the complete and solemn absolution which had been refused to him the year before.

Mayenne had submitted to him, and that submission had been death to the League.

Some military reverses were intermingled with these political successes.

Between the 25th of June, 1595, and the 10th of March, 1597, the Spanish armies took, in Picardy and Artois, Le Catelet, Doullens, Cambrai, Ardres, Ham, Guines and two towns of more importance, Calais, still the object of English ambition and of offers on the part of Queen Elizabeth to any one who could hand it over to her, and Amiens, one of the keys to France on the frontier of the north.

These checks were not without compensation.