As a king he spent his reign--so much of it as could be spared from

gourmandizing, drunkenness, dalliance with handsome minions of his own

sex, and theological pursuits--in rescuing the Crown from dependence on

Parliament; in straining to the utmost the royal prerogative; in

substituting proclamations for statutes; in doing everything in his

power, in short, to smooth the path for his successor to the scaffold. As

father of a family he consecrated many years of his life to the wondrous

delusion of the Spanish marriages.

The Gunpowder Plot seemed to have inspired him with an insane desire for

that alliance, and few things in history are more amazing than the

persistency with which he pursued the scheme, until the pursuit became

not only ridiculous, but impossible.

With such a man, frivolous, pedantic, conceited, and licentious, the

earnest statesmen of Holland were forced into close alliance. It is

pathetic to see men like Barneveld and Hugo Grotius obliged, on great

occasions of state, to use the language of respect and affection to one

by whom they were hated, and whom they thoroughly despised.

But turning away from France, it was in vain for them to look for kings

or men either among friends or foes. In Germany religious dissensions

were gradually ripening into open war, and it would be difficult to

imagine a more hopelessly incompetent ruler than the man who was

nominally chief of the Holy Roman Realm. Yet the distracted Rudolph was

quite as much an emperor as the chaos over which he was supposed to

preside was an empire. Perhaps the very worst polity ever devised by

human perverseness was the system under which the great German race was

then writhing and groaning. A mad world with a lunatic to govern it; a

democracy of many princes, little and big, fighting amongst each other,

and falling into daily changing combinations as some masterly or

mischievous hand whirled the kaleidoscope; drinking Rhenish by hogsheads,

and beer by the tun; robbing churches, dictating creeds to their

subjects, and breaking all the commandments themselves; a people at the

bottom dimly striving towards religious freedom and political life out of

abject social, ecclesiastical, and political serfdom, and perhaps even

then dumbly feeling within its veins, with that prophetic instinct which

never abandons great races, a far distant and magnificent Future of

national unity and Imperial splendour, the very reverse of the confusion

which was then the hideous Present; an Imperial family at top with many

heads and slender brains; a band of brothers and cousins wrangling,

intriguing, tripping up each others' heels, and unlucky Rudolph, in his

Hradschin, looking out of window over the peerless Prague, spread out in

its beauteous landscape of hill and dale, darkling forest, dizzy cliffs,

and rushing river, at his feet, feebly cursing the unhappy city for its

ingratitude to an invisible and impotent sovereign; his excellent brother

Matthias meanwhile marauding through the realms and taking one crown

after another from his poor bald head.

It would be difficult to depict anything more precisely what an emperor

in those portentous times should not be. He collected works of art of

many kinds--pictures, statues, gems. He passed his days in his galleries

contemplating in solitary grandeur these treasures, or in his stables,

admiring a numerous stud of horses which he never drove or rode.

Ambassadors and ministers of state disguised themselves as grooms and

stable-boys to obtain accidental glimpses of a sovereign who rarely

granted audiences. His nights were passed in star-gazing with Tycho de

Brake, or with that illustrious Suabian whose name is one of the great

lights and treasures of the world. But it was not to study the laws of

planetary motion nor to fathom mysteries of divine harmony that the

monarch stood with Kepler in the observatory. The influence of countless

worlds upon the destiny of one who, by capricious accident, if accident

ever exists in history, had been entrusted with the destiny of so large a

portion of one little world; the horoscope, not of the Universe, but of

himself; such were the limited purposes with which the Kaiser looked upon

the constellations.

For the Catholic Rudolph had received the Protestant Kepler, driven from

Tubingen because Lutheran doctors, knowing from Holy Writ that the sun

had stood still in Ajalon, had denounced his theory of planetary motion.

His mother had just escaped being burned as a witch, and the world owes a

debt of gratitude to the Emperor for protecting the astrologer, when

enlightened theologians might, perhaps, have hanged the astronomer.

A red-faced, heavy fowled, bald-headed, somewhat goggle-eyed old

gentleman, Rudolph did his best to lead the life of a hermit, and escape

the cares of royalty. Timid by temperament, yet liable to fits of

uncontrollable anger, he broke his furniture to pieces when irritated,

and threw dishes that displeased him in his butler's face, but left

affairs of state mainly to his valet, who earned many a penny by selling

the Imperial signature.

He had just signed the famous "Majestatsbrief," by which he granted vast

privileges to the Protestants of Bohemia, and had bitten the pen to

pieces in a paroxysm of anger, after dimly comprehending the extent of

the concessions which he had made.

There were hundreds of sovereign states over all of which floated the

shadowy and impalpable authority of an Imperial crown scarcely fixed on

the head of any one of the rival brethren and cousins; there was a

confederation of Protestants, with the keen-sighted and ambitious

Christian of Anhalt acting as its chief, and dreaming of the Bohemian

crown; there was the just-born Catholic League, with the calm,

far-seeing, and egotistical rather than self-seeking Maximilian at its

head; each combination extending over the whole country, stamped with

imbecility of action from its birth, and perverted and hampered by

inevitable jealousies. In addition to all these furrows ploughed by the

very genius of discord throughout the unhappy land was the wild and

secret intrigue with which Leopold, Archduke and Bishop, dreaming also of

the crown of Wenzel, was about to tear its surface as deeply as he dared.

Thus constituted were the leading powers of Europe in the earlier part of

1609--the year in which a peaceful period seemed to have begun. To those

who saw the entangled interests of individuals, and the conflict of

theological dogmas and religious and political intrigue which furnished

so much material out of which wide-reaching schemes of personal ambition

could be spun, it must have been obvious that the interval of truce was

necessarily but a brief interlude between two tragedies.

It seemed the very mockery of Fate that, almost at the very instant when

after two years' painful negotiation a truce had been made, the signal

for universal discord should be sounded. One day in the early summer of

1609, Henry IV. came to the Royal Arsenal, the residence of Sully,

accompanied by Zamet and another of his intimate companions. He asked for

the Duke and was told that he was busy in his study. "Of course," said

the King, turning to his followers, "I dare say you expected to be told

that he was out shooting, or with the ladies, or at the barber's. But who

works like Sully? Tell him," he said, "to come to the balcony in his

garden, where he and I are not accustomed to be silent."

As soon as Sully appeared, the King observed: "Well; here the Duke of

Cleve is dead, and has left everybody his heir."

It was true enough, and the inheritance was of vital importance to the

world.

It was an apple of discord thrown directly between the two rival camps

into which Christendom was divided. The Duchies of Cleve, Berg, and

Julich, and the Counties and Lordships of Mark, Ravensberg, and

Ravenstein, formed a triangle, political and geographical, closely wedged

between Catholicism and Protestantism, and between France, the United

Provinces, Belgium, and Germany. Should it fall into Catholic hands, the

Netherlands were lost, trampled upon in every corner, hedged in on all

sides, with the House of Austria governing the Rhine, the Meuse, and the

Scheldt. It was vital to them to exclude the Empire from the great

historic river which seemed destined to form the perpetual frontier of

jealous powers and rival creeds.

Should it fall into heretic hands, the States were vastly strengthened,

the Archduke Albert isolated and cut off from the protection of Spain and

of the Empire. France, although Catholic, was the ally of Holland and the

secret but well known enemy of the House of Austria. It was inevitable

that the king of that country, the only living statesman that wore a

crown, should be appealed to by all parties and should find himself in

the proud but dangerous position of arbiter of Europe.

In this emergency he relied upon himself and on two men besides,

Maximilian de Bethune and John of Barneveld. The conference between the

King and Sully and between both and Francis Aerssens, ambassador of the

States, were of almost daily occurrence. The minute details given in the

adroit diplomatist's correspondence indicate at every stage the extreme

deference paid by Henry to the opinion of Holland's Advocate and the

confidence reposed by him in the resources and the courage of the

Republic.

All the world was claiming the heritage of the duchies.

It was only strange that an event which could not be long deferred and

the consequences of which were soon to be so grave, the death of the Duke

of Cleve, should at last burst like a bomb-shell on the council tables of

the sovereigns and statesmen of Europe. That mischievous madman John

William died childless in the spring of 1609. His sister Sibylla, an

ancient and malignant spinster, had governed him and his possessions

except in his lucid intervals. The mass of the population over which he

ruled being Protestant, while the reigning family and the chief nobles

were of the ancient faith, it was natural that the Catholic party under,

the lead of Maximilian of Bavaria should deem it all-important that there

should be direct issue to that family. Otherwise the inheritance on his

death would probably pass to Protestant princes.

The first wife provided for him was a beautiful princess; Jacobea of

Baden. The Pope blessed the nuptials, and sent the bride a golden rose,

but the union was sterile and unhappy. The Duke, who was in the habit of

careering through his palace in full armour, slashing at and wounding

anyone that came in his way, was at last locked up. The hapless Jacobea,

accused by Sibylla of witchcraft and other crimes possible and

impossible, was thrown into prison. Two years long the devilish malignity

of the sister-in-law was exercised upon her victim, who, as it is

related, was not allowed natural sleep during all that period, being at

every hour awakened by command of Sibylla. At last the Duchess was

strangled in prison. A new wife was at once provided for the lunatic,

Antonia of Lorraine. The two remained childless, and Sibylla at the age

of forty-nine took to herself a husband, the Margrave of Burgau, of the

House of Austria, the humble birth of whose mother, however, did not

allow him the rank of Archduke. Her efforts thus to provide Catholic

heirs to the rich domains of Clove proved as fruitless as her previous

attempts.

