The Bishop was said to have expressed the opinion, that although the friendship he bore the Prince would induce him to urge the marriage, yet his duty to his master made him think it questionable whether it were right to advance a personage already placed so high by birth, wealth, and popularity, still higher by so near an alliance with his Majesty's family.

The King, in consequence, secretly instructed the Duchess of Lorraine to decline the proposal, while at the same time he continued openly to advocate the connexion.

The Prince is said to have discovered this double dealing, and to have found in it the only reasonable explanation of the whole transaction.

Moreover, the Duchess of Lorraine, finding herself equally duped, and her own ambitious scheme equally foiled by her unscrupulous cousin--who now, to the surprise of every one, appointed Margaret of Parma to be Regent, with the Bishop for her prime minister--had as little reason to be satisfied with the combinations of royal and ecclesiastical intrigue as the Prince of Orange himself.

Soon after this unsatisfactory mystification, William turned his attentions to Germany.