narchy from this affair. The Tyrol and Alsace were already
promised them to form links between Lombardy and the Netherlands: the
possession of the Lower Palatinate completed their chain of
communication.

The action of Spain and England presented a marked contrast. Spain,
while it forsook Lerma's policy, held together all its friends--Germany,
Austria, the League, the Pope, the Archducal Netherlands--and combined
their forces for joint action on a large scale; while King James, in
clinging to the policy of peace, let his allies fall asunder and
crippled their activity.

But if James so acted in the case of the Palatinate which he wished to
save, what might be fully expected in the case of Bohemia, with regard
to which he openly declared, after some hesitation, that he could take
no further part in its affairs? The new King found no hearty obedience
among the Bohemians, partly because they found themselves deceived in
their expectation of being assisted with troops by the Union, and with
money by England. But worse than all, the ill-disciplined soldiery
being without pay, broke out in mutiny: they were almost more ready to
help themselves to their arrears by an attack upon the capital than to
defend their sovereign or their country. On the other hand the
soldiers of Austria and of the League, well paid and well disciplined,
were spurred on by zealous priests. On their first attack they
scattered the troops of Frederick to the four winds (November 1620).
It would not have been impossible for Frederick to wage a defensive
war in Bohemia; but regard to the danger into which the Queen would
have been thrown in consequence prevented the attempt. That one day
cost them both crown and country.

It is impossible to describe the impression which the news of this
defeat produced in London. The King was held blameable because not a
single soldier commissioned by him had been found beside his daughter
to draw the sword in her defence. This was attributed either to
culpable negligence of his own affairs, or to the influence of the
Spanish ambassador. Not Gondomar himself, who was too shrewd to act
thus, but certainly his friends and Catholics generally, let their joy
at this event be known. The citizens responded with manifestations
that were directed against the King himself. A placard was put up in
which he was told that he would be made to feel the anger of the
people, if in this affair he any longer followed a policy opposed t