He retained all his former influence in Holland, as his countrymen had reason to confide in his repeated assurances of inviolable affection.

The great scheme which he had projected of a confederacy against France began at this period to take effect.

The princes of the empire assembled in the diet, solemnly exhorted the emperor to declare war against the French king, who had committed numberless infractions of the treaties of Munster, Osnabruck, Nimeguen, and the truce, invaded their country without provocation, and evinced himself an inveterate enemy of the holy Roman empire.

They therefore besought his imperial majesty to conclude a treaty of peace with the Turks, who had offered advantageous terms, and proceed to an open rupture with Louis, in which case they would consider it as a war of the empire, and support their head in the most effectual manner.

The states-general published a declaration against the common enemy, taxing him with manifold infractions of the treaty of commerce; with having involved the subjects of the republic in the persecution which he had raised against the protestants; with having cajoled and insulted them with deceitful promises and insolent threats; with having plundered and oppressed the Dutch merchants and traders in France; and, finally, with having declared war against the states without any plausible reason assigned.