Therefore the States must consider well what was to be done to secure the whole work as soon as the Cleve business had been successfully accomplished.

Upon this subject it was indispensable that he should consult especially with his Excellency (Prince Maurice) and some members of the General Assembly, whom he wished that My Lords the States-General should depute to the army.
"For how much good will it do," said the King, "if we drive off Archduke Leopold without establishing the princes in security for the future?
Nothing is easier than to put the princes in possession.

Every one will yield or run away before our forces, but two months after we have withdrawn the enemy will return and drive the princes out again.

I cannot always be ready to spring out of my kingdom, nor to assemble such great armies.

I am getting old, and my army moreover costs me 400,000 crowns a month, which is enough to exhaust all the treasures of France, Spain, Venice, and the States-General together." He added that, if the present occasion were neglected, the States would afterwards bitterly lament and never recover it.