ou, meantime, after disbanding his troops, had lingered
for a while near the frontier. Upon taking his final departure, he sent
his resident minister, Des Pruneaux, with a long communication to the
states-general, complaining that they had not published their contract
with himself, nor fulfilled its conditions. He excused, as well as he
could, the awkward fact that his disbanded troops had taken refuge with
the Walloons, and he affected to place his own departure upon the ground
of urgent political business in France, to arrange which his royal
brother had required his immediate attendance. He furthermore most
hypocritically expressed a desire for a speedy reconciliation of the
provinces with their sovereign, and a resolution that--although for their
sake he had made himself a foe to his Catholic Majesty--he would still
interpose no obstacle to so desirable a result.

To such shallow discourse the states answered with infinite urbanity, for
it was the determination of Orange not to make enemies, at that juncture,
of France and England in the same breath. They had foes enough already,
and it seemed obvious at that moment, to all persons most observant of
the course of affairs, that a matrimonial alliance was soon to unite the
two crowns. The probability of Anjou's marriage with Elizabeth was, in
truth, a leading motive with Orange for his close alliance with the Duke.
The political structure, according to which he had selected the French
Prince as protector of the Netherlands, was sagaciously planned; but
unfortunately its foundation was the shifting sandbank of female and
royal coquetry. Those who judge only by the result, will be quick to
censure a policy which might have had very different issue. They who
place themselves in the period anterior to Anjou's visit to England, will
admit that it was hardly human not to be deceived by the apolitical
aspects of that moment. The Queen, moreover, took pains to upbraid the
states-general, by letter, with their disrespect and ingratitude towards
the Duke of Anjou--behaviour with which he had been "justly scandalized."
For her own part, she assured them of her extreme displeasure at learning
that such a course of conduct had been held with a view to her especial
contentment--"as if the person of Monsieur, son of France, brother of the
King, were disagreeable to her, or as if she wished him ill;" whereas, on
the contrary, they would best satisfy her wishes by showing him all the
c