And now Duke John William had died, and the representatives of his three

dead sisters, and the living Sibylla were left to fight for the duchies.

It would be both cruel and superfluous to inflict on the reader a

historical statement of the manner in which these six small provinces

were to be united into a single state. It would be an equally sterile

task to retrace the legal arguments by which the various parties prepared

themselves to vindicate their claims, each pretender more triumphantly

than the other. The naked facts alone retain vital interest, and of these

facts the prominent one was the assertion of the Emperor that the

duchies, constituting a fief masculine, could descend to none of the

pretenders, but were at his disposal as sovereign of Germany.

On the other hand nearly all the important princes of that country sent

their agents into the duchies to look after the interests real or

imaginary which they claimed.

There were but four candidates who in reality could be considered serious

ones.

Mary Eleanor, eldest sister of the Duke, had been married in the lifetime

of their father to Albert Frederic of Brandenburg, Duke of Prussia. To

the children of this marriage was reserved the succession of the whole

property in case of the masculine line becoming extinct. Two years

afterwards the second sister, Anne, was married to Duke Philip Lewis,

Count-Palatine of Neuburg; the children of which marriage stood next in

succession to those of the eldest sister, should that become

extinguished. Four years later the third sister, Magdalen, espoused the

Duke John, Count-Palatine of Deux-Ponts; who, like Neuburg, made

resignation of rights of succession in favour of the descendants of the

Brandenburg marriage. The marriage of the youngest sister, Sibylla, with

the Margrave of Burgau has been already mentioned. It does not appear

that her brother, whose lunatic condition hardly permitted him to assure

her the dowry which had been the price of renunciation in the case of her

three elder sisters, had obtained that renunciation from her.

The claims of the childless Sibylla as well as those of the Deux-Ponts

branch were not destined to be taken into serious consideration.

The real competitors were the Emperor on the one side and the Elector of

Brandenburg and the Count-Palatine of Neuburg on the other.

It is not necessary to my purpose to say a single word as to the legal

and historical rights of the controversy. Volumes upon volumes of

forgotten lore might be consulted, and they would afford exactly as much

refreshing nutriment as would the heaps of erudition hardly ten years

old, and yet as antiquated as the title-deeds of the Pharaohs, concerning

the claims to the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. The fortunate house of

Brandenburg may have been right or wrong in both disputes. It is certain

that it did not lack a more potent factor in settling the political

problems of the world in the one case any more than in the other.

But on the occasion with which we are occupied it was not on the might of

his own right hand that the Elector of Brandenburg relied. Moreover, he

was dilatory in appealing to the two great powers on whose friendship he

must depend for the establishment of his claims: the United Republic and

the King of France. James of England was on the whole inclined to believe

in the rights of Brandenburg. His ambassador, however, with more

prophetic vision than perhaps the King ever dreamt--of, expressed a fear

lest Brandenburg should grow too great and one day come to the Imperial

crown.

The States openly favoured the Elector. Henry as at first disposed

towards Neuburg, but at his request Barneveld furnished a paper on the

subject, by which the King seems to have been entirely converted to the

pretensions of Brandenburg.

But the solution of the question had but little to do with the legal

claim of any man. It was instinctively felt throughout Christendom that

the great duel between the ancient church and the spirit of the

Reformation was now to be renewed upon that narrow, debateable spot.

The Emperor at once proclaimed his right to arbitrate on the succession

and to hold the territory until decision should be made; that is to say,

till the Greek Kalends. His familiar and most tricksy spirit,

Bishop-Archduke Leopold, played at once on his fears and his resentments,

against the ever encroaching, ever menacing, Protestantism of Germany,

with which he had just sealed a compact so bitterly detested.

That bold and bustling prelate, brother of the Queen of Spain and of

Ferdinand of Styria, took post from Prague in the middle of July.

Accompanied by a certain canon of the Church and disguised as his

servant, he arrived after a rapid journey before the gates of Julich,

chief city and fortress of the duchies. The governor of the place,

Nestelraed, inclined like most of the functionaries throughout the

duchies to the Catholic cause, was delighted to recognize under the

livery of the lackey the cousin and representative of the Emperor.

Leopold, who had brought but five men with him, had conquered his capital

at a blow. For while thus comfortably established as temporary governor

of the duchies he designed through the fears or folly of Rudolph to

become their sovereign lord. Strengthened by such an acquisition and

reckoning on continued assistance in men and money from Spain and the

Catholic League, he meant to sweep back to the rescue of the perishing

Rudolph, smite the Protestants of Bohemia, and achieve his appointment to

the crown of that kingdom.

The Spanish ambassador at Prague had furnished him with a handsome sum of

money for the expenses of his journey and preliminary enterprise. It

should go hard but funds should be forthcoming to support him throughout

this audacious scheme. The champion of the Church, the sovereign prince

of important provinces, the possession of which ensured conclusive

triumph to the House of Austria and to Rome--who should oppose him in his

path to Empire? Certainly not the moody Rudolph, the slippery and

unstable Matthias, the fanatic and Jesuit-ridden Ferdinand.

"Leopold in Julich," said Henry's agent in Germany, "is a ferret in a

rabbit warren."

But early in the spring and before the arrival of Leopold, the two

pretenders, John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, and Philip Lewis,

Palatine of Neuburg, had made an arrangement. By the earnest advice of

Barneveld in the name of the States-General and as the result of a

general council of many Protestant princes of Germany, it had been

settled that those two should together provisionally hold and administer

the duchies until the principal affair could be amicably settled.

The possessory princes were accordingly established in Dusseldorf with

the consent of the provincial estates, in which place those bodies were

wont to assemble.

Here then was Spain in the person of Leopold quietly perched in the chief

citadel of the country, while Protestantism in the shape of the

possessory princes stood menacingly in the capital.

Hardly was the ink dry on the treaty which had suspended for twelve years

the great religious war of forty years, not yet had the ratifications

been exchanged, but the trumpet was again sounding, and the hostile

forces were once more face to face.

Leopold, knowing where his great danger lay, sent a friendly message to

the States-General, expressing the hope that they would submit to his

arrangements until the Imperial decision should be made.

The States, through the pen and brain of Barneveld, replied that they had

already recognized the rights of the possessory princes, and were

surprised that the Bishop-Archduke should oppose them. They expressed the

hope that, when better informed, he would see the validity of the Treaty

of Dortmund. "My Lords the States-General," said the Advocate, "will

protect the princes against violence and actual disturbances, and are

assured that the neighbouring kings and princes will do the same. They

trust that his Imperial Highness will not allow matters, to proceed to

extremities."

This was language not to be mistaken. It was plain that the Republic did

not intend the Emperor to decide a question of life and death to herself,

nor to permit Spain, exhausted by warfare, to achieve this annihilating

triumph by a petty intrigue.

While in reality the clue to what seemed to the outside world a

labyrinthine maze of tangled interests and passions was firmly held in

the hand of Barneveld, it was not to him nor to My Lords the

States-General that the various parties to the impending conflict applied

in the first resort.

Mankind were not yet sufficiently used to this young republic, intruding

herself among the family of kings, to defer at once to an authority which

they could not but feel.

Moreover, Henry of France was universally looked to both by friends and

foes as the probable arbiter or chief champion in the great debate. He

had originally been inclined to favour Neuberg, chiefly, so Aerssens

thought, on account of his political weakness. The States-General on the

other hand were firmly disposed for Brandenburg from the first, not only

as a strenuous supporter of the Reformation and an ancient ally of their

own always interested in their safety, but because the establishment of

the Elector on the Rhine would roll back the Empire beyond that river. As

Aerssens expressed it, they would have the Empire for a frontier, and

have no longer reason to fear the Rhine.

The King, after the representations of the States, saw good ground to

change his opinion and; becoming convinced that the Palatine had long

been coquetting with the Austrian party, soon made no secret of his

preference for Brandenburg. Subsequently Neuburg and Brandenburg fell

into a violent quarrel notwithstanding an arrangement that the Palatine

should marry the daughter of the Elector. In the heat of discussion

Brandenburg on one occasion is said to have given his intended son-in-law

a box on the ear! an argument 'ad hominem' which seems to have had the

effect of sending the Palatine into the bosom of the ancient church and

causing him to rely thenceforth upon the assistance of the League.

Meantime, however, the Condominium settled by the Treaty of Dortmund

continued in force; the third brother of Brandenburg and the eldest son

of Neuburg sharing possession and authority at Dusseldorf until a final

decision could be made.

A flock of diplomatists, professional or volunteers, openly accredited or

secret, were now flying busily about through the troubled atmosphere,

indicating the coming storm in which they revelled. The keen-sighted,

subtle, but dangerously intriguing ambassador of the Republic, Francis

Aerssens, had his hundred eyes at all the keyholes in Paris, that centre

of ceaseless combination and conspiracy, and was besides in almost daily

confidential intercourse with the King. Most patiently and minutely he

kept the Advocate informed, almost from hour to hour, of every web that

was spun, every conversation public or whispered in which important

affairs were treated anywhere and by anybody. He was all-sufficient as a

spy and intelligencer, although not entirely trustworthy as a counsellor.

Still no man on the whole could scan the present or forecast the future

more accurately than he was able to do from his advantageous position and

his long experience of affairs.

