h. The states were to aid him, whenever it should
become necessary, with the same amount of force with which he now
assisted them. He was to submit himself contentedly to the civil
government of the country, in everything regarding its internal polity.
He was to make no special contracts or treaties with any cities or
provinces of the Netherlands. Should the states-general accept another
prince as sovereign, the Duke was to be preferred to all others, upon
conditions afterwards to be arranged. All cities which might be conquered
within the territory of the united provinces were to belong to the
states. Such places not in that territory, as should voluntarily
surrender, were to be apportioned, by equal division, between the Duke
and the states. The Duke was to bring no foreign troops but French into
the provinces. The month of August was reserved, during which the states
were, if possible, to make a composition with Don John.

These articles were certainly drawn up with skill. A high-sounding but
barren title, which gratified the Duke's vanity and signified nothing,
had been conferred upon him, while at the same time he was forbidden to
make conquests or contracts, and was obliged to submit himself to the
civil government of the country: in short, he was to obey the Prince of
Orange in all things--and so here was another plot of the Prince's
enemies neutralized. Thus, for the present at least, had the position of
Anjou been defined.

As the month of August, during which it was agreed that negotiations with
the Governor-General should remain open, had already half expired,
certain articles, drawn up by the states-general, were at once laid
before Don John. Lord Cobham and Sir Francis Walsingham were then in the
Netherlands, having been sent by Elizabeth for the purpose of effecting a
pacification of the estates with the Governor, if possible. They had also
explained--so far as an explanation was possible--the assistance which
the English government had rendered to the rebels, upon the ground that
the French invasion could be prevented in no other way. This somewhat
lame apology had been passed over in silence rather than accepted by Don
John. In the same interview the envoys made an equally unsuccessful
effort to induce the acceptance by the Governor of the terms offered by
the states. A further proposition, on their part, for an "Interim," upon
the plan attempted by Charles the Fifth in Germany, previously to the
Peace