It being no longer possible to gainsay the presence of the young commonwealth among the nations, the next best thing—­so it was thought—­was to defraud her in the treaty to which she was now invited to accede.  This, as it will presently appear, the King of France and the Queen of England succeeded in doing very thoroughly, and they accomplished it notwithstanding the astuteness and the diligence of the States’ envoy, who at Henry’s urgent request had accompanied the French mission to England.  Calvaert had been very active in bringing about the arrangement, to assist in which he had, as we have seen, risen from a sick bed and made the journey to England:  “The proposition for an offensive and defensive alliance was agreed to by her Majesty’s Council, but under intolerable and impracticable conditions,” said he, “and, as such, rejected by the duke and Sancy, so that they took leave of her Majesty.  At last, after some negotiation in which, without boasting, I may say that I did some service, it was again taken in hand, and at last, thank God, although with much difficulty, the league has been concluded.”

When the task was finished the French envoys departed to obtain their master’s ratification of the treaty.  Elizabeth expressed herself warmly in regard to her royal brother, inviting him earnestly to pay her a visit, in which case she said she would gladly meet him half way; for a sight of him would be her only consolation in the midst of her adversity and annoyance.  “He may see other princesses of a more lovely appearance,” she added, “but he will never make a visit to a more faithful friend.”

But the treaty thus concluded was for the public.  The real agreement between France and England was made by a few days later, and reduced the ostensible arrangement to a sham, a mere decoy to foreign nations, especially to the Dutch republic, to induce them to imitate England in joining the league, and to emulate her likewise in affording that substantial assistance to the league which in reality England was very far from giving.

“Two contracts were made,” said Secretary of State Villeroy; “the one public, to give credit and reputation to the said league, the other secret, which destroyed the effects and the promises of the first.  By the first his Majesty was to be succoured by four thousand infantry, which number was limited by the second contract to two thousand, who were to reside and to serve only in the cities of Boulogne and Montreuil, assisted by an equal number of French, and not otherwise, and on condition of not being removed from those towns unless his Majesty should be personally present in Picardy with an army, in which case they might serve in Picardy, but nowhere else.”

An English garrison in a couple of French seaports, over against the English coast, would hardly have seemed a sufficient inducement to other princes and states to put large armies in the field to sustain the Protestant league, had they known that this was the meagre result of the protocolling and disputations that had been going on all the summer at Greenwich.