of allowing the Spanish fleet to be destroyed on his coasts, he required the King of France to promise that he would conclude neither truce nor peace which did not comprise the restitution of the Palatinate. This was the same object which he had already attempted to gain in the former negotiations: open hostilities against Spain had been demanded of him in return. His intention was to extract the desired engagement from France, without committing himself to this extent, by means of the concessions which he now expressed his readiness to make. He allowed the ambassador fourteen days for procuring the consent of his court: if this period expired without any result, he intended to be at liberty to make terms with Spain. It is indeed possible that King Charles was incensed afresh against Spain by the tidings, which he then received, of a renewal of the connexion between the Spaniards and the malcontents in Ireland; and that he called to mind their former breaches of faith. He had also certainly not given them any definite promise of protection. Still it remains a most odious imputation on the sovereign who laid claim to maritime supremacy that he resolved to deliver over the weaker party, who had come to his coast entreating shelter, into the hands of the stronger in return for an advantage which he bargained to obtain from them. What seduced him was the consideration that he need not interfere decisively: he thought that, without breaking with the Spaniards, he could bind their adversaries to him, and carry off the fruits of the victory without drawing the sword himself. And moreover this was after all but a project, not a settled conclusion. Meanwhile he continued his negotiations with the Spaniards, from whom he claimed a large sum of money in return for the armament which he had been forced to equip for their protection. But how could these counsels have had any good result, inspired as they were by weakness and the love of peace on the one side, and on the other by the intention of turning an accidental combination of circumstances to the greatest possible advantage?