Memoirs of Henri IV . lled the keys of the contrary, the Spaniards, who saw that theirKing was dying, that his treasury was exhausted, theLow Countries shattered to pieces, Portugal and hisestates in Italy on the point of revolt, and that hisson, a good prince in reality, was fond of repose, wereastonished that the French, having so bravely retakenAmiens, and reunited all their forces after the treatywith the Due de Mercoeur, had not pressed fartherinto the Low Countries, seeing that in all appearancethey might either have conquered them or at leasthave made breaches in them. The Kin
Memoirs of Henri IV . lled the keys of the contrary, the Spaniards, who saw that theirKing was dying, that his treasury was exhausted, theLow Countries shattered to pieces, Portugal and hisestates in Italy on the point of revolt, and that hisson, a good prince in reality, was fond of repose, wereastonished that the French, having so bravely retakenAmiens, and reunited all their forces after the treatywith the Due de Mercoeur, had not pressed fartherinto the Low Countries, seeing that in all appearancethey might either have conquered them or at leasthave made breaches in them. The King answeredthat, if he had desired peace, it was not because hewas weary of the hardships of war, but to give leaveto afflicted Christendom to breathe; that he knewwell, from the position in which things were, that hemight have derived great advantages, but that Godoften overturns princes in their greatest prosperity;and that a wise man ought never, out of the opinionof some favourable event, to be averse to a good ac-. 1 i HENRI IV. 219 cord, nor rely too much upon the appearance of hispresent happiness, which may change hy a thousandunexpected accidents, it having often happened thata man who is thrown down and wounded has killedhim who wanted to make him beg for his life. It was known in a little time that King Philip more need of the peace than France, for his sick-ness increased. He suffered, for twenty-two dayscontinually, from a perpetual bloody flux; and a lit-tle before his death four abscesses formed in hisbreast, from which proceeded a continual swarm ofvermin, which all the attention of his officers wasunable to check. In this strange sickness, his firmness was wonder-ful ; nor did he abandon the reins of governmentuntil his last breath, for he took care before hisdeath to arrange the marriage of his son with Mar-garet, daughter of the Archduke of Gratz; and alsothat of his dear daughter Isabella with the CardinalArchduke Albert, of the same blood as herself,
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