There was much general jealousy between the States and the despotic king,

who loved to be called the father of the Republic and to treat the

Hollanders as his deeply obliged and very ungrateful and miserly little

children. The India trade was a sore subject, Henry having throughout the

negotiations sought to force or wheedle the States into renouncing that

commerce at the command of Spain, because he wished to help himself to it

afterwards, and being now in the habit of secretly receiving Isaac Le

Maire and other Dutch leaders in that lucrative monopoly, who lay

disguised in Paris and in the house of Zamet--but not concealed from

Aerssens, who pledged himself to break, the neck of their enterprise--and

were planning with the King a French East India Company in opposition to

that of the Netherlands.

On the whole, however, despite these commercial intrigues which Barneveld

through the aid of Aerssens was enabled to baffle, there was much

cordiality and honest friendship between the two countries. Henry, far

from concealing his political affection for the Republic, was desirous of

receiving a special embassy of congratulation and gratitude from the

States on conclusion of the truce; not being satisfied with the warm

expressions of respect and attachment conveyed through the ordinary

diplomatic channel.

"He wishes," wrote Aerssens to the Advocate, "a public demonstration--in

order to show on a theatre to all Christendom the regard and deference of

My Lords the States for his Majesty." The Ambassador suggested that

Cornelis van der Myle, son-in-law of Barneveld, soon to be named first

envoy for Holland to the Venetian republic, might be selected as chief of

such special embassy.

"Without the instructions you gave me," wrote Aerssens, "Neuburg might

have gained his cause in this court. Brandenburg is doing himself much

injury by not soliciting the King."

"Much deference will be paid to your judgment," added the envoy, "if you

see fit to send it to his Majesty."

Meantime, although the agent of Neuburg was busily dinning in Henry's

ears the claims of the Palatine, and even urging old promises which, as

he pretended, had been made, thanks to Barneveld, he took little by his

importunity, notwithstanding that in the opinion both of Barneveld and

Villeroy his claim 'stricti-juris' was the best. But it was policy and

religious interests, not the strict letter of the law, that were likely

to prevail. Henry, while loudly asserting that he would oppose any

usurpation on the part of the Emperor or any one else against the

Condominium, privately renewed to the States assurances of his intention

to support ultimately the claims of Brandenburg, and notified them to

hold the two regiments of French infantry, which by convention they still

kept at his expense in their service, to be ready at a moment's warning

for the great enterprise which he was already planning. "You would do

well perhaps," wrote Aerssens to Barneveld, "to set forth the various

interests in regard to this succession, and of the different relations of

the claimants towards our commonwealth; but in such sort nevertheless and

so dexterously that the King may be able to understand your desires, and

on the other hand may see the respect you bear him in appearing to defer

to his choice."

Neuburg, having always neglected the States and made advances to Archduke

Albert, and being openly preferred over Brandenburg by the Austrians, who

had however no intention of eventually tolerating either, could make but

small headway at court, notwithstanding Henry's indignation that

Brandenburg had not yet made the slightest demand upon him for

assistance.

The Elector had keenly solicited the aid of the states, who were bound to

him by ancient contract on this subject, but had manifested wonderful

indifference or suspicion in regard to France. "These nonchalant

Germans," said Henry on more than one occasion, "do nothing but sleep or

drink."

It was supposed that the memory of Metz might haunt the imagination of

the Elector. That priceless citadel, fraudulently extorted by Henry II.

as a forfeit for assistance to the Elector of Saxony three quarters of a

century before, gave solemn warning to Brandenburg of what might be

exacted by a greater Henry, should success be due to his protection. It

was also thought that he had too many dangers about him at home, the

Poles especially, much stirred up by emissaries from Rome, making many

troublesome demonstrations against the Duchy of Prussia.

It was nearly midsummer before a certain Baron Donals arrived as emissary

of the Elector. He brought with him, many documents in support of the

Brandenburg claims, and was charged with excuses for the dilatoriness of

his master. Much stress was laid of course on the renunciation made by

Neuburg at the tithe of his marriage, and Henry was urged to grant his

protection to the Elector in his good rights. But thus far there were few

signs of any vigorous resolution for active measures in an affair which

could scarcely fail to lead to war.

"I believe," said Henry to the States ambassador, "that the right of

Brandenburg is indubitable, and it is better for you and for me that he

should be the man rather than Neuburg, who has always sought assistance

from the House of Austria. But he is too lazy in demanding possession. It

is the fault of the doctors by whom he is guided. This delay works in

favour of the Emperor, whose course however is less governed by any

determination of his own than by the irresolution of the princes."

Then changing the conversation, Henry asked the Ambassador whether the

daughter of de Maldere, a leading statesman of Zealand, was married or of

age to be married, and if she was rich; adding that they must make a

match between her and Barneveld's second son, then a young gentleman in

the King's service, and very much liked by him.

Two months later a regularly accredited envoy, Belin by name, arrived

from the Elector. His instructions were general. He was to thank the King

for his declarations in favour of the possessory princes, and against all

usurpation on the part of the Spanish party. Should the religious cord be

touched, he was to give assurances that no change would be made in this

regard. He was charged with loads of fine presents in yellow amber, such

as ewers, basins, tables, cups, chessboards, for the King and Queen, the

Dauphin, the Chancellor, Villeroy, Sully, Bouillon, and other eminent

personages. Beyond the distribution of these works of art and the

exchange of a few diplomatic commonplaces, nothing serious in the way of

warlike business was transacted, and Henry was a few weeks later much

amused by receiving a letter from the possessory princes coolly thrown

into the post-office, and addressed like an ordinary letter to a private

person, in which he was requested to advance them a loan of 400,000

crowns. There was a great laugh at court at a demand made like a bill of

exchange at sight upon his Majesty as if he had been a banker, especially

as there happened to be no funds of the drawers in his hands. It was

thought that a proper regard for the King's quality and the amount of the

sum demanded required that the letter should be brought at least by an

express messenger, and Henry was both diverted and indignant at these

proceedings, at the months long delay before the princes had thought

proper to make application for his protection, and then for this cool

demand for alms on a large scale as a proper beginning of their

enterprise.

Such was the languid and extremely nonchalant manner in which the early

preparations for a conflict which seemed likely to set Europe in a blaze,

and of which possibly few living men might witness the termination, were

set on foot by those most interested in the immediate question.

Chessboards in yellow amber and a post-office order for 400,000 crowns

could not go far in settling the question of the duchies in which the

great problem dividing Christendom as by an abyss was involved.

Meantime, while such were the diplomatic beginnings of the possessory

princes, the League was leaving no stone unturned to awaken Henry to a

sense of his true duty to the Church of which he was Eldest Son.

Don Pedro de Toledo's mission in regard to the Spanish marriages had

failed because Henry had spurned the condition which was unequivocally

attached to them on the part of Spain, the king's renunciation of his

alliance with the Dutch Republic, which then seemed an equivalent to its

ruin. But the treaty of truce and half-independence had been signed at

last by the States and their ancient master, and the English and French

negotiators had taken their departure, each receiving as a present for

concluding the convention 20,000 livres from the Archdukes, and 30,000

from the States-General. Henry, returning one summer's morning from the

chase and holding the Count of Soissons by one hand and Ambassador

Aerssens by the other, told them he had just received letters from Spain

by which he learned that people were marvellously rejoiced at the

conclusion of the truce. Many had regretted that its conditions were so

disadvantageous and so little honourable to the grandeur and dignity of

Spain, but to these it was replied that there were strong reasons why

Spain should consent to peace on these terms rather than not have it at

all. During the twelve years to come the King could repair his disasters

and accumulate mountains of money in order to finish the war by the

subjugation of the Provinces by force of gold.

Soissons here interrupted the King by saying that the States on their

part would finish it by force of iron.

Aerssens, like an accomplished courtier, replied they would finish it by

means of his Majesty's friendship.

The King continued by observing that the clear-sighted in Spain laughed

at these rodomontades, knowing well that it was pure exhaustion that had

compelled the King to such extremities. "I leave you to judge," said

Henry, "whether he is likely to have any courage at forty-five years of

age, having none now at thirty-two. Princes show what they have in them

of generosity and valour at the age of twenty-five or never." He said

that orders had been sent from Spain to disband all troops in the

obedient Netherlands except Spaniards and Italians, telling the Archdukes

that they must raise the money out of the country to content them. They

must pay for a war made for their benefit, said Philip. As for him he

would not furnish one maravedi.

Aerssens asked if the Archdukes would disband their troops so long as the

affair of Cleve remained unsettled. "You are very lucky," replied the

King, "that Europe is governed by such princes as you wot of. The King of

Spain thinks of nothing but tranquillity. The Archdukes will never move

except on compulsion. The Emperor, whom every one is so much afraid of in

this matter, is in such plight that one of these days, and before long,

he will be stripped of all his possessions. I have news that the

Bohemians are ready to expel him."

It was true enough that Rudolph hardly seemed a formidable personage. The

Utraquists and Bohemian Brothers, making up nearly the whole population

of the country, were just extorting religious liberty from their unlucky

master in his very palace and at the point of the knife. The envoy of

Matthias was in Paris demanding recognition of his master as King of

Hungary, and Henry did not suspect the wonderful schemes of Leopold, the

ferret in the rabbit warren of the duchies, to come to the succour of his

cousin and to get himself appointed his successor and guardian.

Nevertheless, the Emperor's name had been used to protest solemnly

against the entrance into Dusseldorf of the Margrave Ernest of

Brandenburg and Palatine Wolfgang William of Neuburg, representatives

respectively of their brother and father.

The induction was nevertheless solemnly made by the Elector-Palatine and

the Landgrave of Hesse, and joint possession solemnly taken by

Brandenburg and Neuburg in the teeth of the protest, and expressly in

order to cut short the dilatory schemes and the artifices of the Imperial

court.

