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+The Project Gutenberg EBook History of United Netherlands, 1586-89, Entire
+#60 in our series by John Lothrop Motley
+
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+Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1586-89, Entire
+
+Author: John Lothrop Motley
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4860]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 5, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1586-89 ***
+
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+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
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+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
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+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 60
+
+History of the United Netherlands, 1586-89, Entire
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     Military Plans in the Netherlands--The Elector and Electorate of
+     Cologne--Martin Schenk--His Career before serving the States--
+     Franeker University founded--Parma attempts Grave--Battle on the
+     Meuse--Success and Vainglory of Leicester--St. George's Day
+     triumphantly kept at Utrecht--Parma not so much appalled as it was
+     thought--He besieges and reduces Grave--And is Master of the Meuse--
+     Leicester's Rage at the Surrender of Grave--His Revenge--Parma on
+     the Rhine--He besieges aid assaults Neusz--Horrible Fate of the
+     Garrison and City--Which Leicester was unable to relieve--Asel
+     surprised by Maurice and Sidney--The Zeeland Regiment given to
+     Sidney--Condition of the Irish and English Troops--Leicester takes
+     the Field--He reduces Doesburg--He lays siege to Zutphen--Which
+     Parma prepares to relieve--The English intercept the Convoy--Battle
+     of Warnsfeld--Sir Philip Sidney wounded--Results of the Encounter--
+     Death of Sidney at Arnheim--Gallantry of Edward Stanley.
+
+Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils.  Three
+are but slightly separated--the Yssel, Waal, and ancient Rhine, while the
+Scheldt and, Meuse are spread more widely asunder.  Along each of these
+streams were various fortified cities, the possession of which, in those
+days, when modern fortification was in its infancy, implied the control
+of the surrounding country.  The lower part of all the rivers, where they
+mingled with the sea and became wide estuaries, belonged to the Republic,
+for the coasts and the ocean were in the hands of the Hollanders and
+English.  Above, the various strong places were alternately in the hands
+of the Spaniards and of the patriots.  Thus Antwerp, with the other
+Scheldt cities, had fallen into Parma's power, but Flushing, which
+controlled them all, was held by Philip Sidney for the Queen and States.
+On the Meuse, Maastricht and Roermond were Spanish, but Yenloo, Grave,
+Meghem, and other towns, held for the commonwealth.  On the Waal, the
+town of Nymegen had, through the dexterity of Martin Schenk, been
+recently transferred to the royalists, while the rest of that river's
+course was true to the republic.  The Rhine, strictly so called, from its
+entrance into Netherland, belonged to the rebels.  Upon its elder branch,
+the Yssel, Zutphen was in Parma's hands, while, a little below, Deventer
+had been recently and adroitly saved by Leicester and Count Meurs from
+falling into the same dangerous grasp.
+
+Thus the triple Rhine, after it had crossed the German frontier, belonged
+mainly, although not exclusively, to the States.  But on the edge of the
+Batavian territory, the ancient river, just before dividing itself into
+its three branches, flowed through a debatable country which was even
+more desolate and forlorn, if possible, than the land of the obedient
+Provinces.
+
+This unfortunate district was the archi-episcopal electorate of Cologne.
+The city of Cologne itself, Neusz, and Rheinberg, on the river, Werll and
+other places in Westphalia and the whole country around, were endangered,
+invaded, ravaged, and the inhabitants plundered, murdered, and subjected
+to every imaginable outrage, by rival bands of highwaymen, enlisted in
+the support of the two rival bishops--beggars, outcasts, but high-born
+and learned churchmen both--who disputed the electorate.
+
+At the commencement of the year a portion of the bishopric was still in
+the control of the deposed Protestant elector Gebhard Truchsess, assisted
+of course by the English and the States.  The city of Cologne was held by
+the Catholic elector, Ernest of Bavaria, bishop of Liege; but Neusz and
+Rheinberg were in the hands of the Dutch republic.
+
+The military operations of the year were, accordingly, along the Meuse,
+where the main object of Parma was to wrest Grave From the Netherlands;
+along the Waal, where, on the other hand, the patriots wished to recover
+Nymegen; on the Yssel, where they desired to obtain the possession of
+Zutphen; and in the Cologne electorate, where the Spaniards meant, if
+possible, to transfer Neusz and Rheinberg from Truchsess to Elector
+Ernest.  To clear the course of these streams, and especially to set free
+that debatable portion of the river-territory which hemmed him in from
+neutral Germany, and cut off the supplies from his starving troops, was
+the immediate design of Alexander Farnese.
+
+Nothing could be more desolate than the condition of the electorate.
+Ever since Gebhard Truchsess had renounced the communion of the Catholic
+Church for the love of Agnes Mansfeld, and so gained a wife and lost his
+principality, he had been a dependant upon the impoverished Nassaus, or a
+supplicant for alms to the thrifty Elizabeth.  The Queen was frequently
+implored by Leicester, without much effect, to send the ex-elector a few
+hundred pounds to keep him from starving, as "he had not one groat to
+live upon," and, a little later, he was employed as a go-between, and
+almost a spy, by the Earl, in his quarrels with the patrician party
+rapidly forming against him in the States.
+
+At Godesberg--the romantic ruins of which stronghold the traveller still
+regards with interest, placed as it is in the midst of that enchanting
+region where Drachenfels looks down on the crumbling tower of Roland and
+the convent of Nonnenwerth--the unfortunate Gebhard had sustained a
+conclusive defeat.  A small, melancholy man, accomplished, religious,
+learned, "very poor but very wise," comely, but of mean stature,
+altogether an unlucky and forlorn individual, he was not, after all,
+in very much inferior plight to that in which his rival, the Bavarian
+bishop, had found himself.  Prince Ernest, archbishop of Liege and
+Cologne, a hangeron of his brother, who sought to shake him off, and a
+stipendiary of Philip, who was a worse paymaster than Elizabeth, had a
+sorry life of it, notwithstanding his nominal possession of the see.  He
+was forced to go, disguised and in secret, to the Prince of Parma at
+Brussels, to ask for assistance, and to mention, with lacrymose
+vehemence, that both his brother and himself had determined to renounce
+the episcopate, unless the forces of the Spanish King could be employed
+to recover the cities on the Rhine.  If Neusz and Rheinberg were not
+wrested from the rebels; Cologne itself would soon be gone.  Ernest
+represented most eloquently to Alexander, that if the protestant
+archbishop were reinstated in the ancient see, it would be a most
+perilous result for the ancient church throughout all northern Europe.
+Parma kept the wandering prelate for a few days in his palace in
+Brussels, and then dismissed him, disguised and on foot, in the dusk of
+the evening, through the park-gate.  He encouraged him with hopes of
+assistance, he represented to his sovereign the importance of preserving
+the Rhenish territory to Bishop Ernest and to Catholicism, but hinted
+that the declared intention of the Bavarian to resign the dignity, was
+probably a trick, because the archi-episcopate was no such very bad thing
+after all.
+
+The archi-episcopate might be no very bad thing, but it was a most
+uncomfortable place of residence, at the moment, for prince or peasant.
+Overrun by hordes of brigands, and crushed almost out of existence by
+that most deadly of all systems of taxations, the 'brandschatzung,' it
+was fast becoming a mere den of thieves.  The 'brandschatzung' had no
+name in English, but it was the well-known impost, levied by roving
+commanders, and even by respectable generals of all nations.  A hamlet,
+cluster of farm-houses, country district, or wealthy city, in order to
+escape being burned and ravaged, as the penalty of having fallen into a
+conqueror's hands, paid a heavy sum of ready money on the nail at command
+of the conqueror.  The free companions of the sixteenth century drove a
+lucrative business in this particular branch of industry; and when to
+this was added the more direct profits derived from actual plunder, sack,
+and ransoming, it was natural that a large fortune was often the result
+to the thrifty and persevering commander of free lances.
+
+Of all the professors of this comprehensive art, the terrible Martin
+Schenk was preeminent; and he was now ravaging the Cologne territory,
+having recently passed again to the service of the States.  Immediately
+connected with the chief military events of the period which now occupies
+us, he was also the very archetype of the marauders whose existence was
+characteristic of the epoch.  Born in 1549 of an ancient and noble family
+of Gelderland, Martin Schenk had inherited no property but a sword.
+Serving for a brief term as page to the Seigneur of Ysselstein, he
+joined, while yet a youth, the banner of William of Orange, at the head
+of two men-at-arms.  The humble knight-errant, with his brace of squires,
+was received with courtesy by the Prince and the Estates, but he soon
+quarrelled with his patrons.  There was a castle of Blyenbeek, belonging
+to his cousin, which he chose to consider his rightful property, because
+he was of the same race, and because it was a convenient and productive
+estate and residence, The courts had different views of public law, and
+supported the ousted cousin.  Martin shut himself up in the castle, and
+having recently committed a rather discreditable homicide, which still
+further increased his unpopularity with the patriots, he made overtures
+to Parma.  Alexander was glad to enlist so bold a soldier on his side,
+and assisted Schenk in his besieged stronghold.  For years afterwards,
+his services under the King's banner were most brilliant, and he rose to
+the highest military command, while his coffers, meantime, were rapidly
+filling with the results of his robberies and 'brandschatzungs.' "'Tis a
+most courageous fellow," said Parma, "but rather a desperate highwayman
+than a valiant soldier."   Martin's couple of lances had expanded into a
+corps of free companions, the most truculent, the most obedient, the most
+rapacious in Christendom.  Never were freebooters more formidable to the
+world at large, or more docile to their chief, than were the followers
+of General Schenk.  Never was a more finished captain of highwaymen.
+He was a man who was never sober, yet who never smiled.  His habitual
+intoxication seemed only to increase both his audacity and his
+taciturnity, without disturbing his reason.  He was incapable of fear,
+of fatigue, of remorse.  He could remain for days and nights without
+dismounting-eating, drinking, and sleeping in the saddle; so that to this
+terrible centaur his horse seemed actually a part of himself.  His
+soldiers followed him about like hounds, and were treated by him like
+hounds.  He habitually scourged them, often took with his own hand the
+lives of such as displeased him, and had been known to cause individuals
+of them to jump from the top of church steeples at his command; yet the
+pack were ever stanch to his orders, for they knew that he always led
+them where the game was plenty.  While serving under Parma he had twice
+most brilliantly defeated Hohenlo.  At the battle of Hardenberg Heath he
+had completely outgeneralled that distinguished chieftain, slaying
+fifteen hundred of his soldiers at the expense of only fifty or sixty of
+his own.  By this triumph he had preserved the important city of
+Groningen for Philip, during an additional quarter of a century, and had
+been received in that city with rapture.  Several startling years of
+victory and rapine he had thus run through as a royalist partisan.  He
+became the terror and the scourge of his native Gelderland, and he was
+covered with wounds received in the King's service.  He had been twice
+captured and held for ransom.  Twice he had effected his escape.  He had
+recently gained the city of Nymegen.  He was the most formidable, the
+most unscrupulous, the most audacious Netherlander that wore Philip's
+colours; but he had received small public reward for his services, and
+the wealth which he earned on the high-road did not suffice for his
+ambition.  He had been deeply disgusted, when, at the death of Count
+Renneberg, Verdugo, a former stable-boy of Mansfeld, a Spaniard who had
+risen from the humblest rank to be a colonel and general, had been made
+governor of Friesland.  He had smothered his resentment for a time
+however, but had sworn within himself to desert at the most favourable
+opportunity.  At last, after he had brilliantly saved the city of Breda
+from falling into the hands of the patriots, he was more enraged than he
+had ever been before, when Haultepenne, of the house of Berlapmont, was
+made governor of that place in his stead.
+
+On the 25th of May, 1585, at an hour after midnight, he had a secret
+interview with Count Meurs, stadholder for the States of Gelderland, and
+agreed to transfer his mercenary allegiance to the republic.  He made
+good terms.  He was to be lieutenant-governor of Gelderland, and he was
+to have rank as marshal of the camp in the States' army, with a salary
+of twelve hundred and fifty guilders a month.  He agreed to resign his
+famous castle of Blyenbeek, but was to be reimbursed with estates in
+Holland and Zeeland, of the annual value of four thousand florins.
+
+After this treaty, Martin and his free lances served the States
+faithfully, and became sworn foes to Parma and the King.  He gave and
+took no quarter, and his men, if captured, "paid their ransom with their
+heads."  He ceased to be the scourge of Gelderland, but he became the
+terror of the electorate.  Early in 1586, accompanied by Herman Kloet,
+the young and daring Dutch commandant of Neusz, he had swept down into
+the Westphalian country, at the head of five hundred foot and five
+hundred horse.  On the 18th of March he captured the city of Werll by a
+neat stratagem.  The citizens, hemmed in on all sides by marauders, were
+in want of many necessaries of life, among other things, of salt.  Martin
+had, from time to time, sent some of his soldiers into the place,
+disguised as boors from the neighbourhood, and carrying bags of that
+article.  A pacific trading intercourse had thus been established between
+the burghers within and the banditti without the gates.  Agreeable
+relations were formed within the walls, and a party of townsmen had
+agreed to cooperate with the followers of Schenk.  One morning a train
+of waggons laden with soldiers neatly covered with salt, made their
+appearance at the gate.  At the same time a fire broke out most
+opportunely within the town.  The citizens busily employed themselves in
+extinguishing the flames.  The salted soldiers, after passing through the
+gateway, sprang from the waggons, and mastered the watch.  The town was.
+carried at a blow.  Some of the inhabitants were massacred as a warning
+to the rest; others were taken prisoners and held for ransom; a few, more
+fortunate, made their escape to the citadel.  That fortress was stormed
+in vain, but the city was thoroughly sacked.  Every house was rifled of
+its contents.  Meantime Haultepenne collected a force of nearly four
+thousand men, boors, citizens, and soldiers, and came to besiege Schenk
+in the town, while, at the same time, attacks were made upon him from the
+castle.  It was impossible for him to hold the city, but he had
+completely robbed it of every thing valuable.  Accordingly he loaded a
+train of waggons with his booty, took with him thirty of the magistrates
+as hostages, with other wealthy citizens, and marching in good order
+against Haultepenne, completely routed him, killing a number variously
+estimated at from five hundred to two thousand, and effected his retreat,
+desperately wounded in the thigh, but triumphant, and laden with the
+spoils to Venlo on the Meuse, of which city he was governor.
+
+"Surely this is a noble fellow, a worthy fellow," exclaimed Leicester,
+who was filled with admiration at the bold marauder's progress, and vowed
+that he was "the only soldier in truth that they had, for he was never
+idle, and had succeeded hitherto very happily."
+
+And thus, at every point of the doomed territory of the little
+commonwealth, the natural atmosphere in which the inhabitants existed
+was one of blood and rapine.  Yet during the very slight lull, which
+was interposed in the winter of 1585-6 to the eternal clang of arms in
+Friesland, the Estates of that Province, to their lasting honour, founded
+the university of Franeker.  A dozen years before, the famous institution
+at Leyden had been established, as a reward to the burghers for their
+heroic defence of the city.  And now this new proof was given of the love
+of Netherlanders, even in the midst of their misery and their warfare,
+for the more humane arts.  The new college was well endowed from ancient
+churchlands, and not only was the education made nearly gratuitous, while
+handsome salaries were provided for the professors, but provision was
+made by which the, poorer scholars could be fed and boarded at a very
+moderate expense.  There was a table provided at an annual cost to the
+student of but fifty florins, and a second and third table at the very
+low price of forty and thirty florins respectively.  Thus the sum to be
+paid by the poorer class of scholars for a year's maintenance was less
+than three pounds sterling a year [1855 exchange rate D.W.].  The voice
+with which this infant seminary of the Muses first made itself heard
+above the din of war was but feeble, but the institution was destined to
+thrive, and to endow the world, for many successive generations, with the
+golden fruits of science and genius.
+
+Early in the spring, the war was seriously taken in hand by Farnese.  It
+has already been seen that the republic had been almost entirely driven
+out of Flanders and Brabant.  The Estates, however, still held Grave,
+Megem, Batenburg, and Venlo upon the Meuse.  That river formed, as it
+were, a perfect circle of protection for the whole Province of Brabant,
+and Farnese determined to make himself master of this great natural moat.
+Afterwards, he meant to possess himself of the Rhine, flowing in a
+parallel course, about twenty-five miles further to the east.  In order
+to gain and hold the Meuse, the first step was to reduce the city of
+Grave.  That town, upon the left or Brabant bank, was strongly fortified
+on its land-side, where it was surrounded by low and fertile pastures,
+while, upon the other, it depended upon its natural Toss, the river.  It
+was, according to Lord North and the Earl of Leicester, the "strongest
+town in all the Low Countries, though but a little one."
+
+Baron Hemart, a young Gueldrian noble, of small experience in military
+affairs, commanded in the city, his garrison being eight hundred
+soldiers, and about one thousand burgher guard.  As early as January,
+Farnese had ordered Count Mansfeld to lay siege to the place.  Five forts
+had accordingly been constructed, above and below the town, upon the left
+bank of the river, while a bridge of boats thrown across the stream led
+to a fortified camp on the opposite side.  Mansfeld, Mondragon, Bobadil,
+Aquila, and other distinguished veterans in Philip's service, were
+engaged in the enterprise.  A few unimportant skirmishes between Schenk
+and the Spaniards had taken place, but the city was already hard pressed,
+and, by the series of forts which environed it, was cut off from its
+supplies.  It was highly important, therefore, that Grave should be
+relieved, with the least possible delay.
+
+Early in Easter week, a force of three thousand men, under Hohenlo and
+Sir John Norris, was accordingly despatched by Leicester, with orders,
+at every hazard, to throw reinforcements and provisions into the place.
+They took possession, at once, of a stone sconce, called the Mill-Fort,
+which was guarded by fifty men, mostly boors of the country.  These were
+nearly all hanged for "using malicious words," and for "railing against
+Queen Elizabeth," and--a sufficient number of men being left to maintain
+the fort--the whole relieving force marched with great difficulty--for
+the river was rapidly rising, and flooding the country--along the right
+bank of the Meuse, taking possession of Batenburg and Ravenstein castles,
+as they went.  A force of four or five hundred Englishmen was then pushed
+forward to a point almost exactly opposite Grave, and within an English
+mile of the head of the bridge constructed by the Spaniards.  Here, in
+the night of Easter Tuesday, they rapidly formed an entrenched camp, upon
+the dyke along the river, and, although molested by some armed vessels,
+succeeded in establishing themselves in a most important position.
+
+On the morning of Easter Wednesday, April 16, Mansfeld, perceiving that
+the enemy had thus stolen a march upon him, ordered one thousand picked
+troops, all Spaniards, under Aquila, Casco and other veterans, to
+assault this advanced post.  A reserve of two thousand was placed in
+readiness to support the attack.  The Spaniards slowly crossed the
+bridge, which was swaying very dangerously with the current, and then
+charged the entrenched camp at a run.  A quarrel between the different
+regiments as to the right of precedence precipitated the attack, before
+the reserve, consisting of some picked companies of Mondragon's veterans,
+had been able to arrive.  Coming in breathless and fatigued, the first
+assailants were readily repulsed in their first onset.  Aquila then
+opportunely made his appearance, and the attack was renewed with great
+vigour: The defenders of the camp yielded at the third charge and fled in
+dismay, while the Spaniards, leaping the barriers, scattered hither and
+thither in the ardour of pursuit.  The routed Englishmen fled swiftly
+along the oozy dyke, in hopes of joining the main body of the relieving
+party, who were expected to advance, with the dawn, from their position
+six miles farther down the river.  Two miles long the chace lasted, and
+it seemed probable that the fugitives would be overtaken and destroyed,
+when, at last, from behind a line of mounds which stretched towards
+Batenburg and had masked their approach, appeared Count Hohenlo and Sir
+John Norris, at the head of twenty-five hundred Englishmen and
+Hollanders.  This force, advanced as rapidly as the slippery ground and
+the fatigue of a two hours' march would permit to the rescue of their
+friends, while the retreating English rallied, turned upon their
+pursuers, and drove them back over the path along which they had just
+been charging in the full career of victory.  The fortune of the day was
+changed, and in a few minutes Hohenlo and Norris would have crossed the
+river and entered Grave, when the Spanish companies of Bobadil and other
+commanders were seen marching along the quaking bridge.
+
+Three thousand men on each side now met at push of pike on the bank of
+the Meuse.  The rain-was pouring in torrents, the wind was blowing a
+gale, the stream was rapidly rising, and threatening to overwhelm its
+shores.  By a tacit and mutual consent, both armies paused for a few
+moments in full view of each other.  After this brief interval they
+closed again, breast to breast, in sharp and steady conflict.  The
+ground, slippery with rain and with blood, which was soon flowing almost
+as fast as the rain, afforded an unsteady footing to the combatants.
+They staggered like drunken men, fell upon their knees, or upon their
+backs, and still, kneeling or rolling prostrate, maintained the deadly
+conflict.  For the space of an hour and a half the fierce encounter of
+human passion outmastered the fury of the elements.  Norris and Hohenlo
+fought at the head of their columns, like paladins of old.  The
+Englishman was wounded in the mouth and breast, the Count was seen to
+gallop past one thousand musketeers and caliver-men of the enemy, and to
+escape unscathed.  But as the strength of the soldiers exhausted itself,
+the violence of the tempest increased.  The floods of rain and the blasts
+of the hurricane at last terminated the affray.  The Spaniards, fairly
+conquered, were compelled to a retreat, lest the rapidly rising river
+should sweep away the frail and trembling bridge, over which they had
+passed to their unsuccessful assault.  The English and Netherlanders
+remained masters of the field.  The rising flood, too, which was fast
+converting the meadows into a lake, was as useful to the conquerors as
+it was damaging to the Spaniards.
+
+In the course of the few following days, a large number of boats was
+despatched before the very eyes of Parma, from Batenburg into Grave;
+Hohenlo, who had "most desperately adventured his person" throughout the
+whole affair, entering the town himself.
+
+A force of five hundred men, together with provisions enough to last
+a year, was thrown into the city, and the course of the Meuse was,
+apparently, secured to the republic.  In this important action about
+one hundred and fifty Dutch and English were killed, and probably four
+hundred Spaniards, including several distinguished officers.
+
+The Earl of Leicester was incredibly elated so soon as the success of
+this enterprise was known.  "Oh that her Majesty knew," he cried, "how
+easy a match now she hath with the King of Spain, and what millions of
+aficted people she hath relieved in these, countries.  This summer, this
+summer, I say, would make an end to her immortal glory."  He was no
+friend to his countryman, the gallant Sir John Norris--whom, however, he
+could not help applauding on this occasion,--but he was in raptures with
+Hohenlo.  Next to God, he assured the Queen's government that the victory
+was owing to the Count.  "He is both a valiant man and a wise man, and
+the painfullest that ever I knew," he said; adding--as a secret--that
+"five hundred Englishmen of the best Flemish training had flatly and
+shamefully run away," when the fight had been renewed by Hohenlo and
+Norris.  He recommended that her Majesty should, send her picture to the
+Count, worth two hundred pounds, which he would value at more than one
+thousand pounds in money, and he added that "for her sake the Count had
+greatly left his drinking."
+
+As for the Prince of Parma, Leicester looked upon him as conclusively
+beaten.  He spoke of him as "marvellously appalled" by this overthrow of
+his forces; but he assured the government that if the Prince's "choler
+should press him to seek revenge," he should soon be driven out of the
+country.  The Earl would follow him "at an inch," and effectually
+frustrate all his undertakings.  "If the Spaniard have such a May as he
+has had an April," said Lord North, "it will put water in his wine."
+
+Meantime, as St. George's Day was approaching, and as the Earl was fond
+of banquets and ceremonies, it was thought desirable to hold a great
+triumphal feast at Utrecht.  His journey to that city from the Hague was
+a triumphal procession.  In all the towns through which he passed he was
+entertained with military display, pompous harangues, interludes, dumb
+shows, and allegories.  At Amsterdam--a city which he compared to Venice
+for situation and splendour, and where one thousand ships were constantly
+lying--he was received with "sundry great whales and other fishes of
+hugeness," that gambolled about his vessel, and convoyed him to the
+shore.  These monsters of the deep presented him to the burgomaster and
+magistrates who were awaiting him on the quay.  The burgomaster made him
+a Latin oration, to which Dr. Bartholomew Clerk responded, and then the
+Earl was ushered to the grand square, upon which, in his honour, a
+magnificent living picture was exhibited, in which he figured as Moses,
+at the head of the Israelites, smiting the Philistines hip and thigh.
+After much mighty banqueting in Amsterdam, as in the other cities, the
+governor-general came to Utrecht.  Through the streets of this antique
+and most picturesque city flows the palsied current of the Rhine, and
+every barge and bridge were decorated with the flowers of spring.  Upon
+this spot, where, eight centuries before the Anglo-Saxon, Willebrod had
+first astonished the wild Frisians with the pacific doctrines of Jesus,
+and had been stoned to death as his reward, stood now a more arrogant
+representative of English piety.  The balconies were crowded with fair
+women, and decorated with scarves and banners.  From the Earl's
+residence--the ancient palace of the Knights of Rhodes--to the cathedral,
+the way was lined with a double row of burgher guards, wearing red roses
+on their arms, and apparelled in the splendid uniforms for which the
+Netherlanders were celebrated.  Trumpeters in scarlet and silver, barons,
+knights, and great officers, in cloth of gold and silks of all colours;
+the young Earl of Essex, whose career was to be so romantic, and whose
+fate so tragic; those two ominous personages, the deposed little
+archbishop-elector of Cologne, with his melancholy face, and the unlucky
+Don Antonio, Pretender of Portugal, for whom, dead or alive, thirty
+thousand crowns and a dukedom were perpetually offered by Philip II.;
+young Maurice of Nassau, the future controller of European destinies;
+great counsellors of state, gentlemen, guardsmen, and portcullis-herald,
+with the coat of arms of Elizabeth, rode in solemn procession along.
+Then great Leicester himself,  "most princelike in the robes of his
+order," guarded by a troop of burghers, and by his own fifty halberd-men
+in scarlet cloaks trimmed with white and purple velvet, pranced
+gorgeously by.
+
+The ancient cathedral, built on the spot where Saint Willebrod had once
+ministered, with its light, tapering, brick tower, three hundred and
+sixty feet in height, its exquisitely mullioned windows, and its
+elegantly foliaged columns, soon received the glittering throng.  Hence,
+after due religious ceremonies, and an English sermon from Master
+Knewstubs, Leicester's chaplain, was a solemn march back again to the
+palace, where a stupendous banquet was already laid in the great hall.
+
+On the dais at the upper end of the table, blazing with plate and
+crystal, stood the royal chair, with the Queen's plate and knife and fork
+before it, exactly as if she had been present, while Leicester's trencher
+and stool were set respectfully quite at the edge of the board.  In the
+neighbourhood of this post of honour sat Count Maurice, the Elector, the
+Pretender, and many illustrious English personages, with the fair Agnes
+Mansfeld, Princess Chimay, the daughters of William the Silent, and other
+dames of high degree.
+
+Before the covers were removed, came limping up to the dais grim-visaged
+Martin Schenk, freshly wounded, but triumphant, from the sack of Werll,
+and black John Norris, scarcely cured of the spearwounds in his face and
+breast received at the relief of Grave.  The sword of knighthood was
+laid upon the shoulder of each hero, by the Earl of Leicester, as her
+Majesty's vicegerent; and then the ushers marshalled the mighty feast.
+Meats in the shape of lions, tigers, dragons, and leopards, flanked by
+peacocks, swans, pheasants, and turkeys "in their natural feathers as in
+their greatest pride," disappeared, course after course, sonorous metal
+blowing meanwhile the most triumphant airs.  After the banquet came
+dancing, vaulting, tumbling; together with the "forces of Hercules, which
+gave great delight to the strangers," after which the company separated
+until evensong.
+
+Then again, "great was the feast," says the chronicler,--a mighty supper
+following hard upon the gigantic dinner.  After this there was tilting
+at the barriers, the young Earl of Essex and other knights bearing
+themselves more chivalrously than would seem to comport with so much
+eating and drinking.  Then, horrible to relate, came another "most
+sumptuous banquet of sugar-meates for the men-at-arms and the ladies,"
+after which, it being now midnight, the Lord of Leicester bade the whole
+company good rest, and the men-at-arms and ladies took their leave.
+
+But while all this chivalrous banqueting and holiday-making was in hand,
+the Prince of Parma was in reality not quite so much "appalled" by the
+relief of Grave as his antagonist had imagined.  The Earl, flushed with
+the success of Hohenlo, already believed himself master of the country,
+and assured his government, that, if he should be reasonably well
+supplied, he would have Antwerp back again and Bruges besides before
+mid June.  Never, said he, was "the Prince of Parma so dejected nor so
+melancholy since he came into these countries, nor so far out of
+courage."  And it is quite true that Alexander had reason to be
+discouraged.  He had but eight or nine thousand men, and no money to pay
+even this little force.  The soldiers were perishing daily, and nearly
+all the survivors were described by their chief, as sick or maimed.  The
+famine in the obedient Provinces was universal, the whole population was
+desperate with hunger; and the merchants, frightened by Drake's
+successes, and appalled by the ruin all around them, drew their purse-
+strings inexorably.  "I know not to what saint to devote myself," said
+Alexander.  He had been compelled, by the movement before Grave, to
+withdraw Haultepenne from the projected enterprise against Neusz, and he
+was quite aware of the cheerful view which Leicester was inclined to take
+of their relative positions.  "The English think they are going to do
+great things," said he; "and consider themselves masters of the field."
+
+Nevertheless, on the 11th May, the dejected melancholy man had left
+Brussels, and joined his little army, consisting of three thousand
+Spaniards and five thousand of all other nations.  His veterans, though
+unpaid; ragged, and half-starved were in raptures to, have their idolized
+commander among them again, and vowed that under his guidance there was
+nothing which they could not accomplish.  The King's honour, his own,
+that of the army, all were pledged to take the city.  On the success of,
+that enterprise, he said, depended all his past conquests, and every hope
+for the future.  Leicester and the, English, whom he called the head and
+body of the rebel forces, were equally pledged to relieve the place, and
+were bent upon meeting him in the field.  The Earl had taken some forts
+in the Batavia--Betuwe; or "good meadow," which he pronounced as fertile
+and about as large as Herefordshire,--and was now threatening Nymegen,
+a city which had been gained for Philip by the last effort of Schenk,
+on the royalist side.  He was now observing Alexander's demonstrations
+against Grave; but, after the recent success in victualling that place,
+he felt a just confidence in its security.
+
+On the 31st May the trenches were commenced, and on the 5th June the
+batteries were opened.  The work went rapidly forward when Farnese was in
+the field.  "The Prince of Parma doth batter it like a Prince," said Lord
+North, admiring the enemy with the enthusiasm of an honest soldier: On
+the 6th of June, as Alexander rode through the camp to reconnoitre,
+previous to an attack.  A well-directed cannon ball carried away the
+hinder half, of his horse.  The Prince fell to the ground, and, for a
+moment, dismay was in the Spanish ranks.  At the next instant, though
+somewhat bruised, he was on his feet again, and, having found the breach
+sufficiently promising, he determined on the assault.
+
+As a preliminary measure, he wished to occupy a tower which had been
+battered nearly to ruins, situate near the river.  Captain de Solis was
+ordered, with sixty veterans, to take possession of this tower, and to
+"have a look at the countenance of the enemy, without amusing himself
+with anything else."  The tower was soon secured, but Solis, in
+disobedience to his written instructions led his men against the ravelin,
+which was still in a state of perfect defence.  A musket-ball soon
+stretched him dead beneath the wall, and his followers, still attempting
+to enter the impracticable breach, were repelled by a shower of stones
+and blazing pitch-hoops.  Hot sand; too, poured from sieves and baskets,
+insinuated itself within the armour of the Spaniards, and occasioned such
+exquisite suffering, that many threw themselves into the river to allay
+the pain.  Emerging refreshed, but confused, they attempted in vain to
+renew the onset.  Several of the little band were slain, the assault was
+quite unsuccessful, and the trumpet sounded a recal.  So completely
+discomfited were the Spaniards by this repulse, and so thoroughly at
+their ease were the besieged, that a soldier let himself down from the
+ramparts of the town for the sake of plundering the body of Captain
+Solis, who was richly dressed, and, having accomplished this feat, was
+quietly helped back again by his comrades from above.
