of Dourlens by Fuentes—­ Death of La Motte—­Death of Charles Mansfeld—­Total defeat of the French—­Murder of Admiral De Pillars—­Dourlens captured, and the garrison and citizens put to the sword—­Military operations in eastern Netherlands and on the Rhine—­Maurice lays siege to Groento —­Mondragon hastening to its relief, Prince Maurice raises the siege—­Skirmish between Maurice and Mondragon—­Death of Philip of Nassau—­Death of Mondragon—­Bombardment and surrender of Weerd Castle—­Maurice retires into winter quarters—­Campaign of Henry iv.  —­He besieges Dijon—­Surrender of Dijon—­Absolution granted to Henry by the pope—­Career of Balagny at Cambray—­Progress of the siege—­ Capitulation of the town—­Suicide of the Princess of Cambray, wife of Balagny

The year 1595 Opened with a formal declaration of war by the King of France against the King of Spain.  It would be difficult to say for exactly how many years the war now declared had already been waged, but it was a considerable advantage to the United Netherlands that the manifesto had been at last regularly issued.  And the manifesto was certainly not deficient in bitterness.  Not often in Christian history has a monarch been solemnly and officially accused by a brother sovereign of suborning assassins against his life.  Bribery, stratagem, and murder, were, however, so entirely the commonplace machinery of Philip’s administration as to make an allusion to the late attempt of Chastel appear quite natural in Henry’s declaration of war.  The king further stigmatized in energetic language the long succession of intrigues by which the monarch of Spain, as chief of the Holy League, had been making war upon him by means of his own subjects, for the last half dozcn years.  Certainly there was hardly need of an elaborate statement of grievances.  The deeds of Philip required no herald, unless Henry was prepared to abdicate his hardly-earned title to the throne of France.

Nevertheless the politic Gascon subsequently regretted the fierce style in which he had fulminated his challenge.  He was accustomed to observe that no state paper required so much careful pondering as a declaration of war, and that it was scarcely possible to draw up such a document without committing many errors in the phraseology.  The man who never knew fear, despondency, nor resentment, was already instinctively acting on the principle that a king should deal with his enemy as if sure to become his friend, and with his friends as if they might easily change to foes.

The answer to the declaration was delayed for two months.  When the reply came it of course breathed nothing but the most benignant sentiments in regard to France, while it expressed regret that it was necessary to carry fire and sword through that country in order to avert the unutterable woe which the crimes of the heretic Prince of Bearne were bringing upon all mankind.

It was a solace for Philip to call the legitimate king by the title borne by him when heir-presumptive, and to persist in denying to him that absolution which, as the whole world was aware, the Vicar of Christ was at that very moment in the most solemn manner about to bestow upon him.