hold as long as it vas possible to the slippery embrace of France.
+
+But Aerssens was almost aggressive in his attitude.  He rebuked the
+vacillations, the shortcomings, the imbecility, of the Queen's government
+in offensive terms.  He consorted openly with the princes who were on the
+point of making war upon the Queen-Regent.  He made a boast to the
+Secretary of State Villeroy that he had unravelled all his secret plots
+against the Netherlands.  He declared it to be understood in France,
+since the King's death, by the dominant and Jesuitical party that the
+crown depended temporally as well as spiritually on the good pleasure of
+the Pope.
+
+No doubt he was perfectly right in many of his opinions.  No ruler or
+statesman in France worthy of the name would hesitate, in the impending
+religious conflict throughout Europe and especially in Germany, to
+maintain for the kingdom that all controlling position which was its
+splendid privilege.  But to preach this to Mary de' Medici was waste of
+breath.  She was governed by the Concini's, and the Concini's were
+governed by Spain.  The woman who was believed to have known beforehand
+of the plot to murder her great husband, who had driven the one powerful
+statesman on whom the King relied, Maximilian de Bethune, into
+retirement, and whose foreign affairs were now completely in the hands
+of the ancient Leaguer Villeroy--who had served every government in the
+kingdom for forty years--was not likely to be accessible to high views
+of public policy.
+
+Two years had now elapsed since the first private complaints against the
+Ambassador, and the French government were becoming impatient at his
+presence.  Aerssens had been supported by Prince Maurice, to whom he had
+long paid his court.  He was likewise loyally protected by Barneveld,
+whom he publicly flattered and secretly maligned.  But it was now
+necessary that he should be gone if peaceful relations with France were
+to be preserved.
+
+After all, the Ambassador had not made a bad business of his embassy from
+his own point of view.  A stranger in the Republic, for his father the
+Greffier was a refugee from Brabant, he had achieved through his own
+industry and remarkable talents, sustained by the favour of Barneveld--
+to whom he owed all his diplomatic appointments--an eminent position in
+Europe.  Secretary to the legation to France in 1594, he had been
+successively advanced to the post of resident agent, and when the
+Republic had been acknowledged by the great powers, to that of
+ambassador.  The highest possible functions that representatives of
+emperors and kings could enjoy had been formally recognized in the person
+of the minister of a new-born republic.  And this was at a moment when,
+with exception of the brave but insignificant cantons of Switzerland, the
+Republic had long been an obsolete idea.
+
+In a pecuniary point of view, too, he had not fared badly during his
+twenty years of diplomatic office.  He had made much money in various
+ways.  The King not long before his death sent him one day 20,000 florins
+as a present, with a promise soon to do much more for him.
+
+Having been placed in so eminent a post, he considered it as due to
+himself to derive all possible advantage from it.  "Those who serve at
+the altar," he said a little while after his return, "must learn to live
+by it.  I served their High Mightinesses at the court of a great king,
+and his Majesty's liberal and gracious favours were showered upon me.  My
+upright conscience and steady obsequiousness greatly aided me.  I did not
+look upon opportunity with folded arms, but seized it and made my profit
+by it.  Had I not met with such fortunate accidents, my office would not
+have given me dry bread."
+
+Nothing could exceed the frankness and indeed the cynicism with which the
+Ambassador avowed his practice of converting his high and sacred office
+into merchandise.  And these statements of his should be scanned closely,
+because at this very moment a cry was distantly rising, which at a later
+day was to swell into a roar, that the great Advocate had been bribed and
+pensioned.  Nothing had occurred to justify such charges, save that at
+the period of the truce he had accepted from the King of France a fee of
+20,000 florins for extra official and legal services rendered him a dozen
+years before, and had permitted his younger son to hold the office of
+gentleman-in-waiting at the French court with the usual salary attached
+to it.  The post, certainly not dishonourable in itself, had been
+intended by the King as a kindly compliment to the leading statesman
+of his great and good ally the Republic.  It would be difficult to
+say why such a favour conferred on the young man should be held more
+discreditable to the receiver than the Order of the Garter recently
+bestowed upon the great soldier of the Republic by another friendly
+sovereign.  It is instructive however to note the language in which
+Francis Aerssens spoke of favours and money bestowed by a foreign monarch
+upon himself, for Aerssens had come back from his embassy full of gall
+and bitterness against Barneveld.  Thenceforth he was to be his evil
+demon.
+
+"I didn't inherit property," said this diplomatist.  "My father and
+mother, thank God, are yet living.  I have enjoyed the King's liberality.
+It was from an ally, not an enemy, of our country.  Were every man
+obliged to give a reckoning of everything he possesses over and above his
+hereditary estates, who in the government would pass muster?  Those who
+declare that they have served their country in her greatest trouble, and
+lived in splendid houses and in service of princes and great companies
+and the like on a yearly salary of 4000 florins, may not approve these
+maxims."
+
+It should be remembered that Barneveld, if this was a fling at the
+Advocate, had acquired a large fortune by marriage, and, although
+certainly not averse from gathering gear, had, as will be seen on a
+subsequent page, easily explained the manner in which his property had
+increased.  No proof was ever offered or attempted of the anonymous
+calumnies levelled at him in this regard.
+
+"I never had the management of finances," continued Aerssens.  "My
+profits I have gained in foreign parts.  My condition of life is without
+excess, and in my opinion every means are good so long as they are
+honourable and legal.  They say my post was given me by the Advocate.
+Ergo, all my fortune comes from the Advocate.  Strenuously to have
+striven to make myself agreeable to the King and his counsellors, while
+fulfilling my office with fidelity and honour, these are the arts by
+which I have prospered, so that my splendour dazzles the eyes of the
+envious.  The greediness of those who believe that the sun should shine
+for them alone was excited, and so I was obliged to resign the embassy."
+
+So long as Henry lived, the Dutch ambassador saw him daily, and at all
+hours, privately, publicly, when he would.  Rarely has a foreign envoy
+at any court, at any period of history, enjoyed such privileges of being
+useful to his government.  And there is no doubt that the services of
+Aerssens had been most valuable to his country, notwithstanding his
+constant care to increase his private fortune through his public
+opportunities.  He was always ready to be useful to Henry likewise.