+
+To the surprise of the besiegers, however, on the very next morning came
+a request from the governor of the city, Baron Hemart, to negotiate for
+a surrender.  Alexander was, naturally, but too glad to grant easy terms,
+and upon the 7th of June the garrison left the town with colours
+displayed and drums beating, and the Prince of Parma marched into it, at
+the head of his troops.  He found a year's provision there for six
+thousand men, while, at the same time, the walls had suffered so
+little, that he must have been obliged to wait long for a practicable
+breach.
+
+"There was no good reason even for women to have surrendered the place,"
+exclaimed Leicester, when he heard the news.  And the Earl had cause to
+be enraged at such a result.  He had received a letter only the day
+before, signed by Hemart himself and by all the officers in Grave,
+asserting their determination and ability to hold the place for a good
+five months, or for an indefinite period, and until they should be
+relieved.  And indeed all the officers, with three exceptions, had
+protested against the base surrender.  But at the bottom of the
+catastrophe--of the disastrous loss of the city and the utter ruin of
+young Hemart--was a woman.  The governor was governed by his mistress,
+a lady of good family in the place, but of Spanish inclinations, and she,
+for some mysterious reasons, had persuaded him thus voluntarily to
+capitulate.
+
+Parma lost no time, however, in exulting over his success.  Upon the same
+day the towns of Megen and Batenburg surrendered to him, and immediately
+afterwards siege was laid to Venlo, a town of importance, lying thirty
+miles farther up the Meuse.  The wife and family of Martin Schenk were in
+the city, together with two hundred horses, and from forty to one hundred
+thousand crowns in money, plate; and furniture belonging to him.
+
+That bold partisan, accompanied by the mad Welshman, Roger Williams, at
+the head of one hundred and thirty English lances and thirty of Schenk's
+men, made a wild nocturnal attempt to cut their way through the besieging
+force, and penetrate to the city.  They passed through the enemy's lines,
+killed all the corps-de-garde, and many Spanish troopers--the terrible
+Martin's own hand being most effective in this midnight slaughter--and
+reached the very door of Parma's tent, where they killed his secretary
+and many of his guards.  It was even reported; and generally believed,
+that Farnese himself had been in imminent danger, that Schenk had fired
+his pistol at him unsuccessfully, and had then struck him on the head
+with its butt-end, and that the Prince had only saved his life by leaping
+from his horse, and scrambling through a ditch.  But these seem to have
+been fables.  The alarm at last became general, the dawn of a summer's
+day was fast approaching; the drums beat to arms, and the bold marauders
+were obliged to effect their retreat, as they best might, hotly pursued
+by near two thousand men.  Having slain many of, the Spanish army, and
+lost nearly half their own number, they at last obtained shelter in
+Wachtendonk.
+
+Soon afterwards the place capitulated without waiting for a battery, upon
+moderate terms.  Schenk's wife was sent away (28 June 1586) courteously
+with her family, in a coach and four, and with as much "apparel" as might
+be carried with her.  His property was confiscated, for "no fair wars
+could be made with him."
+
+Thus, within a few weeks after taking the field, the "dejected,
+melancholy" man, who was so "out of courage," and the soldiers who were
+so "marvellously beginning to run away"--according to the Earl of
+Leicester--had swept their enemy from every town on the Meuse.  That
+river was now, throughout its whole course, in the power of the
+Spaniards.  The Province of Brabant became thoroughly guarded again by
+its foes, and the enemy's road was opened into the northern Provinces.
+
+Leicester, meantime, had not distinguished himself.  It must be confessed
+that he had been sadly out-generalled.  The man who had talked of
+following the enemy inch by inch, and who had pledged himself not only
+to protect Grave, and any other place that might be attacked, but even
+to recover Antwerp and Bruges within a few weeks, had wasted the time in
+very desultory operations.  After the St. George feasting, Knewstub
+sermons, and forces of Hercules, were all finished, the Earl had taken
+the field with five thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse.  His
+intention was to clear the Yssel; by getting possession of Doesburg and
+Zutphen, but, hearing of Parma's demonstrations upon Grave, he abandoned
+the contemplated siege of those cities, and came to Arnheim.  He then
+crossed the Rhine into the Isle of Batavia, and thence, after taking a
+few sconces of inferior importance--while Schenk, meanwhile, was building
+on the Island of Gravenweert, at the bifurcation of the Rhine and Waal,
+the sconce so celebrated a century later as 'Schenk's Fort'
+(Schenkenschans)---he was preparing to pass the Waal in order to attack
+Farnese, when he heard to his astonishment, of the surrender of Grave.
+
+He could therefore--to his chagrin--no longer save that important city,
+but he could, at least, cut off the head of the culprit.  Leicester was
+in Bommel when he heard of Baron Hemart's faint-heartedness or treachery,
+and his wrath was extravagant in proportion to the exultation with which
+his previous success had inspired him.  He breathed nothing but revenge
+against the coward and the traitor, who had delivered up the town in
+"such lewd and beastly sort."
+
+"I will never depart hence," he said, "till by the goodness of God I be
+satisfied someway of this villain's treachery."  There could be little
+doubt that Hemart deserved punishment.  There could be as little that
+Leicester would mete it out to him in ample measure.  "The lewd villain
+who gave up Grave," said he, "and the captains as deep in fault as
+himself, shall all suffer together."
+
+Hemart came boldly to meet him.  "The honest man came to me at Bommel,"
+said Leicester, and he assured the government that it was in the hope of
+persuading the magistrates of that and other towns to imitate his own
+treachery.
+
+But the magistrates straightway delivered the culprit to the governor-
+general, who immediately placed him under arrest.  A court-martial was
+summoned, 26th of June, at Utrecht, consisting of Hohenlo, Essex, and
+other distinguished officers.  They found that the conduct of the
+prisoner merited death, but left it to the Earl to decide whether various
+extenuating circumstances did not justify a pardon.  Hohenlo and Norris
+exerted themselves to procure a mitigation of the young man's sentence,
+and they excited thereby the governor's deep indignation.  Norris,
+according to Leicester, was in love with the culprit's aunt, and was
+therefore especially desirous of saving his life.  Moreover, much use was
+made of the discredit which had been thrown by the Queen on the Earl's
+authority, and it was openly maintained, that, being no longer governor-
+general, he had no authority to order execution upon a Netherland
+officer.
+
+The favourable circumstances urged in the case, were, that Hemart was a
+young man, without experience in military matters, and that he had been
+overcome by the supplications and outcries of the women, panic-struck
+after the first assault.  There were no direct proofs of treachery, or
+even of personal cowardice.  He begged hard for a pardon, not on account
+of his life, but for the sake of his reputation.  He earnestly implored
+permission to serve under the Queen of England, as a private soldier,
+without pay, on land or sea, for as many years as she should specify, and
+to be selected for the most dangerous employments, in order that, before
+he died, he might wipe out the disgrace, which, through his fault, in an
+hour of weakness, had come upon an ancient and honourable house.  Much
+interest was made for him--his family connection being powerful--and a
+general impression prevailing that he had erred through folly rather than
+deep guilt.  But Leicester beating himself upon the breast--as he was
+wont when excited--swore that there should be no pardon for such a
+traitor.  The States of Holland and Zeeland, likewise, were decidedly in
+favour of a severe example.
+
+Hemart was accordingly led to the scaffold on the 28th June.  He spoke to
+the people with great calmness, and, in two languages, French and
+Flemish, declared that he was guiltless of treachery, but that the terror
+and tears of the women, in an hour of panic, had made a coward of him.
+He was beheaded, standing.  The two captains, Du Ban and Koeboekum, who
+had also been condemned, suffered with him.  A third captain, likewise
+convicted, was, "for very just cause,", pardoned by Leicester.  The Earl
+persisted in believing that Hemart had surrendered the city as part of a
+deliberate plan, and affirmed that in such a time, when men had come to
+think no more of giving up a town than of abandoning a house, it was
+highly necessary to afford an example to traitors and satisfaction to the
+people.  And the people were thoroughly satisfied, according to the
+governor, and only expressed their regret that three or four members of
+the States-General could not have their heads cut off as well, being as
+arrant knaves as Henlart; "and so I think they be," added Leicester.
+
+Parma having thus made himself master of the Meuse, lost no time in
+making a demonstration upon the parallel course of the Rhine, thirty
+miles farther east.  Schenk, Kloet; and other partisans, kept that
+portion of the archi-episcopate and of Westphalia in a state of perpetual
+commotion.  Early in the, preceding year, Count de Meurs had, by a
+fortunate stratagem, captured the town of Neusz for the deposed elector,
+and Herman Kloet, a young and most determined Geldrian soldier, now
+commanded in the place.
+
+The Elector Ernest had made a visit in disguise to the camp of Parma, and
+had represented the necessity of recovering the city.  It had become the
+stronghold of heretics, rebels, and banditti.  The Rhine was in their
+hands, and with it the perpetual power of disturbing the loyal
+Netherlands.  It was as much the interest of his Catholic Majesty as
+that of the Archbishop that Neusz should be restored to its lawful owner.
+Parma had felt the force of this reasoning, and had early in the year
+sent Haultepenne to invest the city.  He had been obliged to recal that
+commander during the siege of Grave.  The place being reduced, Alexander,
+before the grass could grow beneath his feet advanced to the Rhine in
+person.  Early in July he appeared before the walls of Neusz with eight
+thousand foot and two thousand horse.  The garrison under Kloet numbered
+scarcely more than sixteen hundred effective soldiers, all Netherlanders
+and Germans, none being English.
+
+The city is twenty-miles below Cologne.  It was so well fortified that a
+century before it had stood a year's siege from the famous Charles the
+Bold, who, after all, had been obliged to retire.  It had also resisted
+the strenuous efforts of Charles the Fifth; and was now stronger than it
+ever had been.  It was thoroughly well provisioned, so that it was safe
+enough "if those within it," said Leicester, "be men."  The Earl
+expressed the opinion, however, that "those fellows were not good to
+defend towns, unless the besiegers were obliged to swim to the attack."
+The issue was to show whether the sarcasm were just or not.  Meantime the
+town was considered by the governor-general to be secure, "unless towns
+were to be had for the asking."
+
+Neusz is not immediately upon the Rhine, but that river, which sweeps
+away in a north-easterly direction from the walls, throws out an arm
+which completely encircles the town.  A part of the place, cut into an
+island by the Erpt, was strengthened by two redoubts.  This island was
+abandoned, as being too weak to hold, and the Spaniards took possession
+of it immediately.  There were various preliminary and sanguinary sorties
+and skirmishes, during which the Spaniards after having been once driven
+from the island, again occupied that position.  Archbishop Ernest came
+into the camp, and, before proceeding to a cannonade, Parma offered to
+the city certain terms of capitulation, which were approved by that
+prelate.  Kloet replied to this proposal, that he was wedded to the town
+and to his honour, which were as one.  These he was incapable of
+sacrificing, but his life he was ready to lay down.  There was, through
+some misapprehension, a delay in reporting this answer to Farnese.
+Meantime that general became impatient, and advanced to the battery of
+the Italian regiment.  Pretending to be a plenipotentiary from the
+commander-in-chief, he expostulated in a loud voice at the slowness of
+their counsels.  Hardly had he begun to speak, when a shower of balls
+rattled about him.  His own soldiers were terrified at his danger, and a
+cry arose in the town that "Holofernese"--as the Flemings and Germans
+were accustomed to nickname Farnese--was dead.  Strange to relate, he was
+quite unharmed, and walked back to his tent with dignified slowness and a
+very frowning face.  It was said that this breach of truce had been begun
+by the Spaniards, who had fired first, and had been immediately answered
+by the town.  This was hotly denied, and Parma sent Colonel Tasais with a
+flag of truce to the commander, to rebuke and to desire an explanation of
+this dishonourable conduct.
+
+The answer given, or imagined, was that Commander Kloet had been sound
+asleep, but that he now much regretted this untoward accident.  The
+explanation was received with derision, for it seemed hardly probable
+that so young and energetic a soldier would take the opportunity to
+refresh himself with slumber at a moment when a treaty for the
+capitulation of a city under his charge was under discussion.  This
+terminated the negotiation.
+
+A few days afterwards, the feast of St James was celebrated in the
+Spanish camp, with bonfires and other demonstrations of hilarity.  The
+townsmen are said to have desecrated the same holiday by roasting alive
+in the market-place two unfortunate soldiers, who had been captured in a
+sortie a few days before; besides burning the body of the holy Saint
+Quirinus, with other holy relics.  The detestable deed was to be most
+horribly avenged.
+
+A steady cannonade from forty-five great guns was kept up from 2 A.M. of
+July 15 until the dawn of the following day; the cannoneers--being all
+provided with milk and vinegar to cool the pieces.  At daybreak the
+assault was ordered.  Eight separate attacks were made with the usual
+impetuosity of Spaniards, and were steadily repulsed.
+
+At the ninth, the outer wall was carried, and the Spaniards shouting
+"Santiago" poured over it, bearing back all resistance.  An Italian
+Knight of the Sepulchre, Cesar Guidiccioni by name, and a Spanish ensign,
+one Alphonao de Mesa, with his colours in one hand and a ladder in the
+other, each claimed the honour of having first mounted the breach.  Both
+being deemed equally worthy of reward, Parma, after the city had been
+won, took from his own cap a sprig of jewels and a golden wheat-ear
+ornamented with a gem, which he had himself worn in place of a plume, and
+thus presented each with a brilliant token of his regard.  The wall was
+then strengthened against the inner line of fortification, and all night
+long a desperate conflict was maintained in the dark upon the narrow
+space between the two barriers.  Before daylight Kloet, who then, as
+always, had led his men in the moat desperate adventures, was carried
+into the town, wounded in five places, and with his leg almost severed at
+the thigh.  "'Tis the bravest man," said the enthusiastic Lord North,
+"that was ever heard of in the world."--"He is but a boy," said Alexander
+Farnese, "but a commander of extraordinary capacity and valour."
+
+Early in the morning, when this mishap was known, an officer was sent to
+the camp of the besiegers to treat.  The soldiers received him with
+furious laughter, and denied him access to the general.  "Commander Kloet
+had waked from his nap at a wrong time," they said, "and the Prince of
+Parma was now sound asleep, in his turn."  There was no possibility of
+commencing a negotiation.  The Spaniards, heated by the conflict,
+maddened by opposition, and inspired by the desire to sack a wealthy
+city, overpowered all resistance.  "My little soldiers were not to be
+restrained," said Farnese, and so compelling a reluctant consent on the
+part of the commander-in-chief to an assault, the Italian and Spanish
+legions poured into the town at two opposite gates; which were no.
+longer strong enough to withstand the enemy.  The two streams met in the
+heart of the place, and swept every living thing in their, path out of
+existence.  The garrison was butchered to a man, and subsequently many
+of the inhabitants--men, women, and children-also, although the women;
+to the honour of Alexander, had been at first secured from harm in some
+of the churches, where they had been ordered to take refuge.  The first
+blast of indignation was against the commandant of the place.  Alexander,
+who had admired, his courage, was not unfavourably disposed towards him,
+but Archbishop Ernest vehemently, demanded his immediate death, as a
+personal favour to himself.  As the churchman was nominally sovereign of
+the city although in reality a beggarly dependant on Philip's alms,
+Farnese felt bound to comply.  The manner in which it was at first
+supposed that the Bishop's Christian request had; been complied, with,
+sent a shudder through every-heart in the Netherlands.  "They took Kloet,
+wounded as he was," said Lord North, "and first strangled, him, then
+smeared him with pitch, and burnt him with gunpowder; thus, with their
+holiness, they, made a tragical end of an heroical service.  It is
+wondered that the Prince would suffer so great an outrage to be done to
+so noble a soldier, who did but his duty."
+
+But this was an error.  A Jesuit priest was sent to the house of the
+commandant, for a humane effort was thought necessary in order to save
+the soul of the man whose life was forfeited for the crime of defending
+his city.  The culprit was found lying in bed.  His wife, a woman of
+remarkable beauty, with her sister, was in attendance upon him.  The
+spectacle of those two fair women, nursing a wounded soldier fallen upon
+the field of honour, might have softened devils with sympathy.  But the
+Jesuit was closely followed by a band of soldiers, who, notwithstanding
+the supplications of the women, and the demand of Kloet to be indulged
+with a soldier's death, tied a rope round the commandant's necks dragged
+him from his bed, and hanged him from his own window.  The Calvinist
+clergyman, Fosserus of Oppenheim, the deacons of the congregation, two
+military officers, and--said Parma--"forty other rascals," were murdered
+in the same way at the same time.  The bodies remained at the window till
+they were devoured by the flames, which soon consumed the house.  For a
+vast conflagration, caused none knew whether by accident, by the despair
+of the inhabitants; by the previous, arrangements of the commandant, by
+the latest-arrived bands of the besiegers enraged that the Italians and
+Spaniards had been beforehand with them in the spoils, or--as Farnese
+more maturely believed--by the special agency of the Almighty, offended
+with the burning of Saint Quirinus,--now came to complete the horror of
+the scene.  Three-quarters of the town were at once in a blaze.  The
+churches, where the affrighted women had been cowering during the sack
+and slaughter, were soon on fire, and now, amid the crash of falling
+houses and the uproar of the drunken soldiery, those unhappy victims were
+seen flitting along the flaming streets; seeking refuge against the fury
+of the elements in the more horrible cruelty of man.  The fire lasted all
+day and night, and not one stone would have been left upon another, had
+not the body of a second saint, saved on a former occasion from the
+heretics by the piety of a citizen, been fortunately deposited in his
+house.  At this point the conflagration was stayed--for the flames
+refused to consume these holy relics--but almost the whole of the town
+was destroyed, while at least four thousand people, citizens and
+soldiers, had perished by sword or fire.
+
+Three hundred survivors of the garrison took refuge in a tower.  Its base
+was surrounded, and, after brief parley, they descended as prisoners.
+The Prince and Haultepenne attempted in vain to protect them against the
+fury of the soldiers, and every man of them was instantly put to death.
+
+The next day, Alexander gave orders that the wife and sister of the
+commandant should be protected--for they had escaped, as if by miracle,
+from all the horrors of that day and night--and sent, under escort, to
+their friends!  Neusz had nearly ceased to exist, for according to
+contemporaneous accounts, but eight houses had escaped destruction.
+
+And the reflection was most painful to Leicester and to every generous
+Englishman or Netherlander in the country, that this important city and
+its heroic defenders might have been preserved, but for want of harmony
+and want of money.  Twice had the Earl got together a force of four
+thousand men for the relief of the place, and twice had he been obliged
+to disband them again for the lack of funds to set them in the field.
+
+He had pawned his plate and other valuables, exhausted his credit, and
+had nothing for it but to wait for the Queen's tardy remittances, and to
+wrangle with the States; for the leaders of that body were unwilling to
+accord large supplies to a man who had become personally suspected by
+them, and was the representative of a deeply-suspected government.
+Meanwhile, one-third at least of the money which really found its way
+from time to time out of England, was filched from the "poor starved
+wretches," as Leicester called his soldiers, by the dishonesty of Norris,
+uncle of Sir John and army-treasurer.  This man was growing so rich on
+his peculations, on his commissions, and on his profits from paying the
+troops in a depreciated coin, that Leicester declared the whole revenue
+of his own landed estates in England to be less than that functionary's
+annual income.  Thus it was difficult to say whether the "ragged rogues"
+of Elizabeth or the maimed and neglected soldiers of Philip were in the
+more pitiable plight.
+
+The only consolation in the recent reduction of Neusz was to be found in
+the fact that Parma had only gained a position, for the town had ceased
+to exist; and in the fiction that he had paid for his triumph by the loss
+of six thousand soldiers, killed and wounded.  In reality not more than
+five hundred of Farnese's army lost their lives, and although the town,
+excepting some churches, had certainly been destroyed; yet the Prince was
+now master of the Rhine as far as Cologne, and of the Meuse as far as
+Grave.  The famine which pressed so sorely upon him, might now be
+relieved, and his military communications with Germany be considered
+secure.
+
+The conqueror now turned his attention to Rheinberg, twenty-five miles
+farther down the river.
+
+Sir Philip Sidney had not been well satisfied by the comparative idleness
+in which, from these various circumstances; he had been compelled to
+remain.  Early in the spring he had been desirous of making an attack
+upon Flanders by capturing the town of Steenberg.  The faithful Roger
+Williams had strongly seconded the proposal.  "We wish to show your
+Excellency," said he to Leicester, "that we are not sound asleep."  The
+Welshman was not likely to be accused of somnolence, but on this occasion
+Sidney and himself had been overruled.  At a later moment, and during the
+siege of Neusz, Sir Philip had the satisfaction of making a successful
+foray into Flanders.
+
+The expedition had been planned by Prince Maurice of Nassau, and was his.
+earliest military achievement.  He proposed carrying by surprise, the
+city of Axel, a well-built, strongly-fortified town on the south-western
+edge of the great Scheldt estuary, and very important from its position.
+Its acquisition would make the hold of the patriots and the English upon
+Sluys and Ostend more secure, and give them many opportunities of
+annoying the enemy in Flanders.
+
+Early in July, Maurice wrote to the Earl of Leicester, communicating the
+particulars of his scheme, but begging that the affair might be "very
+secretly handled," and kept from every one but Sidney.  Leicester
+accordingly sent his nephew to Maurice that they might consult together
+upon the enterprise, and make sure "that there was no ill intent, there
+being so much treachery in the world."  Sidney found no treachery in
+young Maurice, but only, a noble and intelligent love of adventure, and
+the two arranged their plans in harmony.
+
+Leicester, then, in order to deceive the enemy, came to Bergen-op-Zoom,
+with five hundred men, where he remained two days, not sleeping a wink,
+as he averred, during the whole time.  In the night of Tuesday, 16th of
+July, the five hundred English soldiers were despatched by water, under
+charge of Lord Willoughby, "who," said the Earl, "would needs go with
+them."  Young Hatton, too, son of Sir Christopher, also volunteered on
+the service, "as his first nursling."  Sidney had, five hundred of his
+own Zeeland regiment in readiness, and the rendezvous was upon the broad
+waters of the Scheldt, opposite Flushing.  The plan was neatly carried
+out, and the united flotilla, in a dark, calm, midsummer's night, rowed
+across the smooth estuary and landed at Ter Neuse, about a league from
+Axel.  Here they were joined by Maurice with some Netherland companies,
+and the united troops, between two and three thousand strong, marched at
+once to the place proposed.  Before two in the morning they had reached
+Axel, but found the moat very deep.  Forty soldiers immediately plunged
+in, however, carrying their ladders with them, swam across, scaled the
+rampart, killed, the guard, whom they found asleep in their beds, and
+opened the gates for their comrades.  The whole force then marched in,
+the Dutch companies under Colonel Pyion being first, Lord Willoughby's
+men being second, and Sir Philip with his Zeelanders bringing up the
+rear.  The garrison, between five and six hundred in number, though
+surprised, resisted gallantly, and were all put to the sword.  Of the
+invaders, not a single man lost his life.  Sidney most generously
+rewarded from his own purse the adventurous soldiers who had swum the
+moat; and it was to his care and intelligence that the success of Prince
+Maurice's scheme was generally attributed.  The achievement was hailed
+with great satisfaction, and it somewhat raised the drooping spirits of
+the patriots after their severe losses at Grave and Venlo.  "This victory
+hath happened in good time," wrote Thomas Cecil to his father, "and hath
+made us somewhat to lift up our heads."  A garrison of eight hundred,
+under Colonel Pyron, was left in Axel, and the dykes around were then
+pierced.  Upwards of two millions' worth of property in grass, cattle,
+corn, was thus immediately destroyed in the territory of the obedient
+Netherlands.
+
+After an unsuccessful attempt to surprise Gravelines, the governor of
+which place, the veteran La Motte, was not so easily taken napping; Sir
+Philip having gained much reputation by this conquest of Axel, then
+joined the main body of the army, under Leicester, at Arnheim.
+
+Yet, after all, Sir Philip had not grown in favour with her Majesty
+during his service in the Low Countries.  He had also been disappointed
+in the government of Zeeland, to which post his uncle had destined him.
+The cause of Leicester's ambition had been frustrated by the policy of
+Barneveld and Buys, in pursuance of which Count or Prince Maurice--as he
+was now purposely designated, in order that his rank might surpass that
+of the Earl--had become stadholder and captain general both of Holland
+and Zeeland.  The Earl had given his nephew, however, the colonelcy of
+the Zeeland regiment, vacant by the death of Admiral Haultain on the
+Kowenstyn Dyke.  This promotion had excited much anger among the high
+officers in the Netherlands who, at the instigation of Count Hohenlo,
+had presented a remonstrance upon the subject to the governor-general.
+It had always been the custom, they said, with the late Prince of Orange,
+to confer promotion according to seniority, without regard to social
+rank, and they were therefore unwilling that a young foreigner, who had
+just entered the service; should thus be advanced over the heads of
+veterans who had been campaigning there so many weary years.  At the same
+time the gentlemen who signed the paper protested to Sir Philip, in
+another letter, "with all the same hands," that they had no personal
+feeling towards him, but, on the contrary, that they wished him all
+honour.
+
+Young Maurice himself had always manifested the most friendly feelings
+toward Sidney, although influenced in his action by the statesmen who
+were already organizing a powerful opposition to Leicester.  "Count
+Maurice showed himself constantly, kind in the matter of the regiment,"
+said Sir Philip, "but Mr. Paul Buss has so many busses in his head, such
+as you shall find he will be to God and man about one pitch.  Happy is
+the communication of them that join in the fear of God."  Hohenlo, too,
+or Hollock, as he was called by the French and English, was much governed
+by Buys and Olden-Barneveld.  Reckless and daring, but loose of life and
+uncertain of purpose, he was most dangerous, unless under safe guidance.
+Roger Williams--who vowed that but for the love he bore to Sidney and
+Leicester, he would not remain ten days in the Netherlands--was much
+disgusted by Hohenlo's conduct in regard to the Zeeland regiment.  "'Tis
+a mutinous request of Hollock," said he, "that strangers should not
+command Netherlanders.  He and his Alemaynes are farther born from
+Zeeland than Sir Philip is.  Either you must make Hollock assured to you,
+or you must disgrace him.  If he will not be yours, I will show you means
+to disinherit him of all his commands at small danger.  What service doth
+he, Count Solms, Count Overatein, with their Almaynes, but spend treasure
+and consume great contributions?"
+
+It was, very natural that the chivalrous Sidney, who had come to the
+Netherlands to win glory in the field, should be desirous of posts that
+would bring danger and distinction with them.  He was not there merely
+that he might govern Flushing, important as it was, particularly as the
+garrison was, according to his statement, about as able to maintain the
+town, "as the Tower was to answer for London."  He disapproved of his
+wife's inclination to join him in Holland, for he was likely--so he wrote
+to her father, Walsingham--"to run such a course as would not be fit for
+any of the feminine gender."  He had been, however; grieved to the heart,
+by the spectacle which was perpetually exhibited of the Queen's
+parsimony, and of the consequent suffering of the soldiers.  Twelve or
+fifteen thousand Englishmen were serving in the Netherlands--more than
+two thirds of them in her Majesty's immediate employment.  No troops had
+ever fought better, or more honourably maintained the ancient glory of
+England.  But rarely had more ragged and wretched warriors been seen than
+they, after a few months' campaigning.
+
+The Irish Kernes--some fifteen hundred of whom were among the
+auxiliaries--were better off, for they habitually dispensed with
+clothing; an apron from waist to knee being the only protection of these
+wild Kelts, who fought with the valour, and nearly, in the costume of
+Homeric heroes.  Fearing nothing, needing nothing, sparing nothing, they
+stalked about the fens of Zeeland upon their long stilts, or leaped
+across running rivers, scaling ramparts, robbing the highways, burning,
+butchering, and maltreating the villages and their inhabitants, with as
+little regard for the laws of Christian warfare as for those of civilized
+costume.
+
+Other soldiers, more sophisticated as to apparel, were less at their
+ease.  The generous Sidney spent all his means, and loaded himself with
+debt, in order to relieve the necessities of the poor soldiers.  He
+protested that if the Queen would not pay her troops, she would lose her
+troops, but that no living man should say the fault was in him.  "What
+relief I can do them I will," he wrote to his father-in-law; "I will
+spare no danger, if occasion serves.  I am sure that no creature shall
+lay injustice to my charge."
+
+Very soon it was discovered that the starving troops had to contend not
+only with the Queen's niggardliness but with the dishonesty of her
+agents.  Treasurer Norris was constantly accused by Leicester and Sidney
+of gross peculation.  Five per cent., according to Sir Philip, was lost
+to the Zeeland soldiers in every payment, "and God knows," he said, "they
+want no such hindrance, being scarce able to keep life with their entire
+pay.  Truly it is but poor increase to her Majesty, considering what loss
+it is to the miserable soldier."  Discipline and endurance were sure to
+be sacrificed, in the end, to such short-sighted economy.  "When
+soldiers," said Sidney, "grow to despair, and give up towns, then it is
+too late to buy with hundred thousands what might have been saved with a
+trifle."
+
+This plain dealing, on the part of Sidney, was anything but agreeable to
+the Queen, who was far from feeling regret that his high-soaring
+expectations had been somewhat blighted in the Provinces.  He often
+expressed his mortification that her Majesty was disposed to interpret
+everything to, his disadvantage.  "I understand," said he, "that I am
+called ambitious, and very proud at home, but certainly, if they knew my
+heart, they would not altogether so judge me."  Elizabeth had taken part
+with Hohenlo against Sir Philip in the matter of the Zeeland regiment,
+and in this perhaps she was not entirely to be blamed.  But she inveighed
+needlessly against his ambitious seeking of the office, and--as
+Walsingham observed--"she was very apt, upon every light occasion,
+to find fault with him."  It is probable that his complaints against the
+army treasurer, and his manful defence of the "miserable soldiers," more
+than counterbalanced, in the Queen's estimation, his chivalry in the
+field.
+
+Nevertheless he had now the satisfaction of having gained an important
+city in Flanders; and on subsequently joining the army under his uncle,
+he indulged the hope of earning still greater distinction.
+
+Martin Schenk had meanwhile been successfully defending Rheinberg, for
+several weeks, against Parma's forces.  It was necessary, however, that
+Leicester, notwithstanding the impoverished condition of his troops,
+should make some diversion, while his formidable antagonist was thus
+carrying all before him.
+
+He assembled, accordingly, in the month of August, all the troops that
+could be brought into the field, and reviewed them, with much ceremony,
+in the neighbourhood of Arnheim.  His army--barely numbered seven
+thousand foot and two thousand horse,  but he gave out, very extensively,
+that he had fourteen thousand under his command, and he was moreover
+expecting a force of three thousand reiters, and as many pikemen recently
+levied in Germany.  Lord Essex was general of the cavalry, Sir William
+Pelham--a distinguished soldier, who had recently arrived out of England,
+after the most urgent solicitations to the Queen, for that end, by
+Leicester--was lord-marshal of the camp, and Sir John Norris was colonel-
+general of the infantry.
+
+After the parade, two sermons were preached upon the hillside to
+the soldiers, and then there was a council of war: It was decided--
+notwithstanding the Earl's announcement of his intentions to attack Parma
+in person--that the condition of the army did not warrant such an
+enterprise.  It was thought better to lay siege to Zutphen.  This step,
+if successful, would place in the power of the republic and her ally a
+city of great importance and strength.  In every event the attempt would
+probably compel Farnese to raise the siege of Berg.
