It was a solace for Philip to call the legitimate king by the title
borne by him when heir-presumptive, and to persist in denying to him that
absolution which, as the whole world was aware, the Vicar of Christ was
at that very moment in the most solemn manner about to bestow upon him.

More devoted to the welfare of France than were the French themselves,
he was determined that a foreign prince himself, his daughter, or one of
his nephews--should supplant the descendant of St. Louis on the French
throne. More catholic than the pope he could not permit the heretic,
whom his Holiness was just washing whiter than snow, to intrude himself
into the society of Christian sovereigns.

The winter movements by Bouillon in Luxembourg, sustained by Philip
Nassau campaigning with a meagre force on the French frontier, were not
very brilliant. The Netherland regiments quartered at Yssoire, La Ferte,
and in the neighbourhood accomplished very little, and their numbers were
sadly thinned by dysentery. A sudden and successful stroke, too, by
which that daring soldier Heraugiere, who had been the chief captor of
Breda, obtained possession of the town, and castle of Huy, produced no
permanent advantage. This place, belonging to the Bishop of Liege, with
its stone bridge over the Meuse, was an advantageous position from which
to aid the operations of Bouillon in Luxembourg. Heraugiere was,
however, not sufficiently reinforced, and Huy was a month later
recaptured by La Motte. The campaigning was languid during that winter
in the United Netherlands, but the merry-making was energetic. The
nuptials of Hohenlo with Mary, eldest daughter of William the Silent and
own sister of the captive Philip William; of the Duke of Bouillon with
Elizabeth, one of the daughters of the same illustrious prince by his
third wife, Charlotte of Bourbon; and of Count Everard Solms, the famous