+When that monarch same time before the truce, and occasionally during
+the preliminary negotiations for it, had formed a design to make himself
+sovereign of the Provinces, it was Aerssens who charged himself with the
+scheme, and would have furthered it with all his might, had the project
+not met with opposition both from the Advocate and the Stadholder.
+Subsequently it appeared probable that Maurice would not object to the
+sovereignty himself, and the Ambassador in Paris, with the King's
+consent, was not likely to prove himself hostile to the Prince's
+ambition.
+
+"There is but this means alone," wrote Jeannini to Villeroy, "that can
+content him, although hitherto he has done like the rowers, who never
+look toward the place whither they wish to go."  The attempt of the
+Prince to sound Barneveld on this subject through the Princess-Dowager
+has already been mentioned, and has much intrinsic probability.
+Thenceforward, the republican form of government, the municipal
+oligarchies, began to consolidate their power.  Yet although the people
+as such were not sovereigns, but subjects, and rarely spoken of by the
+aristocratic magistrates save with a gentle and patronizing disdain, they
+enjoyed a larger liberty than was known anywhere else in the world.
+Buzenval was astonished at the "infinite and almost unbridled freedom"
+which he witnessed there during his embassy, and which seemed to him
+however "without peril to the state."
+
+The extraordinary means possessed by Aerssens to be important and useful
+vanished with the King's death.  His secret despatches, painting in
+sombre and sarcastic colours the actual condition of affairs at the
+French court, were sent back in copy to the French court itself.  It was
+not known who had played the Ambassador this vilest of tricks, but it was
+done during an illness of Barneveld, and without his knowledge.  Early in
+the year 1613 Aerssens resolved, not to take his final departure, but to
+go home on leave of absence.  His private intention was to look for some
+substantial office of honour and profit at home.  Failing of this, he
+meant to return to Paris.  But with an eye to the main chance as usual,
+he ingeniously caused it to be understood at court, without making
+positive statements to that effect, that his departure was final.  On his
+leavetaking, accordingly, he received larger presents from the crown than
+had been often given to a retiring ambassador.  At least 20,000 florins
+were thus added to the frugal store of profits on which he prided
+himself.  Had he merely gone away on leave of absence, he would have
+received no presents whatever.  But he never went back.  The Queen-Regent
+and her ministers were so glad to get rid of him, and so little disposed,
+in the straits in which they found themselves, to quarrel with the
+powerful republic, as to be willing to write very complimentary public
+letters to the States, concerning the character and conduct of the man
+whom they so much detested.
+
+Pluming himself upon these, Aerssens made his appearance in the Assembly
+of the States-General, to give account by word of mouth of the condition
+of affairs, speaking as if he had only come by permission of their
+Mightinesses for temporary purposes.  Two months later he was summoned
+before the Assembly, and ordered to return to his post.
+
+Meantime a new French ambassador had arrived at the Hague, in the spring
+of 1613.  Aubery du Maurier, a son of an obscure country squire, a
+Protestant, of moderate opinions, of a sincere but rather obsequious
+character, painstaking, diligent, and honest, had been at an earlier day
+in the service of the turbulent and intriguing Due de Bouillon.  He had
+also been employed by Sully as an agent in financial affairs between
+Holland and France, and had long been known to Villeroy.  He was living
+on his estate, in great retirement from all public business, when
+Secretary Villeroy suddenly proposed him the embassy to the Hague.
+There was no more important diplomatic post at that time in Europe.
+Other countries were virtually at peace, but in Holland, notwithstanding
+the truce, there vas really not much more than an armistice, and great
+armies lay in the Netherlands, as after a battle, sleeping face to face
+with arms in their hands.  The politics of Christendom were at issue in
+the open, elegant, and picturesque village which was the social capital
+of the United Provinces.  The gentry from Spain, Italy, the south of
+Europe, Catholic Germany, had clustered about Spinola at Brussels, to
+learn the art of war in his constant campaigning against Maurice.
+English and Scotch officers, Frenchmen, Bohemians, Austrians, youths from
+the Palatinate and all Protestant countries in Germany, swarmed to the
+banners of the prince who had taught the world how Alexander Farnese
+could be baffled, and the great Spinola outmanoeuvred.  Especially there
+was a great number of Frenchmen of figure and quality who thronged to the
+Hague, besides the officers of the two French regiments which formed a
+regular portion of the States' army.  That army was the best appointed
+and most conspicuous standing force in Europe.  Besides the French
+contingent there were always nearly 30,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry on a
+war footing, splendidly disciplined, experienced, and admirably armed.
+The navy, consisting of thirty war ships, perfectly equipped and manned,
+was a match for the combined marine forces of all Europe, and almost as
+numerous.
+
+When the Ambassador went to solemn audience of the States-General, he was
+attended by a brilliant group of gentlemen and officers, often to the
+number of three hundred, who volunteered to march after him on foot to
+honour their sovereign in the person of his ambassador; the Envoy's
+carriage following empty behind.  Such were the splendid diplomatic
+processions often received by the stately Advocate in his plain civic
+garb, when grave international questions were to be publicly discussed.
+
+There was much murmuring in France when the appointment of a personage
+comparatively so humble to a position so important was known.  It was
+considered as a blow aimed directly at the malcontent princes of the
+blood, who were at that moment plotting their first levy of arms against
+the Queen.  Du Maurier had been ill-treated by the Due de Bouillon, who
+naturally therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured to the
+government to which he was accredited.  Being the agent of Mary de'
+Medici, he was, of course, described as a tool of the court and a secret
+pensioner of Spain.  He was to plot with the arch traitor Barneveld as to
+the best means for distracting the Provinces and bringing them back into
+Spanish subjection.  Du Maurier, being especially but secretly charged to
+prevent the return of Francis Aerssens to Paris, incurred of course the
+enmity of that personage and of the French grandees who ostentatiously
+protected him.  It was even pretended by Jeannin that the appointment of
+a man so slightly known to the world, so inexperienced in diplomacy, and
+of a parentage so little distinguished, would be considered an affront by
+the States-General.
