known that he came empty handed. He informed the French and English
ambassadors that the archdukes, on their own responsibility, now
suggested the conclusion of a truce of seven years for Europe only. This
was to be negotiated with the States-General as with free people, over
whom no pretensions of authority were made, and the hope was expressed
that the king would give his consent to this arrangement.

The ambassadors naturally refused to carry the message to the States. To
make themselves the mouthpieces of such childish suggestions was to bring
themselves and their masters into contempt. There had been trifling
enough, and even Jeannin saw that the storm of indignation about to burst
forth would be irresistible. There was no need of any attempt on the
part of the commissioners to prolong their stay if this was the result of
the fifteen days' grace which had so reluctantly been conceded to them.
To express a hope that the king might perhaps give his future approval to
a proceeding for which his signed and sealed consent had been exacted as
an indispensable preliminary, was carrying effrontery further than had
yet been attempted in these amazing negotiations.

Prince Maurice once more addressed the cities of Holland, giving vent to
his wrath in language with which there was now more sympathy than there
had been before. "Verreyken has come back," he said, "not with a
signature, but with a hope. The longer the enemy remains in the country
the more he goes back from what he had originally promised. He is
seeking for nothing more than, in this cheating way and in this pretence
of waiting for the king's consent--which we have been expecting now for
more than eighteen months--to continue the ruinous armistice. Thus he
keeps the country in a perpetual uncertainty, the only possible
consequence of which is our complete destruction. We adjure you
therefore to send a resolution in conformity with our late address, in