Aerssens, who, with the keen instinct of self-advancement was already attaching himself to Maurice as to the wheels of the chariot going steadily up the hill, was not indisposed to loosen his hold upon the man through whose friendship he had first risen, and whose power was now perhaps on the decline.  Moreover, events had now caused him to hate the French government with much fervour.  With Henry IV. he had been all-powerful.  His position had been altogether exceptional, and he had wielded an influence at Paris more than that exerted by any foreign ambassador.  The change naturally did not please him, although he well knew the reasons.  It was impossible for the Dutch ambassador to be popular at a court where Spain ruled supreme.  Had he been willing to eat humiliation as with a spoon, it would not have sufficed.  They knew him, they feared him, and they could not doubt that his sympathies would ever be with the malcontent princes.  At the same time he did not like to lose his hold upon the place, nor to have it known, as yet, to the world that his power was diminished.

“The Queen commands me to tell you,” said the French ambassador de Russy to the States-General, “that the language of the Sieur Aerssens has not only astonished her, but scandalized her to that degree that she could not refrain from demanding if it came from My Lords the States or from himself.  He having, however, affirmed to her Majesty that he had express charge to justify it by reasons so remote from the hope and the belief that she had conceived of your gratitude to the Most Christian King and herself, she is constrained to complain of it, and with great frankness.”

Some months later than this Aerssens communicated to the States-General the project of the Spanish marriage, “which,” said he, “they have declared to me with so many oaths to be false.”  He informed them that M. de Refuge was to go on special mission to the Hague, “having been designated to that duty before Aerssens’ discovery of the marriage project.”  He was to persuade their Mightinesses that the marriages were by no means concluded, and that, even if they were, their Mightinesses were not interested therein, their Majesties intending to remain by the old maxims and alliances of the late king.  Marriages, he would be instructed to say, were mere personal conventions, which remained of no consideration when the interests of the crown were touched.  “Nevertheless, I know very well,” said Aerssens, “that in England these negotiations are otherwise understood, and that the King has uttered great complaints about them, saying that such a negotiation as this ought not to have been concealed from him.  He is pressing more than ever for reimbursement of the debt to him, and especially for the moneys pretended to have been furnished to your Mightinesses in his Majesty’s name.”

Thus it will be seen how closely the Spanish marriages were connected with the immediate financial arrangements of France, England, and the States, without reference to the wider political consequences anticipated.