If you can prevail upon the King of Spain to withdraw the army which he is having levied on the frontier, and to give no protection for the future to rebels of my kingdom, I will not declare war against him, provided that I have certain proof of your good intentions, and that you give me reasonable securities for them before the 1st of January in the approaching year." [_Lettres missives de Henri IV,_ p.

280--De Thou, _Histoire universelle,_ t.xii.

pp.

328- 342.] These letters, conveyed to Arras by one of the king's trumpeters, received no answer.

The estates of Flanders, in assembly at Brussels, somewhat more bold than those of Artois and Hainault, in vain represented to their Spanish governor their plaints and their desires for peace; for two months Henry IV.