[Footnote 1:  Thus they are perpetually called in the correspondence of the royalists.—­Carte’s Letters, i. 447, 469; ii. 11.  Strickland’s servants were attacked at his door by six cavaliers with drawn swords; an attempt was made to break into St. John’s bedchamber; Edward, son to the queen of Bohemia, publicly called the ambassadors rogues and dogs; and the young duke of York accidentally meeting St. John, who refused to give way to him, snatched the ambassador’s hat off his head and threw it in his face, saying, “Learn, parricide, to respect the brother of your king.”  “I scorn,” he replied, “to acknowledge either, you race of vagabonds.”  The duke drew his sword, but mischief was prevented by the interference of the spectators,—­New Parl.  Hist. iii. 1, 364.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1651.  March 10.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1651.  April 17.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1651.  May 10.]

of either by sea and land, and a renewal of the whole treaty of 1495, with such modifications as might adapt it to existing times and circumstances.  The States, having demanded in vain an explanation of the proposed confederacy,[a] presented a counter project;[b] but while the different articles remained under discussion, the period prefixed by the parliament expired, and the ambassadors departed.  To whom the failure of the negotiation was owing became a subject of controversy.  The Hollanders blamed the abrupt and supercilious carriage of St. John and his colleague; the ambassadors charged the States with having purposely created delay, that they might not commit themselves by a treaty with the commonwealth, before they had seen the issue of the contest between the king of Scotland and Oliver Cromwell.[1]

In a short time that contest was decided in the battle of Worcester, and the States condescended to become petitioners in their turn.  Their ambassadors arrived in England with the intention of resuming the negotiation where it had been interrupted by the departure of St. John and his colleague.  But circumstances were now changed; success had enlarged the pretensions of the parliament; and the British, instead of shunning, courted a trial of strength with the Belgic lion.  First, the Dutch merchantmen were visited under the pretext of searching for munitions of war, which they were carrying to the enemy; and then, at the representation of certain merchants, who conceived themselves to have been injured by the Dutch navy, letters of marque were granted to several individuals, and more than eighty prizes brought into

[Footnote 1:  Thurloe, i. 179, 183, 188-195.  Heath, 285-287.  Carte’s Letters, i. 464.  Leicester’s Journal, 107.  Parl.  History, xx. 496.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1651.  June 14.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1651.  June 20.]