again and again been urged upon him, now returned to
Antwerp.

CHAPTER III.

The Cologne conferences--Intentions of the parties--Preliminary
attempt by government to purchase the Prince of Orange--Offer and
rejection of various articles among the plenipotentiaries--Departure
of the imperial commissionere--Ultimatum of the States compared with
that of the royal government--Barren negotiations terminated--
Treason of De Bours, Governor of Mechlin--Liberal theories
concerning the nature of government--Abjuration of Philip imminent--
Self-denial of Orange--Attitude of Germany--of England--Marriage
negotiations between Elizabeth and Anjou--Orange favors the election
of the Duke as sovereign--Address and speeches of the Prince--
Parsimony and interprovincial jealousy rebuked----Secret
correspondence of Count Renneberg with the royal government--
His treason at Groningen.

Since the beginning of May, the Cologne negotiations had been dragging
their slow length along. Few persons believed that any good was likely to
result from these stately and ponderous conferences; yet men were so
weary of war, so desirous that a termination might be put to the atrophy
under which the country was languishing, that many an eager glance was
turned towards the place where the august assembly was holding its
protracted session. Certainly, if wisdom were to be found in mitred
heads--if the power to heal angry passions and to settle the conflicting
claims of prerogative and conscience were to be looked for among men of
lofty station, then the Cologne conferences ought to have made the rough
places smooth and the crooked paths straight throughout all Christendom.
There was the Archbishop of Rossano, afterwards Pope Urban VII, as
plenipotentiary from Rome; there was Charles of Aragon, Duke of
Terranova, supported by five councillors, as ambassador from his Catholic
Majesty; there were the Duke of Aerschot, the Abbot of Saint Gertrude,
the Abbot of Marolles, Doctor Bucho Aytta, Caspar Schetz, Lord of
Grobbendonck, that learned Frisian, Aggeus van Albada, with seven other
wise men, as envoys from the states-general: There were their Serene
Highnesses the Elector and Archbishops of Cologne and Treves, with the
Bishop of Wurtzburg. There was also a numerous embassy from his Imperial
Majesty, with Count Otto de Schwartzenburg at its head.

Here then were holiness, serenity, dignity, law, and learning in