hither, may be amply instructed in regard to Sluys, and no time be lost.
His Majesty is determined to help you if you know how to help
yourselves."

The two men then separated, Sillery enjoining it upon the envoy to see
the king next morning, "in order to explain to his Majesty, as he had
just been doing to himself, that this sovereignty could not be
transferred, without the consent of the whole people, nor the people
be consulted in secret."

"It is necessary therefore to be armed," continued Henry's minister very
significantly, "before aspiring to the sovereignty."

Thus there was a faint glimmer of appreciation at the French court of the
meaning of popular sovereignty. It did not occur to the minister that
the right of giving consent was to be respected. The little obstacle was
to be overcome by stratagem and by force. Prince Maurice was to put
French garrisons stealthily into Sluys and other towns conquered by the
republic in Flanders. Then the magnanimous ally was to rise at the right
moment and overcome all resistance by force of arms. The plot was a good
one. It is passing strange, however, that the character of the Nassaus
and of the Dutch nation should after the last fifty years have been still
so misunderstood. It seemed in France possible that Maurice would thus
defile his honour and the Netherlanders barter their liberty, by
accepting a new tyrant in place of the one so long ago deposed.

"This is the marrow of our conference," said Aerssens to Barneveld,
reporting the interview, "and you may thus perceive whither are tending
the designs of his Majesty. It seems that they are aspiring here to the
sovereignty, and all my letters have asserted the contrary. If you will