Henry at once sent a corps of observation consisting of 1500 cavalry to

the Luxemburg frontier by way of Toul, Mezieres, Verdun, and Metz, to

guard against movements by the disbanded troops of the Archdukes, and

against any active demonstration against the possessory princes on the

part of the Emperor.

The 'Condominium' was formally established, and Henry stood before the

world as its protector threatening any power that should attempt

usurpation. He sent his agent Vidomacq to the Landgrave of Hesse with

instructions to do his utmost to confirm the princes of the Union in

organized resistance to the schemes of Spain, and to prevent any

interference with the Condominium.

He wrote letters to the Archdukes and to the Elector of Cologne, sternly

notifying them that he would permit no assault upon the princes, and

meant to protect them in their rights. He sent one of his most

experienced diplomatists, de Boississe, formerly ambassador in England,

to reside for a year or more in the duchies as special representative of

France, and directed him on his way thither to consult especially with

Barneveld and the States-General as to the proper means of carrying out

their joint policy either by diplomacy or, if need should be, by their

united arms.

Troops began at once to move towards the frontier to counteract the plans

of the Emperor's council and the secret levies made by Duchess Sibylla's

husband, the Margrave of Burgau. The King himself was perpetually at

Monceaux watching the movements of his cavalry towards the Luxemburg

frontier, and determined to protect the princes in their possession until

some definite decision as to the sovereignty of the duchies should be

made.

Meantime great pressure was put upon him by the opposite party. The Pope

did his best through the Nuncius at Paris directly, and through agents at

Prague, Brussels, and Madrid indirectly, to awaken the King to a sense of

the enormity of his conduct.

Being a Catholic prince, it was urged, he had no right to assist

heretics. It was an action entirely contrary to his duty as a Christian

and of his reputation as Eldest Son of the Church. Even if the right were

on the side of the princes, his Majesty would do better to strip them of

it and to clothe himself with it than to suffer the Catholic faith and

religion to receive such notable detriment in an affair likely to have

such important consequences.

Such was some of the advice given by the Pontiff. The suggestions were

subtle, for they were directed to Henry's self-interest both as champion

of the ancient church and as a possible sovereign of the very territories

in dispute. They were also likely, and were artfully so intended, to

excite suspicion of Henry's designs in the breasts of the Protestants

generally and of the possessory princes especially. Allusions indeed to

the rectification of the French border in Henry II.'s time at the expense

of Lorraine were very frequent. They probably accounted for much of the

apparent supineness and want of respect for the King of which he

complained every day and with so much bitterness.

The Pope's insinuations, however, failed to alarm him, for he had made up

his mind as to the great business of what might remain to him of life; to

humble the House of Austria and in doing so to uphold the Dutch Republic

on which he relied for his most efficient support. The situation was a

false one viewed from the traditional maxims which governed Europe. How

could the Eldest Son of the Church and the chief of an unlimited monarchy

make common cause with heretics and republicans against Spain and Rome?

That the position was as dangerous as it was illogical, there could be

but little doubt. But there was a similarity of opinion between the King

and the political chief of the Republic on the great principle which was

to illume the distant future but which had hardly then dawned upon the

present; the principle of religious equality. As he protected Protestants

in France so he meant to protect Catholics in the duchies. Apostate as he

was from the Reformed Church as he had already been from the Catholic, he

had at least risen above the paltry and insolent maxim of the princely

Protestantism of Germany: "Cujus regio ejus religio."

While refusing to tremble before the wrath of Rome or to incline his ear

to its honeyed suggestions, he sent Cardinal Joyeuse with a special

mission to explain to the Pope that while the interests of France would

not permit him to allow the Spaniard's obtaining possession of provinces

so near to her, he should take care that the Church received no detriment

and that he should insist as a price of the succour he intended for the

possessory princes that they should give ample guarantees for the liberty

of Catholic worship.

There was no doubt in the mind either of Henry or of Barneveld that the

secret blows attempted by Spain at the princes were in reality aimed at

the Republic and at himself as her ally.

While the Nuncius was making these exhortations in Paris, his colleague

from Spain was authorized to propound a scheme of settlement which did

not seem deficient in humour. At any rate Henry was much diverted with

the suggestion, which was nothing less than that the decision as to the

succession to the duchies should be left to a board of arbitration

consisting of the King of Spain, the Emperor, and the King of France. As

Henry would thus be painfully placed by himself in a hopeless minority,

the only result of the scheme would be to compel him to sanction a

decision sure to be directly the reverse of his own resolve. He was

hardly such a schoolboy in politics as to listen to the proposal except

to laugh at it.

Meantime arrived from Julich, without much parade, a quiet but somewhat

pompous gentleman named Teynagel. He had formerly belonged to the

Reformed religion, but finding it more to his taste or advantage to

become privy councillor of the Emperor, he had returned to the ancient

church. He was one of the five who had accompanied the Archduke Leopold

to Julich.

That prompt undertaking having thus far succeeded so well, the warlike

bishop had now despatched Teynagel on a roving diplomatic mission.

Ostensibly he came to persuade Henry that, by the usages and laws of the

Empire, fiefs left vacant for want of heirs male were at the disposal of

the Emperor. He expressed the hope therefore of obtaining the King's

approval of Leopold's position in Julich as temporary vicegerent of his

sovereign and cousin. The real motive of his mission, however, was

privately to ascertain whether Henry was really ready to go to war for

the protection of the possessory princes, and then, to proceed to Spain.

It required an astute politician, however, to sound all the shoals,

quicksands, and miseries through which the French government was then

steering, and to comprehend with accuracy the somewhat varying humours of

the monarch and the secret schemes of the ministers who immediately

surrounded him.

People at court laughed at Teynagel and his mission, and Henry treated

him as a crackbrained adventurer. He announced himself as envoy of the

Emperor, although he had instructions from Leopold only. He had

interviews with the Chancellor and with Villeroy, and told them that

Rudolf claimed the right of judge between the various pretenders to the

duchies. The King would not be pleased, he observed, if the King of Great

Britain should constitute himself arbiter among claimants that might make

their appearance for the crown of France; but Henry had set himself up as

umpire without being asked by any one to act in that capacity among the

princes of Germany. The Emperor, on the contrary, had been appealed to by

the Duke of Nevers, the Elector of Saxony, the Margrave of Burgau, and

other liege subjects of the Imperial crown as a matter of course and of

right. This policy of the King, if persisted in, said Teynagel, must lead

to war. Henry might begin such a war, but he would be obliged to bequeath

it to the Dauphin. He should remember that France had always been unlucky

when waging war with the Empire and with the house of Austria.'

The Chancellor and Villeroy, although in their hearts not much in love

with Henry's course, answered the emissary with arrogance equal to his

own that their king could finish the war as well as begin it, that he

confided in his strength and the justice of his cause, and that he knew

very well and esteemed very little the combined forces of Spain and the

Empire. They added that France was bound by the treaty of Vervins to

protect the princes, but they offered no proof of that rather startling

proposition.

Meantime Teynagel was busy in demonstrating that the princes of Germany

were in reality much more afraid of Henry than of the Emperor. His

military movements and deep designs excited more suspicion throughout

that country and all Europe than the quiet journey of Leopold and five

friends by post to Julich.

He had come provided with copies of the King's private letters to the

princes, and seemed fully instructed as to his most secret thoughts. For

this convenient information he was supposed to be indebted to the

revelations of Father Cotton, who was then in disgrace; having been

detected in transmitting to the General of Jesuits Henry's most sacred

confidences and confessions as to his political designs.

Fortified with this private intelligence, and having been advised by

Father Cotton to carry matters with a high hand in order to inspire the

French court with a wholesome awe, he talked boldly about the legitimate

functions of the Emperor. To interfere with them, he assured the

ministers, would lead to a long and bloody war, as neither the King nor

the Archduke Albert would permit the Emperor to be trampled upon.

Peter Pecquius, the crafty and experienced agent of the Archduke at

Paris, gave the bouncing envoy more judicious advice, however, than that

of the Jesuit, assuring him that he would spoil his whole case should he

attempt to hold such language to the King.

He was admitted to an audience of Henry at Monceaux, but found him

prepared to show his teeth as Aerssens had predicted. He treated Teynagel

as a mere madcap and, adventurer who had no right to be received as a

public minister at all, and cut short his rodomontades by assuring him

that his mind was fully made up to protect the possessory princes.

Jeannin was present at the interview, although, as Aerssens well

observed, the King required no pedagogue on such an occasion? Teynagel

soon afterwards departed malcontent to Spain, having taken little by his

abnormal legation to Henry, and being destined to find at the court of

Philip as urgent demands on that monarch for assistance to the League as

he was to make for Leopold and the House of Austria.

For the League, hardly yet thoroughly organized under the leadership of

Maximilian of Bavaria, was rather a Catholic corrival than cordial ally

of the Imperial house. It was universally suspected that Henry meant to

destroy and discrown the Habsburgs, and it lay not in the schemes of

Maximilian to suffer the whole Catholic policy to be bound to the

fortunes of that one family.

Whether or not Henry meant to commit the anachronism and blunder of

reproducing the part of Charlemagne might be doubtful. The supposed

design of Maximilian to renew the glories of the House of Wittelsbach was

equally vague. It is certain, however, that a belief in such ambitious

schemes on the part of both had been insinuated into the ears of Rudolf,

and had sunk deeply into his unsettled mind.

