To wait again until we are anticipated will be fatal to the cause of the Evangelical electors and princes of Germany and especially of his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg.

We likewise should almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear our cross, as men said last year in regard to Aachen, Wesel, and so many other places.

The Spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive how he can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies.
Remember all the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were all tossed to the winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists.

If it is now intended over there to keep the Spaniards in check merely by speeches or letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends.
So long as Parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and subsidies for this most necessary purpose, so long I fail to believe that this great common cause of Christendom, and especially of Germany, is taken to heart by England." He adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to King James's proposition that Spinola should give a guarantee.

"I doubt if he accepts the suggestion," said Barneveld, "unless as a notorious trick, and if he did, what good would the promise of Spinola do us?
We consider Spinola a great commander having the purses and forces of the Spaniards and the Leaguers in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would not be a very considerable personage for us.