He then intimated—­and here began the deception, which certainly did not deceive Buzanval—­that if things were handled in the right way, there was little doubt as to the king’s reaching the end proposed, but that all depended on good management.  It was an error, he said, to suppose that in one, two, or three months, eight provinces and their principal members, to wit, forty good cities all enjoying liberty and equality, could be induced to accept a foreign sovereign.

Such language was very like irony, and probably not too subtle to escape the fine perception of the French envoy.

The first thing to be done, continued the Advocate, is to persuade the provinces to aid the king with all their means to conquer the disunited provinces—­to dispose of the archdukes, in short, and to drive the Spaniards from the soil—­and then, little by little, to make it clear that there could be no safety for the States except in reducing the whole body of the Netherlands under the authority of the king.  Let his Majesty begin by conquering and annexing to his crown the provinces nearest him, and he would then be able to persuade the others to a reasonable arrangement.

Whether the Advocate’s general reply was really considered by Buzanval as a grave sarcasm, politely veiled, may be a question.  That envoy, however, spoke to his Government of the matter as surrounded with difficulties, but not wholly desperate.  Barneveld was, he said, inclined to doubt whether the archdukes would be able, before any negotiations were begun, to comply with the demand which he had made upon them to have a declaration in writing that the United Provinces were to be regarded as a free people over whom they pretended to no authority.  If so, the French king would at once be informed of the fact.  Meantime the envoy expressed the safe opinion that, if Prince Maurice and the Advocate together should take the matter of Henry’s sovereignty in hand with zeal, they might conduct the bark to the desired haven.  Surely this was an ‘if’ with much virtue in it.  And notwithstanding that he chose to represent Barneveld as, rich, tired, at the end of his Latin, and willing enough to drop his anchor in a snug harbour, in order to make his fortune secure, it was obvious enough that Buzanval had small hope at heart of seeing his master’s purpose accomplished.

As to Prince Maurice, the envoy did not even affect to believe him capable of being made use of, strenuous as the efforts of the French Government in that direction had been.  “He has no private designs that I can find out,” said Buzanval, doing full justice to the straightforward and sincere character of the prince.  “He asks no change for himself or for his country.”  The envoy added, as a matter of private opinion however, that if an alteration were to be made in the constitution of the provinces, Maurice would prefer that it should be made in favour of France than of any other Government.