+
+But on the whole, Villeroy had made an excellent choice.  No safer man
+could perhaps have been found in France for a post of such eminence, in
+circumstances so delicate, and at a crisis so grave.  The man who had
+been able to make himself agreeable and useful, while preserving his
+integrity, to characters so dissimilar as the refining, self-torturing,
+intellectual Duplessis-Mornay, the rude, aggressive, and straightforward
+Sully, the deep-revolving, restlessly plotting Bouillon, and the smooth,
+silent, and tortuous Villeroy--men between whom there was no friendship,
+but, on the contrary, constant rancour--had material in him to render
+valuable services at this particular epoch.  Everything depended on
+patience, tact, watchfulness in threading the distracting, almost
+inextricable, maze which had been created by personal rivalries,
+ambitions, and jealousies in the state he represented and the one to
+which he was accredited.  "I ascribe it all to God," he said, in his
+testament to his children, "the impenetrable workman who in His goodness
+has enabled me to make myself all my life obsequious, respectful, and
+serviceable to all, avoiding as much as possible, in contenting some, not
+to discontent others."  He recommended his children accordingly to
+endeavour "to succeed in life by making themselves as humble,
+intelligent, and capable as possible."
+
+This is certainly not a very high type of character, but a safer one for
+business than that of the arch intriguer Francis Aerssens.  And he had
+arrived at the Hague under trying circumstances.  Unknown to the foreign
+world he was now entering, save through the disparaging rumours
+concerning him, sent thither in advance by the powerful personages
+arrayed against his government, he might have sunk under such a storm at
+the outset, but for the incomparable kindness and friendly aid of the
+Princess-Dowager, Louise de Coligny.  "I had need of her protection and
+recommendation as much as of life," said du Maurier; "and she gave them
+in such excess as to annihilate an infinity of calumnies which envy had
+excited against me on every side."  He had also a most difficult and
+delicate matter to arrange at the very moment of his arrival.
+
+For Aerssens had done his best not only to produce a dangerous division
+in the politics of the Republic, but to force a rupture between the
+French government and the States.  He had carried matters before the
+assembly with so high a hand as to make it seem impossible to get rid of
+him without public scandal.  He made a parade of the official letters
+from the Queen-Regent and her ministers, in which he was spoken of in
+terms of conventional compliment.  He did not know, and Barneveld wished,
+if possible, to spare him the annoyance of knowing, that both Queen and
+ministers, so soon as informed that there was a chance of coming back
+to them, had written letters breathing great repugnance to him and
+intimating that he would not be received.  Other high personages of state
+had written to express their resentment at his duplicity, perpetual
+mischief-making, and machinations against the peace of the kingdom, and
+stating the impossibility of his resuming the embassy at Paris.  And at
+last the queen wrote to the States-General to say that, having heard
+their intention to send him back to a post "from which he had taken leave
+formally and officially," she wished to prevent such a step.  "We should
+see M. Aerssens less willingly than comports with our friendship for you
+and good neighbourhood.  Any other you could send would be most welcome,
+as M. du Maurier will explain to you more amply."
+
+And to du Maurier himself she wrote distinctly, "Rather than suffer the
+return of the said Aerssens, you will declare that for causes which
+regard the good of our affairs and our particular satisfaction we cannot
+and will not receive him in the functions which he has exercised here,
+and we rely too implicitly upon the good friendship of My Lords the
+States to do anything in this that would so much displease us."
+
+And on the same day Villeroy privately wrote to the Ambassador, "If, in
+spite of all this, Aerssens should endeavour to return, he will not be
+received, after the knowledge we have of his factious spirit, most
+dangerous in a public personage in a state such as ours and in the
+minority of the King."
+
+Meantime Aerssens had been going about flaunting letters in everybody's
+face from the Duc de Bouillon insisting on the necessity of his return!
+The fact in itself would have been sufficient to warrant his removal, for
+the Duke was just taking up arms against his sovereign.  Unless the
+States meant to interfere officially and directly in the civil war about
+to break out in France, they could hardly send a minister to the
+government on recommendation of the leader of the rebellion.
+
+It had, however, become impossible to remove him without an explosion.
+Barneveld, who, said du Maurier, "knew the man to his finger nails," had
+been reluctant to "break the ice," and wished for official notice in the
+matter from the Queen.  Maurice protected the troublesome diplomatist.
+"'Tis incredible," said the French ambassador "how covertly Prince
+Maurice is carrying himself, contrary to his wont, in this whole affair.
+I don't know whether it is from simple jealousy to Barneveld, or if there
+is some mystery concealed below the surface."
+
+Du Maurier had accordingly been obliged to ask his government for
+distinct and official instructions.  "He holds to his place," said he,
+"by so slight and fragile a root as not to require two hands to pluck him
+up, the little finger being enough.  There is no doubt that he has been
+in concert with those who are making use of him to re-establish their
+credit with the States, and to embark Prince Maurice contrary to his
+preceding custom in a cabal with them."
+
+Thus a question of removing an obnoxious diplomatist could hardly be
+graver, for it was believed that he was doing his best to involve the
+military chief of his own state in a game of treason and rebellion
+against the government to which he was accredited.  It was not the first
+nor likely to be the last of Bouillon's deadly intrigues.  But the man
+who had been privy to Biron's conspiracy against the crown and life of
+his sovereign was hardly a safe ally for his brother-in-law, the
+straightforward stadholder.
+
+The instructions desired by du Maurier and by Barneveld had, as we have
+seen, at last arrived.  The French ambassador thus fortified appeared
+before the Assembly of the States-General and officially demanded the
+recall of Aerssens.  In a letter addressed privately and confidentially
+to their Mightinesses, he said, "If in spite of us you throw him at our
+feet, we shall fling him back at your head."
+
+At last Maurice yielded to, the representations of the French envoy, and
+Aerssens felt obliged to resign his claims to the post.  The States-
+General passed a resolution that it would be proper to employ him in some
+other capacity in order to show that his services had been agreeable to
+them, he having now declared that he could no longer be useful in France.
