All this talk about marriage and reconciliation in religion had done duty only ten years before; but apparently the English diplomatists were as ready as ever to follow the Will o' the Wisp until the time of danger for Spain had passed and they could safely be shelved. The young Duke of Lennox was flattered and treated with almost royal honours, and Hopton himself was quite confused by the sustained amiability of Olivares. But at length even he began to doubt; and presented a strongly worded memorial to Philip, calling upon him to have the Palatinate restored. After inordinate delay the reply to this was simply another promise to instruct the Spanish ambassador with the Emperor to urge the matter again upon him. In very truth this eternal shuttlecock between Vienna and Madrid was growing stale again; and the English Government did now, when it was too late, what it should have done at first, namely, talk of preparations for war. But it was only talk; and though it frightened Olivares for a week or two, Hopton deplored that the preparations were not being made a good earnest to fight; "for this is the only way to bring Spain to reason, and they themselves are making preparations for a big war." In fact it was quite evident now to everyone that unless Spain promptly withdrew her pretensions a great war to the death would have to be fought with France. Her troops in the Emperor's {252} armies had never ceased in Central Europe to meet in combat those of Louis XIII., but the impending resumption of rule by Spain over Catholic Flanders was an event that again threatened the integrity of France itself; for with Spanish frontiers, north, south, and east of her, the old position that had led to the great wars between Charles V. and Francis I. in the previous century would be repeated; and the new France which had arisen under Henry IV., and had been strengthened by Richelieu, would never suffer without a struggle a return to the old state of affairs. Money, constant, never-ending money, was the first desideratum of King Philip, if such a war as that foreshadowed, in addition to the struggle in Germany, was to be undertaken. The outer realms, and especially Portugal, were in a condition of sulky apprehension; but Philip was forced to meet the legislatures before he could get money from them. It was a necessity that he and Olivares dreaded and hated, but it had to be faced. All the Cortes therefore were summoned. "All to get money for their great engagements: how great they are they know not themselves," wrote Hopton. [Sidenote: The need for money]