Du Maurier had accordingly been obliged to ask his government for distinct and official instructions.  “He holds to his place,” said he, “by so slight and fragile a root as not to require two hands to pluck him up, the little finger being enough.  There is no doubt that he has been in concert with those who are making use of him to re-establish their credit with the States, and to embark Prince Maurice contrary to his preceding custom in a cabal with them.”

Thus a question of removing an obnoxious diplomatist could hardly be graver, for it was believed that he was doing his best to involve the military chief of his own state in a game of treason and rebellion against the government to which he was accredited.  It was not the first nor likely to be the last of Bouillon’s deadly intrigues.  But the man who had been privy to Biron’s conspiracy against the crown and life of his sovereign was hardly a safe ally for his brother-in-law, the straightforward stadholder.

The instructions desired by du Maurier and by Barneveld had, as we have seen, at last arrived.  The French ambassador thus fortified appeared before the Assembly of the States-General and officially demanded the recall of Aerssens.  In a letter addressed privately and confidentially to their Mightinesses, he said, “If in spite of us you throw him at our feet, we shall fling him back at your head.”

At last Maurice yielded to, the representations of the French envoy, and Aerssens felt obliged to resign his claims to the post.  The States-General passed a resolution that it would be proper to employ him in some other capacity in order to show that his services had been agreeable to them, he having now declared that he could no longer be useful in France.  Maurice, seeing that it was impossible to save him, admitted to du Maurier his unsteadiness and duplicity, and said that, if possessed of the confidence of a great king, he would be capable of destroying the state in less than a year.

But this had not always been the Prince’s opinion, nor was it likely to remain unchanged.  As for Villeroy, he denied flatly that the cause of his displeasure had been that Aerssens had penetrated into his most secret affairs.  He protested, on the contrary, that his annoyance with him had partly proceeded from the slight acquaintance he had acquired of his policy, and that, while boasting to be better informed than any one, he was in the habit of inventing and imagining things in order to get credit for himself.

It was highly essential that the secret of this affair should be made clear; for its influence on subsequent events was to be deep and wide.  For the moment Aerssens remained without employment, and there was no open rupture with Barneveld.  The only difference of opinion between the Advocate and himself, he said, was whether he had or had not definitely resigned his post on leaving Paris.