CHAPTER XXIII. Philip's scheme of aggrandizement--Projected invasion of France-- Internal condition of France--Character of Henry of Navarre-- Preparation for action--Battle of Ivry--Victory of the French king over the League--Reluctance of the King to attack the French capital--Siege of Paris--The pope indisposed towards the League-- Extraordinary demonstration of ecclesiastics--Influence of the priests--Extremities of the siege--Attempted negotiation--State of Philip's army--Difficult position of Farnese--March of the allies to the relief of Paris--Lagny taken and the city relieved--Desertion of the king's army--Siege of Corbeil--Death of Pope Sixtus V.-- Re-capture of Lagny and Corbeil--Return of Parma to the Netherlands --Result of the expedition.The scene of the narrative shifts to France. The history of the UnitedNetherlands at this epoch is a world-history. Were it not so, it wouldhave far less of moral and instruction for all time than it is reallycapable of affording. The battle of liberty against despotism was nowfought in the hop-fields of Brabant or the polders of Friesland, now inthe: narrow seas which encircle England, and now on the sunny plains ofDauphiny, among the craggy inlets of Brittany, or along the high roadsand rivers which lead to the gates of Paris. But everywhere a noiseless,secret, but ubiquitous negotiation was speeding with never an instant'spause to accomplish the work which lansquenettes and riders, pikemen andcarabineers were contending for on a hundred battle-fields and amid a dinof arms which for a quarter of a century had been the regular hum ofhuman industry. For nearly a generation of mankind, Germans andHollanders, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, Spaniards andItalians seemed to be born into the world mainly to fight for or againsta system of universal monarchy, conceived for his own benefit by a quietold man who passed his days at a writing desk in a remote corner ofEurope. It must be confessed that Philip II. gave the world work enough.Whether--had the peoples governed themselves--their energies might nothave been exerted in a different direction, and on the whole haveproduced more of good to the human race than came of all this blood and