History of the United Netherlands, 1603-04 | Page 7

Number three, to do
as much for Switzerland. Number four, to partition Europe. Number
five, to reduce all religions to three. Nothing could be more majestic,
no plan fuller fraught with tranquillity for the rulers of mankind and
their subjects. Thrice happy the people, having thus a couple of heads
with crowns upon them and brains within them to prescribe what was
to be done in this world and believed as to the next!
The illustrious successor of that great queen now stretches her
benignant sceptre over two hundred millions of subjects, and the
political revenues of her empire are more than a hundredfold those of
Elizabeth; yet it would hardly now be thought great statesmanship or
sound imperial policy for a British sovereign even to imagine the
possibility of the five points which filled the royal English mind at
Dover.
But Henry was as much convinced as Elizabeth of the necessity and the
possibility of establishing the five points, and De Bethune had been
astonished at the exact similarity of the conclusion which those two
sovereign intellects had reached, even before they had been placed in
communion with each other. The death of the queen had not caused any
change in the far-reaching designs of which the king now remained the
sole executor, and his first thought, on the accession of James, was
accordingly to despatch De Bethune, now created Marquis de Rosny, as
ambassador extraordinary to England, in order that the new sovereign
might be secretly but thoroughly instructed as to the scheme for
remodelling Christendom.
As Rosny was also charged with the duty of formally congratulating
King James, he proceeded upon his journey with remarkable pomp. He
was accompanied by two hundred gentlemen of quality, specially
attached to his embassy--young city fops, as he himself described them,
who were out of their element whenever they left the pavement of
Paris--and by an equal number of valets, grooms, and cooks. Such a
retinue was indispensable to enable an ambassador to transact the
public business and to maintain the public dignity in those days;
unproductive consumption being accounted most sagacious and noble.
Before reaching the English shore the marquis was involved in trouble.
Accepting the offer of the English vice-admiral lying off Calais, he

embarked with his suite in two English vessels, much to the
dissatisfaction of De Vic, vice-admiral of France, who was anxious to
convey the French ambassador in the war-ships of his country. There
had been suspicion afloat as to the good understanding between
England and Spain, caused by the great courtesy recently shown to the
Count of Arenberg, and there was intense irritation among all the
seafaring people of France on account of the exploits of the English
corsairs upon their coast. Rosny thought it best to begin his embassy by
an act of conciliation, but soon had cause to repent his decision.
In mid-channel they were met by De Vic's vessels with the French
banner displayed, at which sight the English commander was so wroth
that he forthwith ordered a broadside to be poured into the audacious
foreigner; --swearing with mighty oaths that none but the English flag
should be shown in those waters. And thus, while conveying a French
ambassador and three hundred Frenchmen on a sacred mission to the
British sovereign, this redoubtable mariner of England prepared to do
battle with the ships of France. It was with much difficulty and some
prevarication that Rosny appeased the strife, representing that the
French flag had only been raised in order that it might be dipped, in
honour of the French ambassador, as the ships passed each other. The
full-shotted broadside was fired from fifty guns, but the English
commander consented, at De Rosny's representations, that it should be
discharged wide of the mark.
A few shots, however, struck the side of one of the French vessels, and
at the same time, as Cardinal Richelieu afterwards remarked, pierced
the heart of every patriotic Frenchman.
The ambassador made a sign, which De Vic understood; to lower his
flag and to refrain from answering the fire. Thus a battle between allies,
amid the most amazing circumstances, was avoided, but it may well be
imagined how long and how deeply the poison of the insult festered.
Such an incident could hardly predispose the ambassador in favour of
the nation he was about to visit, or strengthen his hope of laying, not
only the foundation of a perpetual friendship between the two crowns,
but of effecting the palingenesis of Europe. Yet no doubt Sully--as the
world has so long learned to call him--was actuated by lofty sentiments
in many respects in advance of his age. Although a brilliant and
successful campaigner in his youth, he detested war, and looked down

with contempt at political systems which had not yet invented