e receive advices every day," he wrote to Caron, "that the Spaniards
and the Roman League are going forward with their design. They are trying
to amuse the British king and to gain time, in order to be able to deal
the heavier blows. Do all possible duty to procure a timely and vigorous
resolution there. To wait again until we are anticipated will be fatal to
the cause of the Evangelical electors and princes of Germany and
especially of his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg. We likewise should
almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear our
cross, as men said last year in regard to Aachen, Wesel, and so many
other places. The Spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive
how he can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies.
Remember all the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were all
tossed to the winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists. If it
is now intended over there to keep the Spaniards in check merely by
speeches or letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends.
So long as Parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and
subsidies for this most necessary purpose, so long I fail to believe that
this great common cause of Christendom, and especially of Germany, is
taken to heart by England."

He adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to King James's proposition
that Spinola should give a guarantee. "I doubt if he accepts the
suggestion," said Barneveld, "unless as a notorious trick, and if he did,
what good would the promise of Spinola do us? We consider Spinola a great
commander having the purses and forces of the Spaniards and the Leaguers
in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would not be a
very considerable personage for us. And that may happen any day. They
don't seem in England to understand the difference between Prince Maurice
in his relations to our state and that of Marquis Spinola to his
superiors. Try to make them comprehend it. A promise from the Emperor,
King of Spain, and the princes of the League, such as his Majesty in his
wisdom has proposed to Spinola, would be most tranquillizing for all the
Protestant princes and estates of the Empire, especially for the Elector
and Electress Palatine, and for ourselves. In such a case no difficulty
would be made on our side."

After expressing his mind thus freely in regard to James and his policy,
he then gave the Ambassador a word of caution in