Scarcely had Teynagel departed than the ancient President Richardot

appeared upon the scene. "The mischievous old monkey," as he had

irreverently been characterized during the Truce negotiations, "who

showed his tail the higher he climbed," was now trembling at the thought

that all the good work he had been so laboriously accomplishing during

the past two years should be annihilated. The Archdukes, his masters,

being sincerely bent on peace, had deputed him to Henry, who, as they

believed, was determined to rekindle war. As frequently happens in such

cases, they were prepared to smooth over the rough and almost impassable

path to a cordial understanding by comfortable and cheap commonplaces

concerning the blessings of peace, and to offer friendly compromises by

which they might secure the prizes of war without the troubles and

dangers of making it.

They had been solemnly notified by Henry that he would go to war rather

than permit the House of Austria to acquire the succession to the

duchies. They now sent Richardot to say that neither the Archdukes nor

the King of Spain would interfere in the matter, and that they hoped the

King of France would not prevent the Emperor from exercising his rightful

functions of judge.

Henry, who knew that Don Baltasar de Cuniga, Spanish ambassador at the

Imperial court, had furnished Leopold, the Emperor's cousin, with 50,000

crowns to defray his first expenses in the Julich expedition, considered

that the veteran politician had come to perform a school boy's task. He

was more than ever convinced by this mission of Richardot that the

Spaniards had organized the whole scheme, and he was likely only to smile

at any propositions the President might make.

At the beginning of his interview, in which the King was quite alone,

Richardot asked if he would agree to maintain neutrality like the King of

Spain and the Archdukes, and allow the princes to settle their business

with the Emperor.

"No," said the King.

He then asked if Henry would assist them in their wrong.

"No," said the King.

He then asked if the King thought that the princes had justice on their

side, and whether, if the contrary were shown, he would change his

policy?

Henry replied that the Emperor could not be both judge and party in the

suit and that the King of Spain was plotting to usurp the provinces

through the instrumentality of his brother-in-law Leopold and under the

name of the Emperor. He would not suffer it, he said.

"Then there will be a general war," replied Richardot, "since you are

determined to assist these princes."

"Be it so," said the King.

"You are right," said the President, "for you are a great and puissant

monarch, having all the advantages that could be desired, and in case of

rupture I fear that all this immense power will be poured out over us who

are but little princes."

"Cause Leopold to retire then and leave the princes in their right," was

the reply. "You will then have nothing to fear. Are you not very unhappy

to live under those poor weak archdukes? Don't you foresee that as soon

as they die you will lose all the little you have acquired in the

obedient Netherlands during the last fifty years?"

The President had nothing to reply to this save that he had never

approved of Leopold's expedition, and that when Spaniards make mistakes

they always had recourse to their servants to repair their faults. He had

accepted this mission inconsiderately, he said, inspired by a hope to

conjure the rising storms mingled with fears as to the result which were

now justified. He regretted having come, he said.

The King shrugged his shoulders.

Richardot then suggested that Leopold might be recognized in Julich, and

the princes at Dusseldorf, or that all parties might retire until the

Emperor should give his decision.

All these combinations were flatly refused by the King, who swore that no

one of the House of Austria should ever perch in any part of those

provinces. If Leopold did not withdraw at once, war was inevitable.

He declared that he would break up everything and dare everything,

whether the possessory princes formally applied to him or not. He would

not see his friends oppressed nor allow the Spaniard by this usurpation

to put his foot on the throat of the States-General, for it was against

them that this whole scheme was directed.

To the President's complaints that the States-General had been moving

troops in Gelderland, Henry replied at once that it was done by his

command, and that they were his troops.

With this answer Richardot was fain to retire crestfallen, mortified, and

unhappy. He expressed repentance and astonishment at the result, and

protested that those peoples were happy whose princes understood affairs.

His princes were good, he said, but did not give themselves the trouble

to learn their business.

Richardot then took his departure from Paris, and very soon afterwards

from the world. He died at Arras early in September, as many thought of

chagrin at the ill success of his mission, while others ascribed it to a

surfeit of melons and peaches.

"Senectus edam maorbus est," said Aerssens with Seneca.

Henry said he could not sufficiently wonder at these last proceedings at

his court, of a man he had deemed capable and sagacious, but who had been

committing an irreparable blunder. He had never known two such

impertinent ambassadors as Don Pedro de Toledo and Richardot on this

occasion. The one had been entirely ignorant of the object of his

mission; the other had shown a vain presumption in thinking he could

drive him from his fixed purpose by a flood of words. He had accordingly

answered him on the spot without consulting his council, at which poor

Richardot had been much amazed.

And now another envoy appeared upon the scene, an ambassador coming

directly from the Emperor. Count Hohenzollern, a young man, wild, fierce,

and arrogant, scarcely twenty-three years of age, arrived in Paris on the

7th of September, with a train of forty horsemen.

De Colly, agent of the Elector-Palatine, had received an outline of his

instructions, which the Prince of Anhalt had obtained at Prague. He

informed Henry that Hohenzollern would address him thus: "You are a king.

You would not like that the Emperor should aid your subjects in

rebellion. He did not do this in the time of the League, although often

solicited to do so. You should not now sustain the princes in disobeying

the Imperial decree. Kings should unite in maintaining the authority and

majesty of each other." He would then in the Emperor's name urge the

claims of the House of Saxony to the duchies.

Henry was much pleased with this opportune communication by de Colly of

the private instructions to the Emperor's envoy, by which he was enabled

to meet the wild and fierce young man with an arrogance at least equal to

his own.

The interview was a stormy one. The King was alone in the gallery of the

Louvre, not choosing that his words and gestures should be observed. The

Envoy spoke much in the sense which de Colly had indicated; making a long

argument in favour of the Emperor's exclusive right of arbitration, and

assuring the King that the Emperor was resolved on war if interference

between himself and his subjects was persisted in. He loudly pronounced

the proceedings of the possessory princes to be utterly illegal, and

contrary to all precedent. The Emperor would maintain his authority at

all hazards, and one spark of war would set everything in a blaze within

the Empire and without.

Henry replied sternly but in general terms, and referred him for a final

answer to his council.

"What will you do," asked the Envoy, categorically, at a subsequent

interview about a month later, "to protect the princes in case the

Emperor constrains them to leave the provinces which they have unjustly

occupied?"

"There is none but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say,"

replied the King. "It is enough for you to know that I will never abandon

my friends in a just cause. The Emperor can do much for the general

peace. He is not to lend his name to cover this usurpation."

And so the concluding interview terminated in an exchange of threats

rather than with any hope of accommodation.

Hohenzollern used as high language to the ministers as to the monarch,

and received payment in the same coin. He rebuked their course not very

adroitly as being contrary to the interests of Catholicism. They were

placing the provinces in the hands of Protestants, he urged. It required

no envoy from Prague to communicate this startling fact. Friends and

foes, Villeroy and Jeannin, as well as Sully and Duplessis, knew well

enough that Henry was not taking up arms for Rome. "Sir! do you look at

the matter in that way?" cried Sully, indignantly. "The Huguenots are as

good as the Catholics. They fight like the devil!"

"The Emperor will never permit the princes to remain nor Leopold to

withdraw," said the Envoy to Jeannin.

Jeannin replied that the King was always ready to listen to reason, but

there was no use in holding language of authority to him. It was money he

would not accept.

"Fiat justitia pereat mundus," said the haggard Hohenzollern.

"Your world may perish," replied Jeannin, "but not ours. It is much

better put together."

A formal letter was then written by the King to the Emperor, in which

Henry expressed his desire to maintain peace and fraternal relations, but

notified him that if, under any pretext whatever, he should trouble the

princes in their possession, he would sustain them with all his power,

being bound thereto by treaties and by reasons of state.

This letter was committed to the care of Hohenzollern, who forthwith

departed, having received a present of 4000 crowns. His fierce, haggard

face thus vanishes for the present from our history.

The King had taken his ground, from which there was no receding. Envoys

or agents of Emperor, Pope, King of Spain, Archduke at Brussels, and

Archduke at Julich, had failed to shake his settled purpose. Yet the road

was far from smooth. He had thus far no ally but the States-General. He

could not trust James of Great Britain. Boderie came back late in the

summer from his mission to that monarch, reporting him as being

favourably inclined to Brandenburg, but hoping for an amicable settlement

in the duchies. No suggestion being made even by the sagacious James as

to the manner in which the ferret and rabbits were to come to a

compromise, Henry inferred, if it came to fighting, that the English

government would refuse assistance. James had asked Boderie in fact

whether his sovereign and the States, being the parties chiefly

interested, would be willing to fight it out without allies. He had also

sent Sir Ralph Winwood on a special mission to the Hague, to Dusseldorf,

and with letters to the Emperor, in which he expressed confidence that

Rudolph would approve the proceedings of the possessory princes. As he

could scarcely do that while loudly claiming through his official envoy

in Paris that the princes should instantly withdraw on pain of instant

war, the value of the English suggestion of an amicable compromise might

easily be deduced.

Great was the jealousy in France of this mission from England. That the

princes should ask the interference of James while neglecting, despising,

or fearing Henry, excited Henry's wrath. He was ready, and avowed his

readiness, to put on armour at once in behalf of the princes, and to

arbitrate on the destiny of Germany, but no one seemed ready to follow

his standard. No one asked him to arbitrate. The Spanish faction wheedled

and threatened by turns, in order to divert him from his purpose, while

the Protestant party held aloof, and babbled of Charlemagne and of Henry

II.

He said he did not mean to assist the princes by halves, but as became a

King of France, and the princes expressed suspicion of him, talked of the

example of Metz, and called the Emperor their very clement lord.

