Thus solitary, yet thus befriended,--remote from public employment, yet ever employed, doing his daily work with all his soul and strength, Marnix passed the fifteen years yet remaining to him. Death surprised him at last, at Leyden, in the year 1598, while steadily laboring upon his Flemish translation of the Old Testament, and upon the great political, theological, controversial, and satirical work on the differences of religion, which remains the most stately, though unfinished, monument of his literary genius. At the age of sixty he went at last to the repose which he had denied to himself on earth. "Repos ailleurs." ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: Honor good patriots, and to support them in venial errors Possible to do, only because we see that it has been done Repose in the other world, "Repos ailleurs" Soldiers enough to animate the good and terrify the bad To work, ever to work, was the primary law of his nature When persons of merit suffer without cause HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609 By John Lothrop Motley History United Netherlands, Volume 42, 1585 CHAPTER VI., Part 1. Policy of England--Diplomatic Coquetry--Dutch Envoys in England-- Conference of Ortel and Walsingham--Interview with Leicester-- Private Audience of the Queen--Letters of the States--General-- Ill Effects of Gilpin's Despatch--Close Bargaining of the Queen and States--Guarantees required by England--England's comparative Weakness--The English characterised--Paul Hentzner--The Envoys in London--Their Characters--Olden-Barneveldt described--Reception at Greenwich--Speech of Menin--Reply of the Queen--Memorial of the Envoys--Discussions with the Ministers--Second Speech of the Queen --Third Speech of the Queen England as we have seen--had carefully watched the negotiations between France and the Netherlands. Although she had--upon the whole, for that intriguing age--been loyal in her bearing towards both parties, she was perhaps not entirely displeased with the result. As her cherished triumvirate was out of the question, it was quite obvious that, now or never, she must come forward to prevent the Provinces from falling back into the hands of Spain. The future was plainly enough foreshadowed, and it was already probable, in case of a prolonged resistance on the part of Holland, that Philip would undertake the reduction of his rebellious subjects by a preliminary conquest of England. It was therefore quite certain that the expense and danger of assisting the Netherlands must devolve upon herself, but, at the same time it was a consolation that her powerful next-door neighbour was not to be made still more powerful by the annexation to his own dominion of those important territories.