The armaments, already so great, had been enlarged during the last month of the year.  Vaudemont was at the head of a further force of 2000 cavalry and 8000 foot, paid for by Spain and the Pope; 24,000 additional soldiers, riders and infantry together, had been gathered by Maximilian of Bavaria at the expense of the League.  Even if the reports were exaggerated, the Advocate thought it better to be too credulous than as apathetic as the rest of the Protestants.

“We receive advices every day,” he wrote to Caron, “that the Spaniards and the Roman League are going forward with their design.  They are trying to amuse the British king and to gain time, in order to be able to deal the heavier blows.  Do all possible duty to procure a timely and vigorous resolution there.  To wait again until we are anticipated will be fatal to the cause of the Evangelical electors and princes of Germany and especially of his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg.  We likewise should almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear our cross, as men said last year in regard to Aachen, Wesel, and so many other places.  The Spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive how he can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies.  Remember all the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were all tossed to the winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists.  If it is now intended over there to keep the Spaniards in check merely by speeches or letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends.  So long as Parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and subsidies for this most necessary purpose, so long I fail to believe that this great common cause of Christendom, and especially of Germany, is taken to heart by England.”

He adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to King James’s proposition that Spinola should give a guarantee.  “I doubt if he accepts the suggestion,” said Barneveld, “unless as a notorious trick, and if he did, what good would the promise of Spinola do us?  We consider Spinola a great commander having the purses and forces of the Spaniards and the Leaguers in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would not be a very considerable personage for us.  And that may happen any day.  They don’t seem in England to understand the difference between Prince Maurice in his relations to our state and that of Marquis Spinola to his superiors.  Try to make them comprehend it.  A promise from the Emperor, King of Spain, and the princes of the League, such as his Majesty in his wisdom has proposed to Spinola, would be most tranquillizing for all the Protestant princes and estates of the Empire, especially for the Elector and Electress Palatine, and for ourselves.  In such a case no difficulty would be made on our side.”

After expressing his mind thus freely in regard to James and his policy, he then gave the Ambassador a word of caution in characteristic fashion.  “Cogita,” he said, “but beware of censuring his Majesty’s projects.  I do not myself mean to censure them, nor are they publicly laughed at here, but look closely at everything that comes from Brussels, and let me know with diligence.”