+Maurice, seeing that it was impossible to save him, admitted to du
+Maurier his unsteadiness and duplicity, and said that, if possessed of
+the confidence of a great king, he would be capable of destroying the
+state in less than a year.
+
+But this had not always been the Prince's opinion, nor was it likely to
+remain unchanged.  As for Villeroy, he denied flatly that the cause of
+his displeasure had been that Aerssens had penetrated into his most
+secret affairs.  He protested, on the contrary, that his annoyance with
+him had partly proceeded from the slight acquaintance he had acquired of
+his policy, and that, while boasting to be better informed than any one,
+he was in the habit of inventing and imagining things in order to get
+credit for himself.
+
+It was highly essential that the secret of this affair should be made
+clear; for its influence on subsequent events was to be deep and wide.
+For the moment Aerssens remained without employment, and there was no
+open rupture with Barneveld.  The only difference of opinion between the
+Advocate and himself, he said, was whether he had or had not definitely
+resigned his post on leaving Paris.
+
+Meantime it was necessary to fix upon a successor for this most important
+post.  The war soon after the new year had broken out in France.  Conde,
+Bouillon, and the other malcontent princes with their followers had taken
+possession of the fortress of Mezieres, and issued a letter in the name
+of Conde to the Queen-Regent demanding an assembly of the States-General
+of the kingdom and rupture of the Spanish marriages.  Both parties, that
+of the government and that of the rebellion, sought the sympathy and
+active succour of the States.  Maurice, acting now in perfect accord
+with the Advocate, sustained the Queen and execrated the rebellion of
+his relatives with perfect frankness.  Conde, he said, had got his head
+stuffed full of almanacs whose predictions he wished to see realized.
+He vowed he would have shortened by a head the commander of the garrison
+who betrayed Mezieres, if he had been under his control.  He forbade on
+pain of death the departure of any officer or private of the French
+regiments from serving the rebels, and placed the whole French force at
+the disposal of the Queen, with as many Netherland regiments as could be
+spared.  One soldier was hanged and three others branded with the mark of
+a gibbet on the face for attempting desertion.  The legal government was
+loyally sustained by the authority of the States, notwithstanding all the
+intrigues of Aerssens with the agents of the princes to procure them
+assistance.  The mutiny for the time was brief, and was settled on the
+15th of May 1614, by the peace of Sainte-Menehould, as much a caricature
+of a treaty as the rising had been the parody of a war. Van der Myle,
+son-in-law of Barneveld, who had been charged with a special and
+temporary mission to France, brought back the terms, of the convention to
+the States-General.  On the other hand, Conde and his confederates sent a
+special agent to the Netherlands to give their account of the war and the
+negotiation, who refused to confer either with du Maurier or Barneveld,
+but who held much conference with Aerssens.
+
+It was obvious enough that the mutiny of the princes would become
+chronic.  In truth, what other condition was possible with two characters
+like Mary de' Medici and the Prince of Conde respectively at the head of
+the government and the revolt?  What had France to hope for but to remain
+the bloody playground for mischievous idiots, who threw about the
+firebrands and arrows of reckless civil war in pursuit of the paltriest
+of personal aims?
+
+Van der Myle had pretensions to the vacant place of Aerssens.  He had
+some experience in diplomacy.  He had conducted skilfully enough the
+first mission of the States to Venice, and had subsequently been employed
+in matters of moment.  But he was son-in-law to Barneveld, and although
+the Advocate was certainly not free from the charge of nepotism, he
+shrank from the reproach of having apparently removed Aerssens to make a
+place for one of his own family.
+
+Van der Myle remained to bear the brunt of the late ambassador's malice,
+and to engage at a little later period in hottest controversy with him,
+personal and political.  "Why should van der Myle strut about, with his
+arms akimbo like a peacock?" complained Aerssens one day in confused
+metaphor.  A question not easy to answer satisfactorily.
+
+The minister selected was a certain Baron Asperen de Langerac, wholly
+unversed in diplomacy or other public affairs, with abilities not above
+the average.  A series of questions addressed by him to the Advocate, the
+answers to which, scrawled on the margin of the paper, were to serve for
+his general instructions, showed an ingenuousness as amusing as the
+replies of Barneveld were experienced and substantial.
+
+In general he was directed to be friendly and respectful to every one, to
+the Queen-Regent and her counsellors especially, and, within the limits
+of becoming reverence for her, to cultivate the good graces of the Prince
+of Conde and the other great nobles still malcontent and rebellious, but
+whose present movement, as Barneveld foresaw, was drawing rapidly to a
+close.  Langerac arrived in Paris on the 5th of April 1614.
+
+Du Maurier thought the new ambassador likely to "fall a prey to the
+specious language and gentle attractions of the Due de Bouillon."  He
+also described him as very dependent upon Prince Maurice.  On the other
+hand Langerac professed unbounded and almost childlike reverence for
+Barneveld,  was devoted to his person, and breathed as it were only
+through his inspiration.  Time would show whether those sentiments would
+outlast every possible storm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+     Weakness of the Rulers of France and England--The Wisdom of
+     Barneveld inspires Jealousy--Sir Dudley Carleton succeeds Winwood--
+     Young Neuburg under the Guidance of Maximilian--Barneveld strives to
+     have the Treaty of Xanten enforced--Spain and the Emperor wish to
+     make the States abandon their Position with regard to the Duchies--
+     The French Government refuses to aid the States--Spain and the
+     Emperor resolve to hold Wesel--The great Religious War begun--The
+     Protestant Union and Catholic League both wish to secure the Border
+     Provinces--Troubles in Turkey--Spanish Fleet seizes La Roche--Spain
+     places large Armies on a War Footing.
