He begged Henry to consider whether, without instructions from his master, he could have thus engaged his word.
"Well," said the King, "since you disavow it, I see very well that the Archduke has no wish to give me pleasure, and that these are nothing but tricks that you have been amusing me with all this time.

Very good; each of us will know what we have to do." Pecquius considered that the King had tried to get him into a net, and to entrap him into the avowal of a promise which he had never made.

Henry remained obstinate in his assertions, notwithstanding all the envoy's protestations.
"A fine trick, indeed, and unworthy of a king, 'Si dicere fas est,'" he wrote to Secretary of State Praets.

"But the force of truth is such that he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself." Henry concluded the subject of Conde at this interview by saying that he could have his pardon on the conditions already named, and not otherwise.
He also made some complaints about Archduke Leopold, who, he said, notwithstanding his demonstrations of wishing a treaty of compromise, was taking towns by surprise which he could not hold, and was getting his troops massacred on credit.
Pecquius expressed the opinion that it would be better to leave the Germans to make their own arrangements among themselves, adding that neither his masters nor the King of Spain meant to mix themselves up in the matter.
"Let them mix themselves in it or keep out of it, as they like," said Henry, "I shall not fail to mix myself up in it." The King was marvellously out of humour.
Before finishing the interview, he asked Pecquius whether Marquis Spinola was going to Spain very soon, as he had permission from his Majesty to do so, and as he had information that he would be on the road early in Lent.
The Minister replied that this would depend on the will of the Archduke, and upon various circumstances.

The answer seemed to displease the King, and Pecquius was puzzled to know why.