It was not strange that Henry was indignant and jealous. He was holding

the wolf by the ears, as he himself observed more than once. The war

could not long be delayed; yet they in whose behalf it was to be waged

treated him with a disrespect and flippancy almost amounting to scorn.

They tried to borrow money of him through the post, and neglected to send

him an ambassador. This was most decidedly putting the cart before the

oxen, so Henry said, and so thought all his friends. When they had

blockaded the road to Julich, in order to cut off Leopold's supplies,

they sent to request that the two French regiments in the States' service

might be ordered to their assistance, Archduke Albert having threatened

to open the passage by force of arms. "This is a fine stratagem," said

Aerssens, "to fling the States-General headlong into the war, and, as it

were, without knowing it."

But the States-General, under the guidance of Barneveld, were not likely

to be driven headlong by Brandenburg and Neuburg. They managed with

caution, but with perfect courage, to move side by side with Henry, and

to leave the initiative to him, while showing an unfaltering front to the

enemy. That the princes were lost, Spain and the Emperor triumphant,

unless Henry and the States should protect them with all their strength,

was as plain as a mathematical demonstration.

Yet firm as were the attitude and the language of Henry, he was thought

to be hoping to accomplish much by bluster. It was certain that the bold

and unexpected stroke of Leopold had produced much effect upon his mind,

and for a time those admitted to his intimacy saw, or thought they saw, a

decided change in his demeanour. To the world at large his language and

his demonstrations were even more vehement than they had been at the

outset of the controversy; but it was believed that there was now a

disposition to substitute threats for action. The military movements set

on foot were thought to be like the ringing of bells and firing of cannon

to dissipate a thunderstorm. Yet it was treason at court to doubt the

certainty of war. The King ordered new suits of armour, bought splendid

chargers, and gave himself all the airs of a champion rushing to a

tournament as gaily as in the earliest days of his king-errantry. He

spoke of his eager desire to break a lance with Spinola, and give a

lesson to the young volunteer who had sprung into so splendid a military

reputation, while he had been rusting, as he thought, in pacific

indolence, and envying the laurels of the comparatively youthful Maurice.

Yet those most likely to be well informed believed that nothing would

come of all this fire and fury.

The critics were wrong. There was really no doubt of Henry's sincerity,

but his isolation was terrible. There was none true to him at home but

Sully. Abroad, the States-General alone were really friendly, so far as

positive agreements existed. Above all, the intolerable tergiversations

and suspicions of those most interested, the princes in possession, and

their bickerings among themselves, hampered his movements.

Treason and malice in his cabinet and household, jealousy and fear

abroad, were working upon and undermining him like a slow fever. His

position was most pathetic, but his purpose was fixed.

James of England, who admired, envied, and hated Henry, was wont to

moralize on his character and his general unpopularity, while engaged in

negotiations with him. He complained that in the whole affair of the

truce he had sought only his particular advantage. "This is not to be

wondered at in one of his nature," said the King, "who only careth to

provide for the felicities of his present life, without any respect for

his life to come. Indeed, the consideration of his own age and the youth

of his children, the doubt of their legitimation, the strength of

competitioners, and the universal hatred borne unto him, makes him seek

all means of security for preventing of all dangers."

There were changes from day to day; hot and cold fits necessarily

resulting from the situation. As a rule, no eminent general who has had

much experience wishes to go into a new war inconsiderately and for the

mere love of war. The impatience is often on the part of the

non-combatants. Henry was no exception to the rule. He felt that the

complications then existing, the religious, political, and dynastic

elements arrayed against each other, were almost certain to be brought to

a crisis and explosion by the incident of the duchies. He felt that the

impending struggle was probably to be a desperate and a general one, but

there was no inconsistency in hoping that the show of a vigorous and

menacing attitude might suspend, defer, or entirely dissipate the

impending storm.

The appearance of vacillation on his part from day to day was hardly

deserving of the grave censure which it received, and was certainly in

the interests of humanity.

His conferences with Sully were almost daily and marked by intense

anxiety. He longed for Barneveld, and repeatedly urged that the Advocate,

laying aside all other business, would come to Paris, that they might

advise together thoroughly and face to face. It was most important that

the combination of alliances should be correctly arranged before

hostilities began, and herein lay the precise difficulty. The princes

applied formally and freely to the States-General for assistance. They

applied to the King of Great Britain. The agents of the opposite party

besieged Henry with entreaties, and, failing in those, with threats;

going off afterwards to Spain, to the Archdukes, and to other Catholic

powers in search of assistance.

The States-General professed their readiness to put an army of 15,000

foot and 3000 horse in the field for the spring campaign, so soon as they

were assured of Henry's determination for a rupture.

"I am fresh enough still," said he to their ambassador, "to lead an army

into Cleve. I shall have a cheap bargain enough of the provinces. But

these Germans do nothing but eat and sleep. They will get the profit and

assign to me the trouble. No matter, I will never suffer the

aggrandizement of the House of Austria. The States-General must disband

no troops, but hold themselves in readiness."

Secretary of State Villeroy held the same language, but it was easy to

trace beneath his plausible exterior a secret determination to traverse

the plans of his sovereign. "The Cleve affair must lead to war," he said.

"The Spaniard, considering how necessary it is for him to have a prince

there at his devotion, can never quietly suffer Brandenburg and Neuburg

to establish themselves in those territories. The support thus gained by

the States-General would cause the loss of the Spanish Netherlands."

This was the view of Henry, too, but the Secretary of State, secretly

devoted to the cause of Spain, looked upon the impending war with much

aversion.

"All that can come to his Majesty from war," he said, "is the glory of

having protected the right. Counterbalance this with the fatigue, the

expense, and the peril of a great conflict, after our long repose, and

you will find this to be buying glory too dearly."

When a Frenchman talked of buying glory too dearly, it seemed probable

that the particular kind of glory was not to his taste.

Henry had already ordered the officers, then in France, of the 4000

French infantry kept in the States' service at his expense to depart at

once to Holland, and he privately announced his intention of moving to

the frontier at the head of 30,000 men.

'Yet not only Villeroy, but the Chancellor and the Constable, while

professing opposition to the designs of Austria and friendliness to those

of Brandenburg and Neuburg, deprecated this precipitate plunge into war.

"Those most interested," they said, "refuse to move; fearing Austria,

distrusting France. They leave us the burden and danger, and hope for the

spoils themselves. We cannot play cat to their monkey. The King must hold

himself in readiness to join in the game when the real players have

shuffled and dealt the cards. It is no matter to us whether the Spaniard

or Brandenburg or anyone else gets the duchies. The States-General

require a friendly sovereign there, and ought to say how much they will

do for that result."

The Constable laughed at the whole business. Coming straight from the

Louvre, he said "there would be no serious military movement, and that

all those fine freaks would evaporate in air."

But Sully never laughed. He was quietly preparing the ways and means for

the war, and he did not intend, so far as he had influence, that France

should content herself with freaks and let Spain win the game. Alone in

the council he maintained that "France had gone too far to recede without

sacrifice of reputation."--"The King's word is engaged both within and

without," he said. "Not to follow it with deeds would be dangerous to the

kingdom. The Spaniard will think France afraid of war. We must strike a

sudden blow, either to drive the enemy away or to crush him at once.

There is no time for delay. The Netherlands must prevent the

aggrandizement of Austria or consent to their own ruin."

Thus stood the game therefore. The brother of Brandenburg and son of

Neuburg had taken possession of Dusseldorf.

The Emperor, informed of this, ordered them forthwith to decamp. He

further summoned all pretenders to the duchies to appear before him, in

person or by proxy, to make good their claims. They refused and appealed

for advice and assistance to the States-General. Barneveld, aware of the

intrigues of Spain, who disguised herself in the drapery of the Emperor,

recommended that the Estates of Cleve, Julich, Berg, Mark, Ravensberg,

and Ravenstein, should be summoned in Dusseldorf. This was done and a

resolution taken to resist any usurpation.

The King of France wrote to the Elector of Cologne, who, by directions of

Rome and by means of the Jesuits, had been active in the intrigue, that

he would not permit the princes to be disturbed.

The Archduke Leopold suddenly jumped into the chief citadel of the

country and published an edict of the Emperor. All the proceedings were

thereby nullified as illegal and against the dignity of the realm and the

princes proclaimed under ban.

A herald brought the edict and ban to the princes in full assembly. The

princes tore it to pieces on the spot. Nevertheless they were much

frightened, and many members of the Estates took themselves off; others

showing an inclination to follow.

The princes sent forth with a deputation to the Hague to consult My Lords

the States-General. The States-General sent an express messenger to

Paris. Their ambassador there sent him back a week later, with notice of

the King's determination to risk everything against everything to

preserve the rights of the princes. It was added that Henry required to

be solicited by them, in order not by volunteer succour to give cause for

distrust as to his intentions. The States-General were further apprised

by the King that his interests and theirs were so considerable in the

matter that they would probably be obliged to go into a brisk and open

war, in order to prevent the Spaniard from establishing himself in the

duchies. He advised them to notify the Archdukes in Brussels that they

would regard the truce as broken if, under pretext of maintaining the

Emperor's rights, they should molest the princes. He desired them further

to send their forces at once to the frontier of Gelderland under Prince

Maurice, without committing any overt act of hostility, but in order to

show that both the King and the States were thoroughly in earnest.

The King then sent to Archduke Albert, as well as to the Elector of

Cologne, and despatched a special envoy to the King of Great Britain.

