the Union through the adroitness of the Catholic managers and the
supineness of the great allies of the Republic.

Three weeks later than these last utterances of the Advocate, he was
given to understand that King James was preparing to slide away from the
position which had been three times changed to make it suitable for him.
His indignation was hot.

"Sir Henry Wotton," he said, "has communicated to me his last despatches
from Newmarket. I am in the highest degree amazed that after all our
efforts at accommodation, with so much sacrifice to the electors, the
provinces, and ourselves, they are trying to urge us there to consent
that the promise be not made to the Kings of France and Great Britain as
mediators, although the proposition came from the Spanish side. After we
had renounced, by desire of his Majesty, the right to refer the promise
to the Treaty of Xanten, it was judged by both kings to be needful and
substantial that the promise be made to their Majesties. To change this
now would be prejudicial to the kings, to the electors, the duchies, and
to our commonwealth; to do us a wrong and to leave us naked. France
maintains her position as becoming and necessary. That Great Britain
should swerve from it is not to be digested here. You will do your
utmost according to my previous instructions to prevent any pressure to
this end. You will also see that the name of the Emperor is mentioned
neither in the preamble nor the articles of the treaty. It would be
contrary to all our policy since 1610. You may be firmly convinced that
malice is lurking under the Emperor's name, and that he and the King of
Spain and their adherents, now as before, are attempting a sequestration.
This is simply a pretext to bring those principalities and provinces into
the hands of the Spaniards, for which they have been labouring these
thirty years. We are constantly cheated by these Spanish tricks. Their