main points for discussion, and on which depended the decision
for peace or war, were those which concerned religion; and the
demand, on the part of Spain, that the United Provinces should
renounce all claims to the navigation of the Indian seas. Philip
required for the Catholics of the United Provinces the free exercise
of their religion; this was opposed by the states-general: and
the archduke Albert, seeing the impossibility of carrying that
point, despatched his confessor, Fra Inigo de Briznella, to Spain.
This Dominican was furnished with the written opinion of several
theologians, that the king might conscientiously slur over the
article of religion; and he was the more successful with Philip, as
the duke of Lerma, his prime minister, was resolved to accomplish
the peace at any price. The conferences at The Hague were therefore
not interrupted on this question; but they went on slowly, months
being consumed in discussions on articles of trifling importance.
They were, however, resumed in the month of August with greater
vigor. It was announced that the king of Spain abandoned the
question respecting religion; but that it was in the certainty
that his moderation would be recompensed by ample concessions
on that of the Indian trade, on which he was inexorable. This
article became the rock on which the whole negotiation eventually
split. The court of Spain on the one hand, and the states-general
on the other, inflexibly maintained their opposing claims. It
was in vain that the ambassadors turned and twisted the subject
with all the subtleties of diplomacy. Every possible expedient was
used to shake the determination of the Dutch. But the influence
of the East India Company, the islands of Zealand, and the city
of Amsterdam, prevailed over all. Reports of the avowal on the
part of the king of Spain, that he would never renounce his title
to the sovereignty of the United Provinces, unless they abandoned
the Indian navigation and granted the free exercise of religion,
threw the whole diplomatic corps into confusion; and, on the
25th of August, the states-general announced to the marquis of
Spinola and the other ambassadors that the congress was dissolved,
and that all hopes of peace were abandoned.

Nothing seemed now likely to prevent the immediate renewal of
hostilities, when the ambassadors of France and England proposed
the mediation of their respective masters for the conclusion of
a truce for several years. The