History of the United Netherlands, 1607b | Page 4

supposed that so practised a hand would not
easily parry the strokes of the French king--accomplished fencer as he
undoubtedly was? After stealing into and out of Holland as he had so
recently done, there was nothing that might not be expected of him. So

the wily friar put on the Spinola livery, and, without impediment,
accompanied Don Aurelio to Madrid.
Meantime, the French commissioners--Pierre Jeannin, Buzanval,
regular resident at the Hague, and De Russy, who was destined to
succeed that diplomatist--had arrived in Holland.
The great drama of negotiation, which was now to follow the forty
years' tragedy, involved the interests and absorbed the attention of the
great Christian powers. Although serious enough in its substance and
its probable consequences, its aspect was that of a solemn comedy.
There was a secret disposition on the part of each leading
personage--with a few exceptions--to make dupes of all the rest.
Perhaps this was a necessary result of statesmanship, as it had usually
been taught at that epoch.
Paul V., who had succeeded Clement VIII. in 1605, with the brief
interlude of the twenty-six days of Leo XI.'s pontificate, was zealous,
as might be supposed, to check the dangerous growth of the pestilential
little republic of the north. His diplomatic agents, Millino at Madrid,
Barberini at Paris, and the accomplished Bentivoglio, who had just
been appointed to the nunciatura at Brussels, were indefatigable in their
efforts to suppress the heresy and the insolent liberty of which the
upstart commonwealth was the embodiment.
Especially Barberini exerted all the powers at his command to bring
about a good understanding between the kings of France and Spain. He
pictured to Henry, in darkest colours, the blight that would come over
religion and civilization if the progress of the rebellious Netherlands
could not be arrested. The United Provinces were becoming dangerous,
if they remained free, not only to the French kingdom, but to the very
existence of monarchy throughout the world.
No potentate was ever more interested, so it was urged, than Henry IV.
to bring down the pride of the Dutch rebels. There was always
sympathy of thought and action between the Huguenots of France and
their co- religionists in Holland. They were all believers alike in
Calvinism-- a sect inimical not less to temporal monarchies than to the
sovereign primacy of the Church--and the tendency and purposes of the
French rebels were already sufficiently manifest in their efforts, by
means of the so- called cities of security, to erect a state within a state;
to introduce, in short, a Dutch republic into France.

A sovereign remedy for the disease of liberty, now threatening to
become epidemic in Europe, would be found in a marriage between the
second son of the King of Spain and a daughter of France. As the
archdukes were childless, it might be easily arranged that this youthful
couple should succeed them--the result of which would of course be the
reduction of all the Netherlands to their ancient obedience.
It has already been seen, and will become still farther apparent, that
nostrums like this were to be recommended in other directions.
Meantime, Jeannin and his colleagues made their appearance at the
Hague.
If there were a living politician in Europe capable of dealing with
Barneveld on even terms, it was no doubt President Jeannin. An ancient
Leaguer, an especial adherent of the Duke of Mayenne, he had been
deep in all the various plots and counter-plots of the Guises, and often
employed by the extinct confederacy in various important intrigues.
Being secretly sent to Spain to solicit help for the League after the
disasters of Ivry and Arques, he found Philip II. so sincerely imbued
with the notion that France was a mere province of Spain, and so
entirely bent upon securing the heritage of the Infanta to that large
property, as to convince him that the maintenance of the Roman
religion was with that monarch only a secondary condition. Aid and
assistance for the confederacy were difficult of attainment, unless
coupled with the guarantee of the Infanta's rights to reign in France.
The Guise faction being inspired solely by religious motives of the
loftiest kind, were naturally dissatisfied with the lukewarmness of his
most Catholic Majesty. When therefore the discomfited Mayenne
subsequently concluded his bargain with the conqueror of Ivry, it was a
matter of course that Jeannin should also make his peace with the
successful Huguenot, now become eldest son of the Church. He was
very soon taken into especial favour by Henry, who recognised his
sagacity, and who knew his hands to be far cleaner than those of the
more exalted Leaguers with whom he had dealt. The "good old fellow,"
as Henry familiarly called him, had not filled his pockets either in
serving or when deserting the League.