of the territory from the clutch of the League?  None certainly if the Republic faltered in its determination, and yielded to the cowardly advice of James.  “To comply with the summons,” said Barneveld, “and submit to its consequences will be an irreparable injury to the electoral house of Brandenburg, to the duchies, and to our co-religionists everywhere, and a very great disgrace to both their Majesties and to us.”

He continued, through the ambassador in London, to hold up to the King, in respectful but plain language, the shamelessness of his conduct in dispensing the enemy from his pledge to the mediators, when the Republic expressly, in deference to James, had given up the ampler guarantees of the treaty.  The arrangement had been solemnly made, and consented to by all the provinces, acting in their separate and sovereign capacity.  Such a radical change, even if it were otherwise permissible, could not be made without long debates, consultations, and votes by the several states.  What could be more fatal at such a crisis than this childish and causeless delay.  There could be no doubt in any statesman’s eyes that the Spanish party meant war and a preparatory hoodwinking.  And it was even worse for the government of the Republic to be outwitted in diplomacy than beaten in the field.

“Every man here,” said the Advocate, “has more apprehension of fraud than of force.  According to the constitution of our state, to be overcome by superior power must be endured, but to be overreached by trickery is a reproach to the government.”

The summer passed away.  The States maintained their positions in the duchies, notwithstanding the objurgations of James, and Barneveld remained on his watch-tower observing every movement of the fast-approaching war, and refusing at the price of the whole territory in dispute to rescue Wesel and Aix-la-Chapelle from the grasp of the League.

Caron came to the Hague to have personal consultations with the States-General, the Advocate, and Prince Maurice, and returned before the close of the year.  He had an audience of the King at the palace of Whitehall early in November, and found him as immovable as ever in his apathetic attitude in regard to the affairs of Germany.  The murder of Sir Thomas Overbury and the obscene scandals concerning the King’s beloved Carr and his notorious bride were then occupying the whole attention of the monarch, so that he had not even time for theological lucubrations, still less for affairs of state on which the peace of Christendom and the fate of his own children were hanging.

The Ambassador found him sulky and dictatorial, but insisted on expressing once more to him the apprehensions felt by the States-General in regard to the trickery of the Spanish party in the matter of Cleve and Julich.  He assured his Majesty that they had no intention of maintaining the Treaty of Xanten, and respectfully requested that the King would no longer urge the States to surrender the places held by them.  It was a matter of vital importance to retain them, he said.