This was very far from the plan now suggested, that they should do it all, which would be quite out of the question.

France had a strong army, they said, and it would be better to use it than to efface herself so pitiably.

The proposition of abstention on the part of the Archduke was a delusion intended only to keep France out of the field.
Villeroy replied by referring to English affairs.

King James, he said, was treating them perfidiously.

His first letters after the murder had been good, but by the following ones England seemed to wish to put her foot on France's throat, in order to compel her to sue for an alliance.
The British ministers had declared their resolve not to carry out that convention of alliance, although it had been nearly concluded in the lifetime of the late king, unless the Queen would bind herself to make good to the King of Great Britain that third part of the subsidies advanced by France to the States which had been furnished on English account! This was the first announcement of a grievance devised by the politicians now governing France to make trouble for the States with that kingdom and with Great Britain likewise.