+
+Leicester, accordingly, with "his brave troop of able and likely men"
+--five thousand of the infantry being English--advanced as far as
+Doesburg.  This city, seated at the confluence of the ancient canal of
+Drusus and the Yssel, five miles above Zutphen, it was necessary, as a
+preliminary measure, to secure.  It was not a very strong place, being
+rather slightly walled with brick, and with a foss drawing not more than
+three feet of water.  By the 30th August it had been completely invested.
+
+On the same night, at ten o'clock, Sir William Pelham, came to the Earl
+to tell him "what beastly pioneers the Dutchmen were.  "Leicester
+accordingly determined, notwithstanding the lord-marshal's entreaties,
+to proceed to the trenches in person.  There being but faint light, the
+two lost their way, and soon found themselves nearly, at the gate of the
+town.  Here, while groping about in the dark; and trying to effect their
+retreat, they were saluted with a shot, which struck Sir William in the
+stomach.  For an instant; thinking himself mortally injured, he expressed
+his satisfaction that he had been, between the commander-in-chief and the
+blow, and made other "comfortable and resolute speeches."  Very
+fortunately, however, it proved that the marshal was not seriously hurt,
+and, after a few days, he was about his work as usual, although obliged--
+as the Earl of Leicester expressed it--"to carry a bullet in his belly as
+long as he should live."
+
+Roger Williams, too, that valiant adventurer--"but no, more valiant than
+wise, and worth his weight in gold," according to the appreciative
+Leicester--was shot through the arm.  For the dare-devil Welshman, much
+to the Earl's regret, persisted in running up and down the trenches "with
+a great plume of feathers in his gilt morion," and in otherwise making a
+very conspicuous mark of himself "within pointblank of a caliver."
+
+Notwithstanding these mishaps, however, the siege went successfully
+forward.  Upon the 2nd September the Earl began to batter, and after a
+brisk cannonade, from dawn till two in the afternoon, he had considerably
+damaged the wall in two places.  One of the breaches was eighty feet
+wide, the other half as large, but the besieged had stuffed them full of
+beds, tubs, logs of wood, boards, and "such like trash," by means whereof
+the ascent was not so easy as it seemed.  The soldiers were excessively
+eager for the assault.  Sir John Norris came to Leicester to receive his
+orders as to the command of the attacking party.
+
+The Earl referred the matter to him.  "There is no man," answered Sir
+John, "fitter for that purpose than myself; for I am colonel-general of
+the infantry."
+
+But Leicester, not willing to indulge so unreasonable a proposal,
+replied that he would reserve him for service of less hazard and greater
+importance.  Norris being, as usual, "satis prodigus magnae animae," was
+out of humour at the refusal, and ascribed it to the Earl's persistent
+hostility to him and his family.  It was then arranged that the assault
+upon the principal breach should be led by younger officers, to be
+supported by Sir John and other veterans.  The other breach was assigned
+to the Dutch and Scotch-black Norris scowling at them the while with
+jealous eyes; fearing that they might get the start of the English party,
+and be first to enter the town.  A party of noble volunteers clustered
+about Sir John-Lord Burgh, Sir Thomas Cecil, Sir Philip Sidney, and his
+brother Robert among the rest--most impatient for the signal.  The race
+was obviously to be a sharp one.  The governor-general forbade these
+violent demonstrations, but Lord Burgh, "in a most vehement passion,
+waived the countermand," and his insubordination was very generally
+imitated.  Before the signal was given, however, Leicester sent a trumpet
+to summon the town to surrender, and could with difficulty restrain his
+soldiers till the answer should be returned.  To the universal
+disappointment, the garrison agreed to surrender.  Norris himself then
+stepped forward to the breach, and cried aloud the terms, lest the
+returning herald, who had been sent back by Leicester, should offer too
+favourable a capitulation.  It was arranged that the soldiers should
+retire without arms, with white wands in their hands--the officers
+remaining prisoners--and that the burghers, their lives, and property,
+should be at Leicester's disposal.  The Earl gave most peremptory orders
+that persons and goods should be respected, but his commands were dis
+obeyed.  Sir William Stanley's men committed frightful disorders, and
+thoroughly, rifled the town."
+
+"And because," said Norris, "I found fault herewith, Sir William began to
+quarrel with me, hath braved me extremely, refuseth to take any direction
+from me, and although I have sought for redress, yet it is proceeded in
+so coldly, that he taketh encouragement rather to increase the quarrel
+than to leave it."
+
+Notwithstanding therefore the decree of Leicester, the expostulations and
+anger of Norris, and the energetic efforts of Lord Essex and other
+generals, who went about smiting the marauders on the head, the soldiers
+sacked the city, and committed various disorders, in spite of the
+capitulation.
+
+Doesburg having been thus reduced, the Earl now proceeded toward the more
+important city which he had determined to besiege.  Zutphen, or South-
+Fen, an antique town of wealth and elegance, was the capital of the old
+Landgraves of Zutphen.  It is situate on the right bank of the Yssel,
+that branch of the Rhine which flows between Gelderland and Overyssel
+into the Zuyder-Zee.
+
+The ancient river, broad, deep, and languid, glides through a plain of
+almost boundless extent, till it loses itself in the flat and misty
+horizon.  On the other side of the stream, in the district called the
+Veluwe, or bad meadow, were three sconces, one of them of remarkable
+strength.  An island between the city and the shore was likewise well
+fortified.  On the landward side the town was protected by a wall and
+moat sufficiently strong in those infant days of artillery.  Near the
+hospital-gate, on the east, was an external fortress guarding the road to
+Warnsfeld.  This was a small village, with a solitary slender church-
+spire, shooting up above a cluster of neat one-storied houses.  It was
+about an English mile from Zutphen, in the midst of a wide, low, somewhat
+fenny plain, which, in winter, became so completely a lake, that peasants
+were not unfrequently drowned in attempting to pass from the city to the
+village.  In summer, the vague expanse of country was fertile and
+cheerful of aspect.  Long rows of poplars marking the straight highways,
+clumps of pollard willows scattered around the little meres, snug farm-
+houses, with kitchen-gardens and brilliant flower-patches dotting the
+level plain, verdant pastures sweeping off into seemingly infinite
+distance, where the innumerable cattle seemed to swarm like insects,
+wind-mills swinging their arms in all directions, like protective giants,
+to save the country from inundation, the lagging sail of market-boats
+shining through rows of orchard trees--all gave to the environs of
+Zutphen a tranquil and domestic charm.
+
+Deventer and Kampen, the two other places on the river, were in the hands
+of the States.  It was, therefore, desirable for the English and the
+patriots, by gaining possession of Zutphen, to obtain control of the
+Yssel; driven, as they had been, from the Meuse and Rhine.
+
+Sir John Norris, by Leicester's direction, took possession of a
+small rising-ground, called 'Gibbet Dill' on the land-side; where he
+established a fortified camp, and proceeded to invest the city.  With him
+were Count Lewis William of Nassau, and Sir Philip Sidney, while the Earl
+himself, crossing the Yssel on a bridge of boats which he had
+constructed, reserved for himself the reduction of the forts upon the
+Veluwe side.
+
+Farnese, meantime, was not idle; and Leicester's calculations proved
+correct.  So soon as the Prince was informed of this important
+demonstration of the enemy he broke up--after brief debate with his
+officers--his camp before Rheinberg, and came to Wesel.  At this place
+he built a bridge over the Rhine, and fortified it with two block-houses.
+These he placed under command of Claude Berlot, who was ordered to watch
+strictly all communication up the river with the city of Rheinberg, which
+he thus kept in a partially beleaguered state.  Alexander then advanced
+rapidly by way of Groll and Burik, both which places he took possession
+of, to the neighbourhood of Zutphen.  He was determined, at every hazard,
+to relieve that important city; and although, after leaving necessary
+detachments on the, way; he had but five thousand men under his command,
+besides fifteen hundred under Verdugo--making sixty-five hundred in all
+--he had decided that the necessity of the case, and his own honour;
+required him to seek the enemy, and to leave, as he said, the issue with
+the God of battles, whose cause it was.
+
+Tassis, lieutenant-governor of Gelderland, was ordered into the city with
+two cornets of horse and six hundred foot.  As large a number, had
+already been stationed there.  Verdugo, who had been awaiting the arrival
+of the Prince at Borkelo, a dozen miles from Zutphen, with four hundred
+foot and two hundred horse, now likewise entered the city.
+
+On the night of 29th August Alexander himself entered Zutphen for
+the purpose of encouraging the garrison by promise of-relief, and of
+ascertaining the position of the enemy by personal observation.  His
+presence as it always did, inspired the soldiers with enthusiasm, so that
+they could with difficulty be restrained from rushing forth to assault
+the besiegers.  In regard to the enemy he found that Gibbet Hill was
+still occupied by Sir John Norris, "the best soldier, in his opinion,
+that they had," who had entrenched himself very strongly, and was
+supposed to have thirty-five hundred men under his command.  His position
+seemed quite impregnable.  The rest of the English were on the other side
+of the river, and Alexander observed, with satisfaction, that they had
+abandoned a small redoubt, near the leper-house, outside the Loor-Gate,
+through which the reinforcements must enter the city.  The Prince
+determined to profit by this mistake, and to seize the opportunity thus
+afforded of sending those much needed supplies.  During the night the
+enemy were found to be throwing up works "most furiously," and
+skirmishing parties were sent out of the town to annoy them.  In the
+darkness nothing of consequence was effected, but a Scotch officer was
+captured, who informed the Spanish commander that the enemy was fifteen
+thousand strong--a number which was nearly double that of Leicester's
+actual force.  In the morning Alexander returned to his camp at Borkelo
+--leaving Tassis in command of the Veluwe Forts, and Verdugo in the city
+itself--and he at once made rapid work in collecting victuals.  He had
+soon wheat and other supplies in readiness, sufficient to feed four
+thousand mouths for three months, and these he determined to send into
+the city immediately, and at every hazard.
+
+The great convoy which was now to be despatched required great care and a
+powerful escort.  Twenty-five hundred musketeers and pikemen, of whom one
+thousand were Spaniards, and six hundred cavalry, Epirotes; Spaniards,
+and Italians, under Hannibal Gonzaga, George Crescia, Bentivoglio, Sesa,
+and others, were accordingly detailed for this expedition.  The Marquis
+del Vasto, to whom was entrusted the chief command, was ordered to march
+from Borkelo at midnight on Wednesday, October 1 (St. Nov.) [N.S.].  It
+was calculated that he would reach a certain hillock not far from
+Warnsfeld by dawn of day.  Here he was to pause, and send forward an
+officer towards the town, communicating his arrival, and requesting the
+cooperation of Verdugo, who was to make a sortie with one thousand men,
+according to Alexander's previous arrangements.  The plan was
+successfully carried out.  The Marquis arrived by daybreak at the spot
+indicated, and despatched Captain de Vega who contrived to send
+intelligence of the fact.  A trooper, whom Parma had himself sent to
+Verdugo with earlier information of the movement, had been captured on
+the way.  Leicester had therefore been apprized, at an early moment, of
+the Prince's intentions, but he was not aware that the convoy would be
+accompanied by so strong a force as had really been detailed.
+
+He had accordingly ordered Sir John Norris, who commanded on the outside
+of the town near the road which the Spaniards must traverse, to place
+an ambuscade in his way.  Sir John, always ready for adventurous
+enterprises, took a body of two hundred cavalry, all picked men,
+and ordered Sir William Stanley, with three hundred pikemen, to follow.
+A much stronger force of infantry was held in reserve and readiness,
+but it was not thought that it would be required.  The ambuscade was
+successfully placed, before the dawn of Thursday morning, in the
+neighbourhood of Warnsfeld church.  On the other hand, the Earl of
+Leicester himself, anxious as to the result, came across the river just
+at daybreak.  He was accompanied by the chief gentlemen in his camp, who
+could never be restrained when blows were passing current.
+
+The business that morning was a commonplace and practical though an
+important, one--to "impeach" a convoy of wheat and barley, butter,
+cheese, and beef--but the names of those noble and knightly volunteers,
+familiar throughout Christendom, sound like the roll-call for some
+chivalrous tournament.  There were Essex and Audley, Stanley, Pelham,
+Russell, both the Sidneys, all the Norrises, men whose valour had been.
+proved on many a hard-fought battle-field.  There, too, was the famous
+hero of British ballad whose name was so often to ring on the plains of
+the Netherlands--
+
+                   "The brave Lord Willoughby,
+                    Of courage fierce and fell,
+                    Who would not give one inch of way
+                    For all the devils in hell."
+
+Twenty such volunteers as these sat on horseback that morning around the
+stately Earl of Leicester.  It seemed an incredible extravagance to send
+a handful of such heroes against an army.
+
+But the English commander-in-chief had been listening to the insidious
+tongue of Roland York--that bold, plausible, unscrupulous partisan,
+already twice a renegade, of whom more was ere long to be heard in the
+Netherlands and England.  Of the man's courage there could be no doubt,
+and he was about to fight that morning in the front rank at the head of
+his company.  But he had, for some mysterious reason, been bent upon
+persuading the Earl that the Spaniards were no match for Englishmen at a
+hand-to-hand contest.  When they could ride freely up and down, he said,
+and use their lances as they liked, they were formidable.  But the
+English were stronger men, better riders, better mounted, and better
+armed.  The Spaniards hated helmets and proof armour, while the English
+trooper, in casque, cuirass, and greaves, was a living fortress
+impregnable to Spanish or Italian light horsemen.  And Leicester seemed
+almost convinced by his reasoning.
+
+It was five o'clock of a chill autumn morning.  It was time for day to
+break, but the fog was so thick that a man at the distance of five yards
+was quite invisible.  The creaking of waggon-wheels and the measured
+tramp of soldiers soon became faintly audible however to Sir John Norris
+and his five hundred as they sat there in the mist.  Presently came
+galloping forward in hot haste those nobles and gentlemen, with their
+esquires, fifty men in all--Sidney, Willoughby, and the rest--whom
+Leicester had no longer been able to restrain from taking part in the
+adventure.
+
+A force of infantry, the amount of which cannot be satisfactorily
+ascertained, had been ordered by the Earl to cross the bridge at a later
+moment.  Sidney's cornet of horse was then in Deventer, to which place it
+had been sent in order to assist in quelling an anticipated revolt, so
+that he came, like most of his companions, as a private volunteer and
+knight-errant.
+
+The arrival of the expected convoy was soon more distinctly heard, but
+no scouts or outposts had been stationed to give timely notice, of the
+enemy's movements.  Suddenly the fog, which had shrouded the scene so
+closely, rolled away like a curtain, and in the full light of an October
+morning the Englishmen found themselves face to face with a compact body
+of more than three thousand men.  The Marquis del Vasto rode at the head
+of the forces surrounded by a band of mounted arquebus men.  The cavalry,
+under the famous Epirote chief George Crescia, Hannibal Gonzaga,
+Bentivoglio, Sesa, Conti, and other distinguished commanders, followed;
+the columns of pikemen and musketeers lined the, hedge-rows on both sides
+the causeway; while between them the long train of waggons came slowly
+along under their protection.  The whole force had got in motion after
+having sent notice of their arrival to Verdugo, who, with one or two
+thousand men, was expected to sally forth almost immediately from the
+city-gate.
+
+There was but brief time for deliberation.  Notwithstanding the
+tremendous odds there was no thought of retreat.  Black Norris called to
+Sir William Stanley, with whom he had been at variance so lately at
+Doesburg.
+
+"There hath been ill-blood between us," he said.  "Let us be friends
+together this day, and die side by side, if need be, in her Majesty's
+cause."
+
+"If you see me not serve my prince with faithful courage now," replied
+Stanley, "account, me for ever a coward.  Living or dying I will stand
+err lie by you in friendship."
+
+As they were speaking these words the young Earl of Essex, general of the
+horse, cried to his, handful of troopers:
+
+"Follow me, good fellows, for the honour of England and of England's
+Queen!"
+
+As he spoke he dashed, lance in rest, upon the enemy's cavalry,
+overthrew the foremost man, horse and rider, shivered his own spear to
+splinters, and then, swinging his cartel-axe, rode merrily forward.  His
+whole little troop, compact, as an arrow-head, flew with an irresistible
+shock against the opposing columns, pierced clean through them, and
+scattered them in all directions.  At the very first charge one hundred
+English horsemen drove the Spanish and Albanian cavalry back upon the
+musketeers and pikemen.  Wheeling with rapidity, they retired before a
+volley of musket-shot, by which many horses and a few riders were killed;
+and then formed again to renew the attack.  Sir Philip Sidney, an coming
+to the field, having met Sir William Pelham, the veteran lord marshal,
+lightly armed, had with chivalrous extravagance thrown off his own
+cuishes, and now rode to the battle with no armour but his cuirass.
+At the second charge his horse was shot under him, but, mounting another,
+he was seen everywhere, in the thick of the fight, behaving himself with
+a gallantry which extorted admiration even from the enemy.
+
+For the battle was a series of personal encounters in which high officers
+were doing the work of private, soldiers.  Lord North, who had been lying
+"bed-rid" with a musket-shot in the leg, had got himself put on
+horseback, and with "one boot on and one boot off," bore himself, "most
+lustily" through the whole affair.  "I desire that her Majesty may know;"
+he said, "that I live but to, serve her.  A better barony than I have
+could not hire the Lord North to live, on meaner terms."  Sir William
+Russell laid about him with his curtel-axe to such purpose that the
+Spaniards pronounced him a devil and not a man.  "Wherever," said an eye-
+witness, "he saw five or six of the enemy together; thither would he,
+and with his hard knocks soon separated their friendship."  Lord
+Willoughby encountered George Crescia, general of the famed Albanian
+cavalry, unhorsed him at the first shock, and rolled him into the ditch.
+"I yield me thy prisoner," called out the Epirote in French, "for thou
+art a 'preux chevalier;'" while Willoughby, trusting to his captive's
+word, galloped onward, and with him the rest of the little troop, till
+they seemed swallowed up by the superior numbers of the enemy.  His horse
+was shot under him, his basses were torn from his legs, and he was nearly
+taken a prisoner, but fought his way back with incredible strength and
+good fortune.  Sir William Stanley's horse had seven bullets in him, but
+bore his rider unhurt to the end of the battle.  Leicester declared Sir
+William and "old Reads" to be "worth their, weight in pearl."
+
+Hannibal Gonzaga, leader of the Spanish cavalry, fell mortally wounded
+a The Marquis del Vasto, commander of the expedition, nearly met the same
+fate.  An Englishman was just cleaving his head with a battle-axe, when a
+Spaniard transfixed the soldier with his pike.  The most obstinate
+struggle took place about the train of waggons.  The teamsters had fled
+in the beginning of the action, but the English and Spanish soldiers,
+struggling with the horses, and pulling them forward and backward, tried
+in vain to get exclusive possession of the convoy which was the cause of
+the action.  The carts at last forced their way slowly nearer and nearer
+to the town, while the combat still went on, warm as ever, between the
+hostile squadrons.  The action, lasted an hour and a half, and again and
+again the Spanish horsemen wavered and broke before the handful of
+English, and fell back upon their musketeers.  Sir Philip Sidney, in the
+last charge, rode quite through the enemy's ranks till he came upon their
+entrenchments, when a musket-ball from the camp struck him upon the
+thigh, three inches above the knee.  Although desperately wounded in a
+part which should have been protected by the cuishes which he had thrown
+aside, he was not inclined to leave the field; but his own horse had been
+shot under him at the-beginning of the action, and the one upon which he
+was now mounted became too restive for him, thus crippled, to control.
+He turned reluctantly away, and rode a mile and a half back to the
+entrenchments, suffering extreme pain, for his leg was dreadfully
+shattered.  As he past along the edge of the battle-field his attendants
+brought him a bottle of water to quench his raging thirst.  At, that
+moment a wounded English soldier, "who had eaten his last at the same
+feast," looked up wistfully, in his face, when Sidney instantly handed
+him the flask, exclaiming, "Thy necessity is even greater than mine."
+He then pledged his dying comrade in a draught, and was soon afterwards
+met by his uncle.  "Oh, Philip," cried Leicester, in despair, "I am truly
+grieved to see thee in this plight."  But Sidney comforted him with
+manful words, and assured him that death was sweet in the cause of his
+Queen and country.  Sir William Russell, too, all blood-stained from the
+fight, threw his arms around his friend, wept like a child, and kissing
+his hand, exclaimed, "Oh! noble Sir Philip, never did man attain hurt so
+honourably or serve so valiantly as you."  Sir William Pelham declared
+"that Sidney's noble courage in the face of our enemies had won him a
+name of continuing honour."
+
+The wounded gentleman was borne back to the camp, and thence in a barge
+to Arnheim.  The fight was over.  Sir John Norris bade Lord Leicester
+"be merry, for," said he, "you have had the honourablest day.  A handful
+of men has driven the enemy three times to retreat.  "But, in truth, it
+was now time for the English to retire in their turn.  Their reserve
+never arrived.  The whole force engaged against the thirty-five hundred
+Spaniards had never exceeded two hundred and fifty horse and three
+hundred foot, and of this number the chief work had beer done by the
+fifty or sixty volunteers and their followers.  The heroism which had
+been displayed was fruitless, except as a proof--and so Leicester wrote
+to the Palatine John Casimir--"that Spaniards were not invincible."  Two
+thousand men now sallied from the Loor Gate under Verdugo and Tassis,
+to join the force under Vasto, and the English were forced to retreat.
+The whole convoy was then carried into the city, and the Spaniards
+remained masters of the field.
+
+Thirteen troopers and twenty-two foot soldiers; upon the English side,
+were killed.  The enemy lost perhaps two hundred men.  They were thrice
+turned from their position, and thrice routed, but they succeeded at last
+in their attempt to carry their convoy into Zutphen.  Upon that day, and
+the succeeding ones, the town was completely victualled.  Very little,
+therefore, save honour, was gained by the display of English valour
+against overwhelming numbers; five hundred against, near, four thousand.
+Never in the whole course of the war had there been such fighting, for
+the troops upon both sides were picked men and veterans.  For a long time
+afterwards it was the custom of Spaniards and Netherlanders, in
+characterising a hardly-contested action, to call it as warm as the fight
+at Zutphen.
+
+"I think I may call it," said Leicester, "the most notable encounter that
+hath been in our age, and it will remain to our posterity famous."
+
+Nevertheless it is probable that the encounter would have been forgotten
+by posterity but for the melancholy close upon that field to Sidney's
+bright career.  And perhaps the Queen of England had as much reason to
+blush for the incompetency of her general and favourite as to be proud.
+of the heroism displayed by her officers and soldiers.
+
+"There were too many indeed at this skirmish of the better sort," said
+Leicester; "only a two hundred and fifty horse, and most of them the best
+of this camp, and unawares to me.  I was offended when I knew it, but
+could not fetch them back; but since they all so well escaped (save my
+dear nephew), I would not for ten thousand pounds but they had been
+there, since they have all won that honour they have.  Your Lordship
+never heard of such desperate charges as they gave upon the enemies in
+the face of their muskets."
+
+He described Sidney's wound as "very dangerous, the bone being broken in
+pieces;" but said that the surgeons were in good hope.  "I pray God to
+save his life," said the Earl, "and I care not how lame he be."  Sir
+Philip was carried to Arnheim, where the best surgeons were immediately
+in attendance upon him.  He submitted to their examination and the pain
+which they inflicted, with great cheerfulness, although himself persuaded
+that his wound was mortal.  For many days the result was doubtful, and
+messages were sent day by day to England that he was convalescent--
+intelligence which was hailed by the Queen and people as a matter not of
+private but of public rejoicing.  He soon began to fail, however.  Count
+Hohenlo was badly wounded a few days later before the great fort of
+Zutphen.  A musket-ball entered his mouth; and passed through his cheek,
+carrying off a jewel which hung in his ear.  Notwithstanding his own
+critical condition, however, Hohenlo sent his surgeon, Adrian van den
+Spiegel, a man of great skill, to wait upon Sir Philip, but Adrian soon
+felt that the case was hopeless.  Meantime fever and gangrene attacked
+the Count himself; and those in attendance upon him, fearing for his
+life, sent for his surgeon.  Leicester refused to allow Adrian to depart,
+and Hohenlo very generously acquiescing in the decree, but, also
+requiring the surgeon's personal care, caused himself to be transported
+in a litter to Arnheim.
+
+Sidney was first to recognise the symptoms of mortification, which made a
+fatal result inevitable.  His demeanour during his sickness and upon his
+death-bed was as beautiful as his life.  He discoursed with his friends
+concerning the immortality of the soul, comparing the doctrines of Plato
+and of other ancient philosophers, whose writings were so familiar to
+him, with the revelations of Scripture and with the dictates of natural
+religion.  He made his will with minute and elaborate provisions, leaving
+bequests, remembrances, and rings, to all his friends.  Then he indulged
+himself with music, and listened particularly to a strange song which he
+had himself composed during his illness, and which he had entitled 'La
+Cuisse rompue.'  He took leave of the friends around him with perfect
+calmness; saying to his brother Robert, "Love my memory.  Cherish my
+friends.  Above all, govern your will and affections by the will and word
+of your Creator; in me beholding the end of this world with all her
+vanities."
+
+And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight.
+
+Parma, after thoroughly victualling Zutphen, turned his attention to the
+German levies which Leicester was expecting under the care of Count
+Meurs.  "If the enemy is reinforced by these six thousand fresh troops,"
+said Alexander; "it will make him master of the field."  And well he
+might hold this opinion, for, in the meagre state of both the Spanish and
+the liberating armies, the addition of three thousand fresh reiters and
+as many infantry would be enough to turn the scale.  The Duke of Parma--
+for, since the recent death of his father, Farnese had succeeded to his
+title--determined in person to seek the German troops, and to destroy
+them if possible.  But they never gave him the chance.  Their muster-
+place was Bremen, but when they heard that the terrible 'Holofernese' was
+in pursuit of them, and that the commencement of their service would be a
+pitched battle with his Spaniards and Italians, they broke up and
+scattered about the country.  Soon afterwards the Duke tried another
+method of effectually dispersing them, in case they still retained a wish
+to fulfil their engagement with Leicester.  He sent a messenger to treat
+with them, and in consequence two of their rittmeisters; paid him a
+visit.  He offered to give them higher pay, and "ready money in place of
+tricks and promises."  The mercenary heroes listened very favourably to
+his proposals, although they had already received--besides the tricks and
+promises--at least one hundred thousand florins out of the States'
+treasury.
+
+After proceeding thus far in the negotiation, however, Parma concluded,
+as the season was so far advanced, that it was sufficient to have
+dispersed them, and to have deprived the English and patriots of their
+services.  So he gave the two majors a gold chain a-piece, and they went
+their way thoroughly satisfied.  "I have got them away from the enemy for
+this year," said Alexander; "and this I hold to be one of the best
+services that has been rendered for many a long day to your Majesty."
+
+During the period which intervened between the action at Warnsfeld and
+the death of Sidney, the siege-operations before Zutphen had been
+continued.  The city, strongly garrisoned and well supplied with
+provisions, as it had been by Parma's care, remained impregnable; but the
+sconces beyond the river and upon the island fell into Leicester's hands.
+The great fortress which commanded the Veluwe, and which was strong
+enough to have resisted Count Hohenlo on a former, occasion for nearly a
+whole year, was the scene of much hard fighting.  It was gained at last
+by the signal valour of Edward Stanley, lieutenant to Sir William.  That
+officer, at the commencement of an assault upon a not very practicable
+breach, sprang at the long pike of a Spanish soldier, who was endeavoring
+to thrust him from the wall, and seized it with both hands.  The Spaniard
+struggled to maintain his hold of the weapon, Stanley to wrest it from
+his grasp.  A dozen other soldiers broke their pikes upon his cuirass or
+shot at him with their muskets.  Conspicuous by his dress, being all in
+yellow but his corslet, he was in full sight of Leicester and of fire
+thousand men.  The earth was so shifty and sandy that the soldiers who
+were to follow him were not able to climb the wall.  Still Stanley
+grasped his adversary's pike, but, suddenly changing his plan, he allowed
+the Spaniard to lift him from the ground.  Then, assisting himself with
+his feet against the wall, he, much to the astonishment of the
+spectators, scrambled quite over the parapet, and dashed sword in hand
+among the defenders of the fort.  Had he been endowed with a hundred
+lives it seemed impossible for him to escape death.  But his followers,
+stimulated by his example, made ladders for themselves of each others'
+shoulders, clambered at last with great exertion over the broken wall,
+overpowered the garrison, and made themselves masters of the sconce.
+Leicester, transported with enthusiasm for this noble deed of daring,
+knighted Edward Stanley upon the spot, besides presenting him next day
+with forty pounds in gold and an annuity of one hundred marks, sterling
+for life.  "Since I was born, I did never see any man behave himself as
+he did," said the Earl.  "I shall never forget it, if I live a thousand
+year, and he shall have a part of my living for it as long as I live."
+
+The occupation of these forts terminated the military operations of the
+year, for the rainy season, precursor of the winter, had now set in.
+Leicester, leaving Sir William Stanley, with twelve hundred English and
+Irish horse, in command of Deventer; Sir John Burrowes, with one thousand
+men, in Doesburg; and Sir Robert Yorke, with one thousand more, in the
+great sconce before Zutphen; took his departure for the Hague.  Zutphen
+seemed so surrounded as to authorize the governor to expect ere long its
+capitulation.  Nevertheless, the results of the campaign had not been
+encouraging.  The States had lost ground, having been driven from the
+Meuse and Rhine, while they had with difficulty maintained themselves on
+the Flemish coast and upon the Yssel.
+
+It is now necessary to glance at the internal politics of the Republic
+during the period of Leicester's administration and to explain the
+position in which he found himself at the close of the year.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight
+Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils
+High officers were doing the work of private, soldiers
+I did never see any man behave himself as he did
+There is no man fitter for that purpose than myself
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v48
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History of the United Netherlands, Volume 49, 1586
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     Should Elizabeth accept the Sovereignty?--The Effects of her Anger--
+     Quarrels between the Earl and the Staten--The Earl's three
+     Counsellors--Leicester's Finance--Chamber--Discontent of the
+     Mercantile Classes--Paul Buys and the Opposition--Been Insight of
+     Paul Buys--Truchsess becomes a Spy upon him--Intrigues of Buys with
+     Denmark--His Imprisonment--The Earl's Unpopularity--His Quarrels
+     with the States--And with the Norrises--His Counsellors Wilkes and
+     Clerke--Letter from the Queen to Leicester--A Supper Party at
+     Hohenlo's--A drunken Quarrel--Hohenlo's Assault upon Edward Norris--
+     Ill Effects of the Riot.
+
+The brief period of sunshine had been swiftly followed by storms.  The
+Governor Absolute had, from the outset, been placed in a false position.
+Before he came to the Netherlands the Queen had refused the sovereignty.
+Perhaps it was wise in her to decline so magnificent an offer; yet
+certainly her acceptance would have been perfectly honourable.  The
+constituted authorities of the Provinces formally made the proposition.
+There is no doubt whatever that the whole population ardently desired to
+become her subjects.  So far as the Netherlands were concerned, then, she
+would have been fully justified in extending her sceptre over a free
+people, who, under no compulsion and without any, diplomatic chicane, had
+selected her for their hereditary chief.  So far as regarded England, the
+annexation to that country of a continental cluster of states, inhabited
+by a race closely allied to it by blood, religion, and the instinct for
+political freedom, seemed, on the whole, desirable.
+
+In a financial point of view, England would certainly lose nothing by the
+union.  The resources of the Provinces were at leant equal to her own.
