auxiliary troops to Flanders, and appointed military commanders there of
various degrees, the authority of the archdukes was any the less supreme.
Philip II. had sent funds and troops to sustain the League, but he was
not King of France.

Barneveld probably thought it not worth his while to reply that Philip,
with those funds and those troops, had done his best to become King of
France, and that his failure proved nothing for the argument either way.

Neyen then returned once more to Brussels, observing as he took leave
that the decision of the archdukes as to the king's consent was very
doubtful, although he was sure that the best thing for all parties
would be to agree to an armistice out of hand.

This, however, was far from being the opinion of the States or the
stadholder.

After conferring with his masters, the monk came down by agreement from
Antwerp to the Dutch ships which lay in the, Scheld before Fort Lillo.
On board one of these, Dirk van der Does had been stationed with a
special commission from the States to compare documents. It was
expressly ordered that in these preliminary negotiations neither party
was to go on shore. On a comparison of the agreement brought by Neyen
from Brussels with the draught furnished by Barneveld, of which Van der
Does had a copy, so many discrepancies appeared that the document of the
archdukes was at once rejected. But of course the monk had a number two,
and this, after some trouble, was made to agree with the prescribed form.
Brother John then, acting upon what he considered the soundest of
principles--that no job was so difficult as not to be accomplished with
the help of the precious metals--offered his fellow negotiator a valuable