The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1613-15 | Page 4

were thus added to the frugal store of profits on which he prided
himself. Had he merely gone away on leave of absence, he would have
received no presents whatever. But he never went back. The
Queen-Regent and her ministers were so glad to get rid of him, and so
little disposed, in the straits in which they found themselves, to quarrel
with the powerful republic, as to be willing to write very
complimentary public letters to the States, concerning the character and

conduct of the man whom they so much detested.
Pluming himself upon these, Aerssens made his appearance in the
Assembly of the States-General, to give account by word of mouth of
the condition of affairs, speaking as if he had only come by permission
of their Mightinesses for temporary purposes. Two months later he was
summoned before the Assembly, and ordered to return to his post.
Meantime a new French ambassador had arrived at the Hague, in the
spring of 1613. Aubery du Maurier, a son of an obscure country squire,
a Protestant, of moderate opinions, of a sincere but rather obsequious
character, painstaking, diligent, and honest, had been at an earlier day
in the service of the turbulent and intriguing Due de Bouillon. He had
also been employed by Sully as an agent in financial affairs between
Holland and France, and had long been known to Villeroy. He was
living on his estate, in great retirement from all public business, when
Secretary Villeroy suddenly proposed him the embassy to the Hague.
There was no more important diplomatic post at that time in Europe.
Other countries were virtually at peace, but in Holland, notwithstanding
the truce, there vas really not much more than an armistice, and great
armies lay in the Netherlands, as after a battle, sleeping face to face
with arms in their hands. The politics of Christendom were at issue in
the open, elegant, and picturesque village which was the social capital
of the United Provinces. The gentry from Spain, Italy, the south of
Europe, Catholic Germany, had clustered about Spinola at Brussels, to
learn the art of war in his constant campaigning against Maurice.
English and Scotch officers, Frenchmen, Bohemians, Austrians, youths
from the Palatinate and all Protestant countries in Germany, swarmed
to the banners of the prince who had taught the world how Alexander
Farnese could be baffled, and the great Spinola outmanoeuvred.
Especially there was a great number of Frenchmen of figure and quality
who thronged to the Hague, besides the officers of the two French
regiments which formed a regular portion of the States' army. That
army was the best appointed and most conspicuous standing force in
Europe. Besides the French contingent there were always nearly 30,000
infantry and 3000 cavalry on a war footing, splendidly disciplined,
experienced, and admirably armed. The navy, consisting of thirty war
ships, perfectly equipped and manned, was a match for the combined
marine forces of all Europe, and almost as numerous.

When the Ambassador went to solemn audience of the States-General,
he was attended by a brilliant group of gentlemen and officers, often to
the number of three hundred, who volunteered to march after him on
foot to honour their sovereign in the person of his ambassador; the
Envoy's carriage following empty behind. Such were the splendid
diplomatic processions often received by the stately Advocate in his
plain civic garb, when grave international questions were to be publicly
discussed.
There was much murmuring in France when the appointment of a
personage comparatively so humble to a position so important was
known. It was considered as a blow aimed directly at the malcontent
princes of the blood, who were at that moment plotting their first levy
of arms against the Queen. Du Maurier had been ill-treated by the Due
de Bouillon, who naturally therefore now denounced the man whom he
had injured to the government to which he was accredited. Being the
agent of Mary de' Medici, he was, of course, described as a tool of the
court and a secret pensioner of Spain. He was to plot with the arch
traitor Barneveld as to the best means for distracting the Provinces and
bringing them back into Spanish subjection. Du Maurier, being
especially but secretly charged to prevent the return of Francis
Aerssens to Paris, incurred of course the enmity of that personage and
of the French grandees who ostentatiously protected him. It was even
pretended by Jeannin that the appointment of a man so slightly known
to the world, so inexperienced in diplomacy, and of a parentage so little
distinguished, would be considered an affront by the States-General.
But on the whole, Villeroy had made an excellent choice. No safer man
could perhaps have been found in France for a post of such eminence,
in circumstances so