Immediately afterwards came communications from Barneveld to Henry, with

complete adhesion to the King's plans. The States would move in exact

harmony with him, neither before him nor after him, which was precisely

what he wished. He complained bitterly to Aerssens, when he communicated

the Advocate's despatches, of the slothful and timid course of the

princes. He ascribed it to the arts of Leopold, who had written and

inspired many letters against him insinuating that he was secretly in

league and correspondence with the Emperor; that he was going to the

duchies simply in the interest of the Catholics; that he was like Henry

II. only seeking to extend the French frontier; and Leopold, by these

intrigues and falsehoods, had succeeded in filling the princes with

distrust, and they had taken umbrage at the advance of his cavalry.

Henry professed himself incapable of self-seeking or ambition. He meant

to prevent the aggrandizement of Austria, and was impatient at the

dilatoriness and distrust of the princes.

"All their enemies are rushing to the King of Spain. Let them address

themselves to the King of France," he said, "for it is we two that must

play this game."

And when at last they did send an embassy, they prefaced it by a post

letter demanding an instant loan, and with an intimation that they would

rather have his money than his presence!

Was it surprising that the King's course should seem occasionally

wavering when he found it so difficult to stir up such stagnant waters

into honourable action? Was it strange that the rude and stern Sully

should sometimes lose his patience, knowing so much and suspecting more

of the foul designs by which his master was encompassed, of the web of

conspiracy against his throne, his life, and his honour, which was daily

and hourly spinning?

"We do nothing and you do nothing," he said one day to Aerssens. "You are

too soft, and we are too cowardly. I believe that we shall spoil

everything, after all. I always suspect these sudden determinations of

ours. They are of bad augury. We usually founder at last when we set off

so fiercely at first. There are words enough an every side, but there

will be few deeds. There is nothing to be got out of the King of Great

Britain, and the King of Spain will end by securing these provinces for

himself by a treaty." Sully knew better than this, but he did not care to

let even the Dutch envoy know, as yet, the immense preparations he had

been making for the coming campaign.

The envoys of the possessory princes, the Counts Solms, Colonel Pallandt,

and Dr. Steyntgen, took their departure, after it had been arranged that

final measures should be concerted at the general congress of the German

Protestants to be held early in the ensuing year at Hall, in Suabia.

At that convention de Boississe would make himself heard on the part of

France, and the representatives of the States-General, of Venice, and

Savoy, would also be present.

Meantime the secret conferences between Henry and his superintendent of

finances and virtual prime minister were held almost every day. Scarcely

an afternoon passed that the King did not make his appearance at the

Arsenal, Sully's residence, and walk up and down the garden with him for

hours, discussing the great project of which his brain was full. This

great project was to crush for ever the power of the Austrian house; to

drive Spain back into her own limits, putting an end to her projects for

universal monarchy; and taking the Imperial crown from the House of

Habsburg. By thus breaking up the mighty cousinship which, with the aid

of Rome, overshadowed Germany and the two peninsulas, besides governing

the greater part of both the Indies, he meant to bring France into the

preponderant position over Christendom which he believed to be her due.

It was necessary, he thought, for the continued existence of the Dutch

commonwealth that the opportunity should be taken once for all, now that

a glorious captain commanded its armies and a statesman unrivalled for

experience, insight, and patriotism controlled its politics and its

diplomacy, to drive the Spaniard out of the Netherlands.

The Cleve question, properly and vigorously handled, presented exactly

the long desired opportunity for carrying out these vast designs.

The plan of assault upon Spanish power was to be threefold. The King

himself at the head of 35,000 men, supported by Prince Maurice and the

States' forces amounting to at least 14,000, would move to the Rhine and

seize the duchies. The Duke de la Force would command the army of the

Pyrenees and act in concert with the Moors of Spain, who roused to frenzy

by their expulsion from the kingdom could be relied on for a revolt or at

least a most vigorous diversion. Thirdly, a treaty with the Duke of Savoy

by which Henry accorded his daughter to the Duke's eldest son, the Prince

of Piedmont, a gift of 100,000 crowns, and a monthly pension during the

war of 50,000 crowns a month, was secretly concluded.

Early in the spring the Duke was to take the field with at least 10,000

foot and 1200 horse, supported by a French army of 12,000 to 15,000 men

under the experienced Marshal de Lesdiguieres. These forces were to

operate against the Duchy of Milan with the intention of driving the

Spaniards out of that rich possession, which the Duke of Savoy claimed

for himself, and of assuring to Henry the dictatorship of Italy. With the

cordial alliance of Venice, and by playing off the mutual jealousies of

the petty Italian princes, like Florence, Mantua, Montserrat, and others,

against each other and against the Pope, it did not seem doubtful to

Sully that the result would be easily accomplished. He distinctly urged

the wish that the King should content himself with political influence,

with the splendid position of holding all Italy dependent upon his will

and guidance, but without annexing a particle of territory to his own

crown.

It was Henry's intention, however, to help himself to the Duchy of Savoy,

and to the magnificent city and port of Genoa as a reward to himself for

the assistance, matrimonial alliance, and aggrandizement which he was

about to bestow upon Charles Emmanuel. Sully strenuously opposed these

self-seeking views on the part of his sovereign, however, constantly

placing before him the far nobler aim of controlling the destinies of

Christendom, of curbing what tended to become omnipotent, of raising up

and protecting that which had been abased, of holding the balance of

empire with just and steady hand in preference to the more vulgar and

commonplace ambition of annexing a province or two to the realms of

France.

It is true that these virtuous homilies, so often preached by him against

territorial aggrandizement in one direction, did not prevent him from

indulging in very extensive visions of it in another. But the dreams

pointed to the east rather than to the south. It was Sully's policy to

swallow a portion not of Italy but of Germany. He persuaded his master

that the possessory princes, if placed by the help of France in the

heritage which they claimed, would hardly be able to maintain themselves

against the dangers which surrounded them except by a direct dependence

upon France. In the end the position would become an impossible one, and

it would be easy after the war was over to indemnify Brandenburg with

money and with private property in the heart of France for example, and

obtain the cession of those most coveted provinces between the Meuse and

the Weser to the King. "What an advantage for France," whispered Sully,

"to unite to its power so important a part of Germany. For it cannot be

denied that by accepting the succour given by the King now those princes

oblige themselves to ask for help in the future in order to preserve

their new acquisition. Thus your Majesty will make them pay for it very

dearly."

Thus the very virtuous self-denial in regard to the Duke of Savoy did not

prevent a secret but well developed ambition at the expense of the

Elector of Brandenburg. For after all it was well enough known that the

Elector was the really important and serious candidate. Henry knew full

well that Neuburg was depending on the Austrians and the Catholics, and

that the claims of Saxony were only put forward by the Emperor in order

to confuse the princes and excite mutual distrust.

The King's conferences with the great financier were most confidential,

and Sully was as secret as the grave. But Henry never could keep a secret

even when it concerned his most important interests, and nothing would

serve him but he must often babble of his great projects even to their

minutest details in presence of courtiers and counsellors whom in his

heart he knew to be devoted to Spain and in receipt of pensions from her

king. He would boast to them of the blows by which he meant to demolish

Spain and the whole house of Austria, so that there should be no longer

danger to be feared from that source to the tranquillity and happiness of

Europe, and he would do this so openly and in presence of those who, as

he knew, were perpetually setting traps for him and endeavouring to

discover his deepest secrets as to make Sully's hair stand on end. The

faithful minister would pluck his master by the cloak at times, and the

King, with the adroitness which never forsook him when he chose to employ

it, would contrive to extricate himself from a dilemma and pause at the

brink of tremendous disclosures.--[Memoires de Sully, t. vii. p.

324.]--But Sully could not be always at his side, nor were the Nuncius or

Don Inigo de Cardenas or their confidential agents and spies always

absent. Enough was known of the general plan, while as to the probability

of its coming into immediate execution, perhaps the enemies of the King

were often not more puzzled than his friends.

But what the Spanish ambassador did not know, nor the Nuncius, nor even

the friendly Aerssens, was the vast amount of supplies which had been

prepared for the coming conflict by the finance minister. Henry did not

know it himself. "The war will turn on France as on a pivot," said Sully;

"it remains to be seen if we have supplies and money enough. I will

engage if the war is not to last more than three years and you require no

more than 40,000 men at a time that I will show you munitions and

ammunition and artillery and the like to such an extent that you will

say, 'It is enough.'

"As to money--"

"How much money have I got?" asked the King; "a dozen millions?"

"A little more than that," answered the Minister.

"Fourteen millions?"

"More still."

"Sixteen?" continued the King.

"More yet," said Sully.

And so the King went on adding two millions at each question until thirty

millions were reached, and when the question as to this sum was likewise

answered in the affirmative, he jumped from his chair, hugged his

minister around the neck, and kissed him on both cheeks.

"I want no more than that," he cried.

Sully answered by assuring him that he had prepared a report showing a

reserve of forty millions on which he might draw for his war expenses,

without in the least degree infringing on the regular budget for ordinary

expenses.

The King was in a transport of delight, and would have been capable of

telling the story on the spot to the Nuncius had he met him that

afternoon, which fortunately did not occur.

But of all men in Europe after the faithful Sully, Henry most desired to

see and confer daily and secretly with Barneveld. He insisted vehemently

that, neglecting all other business, he should come forthwith to Paris at

the head of the special embassy which it had been agreed that the States

should send. No living statesman, he said, could compare to Holland's

Advocate in sagacity, insight, breadth of view, knowledge of mankind and

of great affairs, and none he knew was more sincerely attached to his

person or felt more keenly the value of the French alliance.

