The letter addressed by Don John to the states upon the 7th of August, had not yet been answered.  Feeling, soon afterwards, more sensible of his position, and perhaps less inflamed with indignation; he addressed another communication to them, upon the 13th of the same month.  In this epistle he expressed an extreme desire for peace, and a hearty desire to be relieved, if possible, from his most painful situation.  He protested, before God and man, that his intentions were most honest, and that he abhorred war more than anything else in the world.  He averred that, if his person was as odious to them as it seemed, he was only too ready to leave the land, as soon as the King should appoint his successor.  He reminded them that the question of peace or war lay not with himself, but with them; and that the world would denounce as guilty those with whom rested the responsibility.  He concluded with an observation which, in its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical, that if they had quite finished the perusal of the despatches from Madrid to his address, which they had intercepted, he should be thankful for an opportunity of reading them himself.  He expressed a hope, therefore, that they would be forwarded to Namur.

This letter was answered at considerable length, upon the second day.  The states made their customary protestations of attachment to his Majesty, their fidelity to the Catholic church, their determination to maintain both the Ghent treaty and the Perpetual Edict.  They denied all responsibility for the present disastrous condition of the relations between themselves and government, having disbanded nearly all their own troops, while the Governor had been strengthening his forces up to the period of his retreat into Namur.  He protested, indeed, friendship and a sincere desire for peace, but the intercepted letters of Escovedo and his own had revealed to them the evil counsels to which he had been listening, and the intrigues which he had been conducting.  They left it to his conscience whether they could reasonably believe, after the perusal of these documents, that it was his intention to maintain the Ghent treaty, or any treaty; and whether they were not justified in their resort to the natural right of self-defence.

Don John was already fully aware of the desperate error which he had committed.  In seizing Namur and attempting Antwerp, he had thrown down the gauntlet.  Wishing peace, he had, in a panic of rage and anxiety; declared and enacted war.  The bridge was broken behind him, the ships burned, a gulf opened, a return to peace rendered almost impossible.  Yet it is painful to observe the almost passionate longings which at times seemed to possess him for accommodating the quarrel, together with his absolute incapacity to appreciate his position.  The Prince was triumphant; the Governor in a trap.  Moreover, it was a trap which he had not only entered voluntarily, but which he had set himself; he had played into the Prince’s