The woman who was believed to have known beforehand of the plot to murder her great husband, who had driven the one powerful statesman on whom the King relied, Maximilian de Bethune, into retirement, and whose foreign affairs were now completely in the hands of the ancient Leaguer Villeroy--who had served every government in the kingdom for forty years--was not likely to be accessible to high views of public policy.
Two years had now elapsed since the first private complaints against the Ambassador, and the French government were becoming impatient at his presence.

Aerssens had been supported by Prince Maurice, to whom he had long paid his court.

He was likewise loyally protected by Barneveld, whom he publicly flattered and secretly maligned.

But it was now necessary that he should be gone if peaceful relations with France were to be preserved.
After all, the Ambassador had not made a bad business of his embassy from his own point of view.

A stranger in the Republic, for his father the Greffier was a refugee from Brabant, he had achieved through his own industry and remarkable talents, sustained by the favour of Barneveld--to whom he owed all his diplomatic appointments--an eminent position in Europe.