ciations of the violence
offered to Madame de Conde, and the species of captivity to which she
was condemned, when she had been led to expect nothing but consideration
for her rank and sympathy for her misfortunes. He, moreover, assured the
Archduke that nothing could be more wild and absurd than the idea of her
flight, warmly demanding wherefore she was likely to leave a capital
wherein she had hitherto been so well and so generously received.

The genuine indignation of the Ambassador produced as little effect upon
the Archduke as the laboured arguments of M. de Coeuvres, and he
contented himself by courteously regretting that an attention, intended
to convey to the Princess the extent of the respect and friendship with
which she had inspired him, should have been so ill-interpreted, adding,
moreover, that far from disapproving the step which he had taken, he
felt convinced that the French King would recognize in it only his
earnest desire to do honour to the first Princess of the Blood. Further
argument was useless, the imperturbable composure of the Archduke
totally overpowering the wordy violence of his interlocutors, who were
eventually compelled to withdraw without having effected the
restoration of Madame de Conde. On the return of the Marquis de Coeuvres
to Paris, Henry, still believing that the Archduke would not venture to
brave his displeasure by any further opposition to his will, accredited
M. de Preau[416] to the Court of Brussels, with instructions to demand
the immediate return of the Princess in the joint names of the Duke her
father and Madame d'Angouleme her aunt; but this new procuration was met
by the Austrian Prince with the announcement that he had pledged himself
to M. de Conde not to permit the Princess to leave Brussels without his
consent, and that he consequently could not without dishonour forfeit
his plighted word.

Exasperated by a firmness for which he was unprepared, and satisfied
that the support of the Spanish Cabinet could alone have induced the
Archduke thus to drive him to extremities, Henry at once resolved no
longer to delay the hostilities which he had long meditated against
Spain, and to which he was now urged as much by private feeling as by
state policy. A sufficient pretext offered itself, moreover, in the
efforts which had been made by several of the German Princes to possess
themselves of the duchies of Cleves and Juliers; the death of Jean
Guillaume, Duc de Cleves, Julie