+
+Few things are stranger in history than the apathy with which the wide
+designs of the Catholic party were at that moment regarded.  The
+preparations for the immense struggle which posterity learned to call the
+Thirty Years' War, and to shudder when speaking of it, were going forward
+on every side.  In truth the war had really begun, yet those most deeply
+menaced by it at the outset looked on with innocent calmness because
+their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze.  The passage of arms in
+the duchies, the outlines of which have just been indicated, and which
+was the natural sequel of the campaign carried out four years earlier on
+the same territory, had been ended by a mockery.  In France, reduced
+almost to imbecility by the absence of a guiding brain during a long
+minority, fallen under the distaff of a dowager both weak and wicked,
+distracted by the intrigues and quarrels of a swarm of self-seeking
+grandees, and with all its offices, from highest to lowest, of court,
+state, jurisprudence, and magistracy, sold as openly and as cynically as
+the commonest wares, there were few to comprehend or to grapple with the
+danger.  It should have seemed obvious to the meanest capacity in the
+kingdom that the great house of Austria, reigning supreme in Spain and in
+Germany, could not be allowed to crush the Duke of Savoy on the one side,
+and Bohemia, Moravia, and the Netherlands on the other without danger of
+subjection for France.  Yet the aim of the Queen-Regent was to cultivate
+an impossible alliance with her inevitable foe.
+
+And in England, ruled as it then was with no master mind to enforce
+against its sovereign the great lessons of policy, internal and external,
+on which its welfare and almost its imperial existence depended, the only
+ambition of those who could make their opinions felt was to pursue the
+same impossibility, intimate alliance with the universal foe.
+
+Any man with slightest pretensions to statesmanship knew that the liberty
+for Protestant worship in Imperial Germany, extorted by force, had been
+given reluctantly, and would be valid only as long as that force
+could still be exerted or should remain obviously in reserve.
+The "Majesty-Letter" and the "Convention" of the two religions would
+prove as flimsy as the parchment on which they were engrossed, the
+Protestant churches built under that sanction would be shattered like
+glass, if once the Catholic rulers could feel their hands as clear as
+their consciences would be for violating their sworn faith to heretics.
+Men knew, even if the easy-going and uxorious emperor, into which
+character the once busy and turbulent Archduke Matthias had subsided,
+might be willing to keep his pledges, that Ferdinand of Styria, who would
+soon succeed him, and Maximilian of Bavaria were men who knew their own
+minds, and had mentally never resigned one inch of the ground which
+Protestantism imagined itself to have conquered.
+
+These things seem plain as daylight to all who look back upon them
+through the long vista of the past; but the sovereign of England did not
+see them or did not choose to see them.  He saw only the Infanta and her
+two millions of dowry, and he knew that by calling Parliament together
+to ask subsidies for an anti-Catholic war he should ruin those golden
+matrimonial prospects for his son, while encouraging those "shoemakers,"
+his subjects, to go beyond their "last," by consulting the
+representatives of his people on matters pertaining to the mysteries of
+government.  He was slowly digging the grave of the monarchy and building
+the scaffold of his son; but he did his work with a laborious and
+pedantic trifling, when really engaged in state affairs, most amazing to
+contemplate.  He had no penny to give to the cause in which his nearest
+relatives mere so deeply involved and for which his only possible allies
+were pledged; but he was ready to give advice to all parties, and with
+ludicrous gravity imagined himself playing the umpire between great
+contending hosts, when in reality he was only playing the fool at the
+beck of masters before whom he quaked.
+
+"You are not to vilipend my counsel," said he one day to a foreign envoy.
+"I am neither a camel nor an ass to take up all this work on my
+shoulders.  Where would you find another king as willing to do
+it as I am?"
+
+The King had little time and no money to give to serve his own family and
+allies and the cause of Protestantism, but he could squander vast sums
+upon worthless favourites, and consume reams of paper on controverted
+points of divinity.  The appointment of Vorstius to the chair of theology
+in Leyden aroused more indignation in his bosom, and occupied more of his
+time, than the conquests of Spinola in the duchies, and the menaces of
+Spain against Savoy and Bohemia.  He perpetually preached moderation to
+the States in the matter of the debateable territory, although moderation
+at that moment meant submission to the House of Austria.  He chose to
+affect confidence in the good faith of those who were playing a comedy
+by which no statesman could be deceived, but which had secured the
+approbation of the Solomon of the age.
+
+But there was one man who was not deceived.  The warnings and the
+lamentations of Barneveld sound to us out of that far distant time like
+the voice of an inspired prophet.  It is possible that a portion of the
+wrath to come might have been averted had there been many men in high
+places to heed his voice.  I do not wish to exaggerate the power and
+wisdom of the man, nor to set him forth as one of the greatest heroes of
+history.  But posterity has done far less than justice to a statesman and
+sage who wielded a vast influence at a most critical period in the fate
+of Christendom, and uniformly wielded it to promote the cause of
+temperate human liberty, both political and religious.  Viewed by the
+light of two centuries and a half of additional experience, he may appear
+to have made mistakes, but none that were necessarily disastrous or even
+mischievous.  Compared with the prevailing idea of the age in which he
+lived, his schemes of polity seem to dilate into large dimensions, his
+sentiments of religious freedom, however limited to our modern ideas,
+mark an epoch in human progress, and in regard to the general
+commonwealth of Christendom, of which he was so leading a citizen, the
+part he played was a lofty one.  No man certainly understood the tendency
+of his age more exactly, took a broader and more comprehensive view than
+he did of the policy necessary to preserve the largest portion of the
+results of the past three-quarters of a century, or had pondered the
+relative value of great conflicting forces more skilfully.  Had his
+counsels been always followed, had illustrious birth placed him virtually
+upon a throne, as was the case with William the Silent, and thus allowed
+him occasionally to carry out the designs of a great mind with almost
+despotic authority, it might have been better for the world.  But in that
+age it was royal blood alone that could command unflinching obedience
+without exciting personal rivalry.  Men quailed before his majestic
+intellect, but hated him for the power which was its necessary result.
