Immediately afterwards came communications from Barneveld to Henry, with complete adhesion to the King’s plans.  The States would move in exact harmony with him, neither before him nor after him, which was precisely what he wished.  He complained bitterly to Aerssens, when he communicated the Advocate’s despatches, of the slothful and timid course of the princes.  He ascribed it to the arts of Leopold, who had written and inspired many letters against him insinuating that he was secretly in league and correspondence with the Emperor; that he was going to the duchies simply in the interest of the Catholics; that he was like Henry II. only seeking to extend the French frontier; and Leopold, by these intrigues and falsehoods, had succeeded in filling the princes with distrust, and they had taken umbrage at the advance of his cavalry.

Henry professed himself incapable of self-seeking or ambition.  He meant to prevent the aggrandizement of Austria, and was impatient at the dilatoriness and distrust of the princes.

“All their enemies are rushing to the King of Spain.  Let them address themselves to the King of France,” he said, “for it is we two that must play this game.”

And when at last they did send an embassy, they prefaced it by a post letter demanding an instant loan, and with an intimation that they would rather have his money than his presence!

Was it surprising that the King’s course should seem occasionally wavering when he found it so difficult to stir up such stagnant waters into honourable action?  Was it strange that the rude and stern Sully should sometimes lose his patience, knowing so much and suspecting more of the foul designs by which his master was encompassed, of the web of conspiracy against his throne, his life, and his honour, which was daily and hourly spinning?

“We do nothing and you do nothing,” he said one day to Aerssens.  “You are too soft, and we are too cowardly.  I believe that we shall spoil everything, after all.  I always suspect these sudden determinations of ours.  They are of bad augury.  We usually founder at last when we set off so fiercely at first.  There are words enough an every side, but there will be few deeds.  There is nothing to be got out of the King of Great Britain, and the King of Spain will end by securing these provinces for himself by a treaty.”  Sully knew better than this, but he did not care to let even the Dutch envoy know, as yet, the immense preparations he had been making for the coming campaign.

The envoys of the possessory princes, the Counts Solms, Colonel Pallandt, and Dr. Steyntgen, took their departure, after it had been arranged that final measures should be concerted at the general congress of the German Protestants to be held early in the ensuing year at Hall, in Suabia.

At that convention de Boississe would make himself heard on the part of France, and the representatives of the States-General, of Venice, and Savoy, would also be present.