With him he indeed communicated almost daily through the medium of

Aerssens, who was in constant receipt of most elaborate instructions from

Barneveld, but he wished to confer with him face to face, so that there

would be no necessity of delay in sending back for instructions,

limitations, and explanation. No man knew better than the King did that

so far as foreign affairs were concerned the States-General were simply

Barneveld.

On the 22nd January the States' ambassador had a long and secret

interview with the King.' He informed him that the Prince of Anhalt had

been assured by Barneveld that the possessory princes would be fully

supported in their position by the States, and that the special deputies

of Archduke Albert, whose presence at the Hague made Henry uneasy, as he

regarded them as perpetual spies, had been dismissed. Henry expressed his

gratification. They are there, he said, entirely in the interest of

Leopold, who has just received 500,000 crowns from the King of Spain, and

is to have that sum annually, and they are only sent to watch all your

proceedings in regard to Cleve.

The King then fervently pressed the Ambassador to urge Barneveld's coming

to Paris with the least possible delay. He signified his delight with

Barneveld's answer to Anhalt, who thus fortified would be able to do good

service at the assembly at Hall. He had expected nothing else from

Barneveld's sagacity, from his appreciation of the needs of Christendom,

and from his affection for himself. He told the Ambassador that he was

anxiously waiting for the Advocate in order to consult with him as to all

the details of the war. The affair of Cleve, he said, was too special a

cause. A more universal one was wanted. The King preferred to begin with

Luxemburg, attacking Charlemont or Namur, while the States ought at the

same time to besiege Venlo, with the intention afterwards of uniting with

the King in laying siege to Maestricht.

He was strong enough, he said, against all the world, but he still

preferred to invite all princes interested to join him in putting down

the ambitious and growing power of Spain. Cleve was a plausible pretext,

but the true cause, he said, should be found in the general safety of

Christendom.

Boississe had been sent to the German princes to ascertain whether and to

what extent they would assist the King. He supposed that once they found

him engaged in actual warfare in Luxemburg, they would get rid of their

jealousy and panic fears of him and his designs. He expected them to

furnish at least as large a force as he would supply as a contingent.

For it was understood that Anhalt as generalissimo of the German forces

would command a certain contingent of French troops, while the main army

of the King would be led by himself in person.

Henry expressed the conviction that the King of Spain would be taken by

surprise finding himself attacked in three places and by three armies at

once, he believing that the King of France was entirely devoted to his

pleasures and altogether too old for warlike pursuits, while the States,

just emerging from the misery of their long and cruel conflict, would be

surely unwilling to plunge headlong into a great and bloody war.

Henry inferred this, he said, from observing the rude and brutal manner

in which the soldiers in the Spanish Netherlands were now treated. It

seemed, he said, as if the Archdukes thought they had no further need of

them, or as if a stamp of the foot could raise new armies out of the

earth. "My design," continued the King, "is the more likely to succeed as

the King of Spain, being a mere gosling and a valet of the Duke of Lerma,

will find himself stripped of all his resources and at his wits' end;

unexpectedly embarrassed as he will be on the Italian side, where we

shall be threatening to cut the jugular vein of his pretended universal

monarchy."

He intimated that there was no great cause for anxiety in regard to the

Catholic League just formed at Wurzburg. He doubted whether the King of

Spain would join it, and he had learned that the Elector of Cologne was

making very little progress in obtaining the Emperor's adhesion. As to

this point the King had probably not yet thoroughly understood that the

Bavarian League was intended to keep clear of the House of Habsburg,

Maximilian not being willing to identify the success of German

Catholicism with the fortunes of that family.

Henry expressed the opinion that the King of Spain, that is to say, his

counsellors, meant to make use of the Emperor's name while securing all

the profit, and that Rudolph quite understood their game, while Matthias

was sure to make use of this opportunity, supported by the Protestants of

Bohemia, Austria, and Moravia, to strip the Emperor of the last shred of

Empire.

The King was anxious that the States should send a special embassy at

once to the King of Great Britain. His ambassador, de la Boderie, gave

little encouragement of assistance from that quarter, but it was at least

desirable to secure his neutrality. "'Tis a prince too much devoted to

repose," said Henry, "to be likely to help in this war, but at least he

must not be allowed to traverse our great designs. He will probably

refuse the league offensive and defensive which I have proposed to him,

but he must be got, if possible, to pledge himself to the defensive. I

mean to assemble my army on the frontier, as if to move upon Julich, and

then suddenly sweep down on the Meuse, where, sustained by the States'

army and that of the princes, I will strike my blows and finish my

enterprise before our adversary has got wind of what is coming. We must

embark James in the enterprise if we can, but at any rate we must take

measures to prevent his spoiling it."

Henry assured the Envoy that no one would know anything of the great

undertaking but by its effect; that no one could possibly talk about it

with any knowledge except himself, Sully, Villeroy, Barneveld, and

Aerssens. With them alone he conferred confidentially, and he doubted not

that the States would embrace this opportunity to have done for ever with

the Spaniards. He should take the field in person, he said, and with

several powerful armies would sweep the enemy away from the Meuse, and

after obtaining control of that river would quietly take possession of

the sea-coast of Flanders, shut up Archduke Albert between the States and

the French, who would thus join hands and unite their frontiers.

Again the King expressed his anxiety for Barneveld's coming, and directed

the Ambassador to urge it, and to communicate to him the conversation

which had just taken place. He much preferred, he said, a general war. He

expressed doubts as to the Prince of Anhalt's capacity as chief in the

Cleve expedition, and confessed that being jealous of his own reputation

he did not like to commit his contingent of troops to the care of a

stranger and one so new to his trade. The shame would fall on himself,

not on Anhalt in case of any disaster. Therefore, to avoid all petty

jealousies and inconveniences of that nature by which the enterprise

might be ruined, it was best to make out of this small affair a great

one, and the King signified his hope that the Advocate would take this

view of the case and give him his support. He had plenty of grounds of

war himself, and the States had as good cause of hostilities in the

rupture of the truce by the usurpation attempted by Leopold with the

assistance of Spain and in the name of the Emperor. He hoped, he said,

that the States would receive no more deputations from Archduke Albert,

but decide to settle everything at the point of the sword. The moment was

propitious, and, if neglected, might never return. Marquis Spinola was

about to make a journey to Spain on various matters of business. On his

return, Henry said, he meant to make him prisoner as a hostage for the

Prince of Conde, whom the Archdukes were harbouring and detaining. This

would be the pretext, he said, but the object would be to deprive the

Archdukes of any military chief, and thus to throw them into utter

confusion. Count van den Berg would never submit to the authority of Don

Luis de Velasco, nor Velasco to his, and not a man could come from Spain

or Italy, for the passages would all be controlled by France.

Fortunately for the King's reputation, Spinola's journey was deferred, so

that this notable plan for disposing of the great captain fell to the

ground.

Henry agreed to leave the two French regiments and the two companies of

cavalry in the States' service as usual, but stipulated in certain

contingencies for their use.

Passing to another matter concerning which there had been so much

jealousy on the part of the States, the formation of the French East

India Company--to organize which undertaking Le Roy and Isaac Le Maire of

Amsterdam had been living disguised in the house of Henry's famous

companion, the financier Zamet at Paris--the King said that Barneveld

ought not to envy him a participation in the great profits of this

business.

Nothing would be done without consulting him after his arrival in Paris.

He would discuss the matter privately with him, he said, knowing that

Barneveld was a great personage, but however obstinate he might be, he

felt sure that he would always yield to reason. On the other hand the

King expressed his willingness to submit to the Advocate's opinions if

they should seem the more just.

On leaving the King the Ambassador had an interview with Sully, who again

expressed his great anxiety for the arrival of Barneveld, and his hopes

that he might come with unlimited powers, so that the great secret might

not leak out through constant referring of matters back to the Provinces.

After rendering to the Advocate a detailed account of this remarkable

conversation, Aerssens concluded with an intimation that perhaps his own

opinion might be desired as to the meaning of all those movements

developing themselves so suddenly and on so many sides.

"I will say," he observed, "exactly what the poet sings of the army of

ants--

'Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta

Pulveris exigui jactu contacts quiescunt.'

If the Prince of Conde comes back, we shall be more plausible than ever.

If he does not come back, perhaps the consideration of the future will

sweep us onwards. All have their special views, and M. de Villeroy more

warmly than all the rest."

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour

Allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body

Behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics

Christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient

Contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty

Could not be both judge and party in the suit

Covered now with the satirical dust of centuries

Deadly hatred of Puritans in England and Holland

Doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense

Emperor of Japan addressed him as his brother monarch

Estimating his character and judging his judges

Everybody should mind his own business

He was a sincere bigot

Impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants

Intense bigotry of conviction

International friendship, the self-interest of each

It was the true religion, and there was none other

James of England, who admired, envied, and hated Henry

Jealousy, that potent principle

Language which is ever living because it is dead

More fiercely opposed to each other than to Papists

None but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say

Power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist

Presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made

Princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never

Putting the cart before the oxen

Religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult

Secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers

Senectus edam maorbus est

So much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality

The Catholic League and the Protestant Union

The truth in shortest about matters of importance

The vehicle is often prized more than the freight

There was but one king in Europe, Henry the Bearnese

There was no use in holding language of authority to him

Thirty Years' War tread on the heels of the forty years

Unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry

Wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant

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.

The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v2, 1609-10