There was much negotiation, informal and secret, between Brussels and
London during this and a portion of the following year. Elizabeth,
naturally enough, was weary of the war, but she felt, after all, as did
the Government of France, that a peace between the United Netherlands and
Spain would have for its result the restoration of the authority of his
most Catholic Majesty over all the provinces. The statesmen of France
and England, like most of the politicians of Europe, had but slender
belief in the possibility of a popular government, and doubted therefore
the continued existence of the newly-organized republic. Therefore they
really deprecated the idea of a peace which should include the States,
notwithstanding that from time to time the queen or some of her
counsellors had so vehemently reproached the Netherlanders with their
unwillingness to negotiate. "At the first recognition that these people
should make of the mere shadow of a prince," said Buzanval, the keenly
observing and experienced French envoy at the Hague, "they lose the form
they have. All the blood of the body would flow to the head, and the
game would be who should best play the valet. . . . . The house of
Nassau would lose its credit within a month in case of peace." As such
statesmen could not imagine a republic, they ever dreaded the restoration
in the United Provinces of the subverted authority of Spain.

France and England were jealous of each other, and both were jealous of
Spain. Therefore even if the republican element, the strength and
endurance of which was so little suspected, had been as trifling a factor
in the problem, as was supposed, still it would have been difficult for
any one of these powers to absorb the United Netherlands. As for
France, she hardly coveted their possession. "We ought not to flatter
ourselves," said Buzanval, "that these maritime peoples will cast
themselves one day into our nets, nor do I know that it would be