+They already felt a stupid delight in cavilling at his pedigree.  To
+dispute his claim to a place among the ancient nobility to which he was
+an honour was to revenge themselves for the rank he unquestionably
+possessed side by side in all but birth with the kings and rulers of the
+world.  Whether envy and jealousy be vices more incident to the
+republican form of government than to other political systems may be an
+open question.  But it is no question whatever that Barneveld's every
+footstep from this period forward was dogged by envy as patient as it was
+devouring.  Jealousy stuck to him like his shadow.  We have examined the
+relations which existed between Winwood and himself; we have seen that
+ambassador, now secretary of state for James, never weary in denouncing
+the Advocate's haughtiness and grim resolution to govern the country
+according to its laws rather than at the dictate of a foreign sovereign,
+and in flinging forth malicious insinuations in regard to his relations
+to Spain.  The man whose every hour was devoted in spite of a thousand
+obstacles strewn by stupidity, treachery, and apathy, as well as by envy,
+hatred, and bigotry--to the organizing of a grand and universal league of
+Protestantism against Spain, and to rolling up with strenuous and
+sometimes despairing arms a dead mountain weight, ever ready to fall back
+upon and crush him, was accused in dark and mysterious whispers, soon to
+grow louder and bolder, of a treacherous inclination for Spain.
+
+There is nothing less surprising nor more sickening for those who observe
+public life, and wish to retain faith in the human species, than the
+almost infinite power of the meanest of passions.
+
+The Advocate was obliged at the very outset of Langerac's mission to
+France to give him a warning on this subject.
+
+"Should her Majesty make kindly mention of me," he said, "you will say
+nothing of it in your despatches as you did in your last, although I am
+sure with the best intentions.  It profits me not, and many take umbrage
+at it; wherefore it is wise to forbear."
+
+But this was a trifle.  By and by there would be many to take umbrage at
+every whisper in his favour, whether from crowned heads or from the
+simplest in the social scale.  Meantime he instructed the Ambassador,
+without paying heed to personal compliments to his chief, to do his best
+to keep the French government out of the hands of Spain, and with that
+object in view to smooth over the differences between the two great
+parties in the kingdom, and to gain the confidence, if possible, of Conde
+and Nevers and Bouillon, while never failing in straightforward respect
+and loyal friendship to the Queen-Regent and her ministers, as the
+legitimate heads of the government.
+
+From England a new ambassador was soon to take the place of Winwood.
+Sir Dudley Carleton was a diplomatist of respectable abilities, and well
+trained to business and routine.  Perhaps on the whole there was none
+other, in that epoch of official mediocrity, more competent than he to
+fill what was then certainly the most important of foreign posts.  His
+course of life had in no wise familiarized him with the intricacies of
+the Dutch constitution, nor could the diplomatic profession, combined
+with a long residence at Venice, be deemed especially favourable for deep
+studies of the mysteries of predestination.  Yet he would be found ready
+at the bidding of his master to grapple with Grotius and Barneveld on the
+field of history and law, and thread with Uytenbogaert or Taurinus all
+the subtleties of Arminianism and Gomarism as if he had been half his
+life both a regular practitioner at the Supreme Court of the Hague and
+professor of theology at the University of Leyden.  Whether the triumphs
+achieved in such encounters were substantial and due entirely to his own
+genius might be doubtful.  At all events he had a sovereign behind him
+who was incapable of making a mistake on any subject.
+
+"You shall not forget," said James in his instructions to Sir Dudley,
+"that you are the minister of that master whom God hath made the sole
+protector of his religion .  .  .  .  .  and you may let fall how hateful
+the maintaining of erroneous opinions is to the majesty of God and how
+displeasing to us."
+
+The warlike operations of 1614 had been ended by the abortive peace
+of Xanten.  The two rival pretenders to the duchies were to halve the
+territory, drawing lots for the first choice, all foreign troops were
+to be withdrawn, and a pledge was to be given that no fortress should
+be placed in the hands of any power.  But Spain at the last moment had
+refused to sanction the treaty, and everything was remitted to what might
+be exactly described as a state of sixes and sevens.  Subsequently it was
+hoped that the States' troops might be induced to withdraw simultaneously
+with the Catholic forces on an undertaking by Spinola that there should
+be no re-occupation of the disputed territory either by the Republic or
+by Spain.  But Barneveld accurately pointed out that, although the
+Marquis was a splendid commander and, so long as he was at the head of
+the armies, a most powerful potentate, he might be superseded at any
+moment.  Count Bucquoy, for example, might suddenly appear in his place
+and refuse to be bound by any military arrangement of his predecessor.
+Then the Archduke proposed to give a guarantee that in case of a mutual
+withdrawal there should be no return of the troops, no recapture of
+garrisons.  But Barneveld, speaking for the States, liked not the
+security.  The Archduke was but the puppet of Spain, and Spain had no
+part in the guarantee.  She held the strings, and might cause him at any
+moment to play what pranks she chose.  It would be the easiest thing in
+the world for despotic Spain, so the Advocate thought, to reappear
+suddenly in force again at a moment's notice after the States' troops had
+been withdrawn and partially disbanded, and it would be difficult for the
+many-headed and many-tongued republic to act with similar promptness.
+To withdraw without a guarantee from Spain to the Treaty of Xanten, which
+had once been signed, sealed, and all but ratified, would be to give up
+fifty points in the game.  Nothing but disaster could ensue.  The
+Advocate as leader in all these negotiations and correspondence was
+ever actuated by the favourite quotation of William the Silent from
+Demosthenes, that the safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is
+distrust.  And he always distrusted in these dealings, for he was sure
+the Spanish cabinet was trying to make fools of the States, and there
+were many ready to assist it in the task.  Now that one of the
+pretenders, temporary master of half the duchies, the Prince of Neuburg,
+had espoused both Catholicism and the sister of the Archbishop of Cologne
+and the Duke of Bavaria, it would be more safe than ever for Spain to
+make a temporary withdrawal.  Maximilian of Bavaria was beyond all
+question the ablest and most determined leader of the Catholic party in
+Germany, and the most straightforward and sincere.  No man before or
+since his epoch had, like him, been destined to refuse, and more than
+once refuse, the Imperial crown.
+
+Through his apostasy the Prince of Neuburg was in danger of losing his
+hereditary estates, his brothers endeavouring to dispossess him on the
+ground of the late duke's will, disinheriting any one of his heirs who
+should become a convert to Catholicism.  He had accordingly implored aid
+from the King of Spain.  Archduke Albert had urged Philip to render such
+assistance as a matter of justice, and the Emperor had naturally declared
+that the whole right as eldest son belonged, notwithstanding the will,
+to the Prince.
