There was a wide belief that the foreign policy of the English Republic was influenced by a general hostility to monarchy and a general desire to propagate republican institutions in Europe, which found expression in rumours of the sayings and the intentions of the heads of the Commonwealth. The English royalists talked of a design for the ruin of the kings and sovereigns of the earth, of which Cromwell was the author, and predicted that he would begin with France. When he returned from Ireland there was a rumour that he and his army would effect a landing in France. One report which Croullé, Mazarin's agent in London, sent to the Cardinal, represented Cromwell as saying that if he were ten years younger, there was not a king in Europe whom he would not make to tremble, and that as he had a better motive than the late king of Sweden, he believed himself still capable of doing more for the good of nations than the other ever did for his own ambition[5].' Marvell's verses to Cromwell on his return from Ireland prophesied similar exploits-- 'As Caesar, he, ere long, to Gaul, To Italy an Hannibal, And to all states not free Shall climacteric be.' But Cromwell had been obliged to turn his arms against Scotland instead of against France, and hardly was the Scottish war over, when all the resources of the Commonwealth were strained to the utmost by the war with Holland. In July, 1653, negotiations had begun, and the war seemed nearing its close, but at the same time Bordeaux was nearing its fall. Barrière, Condé's agent, wrote to the prince that the Republic would come to no resolution till it saw how the treaty with the Dutch ended[6]. It was still believed that as soon as Cromwell's hands were free he would intervene in France. 'Our General,' said a letter from England, 'conceives it not good for his army to be longer idle, and therefore hath told some of his myrmidons that if he could be assured the prince of Condé would aim at liberty really, as he calls it, he would within this month land his army in France[7].' In October, 1653, when Joachim Hane sailed for France, the negotiations between England and Holland had not yet been brought to a successful conclusion. The position of affairs had been altered by the subjugation of Guienne and the surrender of Bordeaux, but Condé had not made his peace with Louis XIV, and a revival of the revolt in Southern France was still a possibility. Before Hane the English Government had sent similar emissaries to France, with the double object of finding out the real strength of the opposition and entering into communication with the disaffected. Thomas Scot, who had the management of the foreign intelligence during the Republic as Thurloe had during the Protectorate, drew up at the restoration a short account of his proceedings for the information of the Government of Charles II.