Sir Edward Stafford, who looked with great penetration into the heart of the mysterious proceedings at Paris, assured his government that no better result was to be looked for, “after long dalliance and entertainment, than either a flat refusal or such a masked embracing of their cause, as would rather tend to the increasing of their miseries and confusion than relief for their declining estate.”  While “reposing upon a broken reed,” they were, he thought, “neglecting other means more expedient for their necessities.”

This was already the universal opinion in Holland.  Men now remembered, with bitterness, the treachery of the Duke of Anjou, which they had been striving so hard to forget, but which less than two years ago had nearly proved fatal to the cause of liberty in the Provinces.  A committee of the States had an interview with the Queen’s envoy at the Hague; implored her Majesty through him not to abandon their cause; expressed unlimited regret for the course which had been pursued, and avowed a determination “to pluck their heads out of the collar,” so soon as the opportunity should offer.

They stated, moreover, that they had been directed by the assembly to lay before him the instructions for the envoys to France, and the articles proposed for the acceptance of the King.  The envoy knew his business better than not to have secretly provided himself with copies of these documents, which he had already laid before his own government.

He affected, however, to feel hurt that he had been thus kept in ignorance of papers which he really knew by heart.  “After some pretended quarrel,” said he, “for their not acquainting me therewith sooner, I did accept them, as if.  I had before neither seen nor heard of them.”

This then was the aspect of affairs in the provinces during the absence of the deputies in France.  It is now necessary to shift the scene to that country.

CHAPTER IV.

Reception of the Dutch Envoys at the Louvre—­Ignominious Result of the Embassy—­Secret Influences at work—­Bargaining between the French and Spanish Courts—­Claims of Catharine de’ Medici upon Portugal—­Letters of Henry and Catharine—­Secret Proposal by France to invade England—­States’ Mission to Henry of Navarre—­Subsidies of Philip to Guise—­Treaty of Joinville—­Philip’s Share in the League denied by Parma—­Philip in reality its Chief—­Manifesto of the League—­Attitude of Henry iii. and of Navarre—­The League demands a Royal Decree—­Designs of France and Spain against England —­Secret Interview of Mendoza and Villeroy—­Complaints of English Persecution—­Edict of Nemours—­Excommunication of Navarre and his Reply.

The King, notwithstanding his apparent reluctance, had, in Sir Edward Stafford’s language, “nibbled at the bait.”  He had, however, not been secured at the first attempt, and now a second effort was to be made, under what were supposed to be most