The year, begun with the signal victory of Turnhout, had
worthily terminated, so far as military events were concerned, with the
autumnal campaign on the Rhine, and great were the rejoicings throughout
the little commonwealth.

Thus, with diminished resources, had the republic been doing its share of
the work which the anti-Spanish league had been called into existence to
accomplish. But, as already intimated, this league was a mere fraud upon
the Netherlands, which their statesmen were not slow in discovering. Of
course it was the object of Philip and of the pope to destroy this
formidable triple alliance as soon as formed, and they found potent
assistance, not only in Henry's counsellors, but in the bosom of that
crafty monarch himself. Clement hated Philip as much as he feared him, so
that the prospect both of obtaining Henry as a counterpoise to his own
most oppressive and most Catholic protector, and of breaking up the great
convert's alliance with the heretic queen and the rebellious republic,
was a most tempting one to his Holiness. Therefore he employed,
indefatigably, the matchless powers of intrigue possessed by Rome to
effect this great purpose. As for Elizabeth, she was weary of the war,
most anxious to be reimbursed her advances to the States, and profoundly
jealous of the rising commercial and naval greatness of the new
commonwealth. If the league therefore proved impotent from the beginning,
certainly it was not the fault of the United Netherlands. We have seen
how much the king deplored, in intimate conversation with De Bethune, his
formal declaration of war against Spain which the Dutch diplomatists had
induced him to make; and indeed nothing can be more certain than that
this public declaration of war, and this solemn formation of the triple
alliance against Philip, were instantly accompanied on Henry's part by
secret peace negotiations with Philip's agents. Villeroy, told Envoy
Calvaert that as for himself he always trembled when he thought on what
he had done, in seconding the will of his Majesty in that declaration at
the instance of the States-General, of which measure so many losses and
such bitter fruits had been the result. He complained, too, of the little
assistance or co-operation yielded by England. Calvaert replied that he
had nothing to say in defence of England, but that certainly the king
could have no cause to censure the States. The republic, however, had
good ground, he said, to compl