CHAPTER III.
The Cologne conferences--Intentions of the parties--Preliminary attempt by government to purchase the Prince of Orange--Offer and rejection of various articles among the plenipotentiaries--Departure of the imperial commissionere--Ultimatum of the States compared with that of the royal government--Barren negotiations terminated-- Treason of De Bours, Governor of Mechlin--Liberal theories concerning the nature of government--Abjuration of Philip imminent-- Self-denial of Orange--Attitude of Germany--of England--Marriage negotiations between Elizabeth and Anjou--Orange favors the election of the Duke as sovereign--Address and speeches of the Prince-- Parsimony and interprovincial jealousy rebuked----Secret correspondence of Count Renneberg with the royal government-- His treason at Groningen.
Since the beginning of May, the Cologne negotiations had been dragging their slow length along.

Few persons believed that any good was likely to result from these stately and ponderous conferences; yet men were so weary of war, so desirous that a termination might be put to the atrophy under which the country was languishing, that many an eager glance was turned towards the place where the august assembly was holding its protracted session.

Certainly, if wisdom were to be found in mitred heads--if the power to heal angry passions and to settle the conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience were to be looked for among men of lofty station, then the Cologne conferences ought to have made the rough places smooth and the crooked paths straight throughout all Christendom.
There was the Archbishop of Rossano, afterwards Pope Urban VII, as plenipotentiary from Rome; there was Charles of Aragon, Duke of Terranova, supported by five councillors, as ambassador from his Catholic Majesty; there were the Duke of Aerschot, the Abbot of Saint Gertrude, the Abbot of Marolles, Doctor Bucho Aytta, Caspar Schetz, Lord of Grobbendonck, that learned Frisian, Aggeus van Albada, with seven other wise men, as envoys from the states-general: There were their Serene Highnesses the Elector and Archbishops of Cologne and Treves, with the Bishop of Wurtzburg.

There was also a numerous embassy from his Imperial Majesty, with Count Otto de Schwartzenburg at its head.
Here then were holiness, serenity, dignity, law, and learning in abundance.

Here was a pope 'in posse', with archbishops, princes, dukes, jurisconsults, and doctors of divinity 'in esse', sufficient to remodel a world, if worlds were to be remodelled by such instruments.