+We have seen the astonishment which the wealth and strength of the
+Netherlands excited in their English visitors.  They were amazed by the
+evidences of commercial and manufacturing prosperity, by the spectacle of
+luxury and advanced culture, which met them on every side.  Had the
+Queen--as it had been generally supposed--desired to learn whether the
+Provinces were able and willing to pay the expenses of their own defence
+before she should definitely decide on, their offer of sovereignty, she
+was soon thoroughly enlightened upon the subject.  Her confidential
+agents all--held one language.  If she would only, accept the
+sovereignty, the amount which the Provinces would pay was in a manner
+boundless.  She was assured that the revenue of her own hereditary realm
+was much inferior to that of the possessions thus offered to her sway.
+
+In regard to constitutional polity, the condition of the Netherlands was
+at least, as satisfactory as that of England. The great amount of civil
+freedom enjoyed by those countries--although perhaps an objection--in the
+eyes of Elizabeth Tudor--should certainly have been a recommendation
+to her liberty-loving subjects.  The question of defence had been
+satisfactorily answered.  The Provinces, if an integral part of the
+English empire, could protect themselves, and would become an additional
+element of strength--not a troublesome encumbrance.
+
+The difference of language was far, less than that which already existed
+between the English and their Irish fellow-subjects, while it was
+counterbalanced by sympathy, instead of being aggravated by mutual
+hostility in the matter of religion.
+
+With regard to the great question of abstract sovereignty, it was
+certainly impolitic for an absolute monarch to recognize the right of a
+nation to repudiate its natural allegiance.  But Elizabeth had already
+countenanced that step by assisting the rebellion against Philip.  To
+allow the rebels to transfer their obedience from the King of Spain to
+herself was only another step in the same direction.  The Queen, should
+she annex the Provinces, would certainly be accused by the world of
+ambition; but the ambition was a noble one, if, by thus consenting to the
+urgent solicitations of a free people, she extended the region of civil
+and religious liberty, and raised up a permanent bulwark against
+sacerdotal and royal absolutism.
+
+A war between herself and Spain was inevitable if she accepted the
+sovereignty, but peace had been already rendered impossible by the treaty
+of alliance.  It is true that the Queen imagined the possibility of
+combining her engagements towards the States with a conciliatory attitude
+towards their ancient master, but it was here that she committed the
+gravest error.  The negotiations of Parma and his sovereign with the
+English court were a masterpiece of deceit on the part of Spain.  We have
+shown, by the secret correspondence, and we shall in the sequel make it
+still clearer, that Philip only intended to amuse his antagonists; that
+he had already prepared his plan for the conquest of England, down to the
+minutest details; that the idea of tolerating religious liberty had never
+entered his mind; and that his fixed purpose was not only thoroughly to
+chastise the Dutch rebels, but to deprive the heretic Queen who had
+fostered their rebellion both of throne and life.  So far as regarded the
+Spanish King, then, the quarrel between him and Elizabeth was already
+mortal; while in a religious, moral, political, and financial point of
+view, it would be difficult to show that it was wrong, or imprudent for
+England to accept the sovereignty over his ancient subjects.  The cause
+of human, freedom seemed likely to gain by the step, for the States did
+not consider themselves strong enough to maintain the independent
+republic which had already risen.
+
+It might be a question whether, on the whole, Elizabeth made a mistake in
+declining the sovereignty.  She was certainly wrong, however, in wishing
+the lieutenant-general of her six thousand auxiliary troops to be
+clothed, as such, with vice-regal powers.  The States-General, in a
+moment of enthusiasm, appointed him governor absolute, and placed in his
+hands, not only the command of the forces, but the entire control of
+their revenues, imposts, and customs, together with the appointment of
+civil and military officers.  Such an amount of power could only be
+delegated by the sovereign.  Elizabeth had refused the sovereignty: it
+then rested with the States.  They only, therefore, were competent to
+confer the power which Elizabeth wished her favourite to exercise simply
+as her lieutenant-general.
+
+Her wrathful and vituperative language damaged her cause and that of the
+Netherlands more severely than can now be accurately estimated.  The Earl
+was placed at once in a false, a humiliating, almost a ridiculous
+position.  The authority which the States had thus a second time offered
+to England was a second time and most scornfully thrust back upon them.
+Elizabeth was indignant that "her own man" should clothe himself in the
+supreme attributes which she had refused.  The States were forced by the
+violence of the Queen to take the authority into their own hands again,
+and Leicester was looked upon as a disgraced man.
+
+Then came the neglect with which the Earl was treated by her Majesty and
+her ill-timed parsimony towards the cause.  No letters to him in four
+months, no remittances for the English troops, not a penny of salary for
+him.  The whole expense of the war was thrown for the time upon their
+hands, and the English soldiers seemed only a few thousand starving,
+naked, dying vagrants, an incumbrance instead of an aid.
+
+The States, in their turn, drew the purse-strings.  The two hundred
+thousand florins monthly were paid.  The four hundred thousand florins
+which had been voted as an additional supply were for a time held back,
+as Leicester expressly stated, because of the discredit which had been
+thrown upon him from home.
+
+     [Strangely enough, Elizabeth was under the impression that the extra
+     grant of 400,000 florins (L40,000) for four months was four hundred
+     thousand pounds sterling.  "The rest that was granted by the States,
+     as extraordinary to levy an army, which was 400,000 florins, not
+     pounds, as I hear your Majesty taketh it.  It is forty thousand
+     pounds, and to be paid In March, April, May, and June last," &c.
+     Leicester to the Queen, l1 Oct.  1586.  (S. P.  Office MS.)]
+
+The military operations were crippled for want of funds, but more fatal
+than everything else were the secret negotiations for peace.  Subordinate
+individuals, like Grafigni and De Loo, went up and down, bringing
+presents out of England for Alexander Farnese, and bragging that Parma
+and themselves could have peace whenever they liked to make it, and
+affirming that Leicester's opinions were of no account whatever.
+Elizabeth's coldness to the Earl and to the Netherlands was affirmed to
+be the Prince of Parma's sheet-anchor; while meantime a house was
+ostentatiously prepared in Brussels by their direction for the reception
+of an English ambassador, who was every moment expected to arrive.  Under
+such circumstances it was in, vain for the governor-general to protest
+that the accounts of secret negotiations were false, and quite natural
+that the States should lose their confidence in the Queen.  An unfriendly
+and suspicious attitude towards her representative was a necessary
+result, and the demonstrations against the common enemy became still more
+languid.  But for these underhand dealings, Grave, Venlo, and Neusz,
+might have been saved, and the current 'of the Meuse and Rhine have
+remained in the hands of the patriots.
+
+The Earl was industrious, generous, and desirous of playing well his
+part.  His personal courage was undoubted, and, in the opinion of his
+admirers--themselves, some of them, men of large military experience--his
+ability as a commander was of a high order.  The valour displayed by the
+English nobles and gentlemen who accompanied him was magnificent, worthy
+the descendants of the victors at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt; and the
+good behaviour of their followers--with a few rare exceptions--had been
+equally signal.  But now the army was dwindling to a ghastly array of
+scarecrows, and the recruits, as they came from England, were appalled by
+the spectacle presented by their predecessors.  "Our old ragged rogues
+here have so discouraged our new men," said Leicester; "as I protest to
+you they look like dead men."  Out of eleven hundred freshly-arrived
+Englishmen, five hundred ran away in two days.  Some were caught and
+hanged, and all seemed to prefer hanging to remaining in the service,
+while the Earl declared that he would be hanged as well rather than again
+undertake such a charge without being assured payment for his troops
+beforehand!
+
+The valour of Sidney and Essex, Willoughby and Pelham, Roger Williams
+and Martin Schenk, was set at nought by such untoward circumstances.
+Had not Philip also left his army to starve and Alexander Farnese to
+work miracles, it would have fared still worse with Holland and England,
+and with the cause of civil and religious liberty in the year 1586.
+
+The States having resumed, as much as possible; their former authority,
+were on very unsatisfactory terms with the governor-general.  Before
+long, it was impossible for the, twenty or thirty individuals called the
+States to be in the same town with the man whom, at the commencement of
+the, year, they had greeted so warmly.  The hatred between the Leicester
+faction and the municipalities became intense, for the foundation of the
+two great parties which were long to divide the Netherland commonwealth
+was already laid.  The mercantile patrician interest, embodied in the
+states of Holland and Zeeland and inclined to a large toleration in the
+matter of religion, which afterwards took the form of Arminianism, was
+opposed by a strict Calvinist party, which desired to subject the
+political commonwealth to the reformed church; which nevertheless
+indulged in very democratic views of the social compact; and which was
+controlled by a few refugees from Flanders and Brabant, who had succeeded
+in obtaining the confidence of Leicester.
+
+Thus the Earl was the nominal head of the Calvinist democratic party;
+while young Maurice of Nassau; stadholder of Holland and Zeeland, and
+guided by Barneveld, Buys, and other leading statesmen of these
+Provinces; was in an attitude precisely the reverse of the one which he
+was destined at a later and equally memorable epoch to assume.  The
+chiefs of the faction which had now succeeded in gaining the confidence
+of Leicester were Reingault, Burgrave, and Deventer, all refugees.
+
+The laws of Holland and of the other United States were very strict on
+the subject of citizenship, and no one but a native was competent to hold
+office in each Province.  Doubtless, such regulations were narrow-
+spirited; but to fly in the face of them was the act of a despot, and
+this is what Leicester did.  Reingault was a Fleming.  He was a bankrupt
+merchant, who had been taken into the protection of Lamoral Egmont, and
+by that nobleman recommended to Granvelle for an office under the
+Cardinal's government.  The refusal of this favour was one of the
+original causes of Egmont's hostility to Granvelle.  Reingault
+subsequently entered the service of the Cardinal, however, and rewarded
+the kindness of his former benefactor by great exertions in finding, or
+inventing, evidence to justify the execution of that unfortunate
+nobleman.  He was afterwards much employed by the Duke of Alva and by the
+Grand Commander Requesens; but after the pacification of Ghent he had
+been completely thrown out of service.  He had recently, in a subordinate
+capacity, accompanied the legations of the States to France and to
+England, and had now contrived to ingratiate himself with the Earl of
+Leicester.  He affected great zeal for the Calvinistic religion--an
+exhibition which, in the old servant of Granvelle and Alva, was far from
+edifying--and would employ no man or maid-servant in his household until
+their religious principles had been thoroughly examined by one or two
+clergymen.  In brief, he was one of those, who, according to a homely
+Flemish proverb, are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope; but, with
+the exception of this brief interlude in his career, he lived and died a
+Papist.
+
+Gerard Proninck, called Deventer, was a respectable inhabitant of Bois-
+le-Duc, who had left that city after it had again become subject to the
+authority of Spain.  He was of decent life and conversation, but a
+restless and ambitious demagogue.  As a Brabantine, he was unfit for
+office; and yet, through Leicester's influence and the intrigues of the
+democratic party, he obtained the appointment of burgomaster in the city
+of Utrecht.  The States-General, however, always refused to allow him to
+appear at their sessions as representative of that city.
+
+Daniel de Burgrave was a Flemish mechanic, who, by the exertion of much
+energy and talent, had risen to the poet of procureur-general of
+Flanders.  After the conquest of the principal portion of that Province
+by Parma, he had made himself useful to the English governor-general in
+various ways, and particularly as a linguist.  He spoke English--a tongue
+with which few Netherlanders of that day were familiar--and as the Earl
+knew no other, except (very imperfectly) Italian, he found his services
+in speaking and writing a variety of languages very convenient.  He was
+the governor's private secretary, and, of course, had no entrance to the
+council of state, but he was accused of frequently thrusting himself into
+their hall of sessions, where, under pretence of arranging the Earl's
+table, or portfolio, or papers, he was much addicted to whispering into
+his master's ear, listening to conversation,--to eaves-dropping; in
+short, and general intrusiveness.
+
+"A most faithful, honest servant is Burgrave," said Leicester; "a
+substantial, wise man.  'Tis as sufficient a man as ever I met withal of
+any nation; very well learned, exceeding wise, and sincere in religion.
+I cannot commend the man too much.  He is the only comfort I have had of
+any of this nation."
+
+These three personages were the leaders of the Leicester faction.  They
+had much, influence with all the refugees from Flanders, Brabant, and the
+Walloon Provinces.  In Utrecht, especially, where the Earl mainly
+resided, their intrigues were very successful.  Deventer was appointed,
+as already stated, to the important post of burgomaster; many, of the
+influential citizens were banished, without cause or, trial; the upper
+branch of the municipal government, consisting of the clerical delegates
+of the colleges, was in an arbitrary manner abolished; and, finally, the
+absolute sovereignty of, the Province, without condition, was offered to
+the Queen, of England.
+
+Leicester was now determined to carry out one of the great objects which
+the Queen had in view when she sent him to the Netherlands.  She desired
+thoroughly to ascertain the financial resources of the Provinces, and
+their capacity to defend themselves.  It was supposed by the States, and
+hoped by the Earl and by a majority of the Netherland people, that she
+would, in case the results were satisfactory, accept, after all, the
+sovereignty.  She certainly was not to be blamed that she wished to make
+this most important investigation, but it was her own fault that any new
+machinery had been rendered necessary.  The whole control of the finances
+had, in the beginning of the year, been placed in the Earl's hands, and
+it was only by her violently depriving him of his credit and of the
+confidence of the country that he had not retained it.  He now
+established a finance-chamber, under the chief control of Reingault, who
+promised him mountains of money, and who was to be chief treasurer.  Paul
+Buys was appointed by Leicester to fill a subordinate position in the new
+council.  He spurned the offer with great indignation, saying that
+Reingault was not fit to be his clerk, and that he was not likely
+himself, therefore, to accept a humble post under the administration of
+such an individual.  This scornful refusal filled to the full the hatred
+of Leicester against the ex-Advocate of Holland.
+
+The mercantile interest at once took the alarm, because it was supposed
+that the finance-chamber, was intended to crush the merchants.  Early in
+April an Act had been passed by the state-council, prohibiting commerce
+with the Spanish possessions.  The embargo was intended to injure the
+obedient Provinces and their sovereign, but it was shown that its effect
+would be to blast the commerce of Holland.  It forbade the exportation
+from the republic not only of all provisions and munitions of war, but of
+all goods and merchandize whatever, to Spain, Portugal, the Spanish
+Netherlands, or any other of Philip's territories, either in Dutch or
+neutral vessel.  It would certainly seem, at first sight, that such an
+act was reasonable, although the result would really be, not to deprive
+the enemy of supplies, but to throw the whole Baltic trade into the hands
+of the Bremen, Hamburg, and "Osterling" merchants.  Leicester expected to
+derive a considerable revenue by granting passports and licenses to such
+neutral traders, but the edict became so unpopular that it was never
+thoroughly enforced, and was before long rescinded.
+
+The odium of the measure was thrown upon the governor-general, yet he had
+in truth opposed it in the state-council, and was influential in
+procuring its repeal.
+
+Another important Act had been directed against the mercantile interest,
+and excited much general discontent.  The Netherlands wished the staple
+of the English cloth manufacture to be removed from Emden--the petty,
+sovereign of which place was the humble servant of Spain--to Amsterdam or
+Delft.  The desire was certainly, natural, and the Dutch merchants sent a
+committee to confer with Leicester.  He was much impressed with their
+views, and with the sagacity of their chairman, one Mylward, "a wise
+fellow and well languaged, an ancient man and very, religious," as the
+Earl pronounced him to be.
+
+Notwithstanding the wisdom however, of this well-languaged fellow,
+the Queen, for some strange reason, could not be induced to change the
+staple from Emden, although it was shown that the public revenue of the
+Netherlands would gain twenty thousand pounds a year by the measure.
+"All Holland will cry out for it," said Leicester; "but I had rather they
+cried than that England should weep."
+
+Thus the mercantile community, and especially the patrician families of
+Holland and Zeeland, all engaged in trade, became more and more hostile
+to the governor-general and to his financial trio, who were soon almost
+as unpopular as the famous Consults of Cardinal Granvelle had been.  It
+was the custom of the States to consider the men who surrounded the Earl
+as needy and unprincipled renegades and adventurers.  It was the policy
+of his advisers to represent the merchants and the States--which mainly
+consisted of, or were controlled by merchants--as a body of corrupt,
+selfish, greedy money-getters.
+
+The calumnies put in circulation against the States by Reingault and his
+associates grew at last so outrageous, and the prejudice created in the
+mind of Leicester and his immediate English adherents so intense, that it
+was rendered necessary for the States, of Holland and Zeeland to write to
+their agent Ortell in London, that he might forestall the effect of these
+perpetual misrepresentations on her Majesty's government.  Leicester, on
+the other hand, under the inspiration; of his artful advisers, was
+vehement in his entreaties that Ortell should be sent away from England.
+
+The ablest and busiest of the opposition-party, the "nimblest head" in
+the States-General was the ex-Advocate of Holland; Paul Buys.  This man
+was then the foremost statesman in, the Netherlands.  He had been the
+firmest friend to the English alliance; he had resigned his office when
+the States were-offering the sovereignty to France, and had been on the
+point of taking service in Denmark.  He had afterwards been prominent in
+the legation which offered the sovereignty to Elizabeth, and, for a long
+time, had been the most firm, earnest, and eloquent advocate of the
+English policy.  Leicester had originally courted him, caressed him,
+especially recommended him to the Queen's favour, given him money--as he
+said, "two hundred pounds sterling thick at a time"--and openly
+pronounced him to be "in ability above all men."  "No man hath ever
+sought a man," he said, "as I have sought P. B."
+
+The period of their friendship was, however, very brief.  Before many
+weeks had passed there was no vituperative epithet that Leicester was not
+in the daily habit of bestowing upon Paul.  The Earl's vocabulary of
+abuse was not a limited one, but he exhausted it on the head of the
+Advocate.  He lacked at last words and breath to utter what was like him.
+He pronounced his former friend "a very dangerous man, altogether hated
+of the people and the States;"--"a lewd sinner, nursled in revolutions;
+a most covetous, bribing fellow, caring for nothing but to bear the sway
+and grow rich;"--"a man who had played many parts, both lewd and
+audacious;"--"a very knave, a traitor to his country;"--"the most
+ungrateful wretch alive, a hater of the Queen and of all the English;
+a most unthankful man to her Majesty; a practiser to make himself rich
+and great, and nobody else;"--"among all villains the greatest;"--
+"a bolsterer of all papists and ill men, a dissembler, a devil, an
+atheist," a "most naughty man, and a most notorious drunkard in the worst
+degree."
+
+Where the Earl hated, his hatred was apt to be deadly, and he was
+determined, if possible, to have the life of the detested Paul.  "You
+shall see I will do well enough with him, and that shortly," he said.
+"I will course him as he was not so this twenty year.  I will warrant him
+hanged and one or two of his fellows, but you must not tell your shirt of
+this yet;" and when he was congratulating the government on his having at
+length procured the execution of Captain Hemart, the surrenderer of
+Grave, he added, pithily, "and you shall hear that Mr. P. B. shall
+follow."
+
+Yet the Earl's real griefs against Buys may be easily summed up.  The
+lewd sinner, nursled in revolutions, had detected the secret policy of
+the Queen's government, and was therefore perpetually denouncing the
+intrigues going on with Spain.  He complained that her Majesty was tired
+of having engaged in the Netherland enterprise; he declared that she
+would be glad to get fairly out of it; that her reluctance to spend a
+farthing more in the cause than she was obliged to do was hourly
+increasing upon her; that she was deceiving and misleading the States-
+General; and that she was hankering after a peace.  He said that the Earl
+had a secret intention to possess himself of certain towns in Holland,
+in which case the whole question of peace and war would be in the hands
+of the Queen, who would also have it thus in her power to reimburse
+herself at once for all expenses that she had incurred.
+
+It would be difficult to show that there was anything very calumnious in
+these charges, which, no doubt, Paul was in the habit of making.  As to
+the economical tendencies of her Majesty, sufficient evidence has been
+given already from Leicester's private letters.  "Rather than spend one
+hundred pounds," said Walsingham, "she can be content to be deceived of
+five thousand."  That she had been concealing from the Staten, from
+Walsingham, from Leicester, during the whole summer, her secret
+negotiations with Spain, has also been made apparent.  That she was
+disgusted with the enterprise in which she had embarked, Walsingham,
+Burghley, Hatton, and all the other statesmen of England, most abundantly
+testified.  Whether Leicester had really an intention to possess himself
+of certain cities in Holland--a charge made by Paul Buys, and denounced
+as especially slanderous by the Earl--may better appear from his own
+private statements.
+
+"This I will do," he wrote to the Queen, "and I hope not to fail of it,
+to get into my hands three or four most principal places in North
+Holland; which will be such a strength and assurance for your Majesty,
+as you shall see you shall both rule these men and make war or peace as
+you list, always provided--whatsoever you hear, or is--part not with the
+Brill; and having these places in your hands, whatsoever should chance to
+these countries, your Majesty, I will warrant sure enough to make what
+peace you will in an hour, and to have your debts and charges readily
+answered."  At a somewhat later moment it will be seen what came of these
+secret designs.  For the present, Leicester was very angry with Paul for
+daring to suspect him of such treachery.
+
+The Earl complained, too, that the influence of Buys with Hohenlo and
+young Maurice of Nassau was most pernicious.  Hohenlo had formerly stood
+high in Leicester's opinion.  He was a "plain, faithful soldier, a most
+valiant gentleman," and he was still more important, because about to
+marry Mary of Nassau; eldest slaughter, of William the Silent, and
+coheiress with Philip William, to the Buren property.  But he had been
+tampered with by the intriguing Paul Buys, and had then wished to resign
+his office under Leicester.  Being pressed for reasons, he had "grown
+solemn," and withdrawn himself almost entirely.
+
+Maurice; with his "solemn, sly wit," also gave the Earl much trouble,
+saying little; but thinking much, and listening to the insidious Paul.
+He "stood much on making or marring," so Leicester thought, "as he met
+with good counsel."  He had formerly been on intimate terms with the
+governor-general, who affected to call him his son; but he had
+subsequently kept aloof, and in three months had not come near him.
+The Earl thought that money might do much, and was anxious for Sir
+Francis Drake to come home from the Indies with millions of gold, that
+the Queen might make both Hohenlo and Maurice a handsome present before
+it should be too late.
+
+Meantime he did what he could with Elector Truchsess to lure them back
+again.  That forlorn little prelate was now poorer and more wretched than
+ever.  He was becoming paralytic, though young, and his heart was broken
+through want.  Leicester, always generous as the sun, gave him money,
+four thousand florins at a time, and was most earnest that the Queen
+should put him on her pension list.  "His wisdom, his behaviour, his
+languages, his person," said the Earl, "all would like her well.  He is
+in great melancholy for his town of Neusz, and for his poverty, having a
+very noble mind.  If, he be lost, her Majesty had better lose a hundred
+thousand pounds."
+
+The melancholy Truchsess now became a spy and a go-between.  He
+insinuated himself into the confidence of Paul Buys, wormed his secrets
+from him, and then communicated them to Hohenlo and to Leicester; "but he
+did it very wisely," said the Earl, "so that he was not mistrusted."  The
+governor always affected, in order to screen the elector from suspicion,
+to obtain his information from persons in Utrecht; and he had indeed many
+spies in that city; who diligently reported Paul's table-talk.
+Nevertheless, that "noble gentleman, the elector," said Leicester, "hath
+dealt most deeply with him, to seek out the bottom."  As the ex-Advocate
+of Holland was very communicative in his cups, and very bitter against
+the governor-general, there was soon such a fund of information collected
+on the subject by various eaves-droppers, that Leicester was in hopes of
+very soon hanging Mr. Paul Buys, as we have already seen.
+
+The burthen of the charges against the culprit was his statement that
+the Provinces would be gone if her Majesty did not declare herself,
+vigorously and generously, in their favour; but, as this was the
+perpetual cry of Leicester himself, there seemed hardly hanging matter in
+that.  That noble gentleman, the elector, however, had nearly saved the
+hangman his trouble, having so dealt with Hohenlo as to "bring him into
+as good a mind as ever he was;" and the first fruits of this good mind
+were, that the honest Count--a man of prompt dealings--walked straight to
+Paul's house in order to kill him on the spot.  Something fortunately
+prevented the execution of this plan; but for a time at least the
+energetic Count continued to be "governed greatly" by the ex-archbishop,
+and "did impart wholly unto him his most secret heart."
+
+Thus the "deep wise Truxy," as Leicester called him, continued to earn
+golden opinions, and followed up his conversion of Hohenlo by undertaking
+to "bring Maurice into tune again also," and the young Prince was soon on
+better terms with his "affectionate father" than he had ever been before.
+Paul Buys was not so easily put down, however, nor the two magnates so
+thoroughly gained over.  Before the end of the season Maurice stood in
+his old position, the nominal head of the Holland or patrician party,
+chief of the opposition to Leicester, while Hohenlo had become more
+bitter than ever against the Earl.  The quarrel between himself and
+Edward Norris, to which allusion will soon be made, tended to increase
+the dissatisfaction, although he singularly misunderstood Leicester's
+sentiments throughout the whole affair.  Hohenlo recovered of his wound
+before Zutphen; but, on his recovery, was more malcontent than ever.  The
+Earl was obliged at last to confess that "he was a very dangerous man,
+inconstant, envious; and hateful to all our nation, and a very traitor to
+the cause.  There is no dealing to win him," he added, "I have sought it
+to my cost.  His best friends tell me he is not to be trusted."
+
+Meantime that lewd sinner, the indefatigable Paul, was plotting
+desperately--so Leicester said and believed--to transfer the sovereignty
+of the Provinces to the King of Denmark.  Buys, who was privately of
+opinion that the States required an absolute head, "though it were but an
+onion's head," and that they would thankfully continue under Leicester as
+governor absolute if Elizabeth would accept the sovereignty, had made up
+his mind that the Queen would never take that step.  He was therefore
+disposed to offer the crown to the King of Denmark, and was believed to
+have brought Maurice--who was to espouse that King's daughter--to the
+same way of thinking.  Young Count Rantzan, son of a distinguished Danish
+statesman, made a visit to the Netherlands in order to confer with Buys.
+Paul was also anxious to be appointed envoy to Denmark, ostensibly to
+arrange for the two thousand cavalry, which the King had long before
+promised for the assistance of the Provinces, but in reality, to examine
+the details of this new project; and Leicester represented to the Queen
+very earnestly how powerful the Danish monarch would become, thus
+rendered master of the narrow seas, and how formidable to England.
+
+In the midst of these plottings, real or supposed, a party of armed men,
+one fine summer's morning, suddenly entered Paul's bedroom as he lay
+asleep at the house of the burgomaster, seized his papers, and threw him:
+into prison in the wine-cellar of the town-house.  "Oh my papers, oh my
+papers!"  cried the unfortunate politician, according to Leicester's
+statement, "the Queen of England will for ever hate me."  The Earl
+disavowed all, participation in the arrest; but he was not believed.  He
+declared himself not sorry that the measure had been taken, and promised
+that he would not "be hasty to release him," not doubting that "he would
+be found faulty enough."  Leicester maintained that there was stuff
+enough discovered to cost Paul his head; but he never lost his head,
+nor was anything treasonable or criminal ever found against him.  The
+intrigue with Denmark--never proved--and commenced, if undertaken at all,
+in utter despair of Elizabeth's accepting the sovereignty, was the
+gravest charge.  He remained, however, six months in prison, and at the
+beginning of 1587 was released, without trial or accusation, at the
+request of the English Queen.
+
+The States could hardly be blamed for their opposition to the Earl's
+administration, for he had thrown himself completely into the arms of a
+faction, whose object was to vilipend and traduce them, and it was now
+difficult for him to recover the functions of which the Queen had
+deprived him.  "The government they had given from themselves to me stuck
+in their stomachs always," he said.  Thus on the one side, the States
+were," growing more stately than ever," and were-always "jumbling
+underhand," while the aristocratic Earl, on, his part, was resolute not
+to be put down by "churls and tinkers."  He was sure that the people were
+with him, and that, "having always been governed by some prince, they,
+never did nor could consent to be ruled by bakers, brewers, and hired
+advocates.  I know they hate them," said this high-born tribune of the
+people.  He was much disgusted with the many-headed chimaera, the
+monstrous republic, with which he found himself in such unceasing
+conflict, and was disposed to take a manful stand.  "I have been fain of
+late," he said, "to set the better leg foremost, to handle some of my
+masters somewhat plainly; for they thought I would droop; and whatsoever
+becomes of me, you shall hear I will keep my reputation, or die for it."
+
+But one great accusation, made against the churls and tinkers, and bakers
+and hired advocates, and Mr. Paul Buys at their head, was that they were
+liberal towards the Papists.  They were willing that Catholics should
+remain in the country and exercise the rights of citizens, provided they,
+conducted themselves like good citizens.  For this toleration--a lesson
+which statesmen like Buys and Barneveld had learned in the school of
+William the Silent--the opposition-party were denounced as bolsterers of
+Papists, and Papists themselves at heart, and "worshippers of idolatrous
+idols."
+
+From words, too, the government of Leicester passed to acts.  Seventy
+papists were banished from the city of Utrecht at the time of the arrest
+of Buys.  The Queen had constantly enforced upon Leicester the importance
+of dealing justly with the Catholics in the Netherlands, on the ground
+that they might be as good patriots and were as much interested in the
+welfare of their country as were the Protestants; and he was especially
+enjoined "not to meddle in matters of religion."  This wholesome advice
+it would have been quite impossible for the Earl, under the guidance of
+Reingault, Burgrave, and Stephen Perret, to carry out.  He protested that
+he should have liked to treat Papists and Calvinists "with indifference,"
+but that it had proved impossible; that the Catholics were perpetually
+plotting with the Spanish faction, and that no towns were safe except
+those in which Papists had been excluded from office.  "They love the
+Pope above all," he said, "and the Prince of Parma hath continual
+intelligence with them."  Nor was it Catholics alone who gave the
+governor trouble.  He was likewise very busy in putting down other
+denominations that differed from the Calvinists.  "Your Majesty will not
+believe," he said, "the number of sects that are in most towns;
+especially Anabaptists, Families of Love, Georgians; and I know not what.
+The godly and good ministers were molested by them in many places, and
+ready to give over; and even such diversities grew among magistrates in
+towns, being caused by some sedition-sowers here."  It is however,
+satisfactory to reflect that the anabaptists and families of love,
+although discouraged and frowned upon, were not burned alive, buried
+alive, drowned in dungeons, and roasted at slow fires, as had been the
+case with them and with every other species of Protestants, by thousands
+and tens of thousands, so long as Charles V. and Philip II. had ruled the
+territory of that commonwealth.  Humanity had acquired something by the
+war which the Netherlanders had been waging for twenty years, and no man
+or woman was ever put to death for religious causes after the
+establishment of the republic.
+
+With his hands thus full of business, it was difficult for the Earl to
+obey the Queen's command not to meddle in religious matters; for he was
+not of the stature of William the Silent, and could not comprehend that
+the great lesson taught by the sixteenth century was that men were not to
+meddle with men in matters of religion.
+
+But besides his especial nightmare--Mr. Paul Buys--the governor-general
+had a whole set of incubi in the Norris family.  Probably no two persons
+ever detested each other more cordially than did Leicester and Sir John
+Norris.  Sir John had been commander of the forces in the Netherlands
+before Leicester's arrival, and was unquestionably a man of larger
+experience than the Earl.  He had, however, as Walsingham complained,
+acquired by his services in "countries where neither discipline military
+nor religion carried any sway," a very rude and licentious kind of
+government.  "Would to God," said the secretary, "that, with his value
+and courage, he carried the mind and reputation of a religious soldier."
