personage, adding, with an eye to business, "and he is but poor, which
you must consider, but with great secrecy." There was Paul Buys, whom we
have met with before; keen, subtle, somewhat loose of life, very
passionate, a most most energetic and valuable friend to England, a
determined foe to France, who had resigned the important post of
Holland's Advocate, when the mission offering sovereignty to Henry III.
had been resolved upon, and who had since that period been most
influential in procuring the present triumph of the English policy.
Through his exertions the Province of Holland had been induced at an
early moment to furnish the most ample instructions to the commissioners
for the satisfaction of Queen Elizabeth in the great matter of the
mortgages. "Judge if this Paul Buys has done his work well," said a
French agent in the Netherlands, who, despite the infamous conduct of his
government towards the Provinces, was doing his best to frustrate the
subsequent negotiation with England, "and whether or no he has Holland
under his thumb." The same individual had conceived hopes from Falck of
Zeeland. That Province, in which lay the great bone of contention
between the Queen and the States--the important town of Flushing--was
much slower than Holland to agree to the English policy. It is to be
feared that Falck was not the most ingenuous and disinterested politician
that could be found even in an age not distinguished for frankness or
purity; for even while setting forth upon the mission to Elizabeth, he
was still clingihg, or affecting to cling, to the wretched delusion of
French assistance. "I regret infinitely," said Falck to the French agent
just mentioned, "that I am employed in this affair, and that it is
necessary in our present straits to have recourse to England. There is--
so to speak--not a person in our Province that is inclined that way, all
recognizing very well that France is much more salutary for us, besides
that we all bear her a certain affection. Indeed, if I were assured that
the King still felt any goodwill towards us, I would so manage matters