It was ridiculous to ascribe any intense desire on the part of the Duc de Bouillon to aid the Protestant cause against Spain at that moment, acting as he was in combination with Conde, whom we have just seen employed by Spain as the chief instrument to effect the destruction of France and the bastardy of the Queen’s children.  Nor did the sincere and devout Protestants who had clung to the cause through good and bad report, men like Duplessis-Mornay, for example, and those who usually acted with him, believe in any of these schemes for partitioning France on pretence of saving Protestantism.  But Bouillon, greatest of all French fishermen in troubled waters, was brother-in-law of Prince Maurice of Nassau, and Aerssens instinctively felt that the time had come when he should anchor himself to firm holding ground at home.

The Ambassador had also a personal grievance.  Many of his most secret despatches to the States-General in which he expressed himself very freely, forcibly, and accurately on the general situation in France, especially in regard to the Spanish marriages and the Treaty of Hampton Court, had been transcribed at the Hague and copies of them sent to the French government.  No baser act of treachery to an envoy could be imagined.  It was not surprising that Aerssens complained bitterly of the deed.  He secretly suspected Barneveld, but with injustice, of having played him this evil turn, and the incident first planted the seeds of the deadly hatred which was to bear such fatal fruit.

“A notable treason has been played upon me,” he wrote to Jacques de Maldere, “which has outraged my heart.  All the despatches which I have been sending for several months to M. de Barneveld have been communicated by copy in whole or in extracts to this court.  Villeroy quoted from them at our interview to-day, and I was left as it were without power of reply.  The despatches were long, solid, omitting no particularity for giving means to form the best judgment of the designs and intrigues of this court.  No greater damage could be done to me and my usefulness.  All those from whom I have hitherto derived information, princes and great personages, will shut themselves up from me . . . .  What can be more ticklish than to pass judgment on the tricks of those who are governing this state?  This single blow has knocked me down completely.  For I was moving about among all of them, making my profit of all, without any reserve.  M. de Barneveld knew by this means the condition of this kingdom as well as I do.  Certainly in a well-ordered republic it would cost the life of a man who had thus trifled with the reputation of an ambassador.  I believe M. de Barneveld will be sorry, but this will never restore to me the confidence which I have lost.  If one was jealous of my position at this court, certainly I deserved rather pity from those who should contemplate it closely.  If one wished to procure my downfall in order to raise oneself above me, there