her statesmen was to hold what was left of the
Low Countries against either France or the Dutch, and now that she had
lost the command of the sea, the road overland from her Italian
dominions along the Rhine through Franche Comte to the Netherlands was
absolutely needful for this purpose. But this road led through the
Palatinate; and if war was to break out Spain must either secure the
Palatinate for herself or for some Catholic prince on whose good-will
she could rely. That the Dutch would oppose such a scheme was
inevitable; but James alone could give fresh strength to the Dutch; and
James could be duped into inaction by playing with his schemes for a
marriage with the Infanta. In 1617 therefore negotiations for this
purpose were formally opened between the courts of London and Madrid.

[Sidenote: Ralegh's death.]

Anger and alarm spread through England as the nation learned that James
aimed at placing a Catholic queen upon its throne. Even at the court
itself the cooler heads of statesmen were troubled by this disclosure of
the king's projects. The old tradition of Cecil's policy lingered among
a powerful party which had its representatives among the royal
ministers; and powerless as these were to influence the king's course,
they still believed they could impede it. If by any means war could be
stirred up between England and Spain the marriage-treaty would fall to
ruin, and James be forced into union with the Protestants abroad and
into some reconciliation with the Parliament at home. The wild project
by which they strove to bring war about may have sprung from a brain
more inventive than their own. Of the great statesmen and warriors of
Elizabeth's day one only remained. At the opening of the new reign Sir
Walter Ralegh had been convicted on a charge of treason; but though
unpardoned the sentence was never carried out, and he had remained ever
since a prisoner in the Tower. As years went by the New World, where he
had founded Virginia and where he had gleaned news of a Golden City,
threw more and more a spell over his imagination; and at this moment he
disclosed to James his knowledge of a gold-mine on the Oronoco, and
prayed that he might sail thither and work its treasures for the king.
No Spanish settlement, he said, had been made there; and like the rest
of the Elizabethans he took no heed of the Spanish claims to all lands
in America, whether settled or no. The king was tempted by the bait of
gold; but he had