+
+With the young Neuburg accordingly under the able guidance of Maximilian,
+it was not likely that the grasp of the Spanish party upon these all-
+important territories would be really loosened.  The Emperor still
+claimed the right to decide among the candidates and to hold the
+provinces under sequestration till the decision should be made--that was
+to say, until the Greek Kalends.  The original attempt to do this through
+Archduke Leopold had been thwarted, as we have seen, by the prompt
+movements of Maurice sustained by the policy of Barneveld.  The Advocate
+was resolved that the Emperor's name should not be mentioned either in
+the preamble or body of the treaty.  And his course throughout the
+simulations, which were never negotiations, was perpetually baffled as
+much by the easiness and languor of his allies as the ingenuity of the
+enemy.
+
+He was reproached with the loss of Wesel, that Geneva of the Rhine,
+which would never be abandoned by Spain if it was not done forthwith.
+Let Spain guarantee the Treaty of Xanten, he said, and then she cannot
+come back.  All else is illusion.  Moreover, the Emperor had given
+positive orders that Wesel should not be given up.  He was assured by
+Villeroy that France would never put on her harness for Aachen, that
+cradle of Protestantism.  That was for the States-General to do, whom it
+so much more nearly concerned.  The whole aim of Barneveld was not to
+destroy the Treaty of Xanten, but to enforce it in the only way in which
+it could be enforced, by the guarantee of Spain.  So secured, it would be
+a barrier in the universal war of religion which he foresaw was soon to
+break out.  But it was the resolve of Spain, instead of pledging herself
+to the treaty, to establish the legal control of the territory in the
+hand of the Emperor.  Neuburg complained that Philip in writing to him
+did not give him the title of Duke of Julich and Cleve, although be had
+been placed in possession of those estates by the arms of Spain.  Philip,
+referring to Archduke Albert for his opinion on this subject, was advised
+that, as the Emperor had not given Neuburg the investiture of the
+duchies, the King was quite right in refusing him the title.  Even
+should the Treaty of Xanten be executed, neither he nor the Elector of
+Brandenburg would be anything but administrators until the question of
+right was decided by the Emperor.
+
+Spain had sent Neuburg the Order of the Golden Fleece as a reward for his
+conversion, but did not intend him to be anything but a man of straw in
+the territories which he claimed by sovereign right.  They were to form a
+permanent bulwark to the Empire, to Spain, and to Catholicism.
+
+Barneveld of course could never see the secret letters passing between
+Brussels and Madrid, but his insight into the purposes of the enemy was
+almost as acute as if the correspondence of Philip and Albert had been in
+the pigeonholes of his writing-desk in the Kneuterdyk.
+
+The whole object of Spain and the Emperor, acting through the Archduke,
+was to force the States to abandon their positions in the duchies
+simultaneously with the withdrawal of the Spanish troops, and to be
+satisfied with a bare convention between themselves and Archduke Albert
+that there should be no renewed occupation by either party.  Barneveld,
+finding it impossible to get Spain upon the treaty, was resolved that at
+least the two mediating powers, their great allies, the sovereigns of
+Great Britain and France, should guarantee the convention, and that the
+promises of the Archduke should be made to them.  This was steadily
+refused by Spain; for the Archduke never moved an inch in the matter
+except according to the orders of Spain, and besides battling and
+buffeting with the Archduke, Barneveld was constantly deafened with the
+clamour of the English king, who always declared Spain to be in the right
+whatever she did, and forced to endure with what patience he might the
+goading of that King's envoy.  France, on the other hand, supported the
+States as firmly as could have been reasonably expected.
+
+"We proposed," said the Archduke, instructing an envoy whom he was
+sending to Madrid with detailed accounts of these negotiations, "that
+the promise should be made to each other as usual in treaties.  But the
+Hollanders said the promise should be made to the Kings of France and
+England, at which the Emperor would have been deeply offended, as if
+in the affair he was of no account at all.  At any moment by this
+arrangement in concert with France and England the Hollanders might walk
+in and do what they liked."
+
+Certainly there could have been no succincter eulogy of the policy
+steadily recommended, as we shall have occasion to see, by Barneveld.
+Had he on this critical occasion been backed by England and France
+combined, Spain would have been forced to beat a retreat, and
+Protestantism in the great general war just beginning would have had
+an enormous advantage in position.  But the English Solomon could not
+see the wisdom of this policy.  "The King of England says we are right,"
+continued the Archduke, "and has ordered his ambassador to insist on our
+view.  The French ambassador here says that his colleague at the Hague
+has similar instructions, but admits that he has not acted up to them.
+There is not much chance of the Hollanders changing.  It would be well
+that the King should send a written ultimatum that the Hollanders should
+sign the convention which we propose.  If they don't agree, the world at
+least will see that it is not we who are in fault."
+
+The world would see, and would never have forgiven a statesman in
+the position of Barneveld, had he accepted a bald agreement from a
+subordinate like the Archduke, a perfectly insignificant personage in
+the great drama then enacting, and given up guarantees both from the
+Archduke's master and from the two great allies of the Republic.  He
+stood out manfully against Spain and England at every hazard, and under a
+pelting storm of obloquy, and this was the man whose designs the English
+secretary of state had dared to describe "as of no other nature than to
+cause the Provinces to relapse into the hands of Spain."
+
+It appeared too a little later that Barneveld's influence with the French
+government, owing to his judicious support of it so long as it was a
+government, had been decidedly successful.  Drugged as France was by the
+Spanish marriage treaty, she was yet not so sluggish nor spell-bound as
+the King of Great Britain.
+
+"France will not urge upon the Hollanders to execute the proposal as we
+made it," wrote the Archduke to the King, "so negotiations are at a
+standstill.  The Hollanders say it is better that each party should
+remain with what each possesses.  So that if it does not come to blows,
+and if these insolences go on as they have done, the Hollanders will be
+gaining and occupying more territory every day."
+
+Thus once more the ancient enemies and masters of the Republic were
+making the eulogy of the Dutch statesman.  It was impossible at present
+for the States to regain Wesel, nor that other early stronghold of the
+Reformation, the old Imperial city of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle).  The
+price to be paid was too exorbitant.
