History of the United Netherlands, 1607b | Page 7

fighting weavers, and blacksmiths, and other plebeians, those seven
hundred and forty churches, those very substantial fortresses in every
province of the kingdom, were better facts than the Holy Inquisition to
preserve a great nation from sinking into the slough of political
extinction.
Henry was most anxious that Sully should convert himself to the

ancient Church, and the gossips of the day told each other that the duke
had named his price for his conversion. To be made high constable of
France, it was said would melt the resolve of the stiff Huguenot. To any
other inducement or blandishment he was adamant. Whatever truth
may have been in such chatter, it is certain that the duke never gratified
his master's darling desire.
Yet it was for no lack of attempts and intrigues on the part of the king,
although it is not probable that he would have ever consented to bestow
that august and coveted dignity upon a Bethune.
The king did his best by intrigue, by calumny, by talebearing, by
inventions, to set the Huguenots against each other, and to excite the
mutual jealousy of all his most trusted adherents, whether Protestant or
Catholic. The most good-humoured, the least vindictive, the most
ungrateful, the falsest of mankind, he made it his policy, as well as his
pastime, to repeat, with any amount of embroidery that his most florid
fancy could devise, every idle story or calumny that could possibly
create bitter feeling and make mischief among those who surrounded
him. Being aware that this propensity was thoroughly understood, he
only multiplied fictions, so cunningly mingled with truths, as to leave
his hearers quite unable to know what to believe and what to doubt. By
such arts, force being impossible, he hoped one day to sever the band
which held the conventicles together, and to reduce Protestantism to
insignificance. He would have cut off the head of D'Aubigne or
Duplessis Mornay to gain an object, and have not only pardoned but
caressed and rewarded Biron when reeking from the conspiracy against
his own life and crown, had he been willing to confess and ask pardon
for his stupendous crime. He hated vindictive men almost as much as
he despised those who were grateful.
He was therefore far from preferring Sully to Villeroy or Jeannin, but
he was perfectly aware that, in financial matters at least, the duke was
his best friend and an important pillar of the state.
The minister had succeeded in raising the annual revenue of France to
nearly eleven millions of dollars, and in reducing the annual
expenditures to a little more than ten millions. To have a balance on the
right side of the public ledger was a feat less easily accomplished in
those days even than in our own. Could the duke have restrained his
sovereign's reckless extravagance in buildings, parks, hunting

establishments, and harems, he might have accomplished even greater
miracles. He lectured the king roundly, as a parent might remonstrate
with a prodigal son, but it was impossible even for a Sully to rescue
that hoary-headed and most indomitable youth from wantonness and
riotous living. The civil-list of the king amounted to more than
one-tenth of the whole revenue.
On the whole, however, it was clear, as France was then constituted and
administered, that a general peace would be, for the time at least, most
conducive to its interests, and Henry and his great minister were
sincerely desirous of bringing about that result.
Preliminaries for a negotiation which should terminate this mighty war
were now accordingly to be laid down at the Hague. Yet it would seem
rather difficult to effect a compromise. Besides the powers less
interested, but which nevertheless sent representatives to watch the
proceedings--such as Sweden, Denmark, Brandenburg, the Elector
Palatine --there were Spain, France, England, the republic, and the
archdukes.
Spain knew very well that she could not continue the war; but she
hoped by some quibbling recognition of an impossible independence to
recover that authority over her ancient vassals which the sword had for
the time struck down. Distraction in councils, personal rivalries, the
well- known incapacity of a people to govern itself, commercial
greediness, provincial hatreds, envies and jealousies, would soon
reduce that jumble of cities and villages, which aped the airs of
sovereignty, into insignificance and confusion. Adroit management
would easily re-assert afterwards the sovereignty of the Lord's anointed.
That a republic of freemen, a federation of independent states, could
take its place among the nations did not deserve a serious thought.
Spain in her heart preferred therefore to treat. It was however
indispensable that the Netherlands should reestablish the Catholic
religion throughout the land, should abstain then and for ever from all
insolent pretences to trade with India or America, and should punish
such of their citizens