After dinner there was a parting interview in the gallery. The King,
attended by many privy councillors and high functionaries of state,
bade the commissioners a cordial farewell, and, in order to show his
consideration for their government, performed the ceremony of knighthood
upon them, as was his custom in regard to the ambassadors of Venice. The
sword being presented to him by the Lord Chamberlain, James touched each
of the envoys on the shoulder as he dismissed him. "Out of respect to My
Lords the States," said they in their report, "we felt compelled to allow
ourselves to be burthened with this honour."

Thus it became obvious to the States-General that there was but little to
hope for from Great Britain or France. France, governed by Concini and
by Spain, was sure to do her best to traverse the designs of the
Republic, and, while perfunctorily and grudgingly complying with the
letter of the Hall treaty, was secretly neutralizing by intrigue the
slender military aid which de la Chatre was to bring to Prince Maurice.
The close alliance of France and Protestantism had melted into air. On
the other hand the new Catholic League sprang into full luxuriance out
of the grave of Henry, and both Spain and the Pope gave their hearty
adhesion to the combinations of Maximilian of Bavaria, now that the
mighty designs of the French king were buried with him. The Duke of
Savoy, caught in the trap of his own devising, was fain to send his son
to sue to Spain for pardon for the family upon his knees, and expiated
by draining a deep cup of humiliation his ambitious designs upon the
Milanese and the matrimonial alliance with France. Venice recoiled in
horror from the position she found herself in as soon as the glamour of
Henry's seductive policy was dispelled, while James of Great Britain,
rubbing his hands with great delight at the disappearance from the world
of the man he so admired, bewailed, and hated, had no comfort to impart
to the States-General thus left in virtual isolation. The barren burthen