never restore to me the confidence which I have lost. If one was jealous
of my position at this court, certainly I deserved rather pity from those
who should contemplate it closely. If one wished to procure my downfall
in order to raise oneself above me, there was no need of these tricks.
I have been offering to resign my embassy this long time, which will now
produce nothing but thorns for me. How can I negotiate after my private
despatches have been read? L'Hoste, the clerk of Villeroy, was not so
great a criminal as the man who revealed my despatches; and L'Hoste was
torn by four horses after his death. Four months long I have been
complaining of this to M. de Barneveld. . . . Patience! I am
groaning without being able to hope for justice. I console myself, for
my term of office will soon arrive. Would that my embassy could have
finished under the agreeable and friendly circumstances with which it
began. The man who may succeed me will not find that this vile trick
will help him much . . . . Pray find out whence and from whom this
intrigue has come."

Certainly an envoy's position could hardly be more utterly compromised.
Most unquestionably Aerssens had reason to be indignant, believing as he
did that his conscientious efforts in the service of his government had
been made use of by his chief to undermine his credit and blast his
character. There was an intrigue between the newly appointed French
minister, de Russy, at the Hague and the enemies of Aerssens to represent
him to his own government as mischievous, passionate, unreasonably
vehement in supporting the claims and dignity of his own country at the
court to which he was accredited. Not often in diplomatic history has
an ambassador of a free state been censured or removed for believing and
maintaining in controversy that his own government is in the right. It
was natural that the French government should be disturbed by the vivid
light which he had flashed upon their pernicious intrigues with Spain to