+But that was past praying for.  Sir John was proud, untractable,
+turbulent, very difficult to manage.  He hated Leicester, and was furious
+with Sir William Pelham, whom Leicester had made marshal of the camp.  He
+complained, not unjustly, that from the first place in the army, which he
+had occupied in the Netherlands, he had been reduced to the fifth.  The
+governor-general--who chose to call Sir John the son of his ancient
+enemy, the Earl of Sussex--often denounced him in good set terms.  "His
+brother Edward is as ill as he," he said, "but John is right the late
+Earl of Sussex' son; he will so dissemble and crouch, and so cunningly
+carry his doings, as no man living would imagine that there were half
+the malice or vindictive mind that plainly his words prove to be."
+Leicester accused him of constant insubordination, insolence, and malice,
+complained of being traduced by him everywhere in the Netherlands and in
+England, and declared that he was followed about by "a pack of lewd
+audacious fellows," whom the Earl vowed he would hang, one and all,
+before he had done with them.  He swore openly, in presence of all his
+camp, that he would hang Sir John likewise; so that both the brothers,
+who had never been afraid of anything since they had been born into the
+world, affected to be in danger of their lives.
+
+The Norrises were on bad terms with many officers--with Sir William
+Pelham of course, with "old Reade," Lord North, Roger Williams, Hohenlo,
+Essex, and other nobles--but with Sir Philip Sidney, the gentle and
+chivalrous, they were friends.  Sir John had quarrelled in former times--
+according to Leicester--with Hohenlo and even with the "good and brave"
+La None, of the iron arm; "for his pride," said the Earl, "was the spirit
+of the devil."  The governor complained every day of his malignity, and
+vowed that he "neither regarded the cause of God, nor of his prince, nor
+country."
+
+He consorted chiefly with Sir Thomas Cecil, governor of Brill, son of
+Lord Burghley, and therefore no friend to Leicester; but the Earl
+protested that "Master Thomas should bear small rule," so long as he was
+himself governor-general.  "Now I have Pelham and Stanley, we shall do
+well enough," he said, "though my young master would countenance him.
+I will be master while I remain here, will they, nill they."
+
+Edward Norris, brother of Sir John, gave the governor almost as much
+trouble as he; but the treasurer Norris, uncle to them both, was, if
+possible, more odious to him than all.  He was--if half Leicester's
+accusations are to be believed--a most infamous peculator.  One-third of
+the money sent by the Queen for the soldiers stuck in his fingers.  He
+paid them their wretched four-pence a-day in depreciated coin, so that
+for their "naughty money they could get but naughty ware."  Never was
+such "fleecing of poor soldiers," said Leicester.
+
+On the other hand, Sir John maintained that his uncle's accounts were
+always ready for examination, and earnestly begged the home-government
+not to condemn that functionary without a hearing.  For himself, he
+complained that he was uniformly kept in the background, left in
+ignorance of important enterprises, and sent on difficult duty with
+inadequate forces.  It was believed that Leicester's course was inspired
+by envy, lest any military triumph that might be gained should redound to
+the glory of Sir John, one of the first commanders of the age, rather
+than to that of the governor-general.  He was perpetually thwarted,
+crossed, calumniated, subjected to coarse and indecent insults, even from
+such brave men as Lord North and Roger Williams, and in the very presence
+of the commander-in-chief, so that his talents were of no avail, and he
+was most anxious to be gone from the country.
+
+Thus with the tremendous opposition formed to his government in the
+States-General, the incessant bickerings with the Norrises, the
+peculations of the treasurer, the secret negotiations with Spain, and
+the impossibility of obtaining money from home for himself or for his
+starving little army, the Earl was in anything but a comfortable
+position.  He was severely censured in England; but he doubted, with much
+reason, whether there were many who would take his office, and spend
+twenty thousand pounds sterling out of their own pockets, as he had done.
+The Earl was generous and brave as man could be, full of wit, quick of
+apprehension; but inordinately vain, arrogant, and withal easily led by
+designing persons.  He stood up manfully for the cause in which he was
+embarked, and was most strenuous in his demands for money.  "Personally
+he cared," he said, "not sixpence for his post; but would give five
+thousand sixpences, and six thousand shillings beside, to be rid of it;"
+but it was contrary to his dignity to "stand bucking with the States" for
+his salary.  "Is it reason," he asked, "that I, being sent from so great
+a prince as our sovereign is, must come to strangers to beg my
+entertainment:  If they are to pay me, why is there no remembrance made
+of it by her Majesty's letters, or some of the lords?"
+
+The Earl and those around him perpetually and vehemently urged upon the
+Queen to reconsider her decision, and accept the sovereignty of the
+Provinces at once.  There was no other remedy for the distracted state
+of the country--no other safeguard for England.  The Netherland people
+anxiously, eagerly desired it.  Her Majesty was adored by all the
+inhabitants, who would gladly hang the fellows called the States.  Lord
+North was of this opinion--so was Cavendish.  Leicester had always held
+it.  "Sure I am," he said, "there is but one way for our safety, and that
+is, that her Majesty may take that upon her which I fear she will not."
+Thomas Wilkes, who now made his appearance on the scene, held the same
+language.  This distinguished civilian had been sent by the Queen, early
+in August, to look into the state of Netherland affairs.  Leicester
+having expressly urged the importance of selecting as wise a politician
+as could be found--because the best man in England would hardly be found
+a match for the dullards and drunkards, as it was the fashion there to
+call the Dutch statesmen--had selected Wilkes.  After fulfilling this
+important special mission, he was immediately afterwards to return to the
+Netherlands as English member of the state-council, at forty shillings
+a-day, in the place of "little Hal Killigrew," whom Leicester pronounced
+a "quicker and stouter fellow" than he had at first taken him for,
+although he had always thought well of him.  The other English
+counsellor, Dr. Bartholomew Clerk, was to remain, and the Earl declared
+that he too, whom he had formerly undervalued, and thought to have
+"little stuff in him," was now "increasing greatly in understanding."
+But notwithstanding this intellectual progress, poor Bartholomew, who
+was no beginner, was most anxious to retire.  He was a man of peace,
+a professor, a doctor of laws, fonder of the learned leisure and the
+trim gardens of England than of the scenes which now surrounded him.
+"I beseech your good Lordship to consider," he dismally observed to
+Burghley, "what a hard case it is for a man that these fifteen years hath
+had vitam sedentariam, unworthily in a place judicial, always in his long
+robe, and who, twenty-four years since, was a public reader in the
+University (and therefore cannot be young), to come now among guns and
+drums, tumbling up and down, day and night, over waters and banks, dykes
+and ditches, upon every occasion that falleth out; hearing many
+insolences with silence, bearing many hard measures with patience--
+a course most different from my nature, and most unmeet for him that
+hath ever professed learning."
+
+Wilkes was of sterner stuff.  Always ready to follow the camp and to
+face the guns and drums with equanimity, and endowed beside with keen
+political insight, he was more competent than most men to unravel the
+confused skein of Netherland politics.  He soon found that the Queen's
+secret negotiations with Spain, and the general distrust of her
+intentions in regard to the Provinces, were like to have fatal
+consequences.  Both he and Leicester painted the anxiety of the
+Netherland people as to the intention of her Majesty in vivid colours.
+
+The Queen could not make up her mind--in the very midst of the Greenwich
+secret conferences, already described--to accept the Netherland
+sovereignty.  "She gathereth from your letter," wrote Walsingham, "that
+the only salve for this sore is to make herself proprietary of the
+country, and to put in such an army as may be able to make head to the
+enemy.  These two things being so contrary to her Majesty's disposition--
+the one, for that it breedeth a doubt of a perpetual war, the other, for
+that it requireth an increase of charges--do marvellously distract her,
+and make her repent that ever she entered into the action."
+
+Upon the great subject of the sovereignty, therefore, she was unable to
+adopt the resolution so much desired by Leicester and by the people of
+the Provinces; but she answered the Earl's communications concerning
+Maurice and Hohenlo, Sir John Norris and the treasurer, in characteristic
+but affectionate language.  And thus she wrote:
+
+"Rob, I am afraid you will suppose, by my wandering writings, that a
+midsummer's moon hath taken large possession of my brains this month; but
+you must needs take things as they come in my head, though order be left
+behind me.  When I remember your request to have a discreet and honest
+man that may carry my mind, and see how all goes there, I have chosen
+this bearer (Thomas Wilkes), whom you know and have made good trial of.
+I have fraught him full of my conceipts of those country matters, and
+imparted what way I mind to take and what is fit for you to use.  I am
+sure you can credit him, and so I will be short with these few notes.
+First, that Count Maurice and Count Hollock (Hohenlo) find themselves
+trusted of you, esteemed of me, and to be carefully regarded, if ever
+peace should happen, and of that assure them on my word, that yet never
+deceived any.  And for Norris and other captains that voluntarily,
+without commandment, have many years ventured their lives and won our
+nation honour and themselves fame, let them not be discouraged by any
+means, neither by new-come men nor by old trained soldiers elsewhere.
+If there be fault in using of soldiers, or making of profit by them, let
+them hear of it without open shame, and doubt not I will well chasten
+them therefore.  It frets me not a little that the poor soldiers that
+hourly venture life should want their due, that well deserve rather
+reward; and look, in whom the fault may truly be proved, let them smart
+therefore.  And if the treasurer be found untrue or negligent, according
+to desert he shall be used.  But you know my old wont, that love not to
+discharge from office without desert.  God forbid!  I pray you let this
+bearer know what may be learned herein, and for the treasure I have
+joined Sir Thomas Shirley to see all this money discharged in due sort,
+where it needeth and behoveth.
+
+"Now will I end, that do imagine I talk still with you, and therefore
+loathly say farewell one hundred thousand times; though ever I pray God
+bless you from all harm, and save you from all foes.  With my million and
+legion of thanks for all your pains and cares,
+
+                         "As you know ever the same,
+
+                                                       "E. R.
+
+"P. S.  Let Wilkes see that he is acceptable to you.  If anything there
+be that W. shall desire answer of be such as you would have but me to
+know, write it to myself.  You know I can keep both others' counsel and
+mine own.  Mistrust not that anything you would have kept shall be
+disclosed by me, for although this bearer ask many things, yet you may
+answer him such as you shall think meet, and write to me the rest."
+
+Thus, not even her favourite Leicester's misrepresentations could make
+the Queen forget her ancient friendship for "her own crow;" but meantime
+the relations between that "bunch of brethren," black Norris and the
+rest, and Pelham, Hollock, and other high officers in Leicester's army,
+had grown worse than ever.
+
+One August evening there was a supper-party at Count Hollock's quarters
+in Gertruydenberg.  A military foray into Brabant had just taken place,
+under the lead of the Count, and of the Lord Marshal, Sir William Pelham.
+The marshal had requested Lord Willoughby, with his troop of horse and
+five hundred foot, to join in the enterprise, but, as usual, particular
+pains had been taken that Sir John Norris should know nothing of the
+affair.  Pelham and Hollock--who was "greatly in love with Mr. Pelham"--
+had invited several other gentlemen high in Leicester's confidence to
+accompany the expedition; and, among the rest, Sir Philip Sidney, telling
+him that he "should see some good service."  Sidney came accordingly, in
+great haste, from Flushing, bringing along with him Edward Norris--that
+hot-headed young man, who, according to Leicester, "greatly governed his
+elder brother"--but they arrived at Gertruydenberg too late.  The foray
+was over, and the party--"having burned a village, and killed some boors"
+--were on their return.  Sidney, not perhaps much regretting the loss of
+his share in this rather inglorious shooting party, went down to the
+water-side, accompanied by Captain Norris, to meet Hollock and the other
+commanders.
+
+As the Count stepped on shore he scowled ominously, and looked very much
+out of temper.
+
+"What has come to Hollock?"  whispered Captain Patton, a Scotchman,
+to Sidney.  "Has he a quarrel with any of the party?  Look at his face!
+He means mischief to somebody."
+
+But Sidney was equally amazed at the sudden change in the German
+general's countenance, and as unable to explain it.
+
+Soon afterwards, the whole party, Hollock, Lewis William of Nassau, Lord
+Carew, Lord Essex, Lord Willoughby, both the Sidneys, Roger Williams,
+Pelham, Edward Norris, and the rest, went to the Count's lodgings, where
+they supped, and afterwards set themselves seriously to drinking.
+
+Norris soon perceived that he was no welcome guest; for he was not--like
+Sidney--a stranger to the deep animosity which had long existed between
+Sir John Norris and Sir William Pelham and his friends.  The carouse was
+a tremendous one, as usually was the case where Hollock was the
+Amphitryon, and, as the potations grew deeper, an intention became
+evident on the part of some of the company to behave unhandsomely to
+Norris.
+
+For a time the young Captain ostentatiously restrained himself, very much
+after the fashion of those meek individuals who lay their swords on the
+tavern-table, with "God grant I may have no need of thee!"  The custom
+was then prevalent at banquets for the revellers to pledge each other in
+rotation, each draining a great cup, and exacting the same feat from his
+neighbour, who then emptied his goblet as a challenge to his next
+comrade.
+
+The Lord Marshal took a beaker, and called out to Edward Norris.
+"I drink to the health of my Lord Norris, and of my lady; your mother."
+So saying, he emptied his glass.
+
+The young man did not accept the pledge.
+
+"Your Lordship knows," he said somewhat sullenly, "that I am not wont to
+drink deep.  Mr. Sidney there can tell you that, for my health's sake,
+I have drank no wine these eight days.  If your Lordship desires the
+pleasure of seeing me drunk, I am not of the same mind.  I pray you at
+least to take a smaller glass."
+
+Sir William insisted on the pledge.  Norris then, in no very good humour,
+emptied his cup to the Earl of Essex.
+
+Essex responded by draining a goblet to Count Hollock.
+
+"A Norris's father," said the young Earl; as he pledged the Count, who
+was already very drunk, and looking blacker than ever.
+
+"An 'orse's father--an 'orse's father!" growled' Hollock; "I never drink
+to horses, nor to their fathers either:" and with this wonderful
+witticism he declined the pledge.
+
+Essex explained that the toast was Lord Norris, father of the Captain;
+but the Count refused to understand, and held fiercely, and with damnable
+iteration, to his jest.
+
+The Earl repeated his explanation several times with no better success.
+Norris meanwhile sat swelling with wrath, but said nothing.
+
+Again the Lord Marshal took the same great glass, and emptied it to the
+young Captain.
+
+Norris, not knowing exactly what course to take, placed the glass at the
+side of his plate, and glared grimly at Sir William.
+
+Pelham was furious.  Reaching over the table, he shoved the glass towards
+Norris with an angry gesture.
+
+"Take your glass, Captain Norris," he cried; "and if you have a mind to
+jest, seek other companions.  I am not to be trifled with; therefore, I
+say, pledge me at once."
+
+"Your Lordship shall not force me to drink more wine than I list,"
+returned the other.  "It is your pleasure to take advantage of your
+military rank.  Were we both at home, you would be glad to be my
+companion."
+
+Norris was hard beset, and although his language was studiously moderate,
+it was not surprising that his manner should be somewhat insolent.  The
+veteran Lord Marshal, on the other hand, had distinguished himself on
+many battle-fields, but his deportment at this banqueting-table was not
+much to his credit.  He paused a moment, and Norris, too, held his peace,
+thinking that his enemy would desist.
+
+It was but for a moment.
+
+"Captain Norris," cried Pelham, "I bid you pledge me without more ado.
+Neither you nor your best friends shall use me as you list.  I am better
+born than you and your brother, the colonel-general, and the whole of
+you."
+
+"I warn you to say nothing disrespectful against my brother," replied the
+Captain.  "As for yourself, I know how to respect your age and superior
+rank."
+
+"Drink, drink, drink!" roared the old Marshal.  "I tell you I am better
+born than the best of you.  I have advanced you all too, and you know it;
+therefore drink to me."
+
+Sir William was as logical as men in their cups are prone to be.
+
+"Indeed, you have behaved well to my brother Thomas," answered Norris,
+suddenly becoming very courteous, "and for this I have ever loved your
+Lordship, and would, do you any service."
+
+"Well, then," said the Marshal, becoming tender in his turn, "forget what
+hath past this night, and do as you would have done before."
+
+"Very well said, indeed!" cried Sir Philip Sidney, trying to help the
+natter into the smoother channel towards which it was tending.
+
+Norris, seeing that the eyes of the whole company were upon them; took
+the glass accordingly, and rose to his feet.
+
+"My Lord Marshal," he said, "you have done me more wrong this night than
+you can easily make satisfaction for.  But I am unwilling that any
+trouble or offence should grow through me.  Therefore once more I pledge
+you."
+
+He raised the cup to his lips.  At that instant Hollock, to whom nothing
+had been said, and who had spoken no word since his happy remark about
+the horse's father, suddenly indulged in a more practical jest; and
+seizing the heavy gilt cover of a silver vase, hurled it at the head of
+Norris.  It struck him full on the forehead, cutting him to the bone.
+The Captain, stunned for a moment, fell back in his chair, with the blood
+running down his eyes and face.  The Count, always a man of few words,
+but prompt in action, now drew his dagger, and strode forward, with the
+intention of despatching him upon the spot.  Sir Philip Sidney threw his
+arms around Hollock, however, and, with the assistance of others in the
+company, succeeded in dragging him from the room.  The affair was over in
+a few seconds.
+
+Norris, coming back to consciousness, sat for a moment as one amazed,
+rubbing the blood out of his eyes; then rose from the table to seek his
+adversary; but he was gone.
+
+Soon afterwards he went to his lodgings.  The next morning he was advised
+to leave the town as speedily as possible; for as it was under the
+government of Hollock, and filled with his soldiers, he was warned that
+his life would not be safe there an hour.  Accordingly he went to his
+boat, accompanied only by his man and his page, and so departed with his
+broken head, breathing vengeance against Hollock, Pelham, Leicester, and
+the whole crew, by whom he had been thus abused.
+
+The next evening there was another tremendous carouse at the Count's,
+and, says the reporter of the preceding scene, "they were all on such
+good terms, that not one of the company had falling band or ruff left
+about his neck.  All were clean torn away, and yet there was no blood
+drawn."
+
+Edward Norris--so soon as might be afterwards--sent a cartel to the
+Count, demanding mortal combat with sword and dagger.  Sir Philip Sidney
+bore the message.  Sir John Norris, of course warmly and violently
+espoused the cause of his brother, and was naturally more incensed
+against the Lord Marshal than ever, for Sir William Pelham was considered
+the cause of the whole affray.  "Even if the quarrel is to be excused by
+drink," said an eye-witness, "'tis but a slender defence for my Lord to
+excuse himself by his cups; and often drink doth bewray men's humours and
+unmask their malice.  Certainly the Count Hollock thought to have done a
+pleasure to the company in killing him."
+
+Nothing could be more ill-timed than this quarrel, or more vexatious to
+Leicester.  The Count--although considering himself excessively injured
+at being challenged by a simple captain and an untitled gentleman, whom
+he had attempted to murder--consented to waive his privilege, and grant
+the meeting.
+
+Leicester interposed, however, to delay, and, if possible, to patch up
+the affair.  They were on the eve of active military operations, and it
+was most vexatious for the commander-in-chief to see, as he said, "the
+quarrel with the enemy changed to private revenge among ourselves."  The
+intended duel did not take place; for various influential personages
+succeeded in deferring the meeting.  Then came the battle of Zutphen.
+
+Sidney fell, and Hollock was dangerously wounded in the attack which was
+soon afterwards made upon the fort.  He was still pressed to afford the
+promised satisfaction, however, and agreed to do so whenever he should
+rise from his bed.
+
+Strange to say, the Count considered Leicester, throughout the whole
+business, to have taken part against him.
+
+Yet there is no doubt whatever that the Earl--who detested the Norrises,
+and was fonder of Pelham than of any man living--uniformly narrated
+the story most unjustly, to the discredit of the young Captain.
+He considered him extremely troublesome, represented him as always
+quarrelling with some one--with Colonel Morgan, Roger Williams, old
+Reade, and all the rest--while the Lord Marshal, on the contrary, was
+depicted as the mildest of men.  "This I must say," he observed, "that
+all present, except my two nephews (the Sidneys), who are not here yet,
+declare the greatest fault to be in Edward Norris, and that he did most
+arrogantly use the Marshal."
+
+It is plain, however, that the old Marshal, under the influence of wine,
+was at least quite as much to blame as the young Captain; and Sir Philip
+Sidney sufficiently showed his sense of the matter by being the bearer of
+Edward Norris's cartel.  After Sidney's death, Sir John Norris, in his
+letter of condolence to Walsingham for the death of his illustrious son-
+in-law, expressed the deeper regret at his loss because Sir Philip's
+opinion had been that the Norrises were wronged.  Hollock had conducted
+himself like a lunatic, but this he was apt to do whether in his cups or
+not.  He was always for killing some one or another on the slightest
+provocation, and, while the dog-star of 1586 was raging, it was not his
+fault if he had not already despatched both Edward Norris and the
+objectionable "Mr. P. B."
+
+For these energetic demonstrations against Leicester's enemies he
+considered himself entitled to the Earl's eternal gratitude, and was
+deeply disgusted at his apparent coldness.  The governor was driven
+almost to despair by these quarrels.
+
+His colonel-general, his lord marshal, his lieutenant-general, were all
+at daggers drawn.  "Would God I were rid of this place!" he exclaimed.
+"What man living would go to the field and have his officers divided
+almost into mortal quarrel?  One blow but by any of their lackeys brings
+us altogether by the ears."
+
+It was clear that there was not room enough on the Netherland soil for
+the Earl of Leicester and the brothers Norris.  The queen, while
+apparently siding with the Earl, intimated to Sir John that she did not
+disapprove his conduct, that she should probably recall him to England,
+and that she should send him back to the Provinces after the Earl had
+left that country.
+
+Such had been the position of the governor-general towards the Queen,
+towards the States-General, and towards his own countrymen, during the
+year 1586.
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope
+Arminianism
+As logical as men in their cups are prone to be
+Tolerating religious liberty had never entered his mind
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v49
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 50, 1586
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+     Drake in the Netherlands--Good Results of his Visit--The Babington
+     Conspiracy--Leicester decides to visit England--Exchange of parting
+     Compliments.
+
+Late in the autumn of the same year an Englishman arrived in the
+Netherlands, bearer of despatches from the Queen.  He had been entrusted
+by her Majesty with a special mission to the States-General, and he had
+soon an interview with that assembly at the Hague.
+
+He was a small man, apparently forty-five years of age, of a fair but
+somewhat weather-stained complexion, with light-brown, closely-curling
+hair, an expansive forehead, a clear blue eye, rather commonplace
+features, a thin, brown, pointed beard, and a slight moustache.  Though
+low of stature, he was broad-chested, with well-knit limbs.  His hands,
+which were small and nervous, were brown and callous with the marks of
+toil.  There was something in his brow and glance not to be mistaken,
+and which men willingly call master; yet he did not seem, to have sprung
+of the born magnates of the earth.  He wore a heavy gold chain about his
+neck, and it might be observed that upon the light full sleeves of his
+slashed doublet the image of a small ship on a terrestrial globe was
+curiously and many times embroidered.
+
+It was not the first time that he had visited the Netherlands.  Thirty
+years before the man had been apprentice on board a small lugger, which
+traded between the English coast and the ports of Zeeland.  Emerging in
+early boyhood from his parental mansion--an old boat, turned bottom
+upwards on a sandy down he had naturally taken to the sea, and his
+master, dying childless not long afterwards, bequeathed to him the
+lugger.  But in time his spirit, too much confined by coasting in the
+narrow seas, had taken a bolder flight.  He had risked his hard-earned
+savings in a voyage with the old slave-trader, John Hawkins--whose
+exertions, in what was then considered an honourable and useful vocation,
+had been rewarded by Queen Elizabeth with her special favour, and with a
+coat of arms, the crest whereof was a negro's head, proper, chained--but
+the lad's first and last enterprise in this field was unfortunate.
+Captured by Spaniards, and only escaping with life, he determined to
+revenge himself on the whole Spanish nation; and this was considered a
+most legitimate proceeding according to the "sea divinity" in which he,
+had been schooled.  His subsequent expeditions against the Spanish
+possessions in the West Indies were eminently successful, and soon the
+name of Francis Drake rang through the world, and startled Philip in the
+depths of his Escorial.  The first Englishman, and the second of any
+nation, he then ploughed his memorable "furrow round the earth," carrying
+amazement and, destruction to the Spaniards as he sailed, and after three
+years brought to the Queen treasure enough, as it was asserted, to
+maintain a war with the Spanish King for seven years, and to pay himself
+and companions, and the merchant-adventurers who had participated in his
+enterprise, forty-seven pounds sterling for every pound invested in the
+voyage.  The speculation had been a fortunate one both, for himself and
+for the kingdom.
+
+The terrible Sea-King was one of the great types of the sixteenth
+century.  The self-helping private adventurer, in his little vessel the
+'Golden Hind,' one hundred tons burthen, had waged successful war against
+a mighty empire, and had shown England how to humble Philip.  When he
+again set foot on his native soil he was followed by admiring crowds,
+and became the favourite hero of romance and ballad; for it was not the
+ignoble pursuit of gold alone, through toil and peril, which had endeared
+his name to the nation.  The popular instinct recognized that the true
+means had been found at last for rescuing England and Protestantism from
+the overshadowing empire of Spain.  The Queen visited him in his 'Golden
+Hind,' and gave him the honour of knighthood.
+
+The treaty between the United Netherlands and England had been followed
+by an embargo upon English vessels, persons, and property, in the ports
+of Spain; and after five years of unwonted repose, the privateersman
+again set forth with twenty-five small vessels--of which five or six only
+were armed--under his command, conjoined with that of General Carlisle.
+This time the voyage was undertaken with full permission and assistance
+of the Queen who, however, intended to disavow him, if she should find
+such a step convenient.  This was the expedition in which Philip Sidney
+had desired to take part.  The Queen watched its result with intense
+anxiety, for the fate of her Netherland adventure was thought to be
+hanging on the issue.  "Upon Drake's voyage, in very truth, dependeth the
+life and death of the cause, according to man's judgment," said
+Walsingham.
+
+The issue was encouraging, even, if the voyage--as a mercantile
+speculation--proved not so brilliant as the previous enterprises of Sir
+Francis had been.  He returned in the midsummer of 1586, having captured
+and brandschatzed St. Domingo and Carthagena; and burned St. Augustine.
+"A fearful man to the King of Spain is Sir Francis Drake," said Lord
+Burghley.  Nevertheless, the Queen and the Lord-Treasurer--as we have
+shown by the secret conferences at Greenwich--had, notwithstanding these
+successes, expressed a more earnest desire for peace than ever.
+
+A simple, sea-faring Englishman, with half-a-dozen miserable little
+vessels, had carried terror, into the Spanish possessions all over the
+earth: but even then the great Queen had not learned to rely on the
+valour of her volunteers against her most formidable enemy.
+
+Drake was, however, bent on another enterprise.  The preparations for
+Philip's great fleet had been going steadily forward in Lisbon, Cadiz,
+and other ports of Spain and Portugal, and, despite assurances to the
+contrary, there was a growing belief that England was to be invaded.
+To destroy those ships before the monarch's face, would be, indeed, to
+"singe his beard."  But whose arm was daring enough for such a stroke?
+Whose but that of the Devonshire skipper who had already accomplished so
+much?
+
+And so Sir Francis, "a man true to his word, merciful to those under him,
+and hating nothing so much as idleness," had come to the Netherlands to
+talk over his project with the States-General, and with the Dutch
+merchants and sea-captains.  His visit was not unfruitful.  As a body the
+assembly did nothing; but they recommended that in every maritime city of
+Holland and Zeeland one or two ships should be got ready, to participate
+in all the future enterprises of Sir Francis and his comrades.
+
+The martial spirit of volunteer sailors, and the keen instinct of
+mercantile speculation, were relied upon--exactly as in England--
+to furnish men, ships, and money, for these daring and profitable
+adventures.  The foundation of a still more intimate connection between
+England and Holland was laid, and thenceforth Dutchmen and Englishmen
+fought side by side, on land and sea, wherever a blow was to be struck in
+the cause of human freedom against despotic Spain.
+
+The famous Babington conspiracy, discovered by Walsingham's "travail and
+cost," had come to convince the Queen and her counsellors--if further
+proof were not superfluous--that her throne and life were both
+incompatible with Philip's deep designs, and that to keep that monarch
+out of the Netherlands, was as vital to her as to keep him out of
+England.  "She is forced by this discovery to countenance the cause by
+all outward means she may," said Walsingham, "for it appeareth unto her
+most plain, that unless she had entered into the action, she had been
+utterly undone, and that if she do not prosecute the same she cannot
+continue."  The Secretary had sent Leicester information at an early day
+of the great secret, begging his friend to "make the letter a heretic
+after be had read the same," and expressing the opinion that "the matter,
+if well handled, would break the neck of all dangerous practices during
+her Majesty's reign."
+
+The tragedy of Mary Stuart--a sad but inevitable portion of the vast
+drama in which the emancipation of England and Holland, and, through
+them, of half Christendom, was accomplished--approached its catastrophe;
+and Leicester could not restrain his anxiety for her immediate execution.
+He reminded Walsingham that the great seal had been put upon a warrant
+for her execution for a less crime seventeen years before, on the
+occasion of the Northumberland and Westmorland rebellion.  "For who can
+warrant these villains from her," he said, "if that person live, or shall
+live any time?  God forbid!  And be you all stout and resolute in this
+speedy execution, or be condemned of all the world for ever.  It is most.
+certain, if you will have your Majesty safe, it must be done, for justice
+doth crave it beside policy."  His own personal safety was deeply
+compromised.  "Your Lordship and I," wrote Burghley, "were very great
+motes in the traitors' eyes; for your Lordship there and I here should
+first, about one time, have been killed.  Of your Lordship they thought
+rather of poisoning than slaying.  After us two gone, they purposed her
+Majesty's death."
+
+But on this great affair of state the Earl was not swayed by such
+personal considerations.  He honestly thought--as did all the statesmen
+who governed England--that English liberty, the very existence of the
+English commonwealth, was impossible so long as Mary Stuart lived.  Under
+these circumstances he was not impatient, for a time at least, to leave
+the Netherlands.  His administration had not been very successful.
+He had been led away by his own vanity, and by the flattery of artful
+demagogues, but the immense obstacles with which he had to contend in the
+Queen's wavering policy, and in the rivalry of both English and Dutch
+politicians have been amply exhibited.  That he had been generous,
+courageous, and zealous, could not be denied; and, on the whole, he had
+accomplished as much in the field as could have been expected of him with
+such meagre forces, and so barren an exchequer.
+
+It must be confessed, however, that his leaving the Netherlands at that
+moment was a most unfortunate step, both for his own reputation and for
+the security of the Provinces.  Party-spirit was running high, and a
+political revolution was much to be dreaded in so grave a position of
+affairs, both in England and Holland.  The arrangements--and particularly
+the secret arrangements which he made at his departure--were the most
+fatal measures of all; but these will be described in the following
+chapter.
+
+On the 31st October; the Earl announced to the state-council his
+intention of returning to England, stating, as the cause of this sudden
+determination, that he had been summoned to attend the parliament then
+sitting in Westminster.  Wilkes, who was of course present, having now
+succeeded Killigrew as one of the two English members, observed that "the
+States and council used but slender entreaty to his Excellency for his
+stay and countenance there among them, whereat his Excellency and we that
+were of the council for her Majesty did not a little marvel."
+
+Some weeks later, however, upon the 21st November, Leicester summoned
+Barneveld, and five other of the States General, to discuss the necessary
+measures for his departure, when those gentlemen remonstrated very
+earnestly upon the step, pleading the danger and confusion of affairs
+which must necessarily ensue.  The Earl declared that he was not retiring
+from the country because he was offended, although he had many causes for
+offence: and he then alluded to the, Navigation Act, to the establishment
+council, and spoke of the finance of Burgrave and Reingault, for his
+employment of which individuals so much obloquy had been heaped upon his,
+head.  Burgrave he pronounced, as usual, a substantial, wise, faithful,
+religious personage, entitled to fullest confidence; while Reingault--
+who had been thrown into prison by the States on charges of fraud,
+peculation, and sedition--he declared to be a great financier, who had
+promised, on penalty of his head, to bring "great sums into the treasury
+for carrying on the war, without any burthen to the community."  Had he
+been able to do this, he had certainly claim to be considered the
+greatest of financiers; but the promised "mountains of gold" were never
+discovered, and Reingault was now awaiting his trial.
