of orthodox
Poland, and who was, moreover, son-in-law of Archduke Charles of Styria
whose other daughter was soon to be espoused by the Prince of Spain--was
personally and geographically interested in liberating Philip from the
inconvenience of his Netherland war. Only thus could he hope to bring the
Spanish power to the rescue of Christendom against the Turk. Troubles
enough were in store for Sigismund in his hereditary northern realms, and
he was to learn that his intermarriage with the great Catholic and
Imperial house did not enable him to trample out Protestantism in those
hardy Scandinavian and Flemish regions where it had taken secure root.
Meantime he despatched, in solemn mission to the republic and to the
heretic queen, a diplomatist whose name and whose oratorical efforts have
by a caprice of history been allowed to endure to our times.

Paul Dialyn was solemnly received at the Hague on the 21st July. A
pragmatical fop, attired in a long, magnificent Polish robe, covered with
diamonds and other jewels, he was yet recognised by some of those present
as having been several years before a student at Leyden under a different
name, and with far less gorgeous surroundings. He took up his position in
the council-chamber, in the presence of the stadholder and the leading
members of the States-General, and pronounced a long Latin oration, in
the manner, as it was said, of a monk delivering a sermon from the
pulpit. He kept his eyes steadily fixed on the ceiling, never once
looking at the men whom he was addressing, and speaking in a loud, nasal,
dictatorial tone, not at all agreeable to the audience. He dwelt in terms
of extravagant eulogy on the benignity and gentleness of the King of
Spain--qualities in which he asserted that no prince on earth could be
compared to him--and he said this to the very face of Maurice of Nassau.
That the benignant and gentle king had caused the stadholder's father to
be assassinated, and that he had rewarded the murderer's family with a
patent of nobility, and with an ample revenue taken from the murdered
man's property, appeared of no account to the envoy in the full sweep of
his rhetoric. Yet the reminiscence caused a shudder of disgust in all who
heard him.

He then stated the wish of his master the Polish king to be that, in
regard to the Turk, the provinces might reconcile themselves to their
natural master, who was the most powerful monarch in Christendom, and the
only one able