Aerssens was somewhat perplexed, but he was cunning at fence.  “We will do all we can,” said he, “for any change is more supportable than the yoke of Spain.”

“What can you do then?” persisted Sillery.  “Give us your opinion in plain French, I beg of you, and lay aside all passion; for we have both the same object—­your preservation.  Besides interest, his Majesty has affection for you.  Let him only see some advantage for himself to induce to assist you more powerfully.  Suppose you should give us what you have and what you may acquire in Flanders with the promise to treat secretly with us when the time comes.  Could you do that?”

The envoy replied that this would be tearing the commonwealth in pieces.  If places were given away, the jealousy of the English would be excited.  Certainly it would be no light matter to surrender Sluys, the fruit of Maurice’s skill and energy, the splendidly earned equivalent for the loss of Ostend.  “As to Sluys and other places in Flanders,” said Aerssens, “I don’t know if towns comprised in our Union could be transferred or pledged without their own consent and that of the States.  Should such a thing get wind we might be ruined.  Nevertheless I will write to learn what his Majesty may hope.”

“The people,” returned Sillery, “need know nothing of this transfer; for it might be made secretly by Prince Maurice, who could put the French quietly into Sluys and other Flemish places.  Meantime you had best make a journey to Holland to arrange matters so that the deputies, coming hither, may be amply instructed in regard to Sluys, and no time be lost.  His Majesty is determined to help you if you know how to help yourselves.”

The two men then separated, Sillery enjoining it upon the envoy to see the king next morning, “in order to explain to his Majesty, as he had just been doing to himself, that this sovereignty could not be transferred, without the consent of the whole people, nor the people be consulted in secret.”

“It is necessary therefore to be armed,” continued Henry’s minister very significantly, “before aspiring to the sovereignty.”

Thus there was a faint glimmer of appreciation at the French court of the meaning of popular sovereignty.  It did not occur to the minister that the right of giving consent was to be respected.  The little obstacle was to be overcome by stratagem and by force.  Prince Maurice was to put French garrisons stealthily into Sluys and other towns conquered by the republic in Flanders.  Then the magnanimous ally was to rise at the right moment and overcome all resistance by force of arms.  The plot was a good one.  It is passing strange, however, that the character of the Nassaus and of the Dutch nation should after the last fifty years have been still so misunderstood.  It seemed in France possible that Maurice would thus defile his honour and the Netherlanders barter their liberty, by accepting a new tyrant in place of the one so long ago deposed.