The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1610-12 | Page 3

would not hang my
salvation upon it. My Lords the States would do well to order their
doctors and teachers to be silent on this topic. I have hardly ventured,
moreover, to touch upon the matter of justification in my own writings,
because that also seemed to hang upon predestination."
Thus having spoken with the air of a man who had left nothing further
to be said on predestination or justification, the King rose, took off his
hat, and drank a bumper to the health of the States-General and his
Excellency Prince Maurice, and success to the affair of Cleve.
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 of knighthood and a sermon on predestination were all he
could bestow upon the high commissioners in place of the alliance
which he eluded, and the military assistance which he point-blank
refused. The possessory princes, in whose cause the sword was drawn,
were too quarrelsome and too fainthearted to serve for much else than
an incumbrance either in the cabinet or the field.
And the States-General were equal to the immense responsibility.
Steadily, promptly, and sagaciously they confronted the wrath, the
policy, and the power of the Empire, of Spain, and of the Pope. Had the
Republic not existed, nothing could have prevented that debateable and
most important territory from becoming provinces of Spain, whose
power thus dilated to gigantic proportions in the very face of England
would have been more menacing than in the days of the Armada. Had
the Republic faltered, she would have soon ceased to exist. But the
Republic did not falter.
On the 13th July, Prince Maurice took command of the States' forces,
13,000 foot and 3000 horse, with thirty pieces of cannon, assembled at
Schenkenschans. The July English and French regiments in the regular
service of the United Provinces were included in these armies, but there
were no additions to them: "The States did seven times as much,"
Barneveld justly averred, "as they had stipulated to do." Maurice,
moving with the precision and promptness which always marked his
military operations, marched straight upon Julich, and laid siege to that
important fortress. The Archdukes at Brussels, determined to keep out
of the fray as long as possible, offered no opposition to the passage of
his supplies up the Rhine, which might have been seriously impeded by
them at Rheinberg. The details of the siege, as of all the Prince's sieges,
possess no more interest to the general reader than the working out of a
geometrical problem. He was incapable of a flaw in his calculations,
but it was impossible for him quite to complete the demonstration
before the arrival of de la Chatre. Maurice received with courtesy the
Marshal, who arrived on the 18th August, at