+
+The deputies replied that the concessions upon the Navigation Act had
+satisfied the country, but that Reingault was a known instrument of the
+Spaniards, and Burgrave a mischief-making demagogue, who consorted with
+malignants, and sent slanderous reports concerning the States and the
+country to her Majesty.  They had in consequence felt obliged to write
+private despatches to envoy Ortel in England, not because they suspected
+the Earl, but in order to counteract the calumnies of his chief advisers.
+They had urged the agent to bring the imprisonment of Paul Buys before
+her Majesty, but for that transaction Leicester boldly disclaimed all
+responsibility.
+
+It was agreed between the Earl and the deputies that, during his absence,
+the whole government, civil and military, should devolve upon the state-
+council, and that Sir John Norris should remain in command of the English
+forces.
+
+Two days afterwards Leicester, who knew very well that a legation was
+about to proceed to England, without any previous concurrence on his
+part, summoned a committee of the States-General, together with
+Barneveld, into the state-council.  Counsellor Wilkes on his behalf then
+made a speech, in which he observed that more ample communications on the
+part of the States were to be expected.  They had in previous colloquies
+touched upon comparatively unimportant matters, but he now begged to be
+informed why these commissioners were proceeding to England, and what was
+the nature of their instructions.  Why did not they formally offer the
+sovereignty of the Provinces to the Queen without conditions?  That step
+had already been taken by Utrecht.
+
+The deputies conferred apart for a little while, and then replied that
+the proposition made by Utrecht was notoriously factious, illegal, and
+altogether futile.  Without the sanction of all the United States, of
+what value was the declaration of Utrecht?  Moreover the charter of that
+province had been recklessly violated, its government overthrown, and its
+leading citizens banished.  The action of the Province under such
+circumstances was not deserving of comment; but should it appear that her
+Majesty was desirous of assuming the sovereignty of the Provinces upon
+reasonable conditions, the States of Holland and of Zeeland would not be
+found backward in the business.
+
+Leicester proposed that Prince Maurice of Nassau should go with him to
+England, as nominal chief of the embassy, and some of the deputies
+favoured the suggestion.  It was however, vigorously and successfully
+opposed by Barneveld, who urged that to leave the country without a head
+in such a dangerous position of affairs, would be an act of madness.
+Leicester was much annoyed when informed of this decision.  He was
+suspected of a design, during his absence, of converting Maurice entirely
+to his own way of thinking.  If unsuccessful, it was believed by the
+Advocate and by many others that the Earl would cause the young Prince to
+be detained in England as long as Philip William, his brother, had been
+kept in Spain.  He observed peevishly that he knew how it had all been
+brought about.
+
+Words, of course, and handsome compliments were exchanged between the
+Governor and the States-General on his departure.  He protested that he
+had never pursued any private ends during his administration, but had
+ever sought to promote the good of the country and the glory of the
+Queen, and that he had spent three hundred thousand florins of his own
+money in the brief period of his residence there.
+
+The Advocate, on part of the States, assured him that they were all aware
+that in the friendship of England lay their only chance of salvation, but
+that united action was the sole means by which that salvation could be
+effected, and the one which had enabled the late Prince of Orange to
+maintain a contest unequalled by anything recorded in history.  There was
+also much disquisition on the subject of finance--the Advocate observing
+that the States now raised as much in a month as the Provinces in the
+time of the Emperor used to levy in a year--and expressed the hope that
+the Queen would increase her contingent to ten thousand foot, and two
+thousand horse.  He repudiated, in the name of the States-General and his
+own, the possibility of peace-negotiations; deprecated any allusion to
+the subject as fatal to their religion, their liberty, their very
+existence, and equally disastrous to England and to Protestantism, and
+implored the Earl, therefore, to use all his influence in opposition to
+any pacific overtures to or from Spain.
+
+On the 24th November, acts were drawn up and signed by the Earl,
+according to which the supreme government of the United Netherlands was
+formally committed to the state-council during his absence.  Decrees were
+to be pronounced in the name of his Excellency, and countersigned by
+Maurice of Nassau.
+
+On the following day, Leicester, being somewhat indisposed, requested a
+deputation of the States-General to wait upon him in his own house.  This
+was done, and a formal and affectionate farewell was then read to him by
+his secretary, Mr. Atye.  It was responded to in complimentary fashion by
+Advocate Barneveld, who again took occasion at this parting interview to
+impress upon the governor the utter impossibility, in his own opinion and
+that of the other deputies, of reconciling the Provinces with Spain.
+
+Leicester received from the States--as a magnificent parting present--
+a silver gilt vase "as tall as a man," and then departed for Flushing to
+take shipping for England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     Ill-timed Interregnum in the Provinces--Firmness of the English and
+     Dutch People--Factions during Leicester's Government--Democratic
+     Theories of the Leicestriana--Suspicions as to the Earl's Designs--
+     Extreme Views of the Calvinists--Political Ambition of the Church--
+     Antagonism of the Church and States--The States inclined to
+     Tolerance--Desolation of the Obedient Provinces--Pauperism and
+     Famine--Prosperity of the Republic--The Year of Expectation.
+
+It was not unnatural that the Queen should desire the presence of her
+favourite at that momentous epoch, when the dread question, "aut fer aut
+feri," had at last demanded its definite solution.  It was inevitable,
+too, that Leicester should feel great anxiety to be upon the spot where
+the great tragedy, so full of fate to all Christendom, and in which his
+own fortunes were so closely involved, was to be enacted.  But it was
+most cruel to the Netherlands--whose well-being was nearly as important
+to Elizabeth as that of her own realm--to plunge them into anarchy at
+such a moment.  Yet this was the necessary result of the sudden
+retirement of Leicester.
+
+He did not resign his government.  He did not bind himself to return.
+The question of sovereignty was still unsettled, for it was still hoped
+by a large and influential party, that the English Queen would accept the
+proposed annexation.  It was yet doubtful, whether, during the period of
+abeyance, the States-General or the States-Provincial, each within their
+separate sphere, were entitled to supreme authority.  Meantime, as if
+here were not already sufficient elements of dissension and doubt, came a
+sudden and indefinite interregnum, a provisional, an abnormal, and an
+impotent government.  To the state-council was deputed the executive
+authority.  But the state-council was a creature of the States-General,
+acting in concert with the governor-general, and having no actual life of
+its own.  It was a board of consultation, not of decision, for it could
+neither enact its own decrees nor interpose a veto upon the decrees of
+the governor.
+
+Certainly the selection of Leicester to fill so important a post had not
+been a very fortunate one; and the enthusiasm which had greeted him, "as
+if he had been a Messiah," on his arrival, had very rapidly dwindled
+away, as his personal character became known.  The leading politicians of
+the country had already been aware of the error which they had committed
+in clothing with almost sovereign powers the delegate of one who had
+refused the sovereignty.  They, were too adroit to neglect the
+opportunity, which her Majesty's anger offered them, of repairing what
+they considered their blunder.  When at last the quarrel, which looked so
+much like a lovers' quarrel, between Elizabeth and 'Sweet Robin,' had
+been appeased to the satisfaction of Robin, his royal mistress became
+more angry with the States for circumscribing than she had before been
+for their exaggeration of his authority.  Hence the implacable hatred of
+Leicester to Paul Buys and Barneveld.
+
+Those two statesmen, for eloquence, learning, readiness, administrative
+faculty, surpassed by few who have ever wielded the destinies of free
+commonwealths, were fully equal to the task thrown upon their hands by
+the progress of events.  That task was no slight one, for it was to the
+leading statesmen of Holland and England, sustained by the indomitable
+resistance to despotism almost universal in the English and Dutch
+nations, that the liberty of Europe was entrusted at that, momentous
+epoch.  Whether united under one crown, as the Netherlands ardently
+desired, or closely allied for aggression and defence, the two peoples
+were bound indissolubly together.  The clouds were rolling up from the
+fatal south, blacker and more portentous than ever; the artificial
+equilibrium of forces, by which the fate of France was kept in suspense,
+was obviously growing every day more uncertain; but the prolonged and
+awful interval before the tempest should burst over the lands of freedom
+and Protestantism, gave at least time for the prudent to prepare.  The
+Armada was growing every day in the ports of Spain and Portugal, and
+Walsingham doubted, as little as did Buys or Barneveld, toward what
+shores that invasion was to be directed.  England was to be conquered in
+order that the rebellious Netherlands might be reduced; and 'Mucio' was
+to be let slip upon the unhappy Henry III. so soon as it was thought
+probable that the Bearnese and the Valois had sufficiently exhausted each
+other.  Philip was to reign in Paris, Amsterdam, London, and Edinburgh,
+without stirring from the Escorial.  An excellent programme, had there
+not been some English gentlemen, some subtle secretaries of state, some
+Devonshire skippers, some Dutch advocates and merchants, some Zeeland
+fly-boatsmen, and six million men, women, and children, on the two sides
+of the North Sea, who had the power of expressing their thoughts rather
+bluntly than otherwise, in different dialects of old Anglo-Saxon speech.
+
+Certainly it would be unjust and ungracious to disparage the heroism of
+the great Queen when the hour of danger really came, nor would it be
+legitimate for us, who can scan that momentous year of expectation, 1587,
+by the light of subsequent events and of secret contemporaneous record,
+to censure or even sharply to criticise the royal hankering for peace,
+when peace had really become impossible.  But as we shall have occasion
+to examine rather closely the secrets of the Spanish, French, English,
+and Dutch councils, during this epoch, we are likely to find, perhaps,
+that at least as great a debt is due to the English and Dutch people, in
+mass, for the preservation of European liberty at that disastrous epoch
+as to any sovereign, general, or statesman.
+
+For it was in the great waters of the sixteenth century that the nations
+whose eyes were open, discovered the fountain of perpetual youth, while
+others, who were blind, passed rapidly onward to decrepitude.  England
+was, in many respects, a despotism so far as regarded governmental forms;
+and no doubt the Catholics were treated with greater rigour than could be
+justified even by the perpetual and most dangerous machinations of the
+seminary priests and their instigators against the throne and life of
+Elizabeth.  The word liberty was never musical in Tudor ears, yet
+Englishmen had blunt tongues and sharp weapons which rarely rusted for
+want of use.  In the presence of a parliament, and the absence of a
+standing army, a people accustomed to read the Bible in the vernacular,
+to handle great questions of religion and government freely, and to bear
+arms at will, was most formidable to despotism.  There was an advance on
+the olden time.  A Francis Drake, a John Hawkins, a Roger Williams, might
+have been sold, under the Plantagenets, like an ox or an ass.  A 'female
+villain' in the reign of Henry III. could have been purchased for
+eighteen shillings--hardly the price of a fatted pig, and not one-third
+the value of an ambling palfrey--and a male villain, such an one as could
+in Elizabeth's reign circumnavigate the globe in his own ship, or take
+imperial field-marshals by the beard, was worth but two or three pounds
+sterling in the market.  Here was progress in three centuries, for the
+villains were now become admirals and generals in England and Holland,
+and constituted the main stay of these two little commonwealths, while
+the commanders who governed the 'invincible' fleets and armies of
+omnipotent Spain, were all cousins of emperors, or grandees of bluest
+blood.  Perhaps the system of the reformation would not prove the least
+effective in the impending crisis.
+
+It was most important, then, that these two nations should be united in
+council, and should stand shoulder to shoulder as their great enemy
+advanced.  But this was precisely what had been rendered almost
+impossible by the course of events during Leicester's year of
+administration, and by his sudden but not final retirement at its close.
+The two great national parties which had gradually been forming, had
+remained in a fluid state during the presence of the governor-general.
+During his absence they gradually hardened into the forms which they were
+destined to retain for centuries.  In the history of civil liberty, these
+incessant contests, these oral and written disquisitions, these sharp
+concussions of opinion, and the still harder blows, which, unfortunately,
+were dealt on a few occasions by the combatants upon each other, make the
+year 1587 a memorable one.  The great questions of the origin of
+government, the balance of dynastic forces, the distribution of powers,
+were dealt with by the ablest heads, both Dutch and English, that could
+be employed in the service of the kingdom and republic.  It was a war of
+protocols, arguments, orations, rejoinders, apostilles, and pamphlets;
+very wholesome for the cause of free institutions and the intellectual
+progress of mankind.  The reader may perhaps be surprised to see with how
+much vigour and boldness the grave questions which underlie all polity,
+were handled so many years before the days of Russell and Sidney, of
+Montesquieu and Locke, Franklin, Jefferson, Rousseau, and Voltaire; and
+he may be even more astonished to find exceedingly democratic doctrines
+propounded, if not believed in, by trained statesmen of the Elizabethan
+school.  He will be also apt to wonder that a more fitting time could not
+be found for such philosophical debate than the epoch at which both the
+kingdom and the republic were called upon to strain every sinew against
+the most formidable and aggressive despotism that the world had known
+since the fall of the Roman Empire.
+
+The great dividing-line between the two parties, that of Leicester and
+that of Holland, which controlled the action of the States-General, was
+the question of sovereignty.  After the declaration of independence and
+the repudiation of Philip, to whom did the sovereignty belong?  To the
+people, said the Leicestrians.  To the States-General and the States-
+Provincial, as legitimate representatives of the people, said the Holland
+party.  Without looking for the moment more closely into this question,
+which we shall soon find ably discussed by the most acute reasoners of
+the time, it is only important at present to make a preliminary
+reflection.  The Earl of Leicester, of all men is the world, would seem
+to have been precluded by his own action, and by the action of his Queen,
+from taking ground against the States.  It was the States who, by solemn
+embassy, had offered the sovereignty to Elizabeth.  She had not accepted
+the offer, but she had deliberated on the subject, and certainly she had
+never expressed a doubt whether or not the offer had been legally made.
+By the States, too, that governor-generalship had been conferred upon the
+Earl, which had been so thankfully and eagerly accepted.  It was strange,
+then, that he should deny the existence of the power whence his own
+authority was derived.  If the States were not sovereigns of the
+Netherlands, he certainly was nothing.  He was but general of a few
+thousand English troops.
+
+The Leicester party, then, proclaimed extreme democratic principles as to
+the origin of government and the sovereignty of the people.  They sought
+to strengthen and to make almost absolute the executive authority of
+their chief, on the ground that such was the popular will; and they
+denounced with great acrimony the insolence of the upstart members of the
+States, half a dozen traders, hired advocates, churls, tinkers, and the
+like--as Leicester was fond of designating the men who opposed him--in
+assuming these airs of sovereignty.
+
+This might, perhaps, be philosophical doctrine, had its supporters not
+forgotten that there had never been any pretence at an expression of the
+national will, except through the mouths of the States.  The States-
+General and the States-Provincial, without any usurpation, but as a
+matter of fact and of great political convenience, had, during fifteen
+years, exercised the authority which had fallen from Philip's hands.
+The people hitherto had acquiesced in their action, and certainly there
+had not yet been any call for a popular convention, or any other device
+to ascertain the popular will.  It was also difficult to imagine what was
+the exact entity of this abstraction called the "people" by men who
+expressed such extreme contempt for "merchants, advocates, town-orators,
+churls, tinkers, and base mechanic men, born not to command but to obey."
+Who were the people when the educated classes and the working classes
+were thus carefully eliminated?  Hardly the simple peasantry--the boors--
+who tilled the soil.  At that day the agricultural labourers less than
+all others dreamed of popular sovereignty, and more than all others
+submitted to the mild authority of the States.  According to the theory
+of the Netherland constitutions, they were supposed--and they had
+themselves not yet discovered the fallacies to which such doctrines could
+lead--to be represented by the nobles and country-squires who maintained
+in the States of each Province the general farming interests of the
+republic.  Moreover, the number of agricultural peasants was
+comparatively small.  The lower classes were rather accustomed to plough
+the sea than the land, and their harvests were reaped from that element,
+which to Hollanders and Zeelanders was less capricious than the solid
+earth.  Almost every inhabitant of those sea-born territories was, in one
+sense or another, a mariner; for every highway was a canal; the soil was
+percolated by rivers and estuaries, pools and meres; the fisheries were
+the nurseries in which still more daring navigators rapidly learned their
+trade, and every child took naturally to the ocean as to its legitimate
+home.
+
+The "people," therefore, thus enthroned by the Leicestrians over all
+the inhabitants of the country, appeared to many eyes rather a misty
+abstraction, and its claim of absolute sovereignty a doctrine almost as
+fantastic as that of the divine right of kings.  The Netherlanders were,
+on the whole, a law-abiding people, preferring to conduct even a
+revolution according to precedent, very much attached to ancient usages
+and traditions, valuing the liberties, as they called them, which they
+had wrested from what had been superior force, with their own right
+hands, preferring facts to theories, and feeling competent to deal with
+tyrants in the concrete rather than to annihilate tyranny in the abstract
+by a bold and generalizing phraseology.  Moreover the opponents of the
+Leicester party complained that the principal use to which this newly
+discovered "people" had been applied, was to confer its absolute
+sovereignty unconditionally upon one man.  The people was to be sovereign
+in order that it might immediately abdicate in favour of the Earl.
+
+Utrecht, the capital of the Leicestrians, had already been deprived of
+its constitution.  The magistracy was, according to law, changed every
+year.  A list of candidates was furnished by the retiring board, an equal
+number of names was added by the governor of the Province, and from the
+catalogue thus composed the governor with his council selected the new
+magistrates for the year.  But De Villiers, the governor of the Province,
+had been made a prisoner by the enemy in the last campaign; Count Moeurs
+had been appointed provisional stadholder by the States; and, during his
+temporary absence on public affairs, the Leicestrians had seized upon the
+government, excluded all the ancient magistrates, banished many leading
+citizens from the town, and installed an entirely new board, with Gerard
+Proninck, called Deventer, for chief burgomaster, who was a Brabantine
+refugee just arrived in the Province, and not eligible to office until
+after ten years' residence.
+
+It was not unnatural that the Netherlanders, who remembered the scenes
+of bloodshed and disorder produced by the memorable attempt of the Duke
+of Anjou to obtain possession of Antwerp and other cities, should be
+suspicious of Leicester.  Anjou, too, had been called to the Provinces by
+the voluntary action of the States.  He too had been hailed as a Messiah
+and a deliverer.  In him too had unlimited confidence been reposed, and
+he had repaid their affection and their gratitude by a desperate attempt
+to obtain the control of their chief cities by the armed hand, and thus
+to constitute himself absolute sovereign of the Netherlands.  The
+inhabitants had, after a bloody contest, averted the intended massacre
+and the impending tyranny; but it was not astonishing that--so very, few
+years having elapsed since those tragical events--they should be inclined
+to scan severely the actions of the man who had already obtained by
+unconstitutional means the mastery of a most important city, and was
+supposed to harbour designs upon all the cities.
+
+No, doubt it was a most illiberal and unwise policy for the inhabitants
+of the independent States to exclude from office the wanderers, for
+conscience' sake, from the obedient Provinces.  They should have been
+welcomed heart and hand by those who were their brethren in religion and
+in the love of freedom.  Moreover, it was notorious that Hohenlo,
+lieutenant-general under Maurice of Nassau, was a German, and that by the
+treaty with England, two foreigners sat in the state council, while the
+army swarmed with English, Irish, end German officers in high command.
+Nevertheless, violently to subvert the constitution of a Province, and to
+place in posts of high responsibility men who were ineligible--some whose
+characters were suspicious, and some who were known to be dangerous, and
+to banish large numbers of respectable burghers--was the act of a despot.
+
+Besides their democratic doctrines, the Leicestrians proclaimed and
+encouraged an exclusive and rigid Calvinism.
+
+It would certainly be unjust and futile to detract from the vast debt
+which the republic owed to the Geneva Church.  The reformation had
+entered the Netherlands by the Walloon gate.  The earliest and most
+eloquent preachers, the most impassioned converts, the sublimest martyrs,
+had lived, preached, fought, suffered, and died with the precepts of
+Calvin in their hearts.  The fire which had consumed the last vestige of
+royal and sacerdotal despotism throughout the independent republic, had
+been lighted by the hands of Calvinists.
+
+Throughout the blood-stained soil of France, too, the men who were
+fighting the same great battle as were the Netherlanders against Philip
+II. and the Inquisition, the valiant cavaliers of Dauphiny and Provence,
+knelt on the ground, before the battle, smote their iron breasts with
+their mailed hands, uttered a Calvinistic prayer, sang a psalm of Marot,
+and then charged upon Guise, or upon Joyeuse, under the white plume of
+the Bearnese.  And it was on the Calvinist weavers and clothiers of
+Rochelle that the great Prince relied in the hour of danger as much as on
+his mountain chivalry.  In England too, the seeds of liberty, wrapped up
+in Calvinism and hoarded through many trying years, were at last destined
+to float over land and sea, and to bear large harvests of temperate
+freedom for great commonwealths, which were still unborn.  Nevertheless
+there was a growing aversion in many parts of the States for the rigid
+and intolerant spirit of the reformed religion.  There were many men in
+Holland who had already imbibed the true lesson--the only, one worth
+learning of the reformation--liberty of thought; but toleration in the
+eyes of the extreme Calvinistic party was as great a vice as it could be
+in the estimation of Papists.  To a favoured few of other habits of
+thought, it had come to be regarded as a virtue; but the day was still
+far distant when men were to scorn the very word toleration as an insult
+to the dignity of man; as if for any human being or set of human beings,
+in caste, class, synod, or church, the right could even in imagination be
+conceded of controlling the consciences of their fellow-creatures.
+
+But it was progress for the sixteenth century that there were
+individuals, and prominent individuals, who dared to proclaim liberty
+of conscience for all.  William of Orange was a Calvinist, sincere and
+rigid, but he denounced all oppression of religion, and opened wide the
+doors of the Commonwealth to Papists, Lutherans, and Anabaptists alike.
+The Earl of Leicester was a Calvinist, most rigid in tenet, most edifying
+of conversation, the acknowledged head of the Puritan party of England,
+but he was intolerant and was influenced only by the most intolerant of
+his sect.  Certainly it would have required great magnanimity upon his
+part to assume a friendly demeanour towards the Papists.  It is easier
+for us, in more favoured ages, to rise to the heights of philosophical
+abstraction, than for a man, placed as was Leicester, in the front rank
+of a mighty battle, in which the triumph of either religion seemed to
+require the bodily annihilation of all its adversaries.  He believed that
+the success of a Catholic conspiracy against the life of Elizabeth or of
+a Spanish invasion of England, would raise Mary to the throne and consign
+himself to the scaffold.  He believed that the subjugation of the
+independent Netherlands would place the Spaniards instantly in England,
+and he frequently received information, true or false, of Popish plots
+that were ever hatching in various parts of the Provinces against the
+English Queen.  It was not surprising, therefore, although it was unwise,
+that he should incline his ear most seriously to those who counselled
+severe measures not only against Papists, but against those who were not
+persecutors of Papists, and that he should allow himself to be guided by
+adventurers, who wore the mask of religion only that they might plunder
+the exchequer and rob upon the highway.
+
+Under the administration of this extreme party, therefore, the Papists
+were maltreated, disfranchised, banished, and plundered.  The
+distribution of the heavy war-taxes, more than two-thirds of which were
+raised in Holland only, was confided to foreigners, and regulated mainly
+at Utrecht, where not one-tenth part of the same revenue was collected.
+This naturally excited the wrath of the merchants and manufacturers of
+Holland and the other Provinces, who liked not that these hard-earned and
+lavishly-paid subsidies should be meddled with by any but the cleanest
+hands.
+
+The clergy, too, arrogated a direct influence in political affairs.
+Their demonstrations were opposed by the anti-Leicestrians, who cared not
+to see a Geneva theocracy in the place of the vanished Papacy.  They had
+as little reverence in secular affairs for Calvinistic deacons as for the
+college of cardinals, and would as soon accept the infallibility of
+Sixtus V. as that of Herman Modet.  The reformed clergy who had
+dispossessed and confiscated the property of the ancient ecclesiastics
+who once held a constitutional place in the Estates of Utrecht--although
+many of those individuals were now married and had embraced the reformed
+religion who had demolished, and sold at public auction, for 12,300
+florins, the time-honoured cathedral where the earliest Christians of the
+Netherlands had worshipped, and St. Willibrod had ministered, were
+roundly rebuked, on more than one occasion, by the blunt matters beyond
+their sphere.
+
+The party of the States-General, as opposed to the Leicester party,
+was guided by the statesmen of Holland.  At a somewhat later period was
+formed the States-right party, which claimed sovereignty for each
+Province, and by necessary consequence the hegemony throughout the
+confederacy, for Holland.  At present the doctrine maintained was that
+the sovereignty forfeited by Philip had naturally devolved upon the
+States-General.  The statesmen of this party repudiated the calumny that
+it had therefore lapsed into the hands of half a dozen mechanics and men
+of low degree.  The States of each Province were, they maintained,
+composed of nobles and country-gentlemen, as representing the
+agricultural interest, and of deputies from the 'vroedschappen,'
+or municipal governments, of every city and smallest town.
+
+Such men as Adrian Van der Werff, the heroic burgomaster of Leyden during
+its famous siege, John Van der Does, statesman, orator, soldier, poet,
+Adolphus Meetkerke, judge, financier, politician, Carl Roorda, Noel de
+Carom diplomatist of most signal ability, Floris Thin, Paul Buys, and
+Olden-Barneveld, with many others, who would have done honour to the
+legislative assemblies and national councils in any country or any age,
+were constantly returned as members of the different vroedschaps in the
+commonwealth.
+
+So far from its being true then that half a dozen ignorant mechanics had
+usurped the sovereignty of the Provinces, after the abjuration of the
+Spanish King, it may be asserted in general terms, that of the eight
+hundred thousand inhabitants of Holland at least eight hundred persons
+were always engaged in the administration of public affairs, that these
+individuals were perpetually exchanged for others, and that those whose
+names became most prominent in the politics of the day were remarkable
+for thorough education, high talents, and eloquence with tongue and pen.
+It was acknowledged by the leading statesmen of England and France, on
+repeated occasions throughout the sixteenth century, that the
+diplomatists and statesmen of the Netherlands were even more than a match
+for any politicians who were destined to encounter them, and the profound
+respect which Leicester expressed for these solid statesmen, these
+"substantial, wise, well-languaged" men, these "big fellows," so soon as
+he came in contact with them, and before he began to hate them for
+outwitting him, has already appeared.  They were generally men of the
+people, born without any of the accidents of fortune; but, the leaders
+had studied in the common schools, and later in the noble universities of
+a land where to be learned and eloquent was fast becoming almost as great
+an honour as to be wealthy or high born.
+
+The executive, the legislative, and the judiciary departments were more
+carefully and scientifically separated than could perhaps have been
+expected in that age.  The lesser municipal courts, in which city-
+senators presided, were subordinate to the supreme court of Holland,
+whose officers were appointed by the stadholders and council; the
+supplies were in the hands of the States-Provincial, and the supreme
+administrative authority was confided to a stadholder appointed by the
+states.
+
+The States-General were constituted of similar materials to those of
+which the States-Provincial were constructed, and the same individuals
+were generally prominent in both. They were deputies appointed by the
+Provincial Estates, were in truth rather more like diplomatic envoys than
+senators, were generally bound very strictly by instructions, and were
+often obliged, by the jealousy springing from the States-right principle,
+to refer to their constituents, on questions when the times demanded a
+sudden decision, and when the necessary delay was inconvenient and
+dangerous.
+
+In religious matters, the States-party, to their honour, already leaned
+to a wide toleration.  Not only Catholics were not burned, but they were
+not banished, and very large numbers remained in the territory, and were
+quite undisturbed in religious matters, within their own doors.  There
+were even men employed in public affairs who were suspected of papistical
+tendencies, although their hostility, to Spain and their attachment to
+their native land could not fairly be disputed.  The leaders of the
+States-party had a rooted aversion to any political influence on the part
+of the clergy of any denomination whatever.  Disposed to be lenient to
+all forms of worship, they were disinclined to an established church, but
+still more opposed to allowing church-influence in secular affairs.  As a
+matter of course, political men with such bold views in religious matters
+were bitterly assailed by their rigid opponents.  Barneveld, with his
+"nil scire tutissima fides," was denounced as a disguised Catholic or an
+infidel, and as for Paul Buys, he was a "bolsterer of Papists, an
+atheist, a devil," as it has long since been made manifest.
+
+Nevertheless these men believed that they understood the spirit of their
+country and of the age.  In encouragement to an expanding commerce, the
+elevation and education of the masses, the toleration of all creeds, and
+a wide distribution of political functions and rights, they looked for
+the salvation of their nascent republic from destruction, and the
+maintenance of the true interests of the people.  They were still loyal
+to Queen Elizabeth, and desirous that she should accept the sovereignty
+of the Provinces.  But they were determined that the sovereignty should
+be a constitutional one, founded upon and limited by the time-honoured
+laws and traditions of their commonwealth; for they recognised the value
+of a free republic with an hereditary chief, however anomalous it might
+in theory appear.  They knew that in Utrecht the Leicestrian party were
+about to offer the Queen the sovereignty of their Province, without
+conditions, but they were determined that neither Queen Elizabeth nor
+any other monarch should ever reign in the Netherlands, except under
+conditions to be very accurately defined and well secured.
+
+Thus, contrasted, then, were the two great parties in the Netherlands, at
+the conclusion of Leicester's first year of administration.  It may
+easily be understood that it was not an auspicious moment to leave the
+country without a chief.
+
+The strength of the States-party lay in Holland, Zeeland, Friesland.
+The main stay of the democratic or Leicester faction was in the city of
+Utrecht, but the Earl had many partizans in Gelderland, Friesland, and in
+Overyssel, the capital of which Province, the wealthy and thriving
+Deventer, second only in the republic to Amsterdam for commercial and
+political importance, had been but recently secured for the Provinces by
+the vigorous measures of Sir William Pelham.
+
+The condition of the republic and of the Spanish Provinces was, at that
+moment, most signally contrasted.  If the effects of despotism and of
+liberty could ever be exhibited at a single glance, it was certainly only
+necessary to look for a moment at the picture of the obedient and of the
+rebel Netherlands.
+
+Since the fall of Antwerp, the desolation of Brabant, Flanders, and of
+the Walloon territories had become complete.  The King had recovered the
+great commercial capital, but its commerce was gone.  The Scheldt, which,
+till recently, had been the chief mercantile river in the world, had
+become as barren as if its fountains had suddenly dried up.  It was as if
+it no longer flowed to the ocean, for its mouth was controlled by
+Flushing.  Thus Antwerp was imprisoned and paralyzed.  Its docks and
+basins, where 2500 ships had once been counted, were empty, grass was
+growing in its streets, its industrious population had vanished, and the
+Jesuits had returned in swarms.  And the same spectacle was presented by
+Ghent, Bruges, Valenciennes, Tournay, and those other fair cities, which
+had once been types of vigorous industry and tumultuous life.  The sea-
+coast was in the hands of two rising commercial powers, the great and
+free commonwealths of the future.  Those powers were acting in concert,
+and commanding the traffic of the world, while the obedient Provinces
+were excluded from all foreign intercourse and all markets, as the result
+of their obedience.  Commerce, manufactures, agriculture; were dying
+lingering deaths.  The thrifty farms, orchards, and gardens, which had
+been a proverb and wonder of industry were becoming wildernesses.  The
+demand for their produce by the opulent and thriving cities, which had
+been the workshops of the world, was gone.  Foraging bands of Spanish and
+Italian mercenaries had succeeded to the famous tramp of the artizans and
+mechanics, which had often been likened to an army, but these new
+customers were less profitable to the gardeners and farmers.  The
+clothiers, the fullers, the tapestry-workers, the weavers, the cutlers,
+had all wandered away, and the cities of Holland, Friesland, and of
+England, were growing skilful and rich by the lessons and the industry of
+the exiles to whom they afforded a home.  There were villages and small
+towns in the Spanish Netherlands that had been literally depopulated.
