OBSERVATIONS ON A LIBEL. 453 



lier majesty, not forgetting her own nature, was con 

 tent at the same instant to treat of a peace ; not 

 ignorantly, as a prince that knew not in what for 

 wardness his preparations were, for she had dis 

 covered them long before, nor fearfully, as may ap 

 pear by the articles whereupon her majesty in that 

 treaty stood, which were not the demands of a 

 prince afraid ; but only to spare the shedding of 

 Christian blood, and to shew her constant desire to 

 make her reign renowned, rather by peace than 

 victories : which peace was on her part treated sin 

 cerely, but on his part, as it should seem, was but an 

 abuse ; thinking thereby to have taken us more un 

 provided : so that the duke of Parma, not liking to 

 be used as an instrument in such a case, in regard of 

 his particular honour, would sometimes in treating 

 interlace, that the king his master meant to make 

 his peace with his sword in his hand. Let it then 

 be tried, upon an indifferent view of the proceedings 

 of England and Spain, who it is that fisheth in 

 troubled waters, and hath disturbed the peace of 

 Christendom, and hath written and described all his 

 plots in blood. 



There follow the articles of an universal peace, 

 which the libeller, as a commissioner for the estate 

 of England, hath propounded, and are these : 



First, that the king of Spain should recall such 

 forces, as, of great compassion to the natural people 

 of France, he hath sent thither to defend them 

 against a relapsed Huguenot. 



