did not then take; and James, in consequence of his alliance with the
Dutch, and with Henry IV. of France, marched[***] four thousand men,
under the command of Sir Edward Cecil, who joined these two powers,
and put the marquis of Brandenburgh and the palatine of Newbourg in
possession of that duchy.

Gondomar was at this time the Spanish ambassador in England; a man whose
flattery was the more artful, because covered with the appearance of
frankness and sincerity; whose politics were the more dangerous, because
disguised under the mask of mirth and pleasantry. He now made offer
of the second daughter of Spain to Prince Charles; and, that he might
render the temptation irresistible to the necessitous monarch, he gave
hopes of an immense fortune, which should attend the princess. The
court of Spain, though determined to contract no alliance with a
heretic,[****] entered into negotiations with James, which they artfully
protracted; and, amidst every disappointment, they still redoubled his
hopes of success.[v] The transactions in Germany, so important to the
Austrian greatness, became every day a new motive for this duplicity of
conduct.

* Kennet, p 703, 748

** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 2.

*** 1610.

**** La Boderie, vol. ii. p. 30.

v Franklyn, p, 71.

In that great revolution of manners which happened during the sixteenth
and the seventeenth centuries, the only nations who had the honorable,
though often melancholy advantage, of making an effort for their
expiring privileges, were such as, together with the principles of civil
liberty, were animated with a zeal for religious parties and opinions.
Besides the irresistible force of standing armies, the European princes
possessed this advantage, that they were descended from the ancient
royal families; that they continued the same designations of
magistrates, the same appearance of civil government; and restraining
themselves by all the forms of legal administration, could insensibly
impose the yoke on their unguarded subjects. Even the German nations,
who formerly broke the Roman chains, and restored liberty to mankind,
now lost their own liberty, and saw with grief the absolute authority
of their princes firmly established among them. In their circumstances,
nothing but a pious zeal, which disregards all motives of human
prudence, could have made them entertain hopes of preserving any longer
those privileges which their ancestors, th