but with them; and that the world would denounce as guilty those with
whom rested the responsibility. He concluded with an observation which,
in its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical, that if they had quite
finished the perusal of the despatches from Madrid to his address, which
they had intercepted, he should be thankful for an opportunity of reading
them himself. He expressed a hope, therefore, that they would be
forwarded to Namur.

This letter was answered at considerable length, upon the second day.
The states made their customary protestations of attachment to his
Majesty, their fidelity to the Catholic church, their determination to
maintain both the Ghent treaty and the Perpetual Edict. They denied all
responsibility for the present disastrous condition of the relations
between themselves and government, having disbanded nearly all their own
troops, while the Governor had been strengthening his forces up to the
period of his retreat into Namur. He protested, indeed, friendship and
a sincere desire for peace, but the intercepted letters of Escovedo and
his own had revealed to them the evil counsels to which he had been
listening, and the intrigues which he had been conducting. They left
it to his conscience whether they could reasonably believe, after the
perusal of these documents, that it was his intention to maintain the
Ghent treaty, or any treaty; and whether they were not justified in their
resort to the natural right of self-defence.

Don John was already fully aware of the desperate error which he had
committed. In seizing Namur and attempting Antwerp, he had thrown down
the gauntlet. Wishing peace, he had, in a panic of rage and anxiety;
declared and enacted war. The bridge was broken behind him, the ships
burned, a gulf opened, a return to peace rendered almost impossible.
Yet it is painful to observe the almost passionate longings which at