But Barneveld, speaking for the States, liked not the security.

The Archduke was but the puppet of Spain, and Spain had no part in the guarantee.

She held the strings, and might cause him at any moment to play what pranks she chose.

It would be the easiest thing in the world for despotic Spain, so the Advocate thought, to reappear suddenly in force again at a moment's notice after the States' troops had been withdrawn and partially disbanded, and it would be difficult for the many-headed and many-tongued republic to act with similar promptness.

To withdraw without a guarantee from Spain to the Treaty of Xanten, which had once been signed, sealed, and all but ratified, would be to give up fifty points in the game.
Nothing but disaster could ensue.