+Large districts of country had gone to waste, and cane-brakes and squalid
+morasses usurped the place of yellow harvest-fields.  The fog, the wild
+boar, and the wolf, infested the abandoned homes of the peasantry;
+children could not walk in safety in the neighbourhood even of the larger
+cities; wolves littered their young in the deserted farm-houses; two
+hundred persons, in the winter of 1586-7, were devoured by wild beasts in
+the outskirts of Ghent.  Such of the remaining labourers and artizans as
+had not been converted into soldiers, found their most profitable
+employment as brigands, so that the portion of the population spared by
+war and emigration was assisting the enemy in preying upon their native
+country.  Brandschatzung, burglary, highway-robbery, and murder, had
+become the chief branches of industry among the working classes.  Nobles
+and wealthy burghers had been changed to paupers and mendicants.  Many a
+family of ancient lineage, and once of large possessions, could be seen
+begging their bread, at the dusk of evening, in the streets of great
+cities, where they had once exercised luxurious hospitality; and they
+often begged in vain.
+
+For while such was the forlorn aspect of the country--and the portrait,
+faithfully sketched from many contemporary pictures, has not been
+exaggerated in any of its dark details--a great famine smote the land
+with its additional scourge.  The whole population, soldiers and
+brigands, Spaniards and Flemings, beggars and workmen, were in danger
+of perishing together.  Where the want of employment had been so great
+as to cause a rapid depopulation, where the demand for labour had almost
+entirely ceased, it was a necessary result, that during the process,
+prices should be low, even in the presence of foreign soldiery, and
+despite the inflamed' profits, which such capitalists as remained
+required, by way not only of profit but insurance, in such troublous
+times.  Accordingly, for the last year or two, the price of rye at
+Antwerp and Brussels had been one florin for the veertel (three bushels)
+of one hundred and twenty pounds; that of wheat, about one-third of a
+florin more.  Five pounds of rye, therefore, were worth, one penny
+sterling, reckoning, as was then usual, two shillings to the florin.  A
+pound weight of wheat was worth about one farthing.  Yet this was forty-
+one years after the discovery of the mines of Potosi (A.D. 1545), and
+full sixteen years after the epoch; from which is dated that rapid fall
+in the value of silver, which in the course of seventy years, caused the
+average price of corn and of all other commodities, to be tripled or even
+quadrupled.  At that very moment the average cost of wheat in England was
+sixty-four shillings the quarter, or about seven and sixpence sterling
+the bushel, and in the markets of Holland, which in truth regulated all
+others, the same prices prevailed.  A bushel of wheat in England was
+equal therefore to eight bushels in Brussels.
+
+Thus the silver mines, which were the Spanish King's property, had
+produced their effect everywhere more signally than within the obedient
+Provinces.  The South American specie found its way to Philip's coffers,
+thence to the paymasters of his troops in Flanders, and thence to the
+commercial centres of Holland and England.  Those countries, first to
+feel and obey the favourable expanding impulse of the age, were moving
+surely and steadily on before it to greatness.  Prices were rising with
+unexampled rapidity, the precious metals were comparatively a drug, a
+world-wide commerce, such as had never been dreamed of, had become an
+every-day concern, the arts and sciences and a most generous culture in
+famous schools and universities, which had been founded in the midst of
+tumult and bloodshed, characterized the republic, and the golden age of
+English poetry, which was to make the Elizabethan era famous through all
+time, had already begun.
+
+In the Spanish Netherlands the newly-found treasure served to pay the
+only labourers required in a subjugated and almost deserted country, the
+pikemen of Spain and Italy, and the reiters of Germany.  Prices could not
+sustain themselves in the face of depopulation.  Where there was no
+security for property, no home-market, no foreign intercourse, industrial
+pursuits had become almost impossible.  The small demand for labour had
+caused it, as it were, to disappear, altogether.  All men had become
+beggars, brigands, or soldiers.  A temporary reaction followed.  There
+were no producers.  Suddenly it was discovered that no corn had been
+planted, and that there was no harvest.  A famine was the inevitable
+result.  Prices then rose with most frightful rapidity.  The veertel of
+rye, which in the previous year had been worth one florin at Brussels and
+Antwerp, rose in the winter of 1586-7 to twenty, twenty-two, and even
+twenty-four florins; and wheat advanced from one and one-third florin to
+thirty-two florins the veertel.  Other articles were proportionally
+increased in market-value; but it is worthy of remark that mutton was
+quoted in the midst of the famine at nine stuyvers (a little more than
+ninepence sterling) the pound, and beef at fivepence, while a single cod-
+fish sold for twenty-two florins.  Thus wheat was worth sixpence sterling
+the pound weight (reckoning the veertel of one hundred and twenty pounds
+at thirty florins), which was a penny more than the price of a pound of
+beef; while an ordinary fish was equal in value to one hundred and six
+pounds of beef.  No better evidence could be given that the obedient
+Provinces were relapsing into barbarism, than that the only agricultural
+industry then practised was to allow what flocks and herds were remaining
+to graze at will over the ruined farms and gardens, and that their
+fishermen were excluded from the sea.
+
+The evil cured itself, however, and, before the expiration of another
+year, prices were again at their previous level.  The land was
+sufficiently cultivated to furnish the necessaries of life for a
+diminishing population, and the supply of labour was more than enough,
+for the languishing demand.  Wheat was again at tenpence the bushel, and
+other commodities valued in like proportion, and far below the market-
+prices in Holland and England.
+
+On the other, hand, the prosperity of the republic was rapidly
+increasing.  Notwithstanding the war, which had beer raging for a
+terrible quarter.  of a century without any interruption, population was
+increasing, property rapidly advancing in value, labour in active demand.
+Famine was impossible to a state which commanded the ocean.  No corn grew
+in Holland and Zeeland, but their ports were the granary of the world.
+The fisheries were a mine of wealth almost equal to the famous Potosi,
+with which the commercial world was then ringing.  Their commerce with
+the Baltic nations was enormous.  In one month eight hundred vessels left
+their havens for the eastern ports alone.  There was also no doubt
+whatever--and the circumstance was a source of constant complaint and of
+frequent ineffective legislation--that the rebellious Provinces were
+driving a most profitable trade with Spain and the Spanish possessions,
+in spite of their revolutionary war.  The mines of Peru and Mexico were
+as fertile for the Hollanders and Zeelanders as for the Spaniards
+themselves.  The war paid for the war, one hundred large frigates were
+constantly cruising along the coasts to protect the fast-growing traffic,
+and an army of twenty thousand foot soldiers and two thousand cavalry
+were maintained on land.  There were more ships and sailors at that
+moment in Holland and Zeeland than in the whole kingdom of England.
+
+While the sea-ports were thus rapidly increasing in importance, the towns
+in the interior were advancing as steadily.  The woollen manufacture, the
+tapestry, the embroideries of Gelderland, and Friesland, and Overyssel,
+were becoming as famous as had been those of Tournay, Ypres, Brussels,
+and Valenciennes.  The emigration from the obedient Provinces and from
+other countries was very great.  It was difficult to obtain lodgings in
+the principal cities; new houses, new streets, new towns, were rising
+every day.  The single Province of Holland furnished regularly, for war-
+expenses alone, two millions of florins (two hundred thousand pounds) a
+year, besides frequent extraordinary grants for the same purpose, yet the
+burthen imposed upon the vigorous young commonwealth seemed only to make
+it the more elastic.  "The coming generations may see," says a
+contemporary historian, "the fortifications erected at that epoch in the
+cities, the costly and magnificent havens, the docks, the great extension
+of the cities; for truly the war had become a great benediction to the
+inhabitants."  Such a prosperous commonwealth as this was not a prize to
+be lightly thrown away.  There is no doubt whatever that a large majority
+of the inhabitants, and of the States by whom the people were
+represented, ardently and affectionately desired to be annexed to the
+English crown.  Leicester had become unpopular, but Elizabeth was adored,
+and there was nothing unreasonable in the desire entertained by the
+Provinces of retaining their ancient constitutions, and of transferring
+their allegiance to the English Queen.
+
+But the English Queen could not resolve to take the step.  Although the
+great tragedy which was swiftly approaching its inevitable catastrophe,
+the execution of the Scottish Queen, was to make peace with Philip
+impossible--even if it were imaginable before--Elizabeth, during the year
+1587, was earnestly bent on peace.  This will be made manifest in
+subsequent pages, by an examination of the secret correspondence of the
+court.  Her most sagacious statesmen disapproved her course, opposed it,
+and were often overruled, although never convinced; for her imperious
+will would have its way.
+
+The States-General loathed the very name of peace with Spain.  The people
+loathed it.  All knew that peace with Spain meant the exchange of a
+thriving prosperous commonwealth, with freedom of religion,
+constitutional liberty, and self-government, for provincial subjection to
+the inquisition and to despotism: To dream of any concession from Philip
+on the religious point was ridiculous.  There was a mirror ever held up
+before their eyes by the obedient Provinces, in which they might see
+their own image, should, they too return to obedience.  And there was
+never a pretence, on the part of any honest adviser of Queen Elizabeth in
+the Netherlands, whether Englishman or Hollander, that the idea of peace-
+negotiation could be tolerated for a moment by States or people.  Yet the
+sum of the Queen's policy, for the year 1587, may be summed up in one
+word--peace; peace for the Provinces, peace for herself, with their
+implacable enemy.
+
+In France, during the same year of expectation, we shall see the long
+prologue to the tragic and memorable 1588 slowly enacting; the same
+triangular contest between the three Henrys and their partizans still
+proceeding.  We shall see the misguided and wretched Valois lamenting
+over his victories, and rejoicing over his defeats; forced into hollow
+alliance with his deadly enemy; arrayed in arms against his only
+protector and the true champion of the realm; and struggling vainly in
+the toils of his own mother and his own secretary of state, leagued with
+his most powerful foes.  We shall see 'Mucio,' with one 'hand extended in
+mock friendship toward the King, and with the other thrust backward to
+grasp the purse of 300,000 crowns held forth to aid his fellow-
+conspirator's dark designs against their common victim; and the Bearnese,
+ever with lance in rest, victorious over the wrong antagonist, foiled of
+the fruits of victory, proclaiming himself the English Queen's devoted
+knight, but railing at her parsimony; always in the saddle, always
+triumphant, always a beggar, always in love, always cheerful, and always
+confident to outwit the Guises and Philip, Parma and the Pope.
+
+And in Spain we shall have occasion to look over the King's shoulder, as
+he sits at his study-table, in his most sacred retirement; and we shall
+find his policy for the year 1587 summed up in two words--invasion of
+England.  Sincerely and ardently as Elizabeth meant peace with Philip,
+just so sincerely did Philip intend war with England, and the
+dethronement and destruction of the Queen.  To this great design all
+others were now subservient, and it was mainly on account of this
+determination that there was sufficient leisure in the republic for the
+Leicestrians and the States-General to fight out so thoroughly their
+party-contests.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Acknowledged head of the Puritan party of England (Leicester)
+Geneva theocracy in the place of the vanished Papacy
+Hankering for peace, when peace had really become impossible
+Hating nothing so much as idleness
+Mirror ever held up before their eyes by the obedient Provinces
+Rigid and intolerant spirit of the reformed religion
+Scorn the very word toleration as an insult
+The word liberty was never musical in Tudor ears
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v50
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 51, 1587
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     Barneveld's Influence in the Provinces--Unpopularity of Leicester
+     intrigues--of his Servants--Gossip of his Secretary--
+     Its mischievous Effects--The Quarrel of Norris and Hollock--
+     The Earl's Participation in the Affair--His increased Animosity to
+     Norris--Seizure of Deventer--Stanley appointed its Governor--York
+     and Stanley--Leicester's secret Instructions--Wilkes remonstrates
+     with Stanley--Stanley's Insolence and Equivocation--Painful Rumours
+     as to him and York--Duplicity of York--Stanley's Banquet at
+     Deventer--He surrenders the City to Tassis--Terms of the Bargain--
+     Feeble Defence of Stanley's Conduct--Subsequent Fate of Stanley and
+     York--Betrayal of Gelder to Parma--These Treasons cast Odium on the
+     English--Miserable Plight of the English Troops--Honesty and Energy
+     of Wilkes--Indignant Discussion in the Assembly.
+
+The government had not been laid down by Leicester on his departure. It
+had been provisionally delegated, as already mentioned to the state-
+council.  In this body-consisting of eighteen persons--originally
+appointed by the Earl, on nomination by the States, several members were
+friendly to the governor, and others were violently opposed to him.  The
+Staten of Holland, by whom the action of the States-General was mainly
+controlled, were influenced in their action by Buys and Barneveld.  Young
+Maurice of Nassau, nineteen years of age, was stadholder of Holland and
+Zeeland.  A florid complexioned, fair-haired young man, of sanguine-
+bilious temperament; reserved, quiet, reflective, singularly self-
+possessed; meriting at that time, more than his father had ever done, the
+appellation of the taciturn; discreet, sober, studious.  "Count Maurice
+saith but little, but I cannot tell what he thinketh," wrote Leicester's
+eaves-dropper-in-chiefs.  Mathematics, fortification, the science of war
+--these were his daily pursuits.  "The sapling was to become the tree,"
+and meantime the youth was preparing for the great destiny which he felt,
+lay before him.  To ponder over the works and the daring conceptions of
+Stevinus, to build up and to batter the wooden blocks of mimic citadels;
+to arrange in countless combinations, great armies of pewter soldiers;
+these were the occupations of his leisure-hours.  Yet he was hardly
+suspected of bearing within him the germs of the great military
+commander.  "Small desire hath Count Maurice to follow the wars," said
+one who fancied himself an acute observer at exactly this epoch.  "And
+whereas it might be supposed that in respect to his birth and place, he
+would affect the chief military command in these countries, it is found
+by experience had of his humour, that there is no chance of his entering
+into competition with the others."  A modest young man, who could bide
+his time--but who, meanwhile, under the guidance of his elders, was doing
+his best, both in field and cabinet, to learn the great lessons of the
+age--he had already enjoyed much solid practical instruction, under such
+a desperate fighter as Hohenlo, and under so profound a statesman as
+Barneveld.  For at this epoch Olden-Barneveld was the preceptor, almost
+the political patron of Maurice, and Maurice, the official head of the
+Holland party, was the declared opponent of the democratic-Calvinist
+organization.  It is not necessary, at this early moment, to foreshadow
+the changes which time was to bring.  Meantime it would be seen, perhaps
+ere long, whether or no, it would be his humour to follow the wars.  As
+to his prudent and dignified deportment there was little doubt.  "Count
+Maurice behaveth himself very discreetly all this while," wrote one, who
+did not love him, to Leicester, who loved him less: "He cometh every day
+to the council, keeping no company with Count Hollock, nor with any of
+them all, and never drinks himself full with any of them, as they do
+every day among themselves."
+
+Certainly the most profitable intercourse that Maurice could enjoy with
+Hohenlo was upon the battle-field.  In winter-quarters, that hard-
+fighting, hard-drinking, and most turbulent chieftain, was not the best
+Mentor for a youth whose destiny pointed him out as the leader of a free
+commonwealth.  After the campaigns were over--if they ever could be over-
+-the Count and other nobles from the same country were too apt to indulge
+in those mighty potations, which were rather characteristic of their
+nation and the age.
+
+"Since your Excellency's departure," wrote Leicester's secretary, "there
+hath been among the Dutch Counts nothing but dancing and drinking, to the
+grief of all this people; which foresee that there can come no good of
+it.  Specially Count Hollock, who hath been drunk almost a fortnight
+together."
+
+Leicester had rendered himself unpopular with the States-General, and
+with all the leading politicians and generals; yet, at that moment, he
+had deeply mortgaged his English estates in order to raise funds to
+expend in the Netherland cause.  Thirty thousand pounds sterling--
+according to his own statement--he was already out of pocket, and, unless
+the Queen would advance him the means to redeem his property; his broad
+lands were to be brought to the hammer.  But it was the Queen, not the
+States-General, who owed the money; for the Earl had advanced these sums
+as a portion of the royal contingent.  Five hundred and sixty thousand
+pounds sterling had been the cost of one year's war during the English
+governor's administration; and of this sum one hundred and forty thousand
+had been paid by England.  There was a portion of the sum, over and above
+their monthly levies; for which the States had contracted a debt, and
+they were extremely desirous to obtain, at that moment, an additional
+loan of fifty thousand pounds from Elizabeth; a favour which--Elizabeth
+was very firmly determined not to grant.  It was this terror at the
+expense into which the Netherland war was plunging her, which made the
+English sovereign so desirous for peace, and filled the anxious mind of
+Walsingham with the most painful forebodings.
+
+Leicester, in spite of his good qualities--such as they were--had not
+that most necessary gift for a man in his position, the art of making
+friends.  No man made so many enemies.  He was an excellent hater, and
+few men have been more cordially hated in return.  He was imperious,
+insolent, hot-tempered.  He could brook no equal.  He had also the fatal
+defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station.  Adroit
+intriguers burned incense to him as a god, and employed him as their
+tool.  And now he had mortally offended Hohenlo, and Buys, and Barneveld,
+while he hated Sir John Norris with a most passionate hatred.  Wilkes,
+the English representative, was already a special object of his aversion.
+The unvarnished statements made by the stiff counsellor, of the expense
+of the past year's administration, and the various errors committed, had
+inspired Leicester with such ferocious resentment, that the friends of
+Wilkes trembled for his life.
+
+     ["It is generally bruited here," wrote Henry Smith to his brother-
+     in-law Wilkes, "of a most heavy displeasure conceived by my Lord of
+     Leicester against you, and it is said to be so great as that he hath
+     protested to be revenged of you; and to procure you the more
+     enemies, it is said he hath revealed to my Lord Treasurer, and
+     Secretary Davison some injurious speeches (which I cannot report)
+     you should have used of them to him at your last being with him.
+     Furthermore some of the said Lord's secretaries have reported here
+     that it were good for you never to return hither, or, if their Lord
+     be appointed to go over again, it will be too hot for you to tarry
+     there.  These things thus coming to the ears of your friends have
+     stricken a great fear and grief into the minds of such as love you,
+     lest the wonderful force and authority of this man being bent
+     against you, should do you hurt, while there is none to answer for
+     you."  Smith to Wilkes, 26 Jan.  1587.  (S. P.  Office MS.)]
+
+Cordiality between the governor-general and Count Maurice had become
+impossible.  As for Willoughby and Sir William Pelham, they were both
+friendly to him, but Willoughby was a magnificent cavalry officer, who
+detested politics, and cared little for the Netherlands, except as the
+best battle-field in Europe, and the old marshal of the camp--the only
+man that Leicester ever loved--was growing feeble in health, was broken
+down by debt, and hardly possessed, or wished for, any general influence.
+
+Besides Deventer of Utrecht, then, on whom, the Earl chiefly relied
+during his, absence, there were none to support him cordially, except two
+or three members of the state-council.  "Madame de Brederode hath sent
+unto you a kind of rose," said his intelligencer, "which you have asked
+for, and beseeches you to command anything she has in her garden, or
+whatsoever.  M. Meetkerke, M. Brederode, and Mr. Dorius, wish your return
+with all, their hearts.  For the rest I cannot tell, and will not swear.
+But Mr. Barneveld is not your very great friend, whereof I can write no
+more at this time."
+
+This certainly was a small proportion out of a council of eighteen, when
+all the leading politicians of the country were in avowed hostility to
+the governor.  And thus the Earl was, at this most important crisis, to
+depend upon the subtle and dangerous Deventer, and upon two inferior
+personages, the "fellow Junius"  and a non-descript, whom Hohenlo
+characterized as a "long lean Englishman, with a little black beard."
+This meagre individual however seems to have been of somewhat doubtful
+nationality.  He called himself Otheman, claimed to be a Frenchman, had
+lived much in England, wrote with great fluency and spirit, both in
+French and English, but was said, in reality, to be named Robert Dale.
+
+It was not the best policy for the representative of the English Queen to
+trust to such counsellors at a moment when the elements of strife between
+Holland and England were actively at work; and when the safety, almost
+the existence, of the two commonwealths depended upon their acting
+cordially in concert.  "Overyssel, Utrecht, Friesland, and Gelderland,
+have agreed to renew the offer of sovereignty to her Majesty," said
+Leicester.  "I shall be able to make a better report of their love and
+good inclination than I can of Holland."  It was thought very desirable
+by the English government that this great demonstration should be made
+once more, whatever might be the ultimate decision of her Majesty upon so
+momentous a measure.  It seemed proper that a solemn embassy should once
+more proceed to England in order to confer with Elizabeth; but there was
+much delay in regard to the step, and much indignation, in consequence,
+on the part of the Earl.  The opposition came, of course, from the
+Barneveld party.  "They are in no great haste to offer the sovereignty,"
+said Wilkes.  "First some towns of Holland made bones thereat, and now
+they say that Zeeland is not resolved."
+
+The nature and the causes of the opposition offered by Barneveld and the
+States of Holland have been sufficiently explained.  Buys, maddened by
+his long and unjustifiable imprisonment, had just been released by the
+express desire of Hohenlo; and that unruly chieftain, who guided the
+German and Dutch magnates; such as Moeurs and Overstein, and who even
+much influenced Maurice and his cousin Count Lewis William, was himself
+governed by Barneveld.  It would have been far from impossible for
+Leicester, even then, to conciliate the whole party.  It was highly
+desirable that he should do so, for not one of the Provinces where he
+boasted his strength was quite secure for England.  Count Moeurs, a
+potent and wealthy noble, was governor of Utrecht and Gelderland, and he
+had already begun to favour the party in Holland which claimed for that
+Province a legal jurisdiction over the whole ancient episcopate.  Under
+these circumstances common prudence would have suggested that as good an
+understanding as possible might be kept up with the Dutch and German
+counts, and that the breach might not be rendered quite irreparable.
+
+Yet, as if there had not been administrative blunders enough committed in
+one year, the unlucky lean Englishman, with the black beard, who was the
+Earl's chief representative, contrived--almost before his master's back
+was turned--to draw upon himself the wrath of all the fine ladies in
+Holland.  That this should be the direful spring of unutterable
+disasters, social and political, was easy to foretell.
+
+Just before the governor's departure Otheman came to pay his farewell
+respects, and receive his last commands.  He found Leicester seated at
+chess with Sir Francis Drake.
+
+"I do leave you here, my poor Otheman," said the Earl, "but so soon as I
+leave you I know very well that nobody will give you a good look."
+
+"Your Excellency was a true prophet," wrote the secretary a few weeks
+later, "for, my good Lord, I have been in as great danger of my life as
+ever man was.  I have been hunted at Delft from house to house, and then
+besieged in my lodgings four or five hours, as though I had been the
+greatest thief, murderer, and traitor in the land."
+
+And why was the unfortunate Otheman thus hunted to his lair?  Because he
+had chosen to indulge in 'scandalum magnatum,' and had thereby excited
+the frenzy of all the great nobles whom it was most important for the
+English party to conciliate.
+
+There had been gossip about the Princess of Chimay and one Calvaert, who
+lived in her house, much against the advice of all her best friends.  One
+day she complained bitterly to Master Otheman of the spiteful ways of the
+world.
+
+"I protest," said she, "that I am the unhappiest lady upon earth to have
+my name thus called in question."
+
+So said Otheman, in order to comfort her: "Your Highness is aware that
+such things are said of all.  I am sure I hear every day plenty of
+speeches about lords and ladies, queens and princesses.  You have little
+cause to trouble yourself for such matters, being known to live honestly,
+and like a good Christian lady.  Your Highness is not the only lady
+spoken of."
+
+The Princess listened with attention.
+
+"Think of the stories about the Queen of England and my Lord of
+Leicester!" said Otheman, with infinite tact.  "No person is exempted
+from the tongues of evil, speakers; but virtuous and godly men do put all
+such foolish matter under their feet.  Then there is the Countess of
+Hoeurs, how much evil talk does one hear about her!"
+
+The Princess seemed still more interested and even excited; and the
+adroit Otheman having thus, as he imagined, very successfully smoothed
+away her anger, went off to have a little more harmless gossip about the
+Princess and the Countess, with Madame de Meetkerke, who had sent
+Leicester the rose from her garden.
+
+But, no sooner, had he gone, than away went her Highness to Madame de
+Moeurs, "a marvellous wise and well-spoken gentlewoman and a grave," and
+informed her and the Count, with some trifling exaggeration, that the
+vile Englishman, secretary to the odious Leicester, had just been there,
+abusing and calumniating the Countess in most lewd and abominable
+fashion.  He had also, she protested, used "very evil speeches of all the
+ladies in the country."  For her own part the Princess avowed her
+determination to have him instantly murdered.  Count Moeurs was quite of
+the same mind, and desired nothing better than to be one of his
+executioners.  Accordingly, the next Sunday, when the babbling secretary
+had gone down to Delft to hear the French sermon, a select party,
+consisting of Moeurs, Lewis William of Nassau, Count Overstein, and
+others, set forth for that city, laid violent hands on the culprit, and
+brought him bodily before Princess Chimay.  There, being called upon to
+explain his innuendos, he fell into much trepidation, and gave the names
+of several English captains, whom he supposed to be at that time in
+England.  "For if I had denied the whole matter," said he, "they would
+have given me the lie, and used me according to their evil mind."  Upon
+this they relented, and released their prisoner, but, the next day they
+made another attack upon him, hunted him from house to house, through the
+whole city of Delft, and at last drove him to earth in his own lodgings,
+where they kept him besieged several hours.  Through the intercession of
+Wilkes and the authority of the council of state, to which body he
+succeeded in conveying information of his dangerous predicament, he was,
+in his own language, "miraculously preserved," although remaining still in
+daily danger of his life.  "I pray God keep me hereafter from the anger
+of a woman," he exclaimed, "quia non est ira supra iram mulieris."
+
+He was immediately examined before the council, and succeeded in clearing
+and justifying himself to the satisfaction of his friends.  His part was
+afterwards taken by the councillors, by all the preachers and godly men,
+and by the university of Leyden.  But it was well understood that the
+blow and the affront had been levelled at the English governor and the
+English nation.
+
+"All your friends do see," said Otheman, "that this disgrace is not meant
+so much to me as to your Excellency; the Dutch Earls having used such
+speeches unto me, and against all law, custom, and reason, used such
+violence to me, that your Excellency shall wonder to hear of it."
+
+Now the Princess Chimay, besides being of honourable character, was a
+sincere and exemplary member of the Calvinist church, and well inclined
+to the Leicestrians.  She was daughter of Count Meghem, one of the
+earliest victims of Philip II., in the long tragedy of Netherland
+independence, and widow of Lancelot Berlaymont.  Count Moeurs was
+governor of Utrecht, and by no means, up to that time, a thorough
+supporter of the Holland party; but thenceforward he went off most
+abruptly from the party of England, became hand and glove with Hohenlo,
+accepted the influence of Barneveld, and did his best to wrest the city
+of Utrecht from English authority.  Such was the effect of the
+secretary's harmless gossip.
+
+"I thought Count Moeurs and his wife better friends to your Excellency
+than I do see them to be," said Otheman afterwards.  "But he doth now
+disgrace the English nation many ways in his speeches--saying that they
+are no soldiers, that they do no good to this country, and that these
+Englishmen that are at Arnheim have an intent to sell and betray the town
+to the enemy."
+
+But the disgraceful squabble between Hohenlo and Edward Norris had been
+more unlucky for Leicester than any other incident during the year, for
+its result was to turn the hatred of both parties against himself.  Yet
+the Earl of all men, was originally least to blame for the transaction.
+It has been seen that Sir Philip Sidney had borne Norris's cartel to
+Hohenlo, very soon after the outrage had been committed.  The Count had
+promised satisfaction, but meantime was desperately wounded in the attack
+on Fort Zutphen.  Leicester afterwards did his best to keep Edward Norris
+employed in distant places, for he was quite aware that Hohenlo, as
+lieutenant-general and count of the empire, would consider himself
+aggrieved at being called to the field by a simple English captain,
+however deeply he might have injured him.  The governor accordingly
+induced the Queen to recall the young man to England, and invited him--
+much as he disliked his whole race--to accompany him on his departure for
+that country.
+
+The Captain then consulted with his brother Sir John, regarding the
+pending dispute with Hohenlo.  His brother advised that the Count should
+be summoned to keep his promise, but that Lord Leicester's permission
+should previously be requested.
+
+A week before the governor's departure, accordingly, Edward Norris
+presented himself one morning in the dining-room, and, finding the Earl
+reclining on a window-seat, observed to him that "he desired his
+Lordship's favour towards the discharging of his reputation."
+
+"The Count Hollock is now well," he proceeded, "and is fasting and
+banqueting in his lodgings, although he does not come abroad."
+
+"And what way will you take?"  inquired Leicester, "considering that he
+keeps his house."
+
+"'Twill be best, I thought," answered Norris, "to write unto him, to
+perform his promise he made me to answer me in the field."
+
+"To whom did he make that promise?"  asked the Earl.
+
+"To Sir Philip Sidney," answered the Captain.
+
+"To my nephew Sidney," said Leicester, musingly; "very well; do as you
+think best, and I will do for you what I can."
+
+And the governor then added many kind expressions concerning the interest
+he felt in the young man's reputation.  Passing to other matters, Morris
+then spoke of the great charges he had recently been put to by reason of
+having exchanged out of the States' service in order to accept a
+commission from his Lordship to levy a company of horse.  This levy had
+cost him and his friends three hundred pounds, for which he had not been
+able to "get one groat."
+
+"I beseech your Lordship to stand good for me," said he; "considering the
+meanest captain in all the country hath as good entertainment as I."
+
+"I can do but little for you before my departure," said Leicester; "but
+at my return I will advise to do more."
+
+After this amicable conversation Morris thanked his Lordship, took his
+leave, and straightway wrote his letter to Count Hollock.
+
+That personage, in his answer, expressed astonishment that Norris should
+summon him, in his "weakness and indisposition;" but agreed to give him
+the desired meeting; with sword and dagger, so soon as he should be
+sufficiently recovered.  Morris, in reply, acknowledged his courteous
+promise, and hoped that he might be speedily restored to health.
+
+The state-council, sitting at the Hague, took up the matter at once
+however, and requested immediate information of the Earl.  He accordingly
+sent for Norris and his brother Sir John, who waited upon him in his bed-
+chamber, and were requested to set down in writing the reasons which had
+moved them in the matter.  This statement was accordingly furnished,
+together with a copy of the correspondence.  The Earl took the papers,
+and promised to allow most honourably of it in the Council.
+
+Such is the exact narrative, word for word, as given by Sir John and
+Edward Norris, in a solemn memorial to the Lords of Her Majesty's privy
+council, as well as to the state-council of the United Provinces.  A very
+few days afterwards Leicester departed for England, taking Edward Norris
+with him.
+
+Count Hohenlo was furious at the indignity, notwithstanding the polite
+language in which he had accepted the challenge.  "'T was a matter
+punishable with death," he said, "in all kingdoms and countries, for a
+simple captain to send such a summons to a man of his station, without
+consent of the supreme authority.  It was plain," he added, "that the
+English governor-general had connived at the affront," for Norris had been
+living in his family and dining at his table.  Nay, more, Lord Leicester
+had made him a knight at Flushing just before their voyage to England.
