Hardly was the ink dry on the treaty which had suspended for twelve years
the great religious war of forty years, not yet had the ratifications
been exchanged, but the trumpet was again sounding, and the hostile
forces were once more face to face.

Leopold, knowing where his great danger lay, sent a friendly message to
the States-General, expressing the hope that they would submit to his
arrangements until the Imperial decision should be made.

The States, through the pen and brain of Barneveld, replied that they
had already recognized the rights of the possessory princes, and were
surprised that the Bishop-Archduke should oppose them. They expressed
the hope that, when better informed, he would see the validity of the
Treaty of Dortmund. "My Lords the States-General," said the Advocate,
"will protect the princes against violence and actual disturbances, and
are assured that the neighbouring kings and princes will do the same.
They trust that his Imperial Highness will not allow matters, to proceed
to extremities."

This was language not to be mistaken. It was plain that the Republic did
not intend the Emperor to decide a question of life and death to herself,
nor to permit Spain, exhausted by warfare, to achieve this annihilating
triumph by a petty intrigue.

While in reality the clue to what seemed to the outside world a
labyrinthine maze of tangled interests and passions was firmly held in
the hand of Barneveld, it was not to him nor to My Lords the States-
General that the various parties to the impending conflict applied in the
first resort.