Barneveld wrote to encourage and sustain the sinking state.  “Our courage is rising in spite and in consequence of the great misfortune,” he said.  He exhorted the Queen to keep her kingdom united, and assured her that My Lords the States would maintain themselves against all who dared to assail them.  He offered in their name the whole force of the Republic to take vengeance on those who had procured the assassination, and to defend the young king and the Queen-Mother against all who might make any attempt against their authority.  He further declared, in language not to be mistaken, that the States would never abandon the princes and their cause.

This was the earliest indication on the part of the Advocate of the intention of the Republic—­so long as it should be directed by his counsels—­to support the cause of the young king, helpless and incapable as he was, and directed for the time being by a weak and wicked mother, against the reckless and depraved grandees, who were doing their best to destroy the unity and the independence of France, Cornelis van der Myle was sent back to Paris on special mission of condolence and comfort from the States-General to the sorely afflicted kingdom.

On the 7th of June, accompanied by Aerssens, he had a long interview with Villeroy.  That minister, as usual, wept profusely, and said that in regard to Cleve it was impossible for France to carry out the designs of the late king.  He then listened to what the ambassadors had to urge, and continued to express his melancholy by weeping.  Drying his tears for a time, he sought by a long discourse to prove that France during this tender minority of the King would be incapable of pursuing the policy of his father.  It would be even too burthensome to fulfil the Treaty of Hall.  The friends of the crown, he said, had no occasion to further it, and it would be much better to listen to propositions for a treaty.  Archduke Albert was content not to interfere in the quarrel if the Queen would likewise abstain; Leopold’s forces were altogether too weak to make head against the army of the princes, backed by the power of My Lords the States, and Julich was neither strong nor well garrisoned.  He concluded by calmly proposing that the States should take the matter in hand by themselves alone, in order to lighten the burthen of France, whose vigour had been cut in two by that accursed knife.

A more sneaking and shameful policy was never announced by the minister of a great kingdom.  Surely it might seem that Ravaillac had cut in twain not the vigour only but the honour and the conscience of France.  But the envoys, knowing in their hearts that they were talking not with a French but a Spanish secretary of state, were not disposed to be the dupes of his tears or his blandishments.