in religion, though political foes; and during the joint expedition which was undertaken by the allied French and Dutch troops against Rochelle, the stronghold of Protestantism, the preachers of Holland put up prayers for the protection of those whom their army was marching to destroy.  The states-general, ashamed of this unpopular union, recalled their fleet, after some severe fighting with that of the Huguenots.  Cardinal Richelieu and the king of France were for a time furious in their displeasure; but interests of state overpowered individual resentments, and no rupture took place.

Charles I. had now succeeded his father on the English throne.  He renewed the treaty with the republic, which furnished him with twenty ships to assist his own formidable fleet in his war against Spain.  Frederick Henry had, soon after his succession to the chief command, commenced an active course of martial operations, and was successful in almost all his enterprises.  He took Groll and several other towns; and it was hoped that his successes would have been pushed forward upon a wider field of action against the imperial arms; but the States prudently resolved to act on the defensive by land, choosing the sea for the theatre of their more active operations.  All the hopes of a powerful confederation against the emperor and the king of Spain seemed frustrated by the war which now broke out between France and England.  The states-general contrived by great prudence to maintain a strict neutrality in this quarrel.  They even succeeded in mediating a peace between the rival powers, which was concluded the following year; and in the meantime they obtained a more astonishing and important series of triumphs against the Spanish fleets than had yet been witnessed in naval conflicts.

The West India Company had confided the command of their fleet to Peter Hein, a most intrepid and intelligent sailor, who proved his own merits, and the sagacity of his employers on many occasions, two of them of an extraordinary nature.  In 1627, he defeated a fleet of twenty-six vessels, with a much inferior force.  In the following year, he had the still more brilliant good fortune, near Havana, in the island of Cuba, in an engagement with the great Spanish armament, called the Money Fleet, to indicate the immense wealth which it contained.  The booty was safely carried to Amsterdam, and the whole of the treasure, in money, precious stones, indigo, etc., was estimated at the value of twelve million florins.  This was indeed a victory worth gaining, won almost without bloodshed, and raising the republic far above the manifold difficulties by which it had been embarrassed.  Hein perished in the following year, in a combat with some of the pirates of Dunkirk—­those terrible freebooters whose name was a watchword of terror during the whole continuance of the war.