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.

They reminded him that the Queen-Regent and her ministers since the murder of the King had assured the States-General and the princes of their firm intention to carry out the Treaty of Hall, and they observed that they had no authority to talk of any negotiation.  The affair of the duchies was not especially the business of the States, and the Secretary was well aware that they had promised their succour on the express condition that his Majesty and his army should lead the way, and that they should follow.  This was very far from the plan now suggested, that they should do it all, which would be quite out of the question.  France had a strong army, they said, and it would be better to use it than to efface herself so pitiably.  The proposition of abstention on the part of the Archduke was a delusion intended only to keep France out of the field.

Villeroy replied by referring to English affairs.  King James, he said, was treating them perfidiously.  His first letters after the murder had been good, but by the following ones England seemed to wish to put her foot on France’s throat, in order to compel her to sue for an alliance.  The British ministers had declared their resolve not to carry out that convention of alliance, although it had been nearly concluded in the lifetime of the late king, unless the Queen would bind herself to make good to the King of Great Britain that third part of the subsidies advanced by France to the States which had been furnished on English account!