To the last he reported that all the mighty preparations then nearly completed "might evaporate in smoke" if the Princess of Conde should come back.

Every ambassador in Paris was baffled.

Peter Pecquius was as much in the dark as Don Inigo de Cardenas, as Ubaldini or Edmonds.

No one save Sully, Aerssens, Barneveld, and the King knew the extensive arrangements and profound combinations which had been made for the war.

Yet not Sully, Aerssens, Barneveld, or the King, knew whether or not the war would really be made.
Barneveld had to deal with this perplexing question day by day.