commonwealth. If the league therefore proved impotent from the
beginning, certainly it was not the fault of the United Netherlands.
We have seen how much the king deplored, in intimate conversation with
De Bethune, his formal declaration of war against Spain which the Dutch
diplomatists had induced him to make; and indeed nothing can be more
certain than that this public declaration of war, and this solemn
formation of the triple alliance against Philip, were instantly
accompanied on Henry's part by secret peace negotiations with Philip's
agents. Villeroy, told Envoy Calvaert that as for himself he always
trembled when he thought on what he had done, in seconding the will of
his Majesty in that declaration at the instance of the States-General, of
which measure so many losses and such bitter fruits had been the result.
He complained, too, of the little assistance or co-operation yielded by
England. Calvaert replied that he had nothing to say in defence of
England, but that certainly the king could have no cause to censure the
States. The republic, however, had good ground, he said, to complain
that nothing had been done by France, that all favourable occasions had
been neglected, and that there was a perpetual change of counsels. The
envoy, especially, and justly, reproached the royal government for having
taken no advantage of the opportunity offered by the victory of Turnhout,
in which the republic had utterly defeated the principal forces of the
common enemy. He bluntly remarked, too, that the mysterious comings and
goings of Balvena had naturally excited suspicions in the Netherlands,
and that it would be better that all such practices should be at once
abandoned. They did his Majesty no service, and it was no wonder that
they caused uneasiness to his allies. Villeroy replied that the king had
good reasons to give satisfaction to those who were yearning for peace.

As Henry himself was yearning in this regard as much as any of his
subjects, it was natural enough that he should listen to Balvena and all