It may be supposed that the results of Matelieff’s voyage were likely to influence the pending negotiations for peace.

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     A sovereign remedy for the disease of liberty
     All the ministers and great functionaries received presents
     Because he had been successful (hated)
     But the habit of dissimulation was inveterate
     By turns, we all govern and are governed
     Contempt for treaties however solemnly ratified
     Despised those who were grateful
     Idiotic principle of sumptuary legislation
     Indulging them frequently with oracular advice
     Justified themselves in a solemn consumption of time
     Man who cannot dissemble is unfit to reign
     Men fought as if war was the normal condition of humanity
     Men who meant what they said and said what they meant
     Negotiated as if they were all immortal
     Philip of Macedon, who considered no city impregnable
     To negotiate was to bribe right and left, and at every step
     Unwise impatience for peace

HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS

From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year’s Truce—­1609

By John Lothrop Motley

History United Netherlands, Volume 81, 1608

CHAPTER L.

Movements of the Emperor Rudolph—­Marquis Spinola’s reception at the Hague—­Meeting of Spinola and Prince Maurice—­Treaty of the Republic with the French Government—­The Spanish commissioners before the States-General—­Beginning of negotiations—­Stormy discussions—­Real object of Spain in the negotiations—­Question of the India trade—­ Abandonment of the peace project—­Negotiations for a truce—­ Prolongation of the armistice—­Further delays—­Treaty of the States with England—­Proposals of the Spanish ambassadors to Henry of France and to James of England—­Friar Neyen at the court of Spain—­ Spanish procrastination—­Decision of Philip on the conditions of peace—­Further conference at the Hague—­Answer of the States-General to the proposals of the Spanish Government—­General rupture.

Towards the close of the year 1607 a very feeble demonstration was made in the direction of the Dutch republic by the very feeble Emperor of Germany.  Rudolph, awaking as it might be from a trance, or descending for a moment from his star-gazing tower and his astrological pursuits to observe the movements of political spheres, suddenly discovered that the Netherlands were no longer revolving in their preordained orbit.  Those provinces had been supposed to form part of one great system, deriving light and heat from the central imperial sun.  It was time therefore to put an end to these perturbations.  The emperor accordingly, as if he had not enough on his hands at that precise moment with the Hungarians, Transylvanians, Bohemian protestants, his brother Matthias and the Grand Turk, addressed a letter to the States of Holland, Zeeland, and the provinces confederated with them.