in everything that may depend upon him, My Lords the States will find him
prompt. The source of all these entanglements comes from Spain. We do not
think that the Archduke will attack Julich this year, but rather fear for
Mulheim and Aix-la-Chapelle."

But the Secretary of State, thus acknowledging the peril, chose to be
blind to its extent, while at the same time undervaluing the powers by
which it might be resisted. "To oppose the violence of the enemy," he
said, "if he does resort to violence, is entirely impossible. It would be
furious madness on our part to induce him to fall upon the
Elector-Palatine, for this would be attacking Great Britain and all her
friends and allies. Germany is a delicate morsel, but too much for the
throat of Spain to swallow all at once. Behold the evil which troubles
the conscience of the Papistical League. The Emperor and his brothers are
all on the brink of their sepulchre, and the Infants of Spain are too
young to succeed to the Empire. The Pope would more willingly permit its
dissolution than its falling into the hands of a prince not of his
profession. All that we have to do in this conjuncture is to attend the
best we can to our own affairs, and afterwards to strengthen the good
alliance existing among us, and not to let ourselves be separated by the
tricks and sleights of hand of our adversaries. The common cause can
reckon firmly upon the King of Great Britain, and will not find itself
deceived."

Excellent commonplaces, but not very safe ones. Unluckily for the allies,
to attend each to his own affairs when the enemy was upon them, and to
reckon firmly upon a king who thought it furious madness to resist the
enemy, was hardly the way to avert the danger. A fortnight later, the man
who thought it possible to resist, and time to resist, before the net was
over every head, replied to the Secretary by a picture of the Spaniards'