and should employ only natives in the administration of Netherland affairs.  Notwithstanding, therefore, the recent treachery of Anjou, he was willing to treat with him upon the ancient basis.  The dilemma was a very desperate one, for whatever might be his course, it was impossible that it should escape censure.  Even at this day, it is difficult to decide what might have been the result of openly braving the French government, and expelling Anjou.  The Prince of Parma—­subtle, vigilant, prompt with word and blow—­was waiting most anxiously to take advantage of every false step of his adversary.  The provinces had been already summoned in most eloquent language, to take warning by the recent fate of Antwerp, and to learn by the manifestation just made by Anjou, of his real intentions; that their only salvation lay in a return to the King’s arms.  Anjou himself, as devoid of shame as of honor, was secretly holding interviews with Parma’s agents, Acosta and Flaminio Carnero, at the very moment when he was alternately expressing to the states his resentment that they dared to doubt his truth, or magnanimously extending to them his pardon for their suspicions.  He was writing letters full of injured innocence to Orange and to the states, while secretly cavilling over the terms of the treaty by which he was to sell himself to Spain.  Scruples as to enacting so base a part did not trouble the “Son of France.”  He did not hesitate at playing this doubly and trebly false game with the provinces, but he was anxious to drive the best possible bargain for himself with Parma.  He, offered to restore Dunkirk, Dixmuyde, and the other cities which be had so recently filched from the states, and to enter into a strict alliance with Philip; but he claimed that certain Netherland cities on the French frontier, should be made over to him in exchange.  He required; likewise; ample protection for his retreat from a country which was likely to be sufficiently exasperated.  Parma and his agents smiled, of course, at such exorbitant terms.  Nevertheless, it was necessary to deal cautiously with a man who, although but a poor baffled rogue to-day, might to-morrow be seated on the throne of France.  While they were all secretly haggling over the terms of the bargain, the Prince of Orange discovered the intrigue.  It convinced him of the necessity of closing with a man whose baseness was so profound, but whose position made his enmity, on the whole, more dangerous than his friendship.  Anjou, backed by so astute and unscrupulous a politician as Parma, was not to be trifled with.  The feeling of doubt and anxiety was spreading daily through the country:  many men, hitherto firm, were already wavering, while at the same time the Prince had no confidence in the power of any of the states, save those of Holland and Utrecht; to maintain a resolute attitude of defiance, if not assisted from without.