powerful republic, as to be willing to write very complimentary public
letters to the States, concerning the character and conduct of the man
whom they so much detested.

Pluming himself upon these, Aerssens made his appearance in the Assembly
of the States-General, to give account by word of mouth of the condition
of affairs, speaking as if he had only come by permission of their
Mightinesses for temporary purposes. Two months later he was summoned
before the Assembly, and ordered to return to his post.

Meantime a new French ambassador had arrived at the Hague, in the spring
of 1613. Aubery du Maurier, a son of an obscure country squire, a
Protestant, of moderate opinions, of a sincere but rather obsequious
character, painstaking, diligent, and honest, had been at an earlier day
in the service of the turbulent and intriguing Due de Bouillon. He had
also been employed by Sully as an agent in financial affairs between
Holland and France, and had long been known to Villeroy. He was living
on his estate, in great retirement from all public business, when
Secretary Villeroy suddenly proposed him the embassy to the Hague.
There was no more important diplomatic post at that time in Europe.
Other countries were virtually at peace, but in Holland, notwithstanding
the truce, there vas really not much more than an armistice, and great
armies lay in the Netherlands, as after a battle, sleeping face to face
with arms in their hands. The politics of Christendom were at issue in
the open, elegant, and picturesque village which was the social capital
of the United Provinces. The gentry from Spain, Italy, the south of
Europe, Catholic Germany, had clustered about Spinola at Brussels, to
learn the art of war in his constant campaigning against Maurice.
English and Scotch officers, Frenchmen, Bohemians, Austrians, youths from
the Palatinate and all Protestant countries in Germany, swarmed to the