The title page of this pamphlet includes a copperplate engraving that, recalling the Aesop's fable, shows a fox caught by the tail advising a group of foxes to dispense with their tails; also, a birdcatcher hides behind a tree, whistling to lure birds into his net. Both the fox and the birdcatcher are allegories of those in the Southern (Spanish) Netherlands who would tempt their northern brothers to join them in servitude to Spain.
This pamphlet reprints the title of a pamphlet published the previous year, 1598, in which an anonymous writer, who is sympathetic to the Spanish cause and wishes to promote peace, answers the arguments presented by the Dutch against signing a peace treaty with Spain. In turn, this later pamphlet published in 1599, quotes the arguments from the previous pamphlet, including the numbers of the chapters and lines, in order to reject those arguments from the point of view of the United Provinces.