+
+The French government had persistently refused to assist the States and
+possessory princes in the recovery of this stronghold.  The Queen-Regent
+was afraid of offending Spain, although her government had induced the
+citizens of the place to make the treaty now violated by that country.
+The Dutch ambassador had been instructed categorically to enquire whether
+their Majesties meant to assist Aachen and the princes if attacked by the
+Archdukes.  "No," said Villeroy; "we are not interested in Aachen, 'tis
+too far off.  Let them look for assistance to those who advised their
+mutiny."
+
+To the Ambassador's remonstrance that France was both interested in and
+pledged to them, the Secretary of State replied, "We made the treaty
+through compassion and love, but we shall not put on harness for Aachen.
+Don't think it.  You, the States and the United Provinces, may assist
+them if you like."
+
+The Envoy then reminded the Minister that the States-General had always
+agreed to go forward evenly in this business with the Kings of Great
+Britain and France and the united princes, the matter being of equal
+importance to all.  They had given no further pledge than this to the
+Union.
+
+It was plain, however, that France was determined not to lift a finger at
+that moment.  The Duke of Bouillon and those acting with him had tried
+hard to induce their Majesties "to write seriously to the Archduke in
+order at least to intimidate him by stiff talk," but it was hopeless.
+They thought it was not a time then to quarrel with their neighbour and
+give offence to Spain.
+
+So the stiff talk was omitted, and the Archduke was not intimidated.  The
+man who had so often intimidated him was in his grave, and his widow was
+occupied in marrying her son to the Infanta.  "These are the first-
+fruits," said Aerssens, "of the new negotiations with Spain."
+
+Both the Spanish king and the Emperor were resolved to hold Wesel to the
+very last.  Until the States should retire from all their positions on
+the bare word of the Archduke, that the Spanish forces once withdrawn
+would never return, the Protestants of those two cities must suffer.
+There was no help for it.  To save them would be to abandon all.  For
+no true statesman could be so ingenuous as thus to throw all the cards
+on the table for the Spanish and Imperial cabinet to shuffle them at
+pleasure for a new deal.  The Duke of Neuburg, now Catholic and
+especially protected by Spain, had become, instead of a pretender with
+more or less law on his side, a mere standard-bearer and agent of the
+Great Catholic League in the debateable land.  He was to be supported at
+all hazard by the Spanish forces, according to the express command of
+Philip's government, especially now that his two brothers with the
+countenance of the States were disputing his right to his hereditary
+dominions in Germany.
+
+The Archduke was sullen enough at what he called the weak-mindedness of
+France.  Notwithstanding that by express orders from Spain he had sent
+5000 troops under command of Juan de Rivas to the Queen's assistance just
+before the peace of Sainte-Menehould, he could not induce her government
+to take the firm part which the English king did in browbeating the
+Hollanders.
+
+"'Tis certain," he complained, "that if, instead of this sluggishness on
+the part of France, they had done us there the same good services we have
+had from England, the Hollanders would have accepted the promise just as
+it was proposed by us."  He implored the King, therefore, to use his
+strongest influence with the French government that it should strenuously
+intervene with the Hollanders, and compel them to sign the proposal which
+they rejected.  "There is no means of composition if France does not
+oblige them to sign," said Albert rather piteously.
+
+But it was not without reason that Barneveld had in many of his letters
+instructed the States' ambassador, Langerac, "to caress the old
+gentleman" (meaning and never naming Villeroy), for he would prove to be
+in spite of all obstacles a good friend to the States, as he always had
+been.  And Villeroy did hold firm.  Whether the Archduke was right or
+not in his conviction, that, if France would only unite with England in
+exerting a strong pressure on the Hollanders, they would evacuate the
+duchies, and so give up the game, the correspondence of Barneveld shows
+very accurately.  But the Archduke, of course, had not seen that
+correspondence.
+
+The Advocate knew what was plotting, what was impending, what was
+actually accomplished, for he was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon
+with an anxious and comprehensive glance.  He knew without requiring to
+read the secret letters of the enemy that vast preparations for an
+extensive war against the Reformation were already completed.  The
+movements in the duchies were the first drops of a coming deluge.
+The great religious war which was to last a generation of mankind had
+already begun; the immediate and apparent pretext being a little
+disputed succession to some petty sovereignties, the true cause being
+the necessity for each great party--the Protestant Union and the Catholic
+League--to secure these border provinces, the possession of which would
+be of such inestimable advantage to either.  If nothing decisive occurred
+in the year 1614, the following year would still be more convenient for
+the League.  There had been troubles in Turkey.  The Grand Vizier had
+been murdered.  The Sultan was engaged in a war with Persia.  There was
+no eastern bulwark in Europe to the ever menacing power of the Turk and
+of Mahometanism in Europe save Hungary alone.  Supported and ruled as
+that kingdom was by the House of Austria, the temper of the populations
+of Germany had become such as to make it doubtful in the present conflict
+of religious opinions between them and their rulers whether the Turk or
+the Spaniard would be most odious as an invader.  But for the moment,
+Spain and the Emperor had their hands free.  They were not in danger of
+an attack from below the Danube.  Moreover, the Spanish fleet had been
+achieving considerable successes on the Barbary coast, having seized La
+Roche, and one or two important citadels, useful both against the
+corsairs and against sudden attacks by sea from the Turk.  There were at
+least 100,000 men on a war footing ready to take the field at command of
+the two branches of the House of Austria, Spanish and German.  In the
+little war about Montserrat, Savoy was on the point of being crushed,
+and Savoy was by position and policy the only possible ally, in the
+south, of the Netherlands and of Protestant Germany.
+
+While professing the most pacific sentiments towards the States, and a
+profound anxiety to withdraw his troops from their borders, the King of
+Spain, besides daily increasing those forces, had just raised 4,000,000
+ducats, a large portion of which was lodged with his bankers in Brussels.
+Deeds like those were of more significance than sugared words.
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Almost infinite power of the meanest of passions
+Ludicrous gravity
+Safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust
+Their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze
+Therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1613-15 ***
+
+************ This file should be named 4891.txt or 4891.zip ***********
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