+There seems no good reason to doubt the general veracity of the brothers
+Norris, although, for the express purpose of screening Leicester, Sir
+John represented at the time to Hohenlo and others that the Earl had not
+been privy to the transaction.  It is very certain, however, that so soon
+as the general indignation of Hohenlo and his partizans began to be
+directed against Leicester, he at once denied, in passionate and abusive
+language, having had any knowledge whatever of Norris's intentions.  He
+protested that he learned, for the first time, of the cartel from
+information furnished to the council of state.
+
+The quarrel between Hohenlo and Norris was afterwards amicably arranged
+by Lord Buckhurst, during his embassy to the States, at the express
+desire of the Queen.  Hohenlo and Sir John Norris became very good
+friends, while the enmity between them and Leicester grew more deadly
+every day.  The Earl was frantic with rage whenever he spoke of the
+transaction, and denounced Sir John Norris as "a fool, liar, and coward"
+on all occasions, besides overwhelming his brother, Buckhurst, Wilkes,
+and every other person who took their part, with a torrent of abuse; and
+it is well known that the Earl was a master of Billingsgate.
+
+"Hollock says that I did procure Edward Norris to send him his cartel,"
+observed Leicester on one occasion, "wherein I protest before the Lord,
+I was as ignorant as any man in England.  His brother John can tell
+whether I did not send for him to have committed him for it; but that, in
+very truth, upon the perusing of it" (after it had been sent), "it was
+very reasonably written, and I did consider also the great wrong offered
+him by the Count, and so forbore it.  I was so careful for the Count's
+safety after the brawl between him and Norris, that I charged Sir John,
+if any harm came to the Count's person by any of his or under him, that
+he should answer it.  Therefore, I take the story to be bred in the bosom
+of some much like a thief or villain, whatsoever he were."
+
+And all this was doubtless true so far as regarded the Earl's original
+exertions to prevent the consequences of the quarrel, but did not touch
+the point of the second correspondence preceded by the conversation in
+the dining-room, eight days before the voyage to England.  The affair, in
+itself of slight importance, would not merit so much comment at this late
+day had it not been for its endless consequences.  The ferocity with
+which the Earl came to regard every prominent German, Hollander, and
+Englishman, engaged in the service of the States, sprang very much from
+the complications of this vulgar brawl.  Norris, Hohenlo, Wilkes,
+Buckhurst, were all denounced to the Queen as calumniators, traitors, and
+villains; and it may easily be understood how grave and extensive must
+have been the effects of such vituperation upon the mind of Elizabeth,
+who, until the last day of his life, doubtless entertained for the Earl
+the deepest affection of which her nature was susceptible.  Hohenlo, with
+Count Maurice, were the acknowledged chiefs of the anti-English party,
+and the possibility of cordial cooperation between the countries may be
+judged of by the entanglement which had thus occurred.
+
+Leicester had always hated Sir John Norris, but he knew that the mother
+had still much favour with the Queen, and he was therefore the more
+vehement in his denunciations of the son the more difficulty be found in
+entirely destroying his character, and the keener jealousy he felt that
+any other tongue but his should influence her Majesty.  "The story of
+John Norris about the cartel is, by the Lord God, most false," he
+exclaimed; "I do beseech you not to see me so dealt withal, but that
+especially her Majesty may understand these untruths, who perhaps, by the
+mother's fair speeches and the son's smooth words, may take some other
+conceit of my doings than I deserve."
+
+He was most resolute to stamp the character of falsehood upon both the
+brothers, for he was more malignant towards Sir John than towards any man
+in the world, not even excepting Wilkes.  To the Queen, to the Lords of
+the Privy Council, to Walsingham, to Burghley, he poured forth endless
+quantities of venom, enough to destroy the characters of a hundred honest
+men.
+
+"The declaration of the two Norrises for the cartel is most false, as I
+am a Christian," he said to Walsingham.  "I have a dozen witnesses, as
+good and some better than they, who will testify that they were present
+when I misliked the writing of the letter before ever I saw it.  And by
+the allegiance I owe to her Majesty, I never knew of the letter, nor gave
+consent to it, nor heard of it till it was complained of from Count
+Hollock.  But, as they are false in this, so you will find J. N. as false
+in his other answers; so that he would be ashamed, but that his old
+conceit hath made him past shame, I fear.  His companions in Ireland, as
+in these countries, report that Sir John Norris would often say that he
+was but an ass and a fool, who, if a lie would serve his turn, would
+spare it.  I remember I have heard that the Earl of Sussex would say so;
+and indeed this gentleman doth imitate him in divers things."
+
+But a very grave disaster to Holland and England was soon the fruit of
+the hatred borne by Leicester to Sir John Norris.  Immediately after the
+battle of Zutphen and the investment of that town by the English and
+Netherlanders, great pains were taken to secure the city of Deventer.
+This was, after Amsterdam and Antwerp, the most important mercantile
+place in all the Provinces.  It was a large prosperous commercial and
+manufacturing capital, a member of the Hanseatic League, and the great
+centre of the internal trade of the Netherlands with the Baltic nations.
+There was a strong Catholic party in the town, and the magistracy were
+disposed to side with Parma.  It was notorious that provisions and
+munitions were supplied from thence to the beleaguered Zutphen; and
+Leicester despatched Sir William Pelham, accordingly, to bring the
+inhabitants to reason.  The stout Marshal made short work of it.  Taking
+Sir William Stanley and the greater part of his regiment with him, he
+caused them, day by day, to steal into the town, in small parties of ten
+and fifteen.  No objection was made to this proceeding on the part of the
+city government.  Then Stanley himself arrived in the morning, and the
+Marshal in the evening, of the 20th of October.  Pelham ordered the
+magistrates to present themselves forthwith at his lodgings, and told
+them, with grim courtesy, that the Earl of Leicester excused himself from
+making them a visit, not being able, for grief at the death of Sir Philip
+Sidney, to come so soon near the scene of his disaster.  His Excellency
+had therefore sent him to require the town to receive an English
+garrison.  "So make up your minds, and delay not," said Pelham; "for I
+have many important affairs on my hands, and must send word to his
+Excellency at once.  To-morrow morning, at eight o'clock, I shall expect
+your answer."
+
+Next day, the magistrates were all assembled in the townhouse before six.
+Stanley had filled the great square with his troops, but he found that
+the burghers-five thousand of whom constituted the municipal militia--had
+chained the streets and locked the gates.  At seven o'clock Pelham
+proceeded, to the town-house, and, followed by his train, made his
+appearance before the magisterial board.  Then there was a knocking at
+the door, and Sir William Stanley entered, having left a strong guard of
+soldiers at the entrance to the hall.
+
+"I am come for an answer," said the Lord Marshal; "tell me straight."
+The magistrates hesitated, whispered, and presently one of them slipped
+away.
+
+"There's one of you gone," cried the Marshal.  "Fetch him straight back;
+or, by the living God, before whom I stand, there is not one of you shall
+leave this place with life."
+
+So the burgomasters sent for the culprit, who returned.
+
+"Now, tell me," said Pelham, "why you have, this night, chained your
+streets and kept such strong watch while your friends and defenders were
+in the town?  Do you think we came over here to spend our lives and our
+goods, and to leave all we have, to be thus used and thus betrayed by
+you?  Nay, you shall find us trusty to our friends, but as politic as
+yourselves.  Now, then; set your hands to this document," he proceeded,
+as he gave them a new list of magistrates, all selected from stanch
+Protestants.
+
+"Give over your government to the men here nominated, Straight; dally
+not!"  The burgomasters signed the paper.
+
+"Now," said Pelham, "let one of you go to the watch, discharge the guard,
+bid them unarm, and go home to their lodgings."
+
+A magistrate departed on the errand.
+
+"Now fetch me the keys of the gate," said Pelham, "and that straightway,
+or, before God, you shall die."
+
+The keys were brought, and handed to the peremptory old Marshal.  The old
+board of magistrates were then clapped into prison, the new ones
+installed, and Deventer was gained for the English and Protestant party.
+
+There could be no doubt that a city so important and thus fortunately
+secured was worthy to be well guarded.  There could be no doubt either
+that it would be well to conciliate the rich and influential Papists in
+the place, who, although attached to the ancient religion, were not
+necessarily disloyal to the republic; but there could be as little that,
+under the circumstances of this sudden municipal revolution, it would be
+important to place a garrison of Protestant soldiers there, under the
+command of a Protestant officer of known fidelity.
+
+To the astonishment of the whole commonwealth, the Earl appointed Sir
+William Stanley to be governor of the town, and stationed in it a
+garrison of twelve hundred wild Irishmen.
+
+Sir William was a cadet of one of the noblest English houses.  He was the
+bravest of the brave.  His gallantry at the famous Zutphen fight had
+attracted admiration, where nearly all had performed wondrous exploits,
+but he was known to be an ardent Papist and a soldier of fortune, who had
+fought on various sides, and had even borne arms in the Netherlands under
+the ferocious Alva.  Was it strange that there should be murmurs at the
+appointment of so dangerous a chief to guard a wavering city which had so
+recently been secured?
+
+The Irish kernes--and they are described by all contemporaries, English
+and Flemish, in the same language--were accounted as the wildest and
+fiercest of barbarians.  There was something grotesque, yet appalling,
+in the pictures painted of these rude, almost naked; brigands, who ate
+raw flesh, spoke no intelligible language, and ranged about the country,
+burning, slaying, plundering, a terror to the peasantry and a source of
+constant embarrassment to the more orderly troops in the service of the
+republic.  "It seemed," said one who had seen them, "that they belonged
+not to Christendom, but to Brazil."  Moreover, they were all Papists,
+and, however much one might be disposed to censure that great curse of
+the age, religious intolerance--which was almost as flagrant in the
+councils of Queen Elizabeth as in those of Philip--it was certainly a
+most fatal policy to place such a garrison, at that critical juncture, in
+the newly-acquired city.  Yet Leicester, who had banished Papists from
+Utrecht without cause and without trial, now placed most notorious
+Catholics in Deventer.
+
+Zutphen, which was still besieged by the English and the patriots, was
+much crippled by the loss of the great fort, the capture of which, mainly
+through the brilliant valour of Stanley's brother Edward, has already
+been related.  The possession of Deventer and of this fort gave the
+control of the whole north-eastern territory to the patriots; but, as if
+it were not enough to place Deventer in the hands of Sir William Stanley,
+Leicester thought proper to confide the government of the fort to Roland
+York.  Not a worse choice could be made in the whole army.
+
+York was an adventurer of the most audacious and dissolute character.  He
+was a Londoner by birth, one of those "ruing blades" inveighed against by
+the governor-general on his first taking command of the forces.  A man of
+desperate courage, a gambler, a professional duellist, a bravo, famous in
+his time among the "common hacksters and swaggerers" as the first to
+introduce the custom of foining, or thrusting with the rapier in single
+combats--whereas before his day it had been customary among the English
+to fight with sword and shield, and held unmanly to strike below the
+girdle--he had perpetually changed sides, in the Netherland wars, with
+the shameless disregard to principle which characterized all his actions.
+He had been lieutenant to the infamous John Van Imbyze, and had been
+concerned with him in the notorious attempt to surrender Dendermonde and
+Ghent to the enemy, which had cost that traitor his head.  York had been
+thrown into prison at Brussels, but there had been some delay about his
+execution, and the conquest of the city by Parma saved him from the
+gibbet.  He had then taken service under the Spanish commander-in-chief,
+and had distinguished himself, as usual, by deeds of extraordinary
+valour, having sprung on board the, burning volcano-ship at the siege of
+Antwerp.  Subsequently returning to England, he had, on Leicester's
+appointment, obtained the command of a company in the English contingent,
+and had been conspicuous on the field of Warnsveld; for the courage which
+he always displayed under any standard was only equalled by the audacity
+with which he was ever ready to desert from it.  Did it seem credible
+that the fort of Zutphen should be placed in the hands of Roland York?
+
+Remonstrances were made by the States-General at once.  With regard to
+Stanley, Leicester maintained that he was, in his opinion, the fittest
+man to take charge of the whole English army, during his absence in
+England.  In answer to a petition made by the States against the
+appointment of York, "in respect to his perfidious dealings before," the
+Earl replied that he would answer for his fidelity as for his own
+brother; adding peremptorily--"Do you trust me?  Then trust York."
+
+But, besides his other qualifications for high command, Stanley possessed
+an inestimable one in Leicester's eyes.  He was, or at least had been, an
+enemy of Sir John Norris.  To be this made a Papist pardonable.  It was
+even better than to be a Puritan.
+
+But the Earl did more than to appoint the traitor York and the Papist
+Stanley to these important posts.  On the very day of his departure, and
+immediately after his final quarrel with Sir John about the Hohenlo
+cartel, which had renewed all the ancient venom, he signed a secret
+paper, by which he especially forbade the council of state to interfere
+with or set aside any appointments to the government of towns or forts,
+or to revoke any military or naval commissions, without his consent.
+
+Now supreme executive authority had been delegated to the state-council
+by the Governor-General during his absence.  Command in chief over all
+the English forces, whether in the Queen's pay or the State's pay, had
+been conferred upon Norris, while command over the Dutch and German
+troops belonged to Hohenlo; but, by virtue of the Earl's secret paper,
+Stanley and York were now made independent of all authority.  The evil
+consequences natural to such a step were not slow in displaying
+themselves.
+
+Stanley at once manifested great insolence towards Norris.  That
+distinguished general was placed in a most painful position.  A post of
+immense responsibility was confided to him.  The honour of England's
+Queen and of England's soldiers was entrusted to his keeping; at a moment
+full of danger, and in a country where every hour might bring forth some
+terrible change; yet he knew himself the mark at which the most powerful
+man in England was directing all his malice, and that the Queen, who was
+wax in her great favourite's hands, was even then receiving the most
+fatal impressions as to his character and conduct.  "Well I know," said
+he to Burghley, "that the root of the former malice borne me is not
+withered, but that I must look for like fruits therefrom as before;"
+and he implored the Lord-Treasurer, that when his honour and reputation
+should be called in question, he might be allowed to return to England
+and clear himself.  "For myself," said he, "I have not yet received any
+commission, although I have attended his Lordship of Leicester to his
+ship.  It is promised to be sent me, and in the meantime I understand
+that my Lord hath granted separate commissions to Sir William Stanley and
+Roland York, exempting them from obeying of me.  If this be true, 'tis
+only done to nourish factions, and to interrupt any better course in our
+doings than before hath been."  He earnestly requested to be furnished
+with a commission directly from her Majesty.  "The enemy is reinforcing,"
+he added.  "We are very weak, our troops are unpaid these three months,
+and we are grown odious, to our friends."
+
+Honest Councillor Wilkes, who did his best to conciliate all parties, and
+to do his duty to England and Holland, to Leicester and to Norris, had
+the strongest sympathy with Sir John.  "Truly, besides the value, wisdom,
+and many other good parts that are in him," he said, "I have noted
+wonderful patience and modesty in the man, in bearing many apparent
+injuries done unto him, which I have known to be countenanced and
+nourished, contrary to all reason, to disgrace him.  Please therefore
+continue your honourable opinion of him in his absence, whatsoever may be
+maliciously reported to his disadvantage, for I dare avouch, of my own
+poor skill, that her Majesty hath not a second subject of his place and
+quality able to serve in those countries as he .  .  .  .  .  I doubt not
+God will move her Majesty, in despite of the devil, to respect him as he
+deserves."
+
+Sir John disclaimed any personal jealousy in regard to Stanley's
+appointment, but, within a week or two of the Earl's departure, he
+already felt strong anxiety as to its probable results.  "If it prove no
+hindrance to the service," he said, "it shall nothing trouble me.  I
+desire that my doings may show what I am; neither will I seek, by
+indirect means to calumniate him or any other, but will let them show
+themselves."
+
+Early in December he informed the Lord-Treasurer that Stanley's own men
+were boasting that their master acknowledged no superior authority to his
+own, and that he had said as much himself to the magistracy of Deventer.
+The burghers had already complained, through the constituted guardians of
+their liberties, of his insolence and rapacity, and of the turbulence of
+his troops, and had appealed to Sir John; but the colonel-general's
+remonstrances had been received by Sir William with contumely and abuse,
+and by daunt that he had even a greater commission than any he had yet
+shown.
+
+"Three sheep, an ox, and a whole hog," were required weekly of the
+peasants for his table, in a time of great scarcity, and it was
+impossible to satisfy the rapacious appetites of the Irish kernes.  The
+paymaster-general of the English forces was daily appealed to by Stanley
+for funds--an application which was certainly not unreasonable, as her
+Majesty's troops had not received any payment for three months--but there
+"was not a denier in the treasury," and he was therefore implored to
+wait.  At last the States-General sent him a month's pay for himself and
+all his troops, although, as he was in the Queen's service, no claim
+could justly be made upon them.
+
+Wilkes, also, as English member of the state council, faithfully conveyed
+to the governor-general in England the complaints which came up to all
+the authorities of the republic, against Sir William Stanley's conduct in
+Deventer.  He had seized the keys of the gates, he kept possession of the
+towers and fortifications, he had meddled with the civil government, he
+had infringed all their privileges.  Yet this was the board of
+magistrates, expressly set up by Leicester, with the armed hand, by the
+agency of Marshal Pelham and this very Colonel Stanley--a board of
+Calvinist magistrates placed but a few weeks before in power to control a
+city of Catholic tendencies.  And here was a papist commander displaying
+Leicester's commission in their faces, and making it a warrant for
+dealing with the town as if it were under martial law, and as if he were
+an officer of the Duke of Parma.  It might easily be judged whether such
+conduct were likely to win the hearts of Netherlanders to Leicester and
+to England.
+
+"Albeit, for my own part," said Wilkes, "I do hold Sir William Stanley to
+be a wise and a discreet gent., yet when I consider that the magistracy
+is such as was established by your Lordship, and of the religion, and
+well affected to her Majesty, and that I see how heavily the matter is
+conceived of here by the States and council, I do fear that all is not
+well.  The very bruit of this doth begin to draw hatred upon our nation.
+Were it not that I doubt some dangerous issue of this matter, and that I
+might be justly charged with negligence, if I should not advertise you
+beforehand, I would, have forborne to mention this dissension, for the
+States are about to write to your Lordship and to her Majesty for
+reformation in this matter."  He added that he had already written
+earnestly to Sir William, "hoping to persuade him to carry a mild hand
+over the people."
+
+Thus wrote Councillor Wilkes, as in duty bound, to Lord Leicester, so
+early as the 9th December, and the warning voice of Norris had made
+itself heard in England quite as soon.  Certainly the governor-general,
+having, upon his own responsibility; and prompted, it would seem, by
+passion more than reason, made this dangerous appointment, was fortunate
+in receiving timely and frequent notice of its probable results.
+
+And the conscientious Wilkes wrote most earnestly, as he said he had
+done, to the turbulent Stanley.
+
+"Good Sir William," said he, "the magistrates and burgesses of Deventer
+complain to this council, that you have by violence wrested from them the
+keys of one of their gates, that you assemble your garrison in arms to
+terrify them, that you have seized one of their forts, that the Irish
+soldiers do commit many extortions and exactions upon the inhabitants,
+that you have imprisoned their burgesses, and do many things against
+their laws and privileges, so that it is feared the best affected, of the
+inhabitants towards her Majesty will forsake the town.  Whether any of
+these things be true, yourself doth best know, but I do assure you that
+the apprehension thereof here doth make us and our government hateful.
+For mine own part, I have always known you for a gentleman of value,
+wisdom; and judgment, and therefore should hardly believe any such thing.
+.  .  .  .  I earnestly require you to take heed of consequences, and to
+be careful of the honour of her Majesty and the reputation of our nation.
+You will consider that the gaining possession of the town grew by them
+that are now in office, who being of the religion, and well affected to
+his Excellency's government, wrought his entry into the same .  .  .  .
+I know that Lord Leicester is sworn to maintain all the inhabitants of
+the Provinces in their ancient privileges and customs.  I know further
+that your commission carreeth no authority to warrant you to intermeddle
+any further than with the government of the soldiers and guard of the
+town.  Well, you may, in your own conceipt, confer some words to
+authorize you in some larger sort, but, believe me, Sir, they will not
+warrant you sufficiently to deal any further than I have said, for I have
+perused a copy of your commission for that purpose.  I know the name
+itself of a governor of a town is odious to this people, and hath been
+ever since the remembrance of the Spanish government, and if we, by any
+lack of foresight, should give the like occasion, we should make
+ourselves as odious as they are; which God forbid.
+
+"You are to consider that we are not come into these countries for their
+defence only, but for the defence of her Majesty and our own native
+country, knowing that the preservation of both dependeth altogether upon
+the preserving of these.  Wherefore I do eftsoons intreat and require you
+to forbear to intermeddle any further.  If there shall follow any
+dangerous effect of your proceedings, after this my friendly advice,
+I shall be heartily sorry for your sake, but I shall be able to testify
+to her Majesty that I have done my duty in admonishing you."
+
+Thus spake the stiff councillor, earnestly and well, in behalf of
+England's honour and the good name of England's Queen.
+
+But the brave soldier, whose feet were fast sliding into the paths of
+destruction, replied, in a tone of indignant innocence, more likely to
+aggravate than to allay suspicion.  "Finding," said Stanley, "that you
+already threaten, I have gone so far as to scan the terms of my
+commission, which I doubt not to execute, according to his Excellency's
+meaning and mine honour.  First, I assure you that I have maintained
+justice, and that severely; else hardly would the soldiers have been
+contented with bread and bare cheese."
+
+He acknowledged possessing himself of the keys of the town, but defended
+it on the ground of necessity; and of the character of the people, "who
+thrust out the Spaniards and Almaynes, and afterwards never would obey
+the Prince and States."  "I would be," he said, "the sorriest man that
+lives, if by my negligence the place should be lost.  Therefore I thought
+good to seize the great tower and ports.  If I meant evil, I needed no
+keys, for here is force enough."
+
+With much effrontery, he then affected to rely for evidence of his
+courteous and equitable conduct towards the citizens, upon the very
+magistrates who had been petitioning the States-General, the state-
+council, and the English Queen, against his violence:
+
+"For my courtesy and humanity," he said, "I refer me unto the magistrates
+themselves.  But I think they sent rhetoricians, who could, allege of
+little grief, and speak pitiful, and truly I find your ears have been as
+pitiful in so timorously condemning me.  I assure you that her Majesty
+hath not a better servant than I nor a more faithful in these parts.
+This I will prove with my flesh and blood.  Although I know there be
+divers flying reports spread by my enemies, which are come to my ears, I
+doubt not my virtue and truth will prove them calumniators and men of
+little.  So, good Mr. Wilkes, I pray you, consider gravely, give ear
+discreetly, and advertise into England soundly.  For me, I have been and
+am your friend, and glad to hear any admonition from one so wise as
+yourself."
+
+He then alluded ironically to the "good favour and money" with which he
+had been so contented of late, that if Mr. Wilkes would discharge him of
+his promise to Lord Leicester, he would take his leave with all his
+heart.  Captain, officers, and soldiers, had been living on half a pound
+of cheese a day.  For himself, he had received but one hundred and twenty
+pounds in five months, and was living at three pounds by the day.  "This
+my wealth will not long hold out," he observed, "but yet I will never
+fail of my promise to his Excellency, whatsoever I endure.  It is for her
+Majesty's service and for the love I bear to him."
+
+He bitterly complained of the unwillingness of the country-people to
+furnish vivers, waggons, and other necessaries, for the fort before
+Zutphen.  "Had it not been," he said, "for the travail extraordinary of
+myself, and patience of my brother, Yorke, that fort would have been in
+danger.  But, according to his desire and forethought, I furnished that
+place with cavalry and infantry; for I know the troops there be
+marvellous weak."
+
+In reply, Wilkes stated that the complaints had been made "by no
+rhetorician," but by letter from the magistrates themselves (on whom he
+relied so confidently) to the state-council.  The councillor added,
+rather tartly, that since his honest words of defence and of warning,
+had been "taken in so scoffing a manner," Sir William might be sure of
+not being troubled with any more of his letters.
+
+But, a day or two before thus addressing him, he had already enclosed to
+Leicester very important letters addressed by the council of Gelderland
+to Count Moeurs, stadholder of the Province, and by him forwarded to the
+state-council.  For there were now very grave rumours concerning the
+fidelity of "that patient and foreseeing brother York," whom Stanley had
+been so generously strengthening in Fort Zutphen.  The lieutenant of
+York, a certain Mr. Zouch, had been seen within the city of Zutphen, in
+close conference with Colonel Tassis, Spanish governor of the place.
+Moreover there had been a very frequent exchange of courtesies--by which
+the horrors of war seemed to be much mitigated--between York on the
+outside and Tassis within.  The English commander sent baskets of
+venison, wild fowl, and other game, which were rare in the market of a
+besieged town.  The Spanish governor responded with baskets of excellent
+wine and barrels of beer.  A very pleasant state of feeling, perhaps, to
+contemplate--as an advance in civilization over the not very distant days
+of the Haarlem and Leyden sieges, when barrels of prisoners' heads, cut
+off, a dozen or two at a time, were the social amenities usually
+exchanged between Spaniards and Dutchmen--but somewhat suspicious to
+those who had grown grey in this horrible warfare.
+
+The Irish kernes too, were allowed to come to mass within the city, and
+were received there with as much fraternity by, the Catholic soldiers of
+Tassis as the want of any common dialect would allow--a proceeding which
+seemed better perhaps for the salvation of their souls, than--for the
+advancement of the siege.
+
+The state-council had written concerning these rumours to Roland York,
+but the patient man had replied in a manner which Wilkes characterized as
+"unfit to have been given to such as were the executors of the Earl of
+Leicester's authority."  The councillor implored the governor-general
+accordingly to send some speedy direction in this matter, as well to
+Roland York as to Sir William Stanley; for he explicitly and earnestly
+warned him, that those personages would pay no heed to the remonstrances
+of the state-council.
+
+Thus again and again was Leicester--on whose head rested, by his own
+deliberate act, the whole responsibility--forewarned that some great
+mischief was impending.  There was time enough even then--for it was but
+the 16th December--to place full powers in the hands of the state-
+council, of Norris, or of Hohenlo, and secretly and swiftly to secure the
+suspected persons, and avert the danger.  Leicester did nothing.  How
+could he acknowledge his error?  How could he manifest confidence in the
+detested Norris?  How appeal to the violent and deeply incensed Hohenlo?
+
+Three weeks more rolled by, and the much-enduring Roland York was still
+in confidential correspondence with Leicester and Walsingham, although
+his social intercourse with the Spanish governor of Zutphen continued to
+be upon the most liberal and agreeable footing.  He was not quite
+satisfied with the general, aspect of the Queen's cause in the
+Netherlands, and wrote to the Secretary of State in a tone of
+despondency, and mild expostulation.  Walsingham would have been less
+edified by these communications, had he been aware that York, upon first
+entering Leicester's service, had immediately opened  a correspondence
+with the Duke of Parma, and had secretly given him to understand that his
+object was to serve the cause of Spain.  This was indeed the fact, as the
+Duke informed the King, "but then he is such a scatter-brained, reckless
+dare-devil," said Parma, "that I hardly expected much of him."  Thus the
+astute Sir Francis had been outwitted, by  the adventurous Roland, who
+was perhaps destined also to surpass the anticipations of the Spanish
+commander-in-chief.
+
+Meantime York informed his English patrons, on the 7th January, that
+matters were not proceeding so smoothly in the political world as he
+could wish.  He had found "many cross and indirect proceedings," and so,
+according to Lord Leicester's desire, he sent him a "discourse" on the
+subject, which he begged Sir Francis to "peruse, add to, or take away
+from," and then to inclose to the Earl.  He hoped he should be forgiven
+if the style of the production was not quite satisfactory; for, said he,
+"the place where I am doth too much torment my memory, to call every
+point to my remembrance."
+
+It must, in truth, have been somewhat a hard task upon his memory, to
+keep freshly in mind every detail of the parallel correspondence which he
+was carrying on with the Spanish and with the English government.  Even a
+cool head like Roland's might be forgiven for being occasionally puzzled.
+"So if there be anything hard to be understood," he observed to
+Walsingham, "advertise me, and I will make it plainer."  Nothing could be
+more ingenuous.  He confessed, however, to being out of pocket.  "Please
+your honour," said he, "I have taken great pains to make a bad place
+something, and it has cost me all the money I had, and here I can receive
+nothing but discontentment.  I dare not write you all lest you should
+think it impossible," he added--and it is quite probable that even
+Walsingham would have been astonished, had Roland written all.  The game
+playing by York and Stanley was not one to which English gentlemen were
+much addicted.
+
+"I trust the bearer, Edward Stanley; a discreet, brave gentleman," he
+said, "with details."  And the remark proves that the gallant youth who
+had captured this very Fort Zutphen in, so brilliant a manner was not
+privy to the designs of his brother and of York; for the object of the
+"discourse" was to deceive the English government.
+
+"I humbly beseech that you will send for me home," concluded Roland,
+"for true as I humbled my mind to please her Majesty, your honour, and
+the dead, now am I content to humble myself lower to please myself, for
+now, since his, Excellency's departure, there is no form of proceeding
+neither honourably nor honestly."
+
+Three other weeks passed over, weeks of anxiety and dread throughout the
+republic.  Suspicion grew darker than ever, not only as to York and
+Stanley, but as to all the English commanders, as to the whole English
+nation.  An Anjou plot, a general massacre, was expected by many, yet
+there were no definite grounds for such dark anticipations.  In vain had
+painstaking, truth-telling Wilkes summoned Stanley to his duty, and
+called on Leicester, time after time, to interfere.  In vain did Sir John
+Norris, Sir John Conway, the members of the state-council, and all others
+who should have had authority, do their utmost to avert a catastrophe.
+Their hands were all tied by the fatal letter of the 24th November.  Most
+anxiously did all implore the Earl of Leicester to return.  Never was a
+more dangerous moment than this for a country to be left to its fate.
+Scarcely ever in history was there a more striking exemplification of the
+need of a man--of an individual--who should embody the powers and wishes,
+and concentrate in one brain and arm, the whole energy, of a
+commonwealth.  But there was no such man, for the republic had lost its
+chief when Orange died.  There was much wisdom and patriotism now.
+Olden-Barneveld was competent, and so was Buys, to direct the councils of
+the republic, and there were few better soldiers than Norris and Hohenlo
+to lead her armies against Spain.  But the supreme authority had been
+confided to Leicester.  He had not perhaps proved himself extraordinarily
+qualified for his post, but he was the governor-in-chief, and his
+departure, without resigning his powers, left the commonwealth headless,
+at a moment when singleness of action was vitally important.
+
+At last, very late in January, one Hugh Overing, a haberdasher from
+Ludgate Hill, was caught at Rotterdam, on his way to Ireland, with a
+bundle of letters from Sir William Stanley, and was sent, as a suspicious
+character, to the state-council at the Hague.  On the same day, another
+Englishman, a small youth, "well-favoured," rejoicing in a "very little
+red beard, and in very ragged clothes," unknown by name; but ascertained
+to be in the service of Roland York and to have been the bearer of
+letters to Brussels, also passed through Rotterdam.  By connivance of the
+innkeeper, one Joyce, also an Englishman, he succeeded in making his
+escape.  The information contained in the letters thus intercepted was
+important, but it came too late, even if then the state-council could
+have acted without giving mortal offence to Elizabeth and to Leicester.
+
+On the evening of 28th January (N. S.), Sir William Stanley entertained
+the magistrates of Deventer at a splendid banquet.  There was free
+conversation at table concerning the idle suspicions which had been rife
+in the Provinces as to his good intentions and the censures which had
+been cast upon him for the repressive measures which he had thought
+necessary to adopt for the security of the city.  He took that occasion
+to assure his guests that the Queen of England had not a more loyal
+subject than himself, nor the Netherlands a more devoted friend.  The
+company expressed themselves fully restored to confidence in his
+character and purposes, and the burgomasters, having exchanged pledges of
+faith and friendship with the commandant in flowing goblets, went home
+comfortably to bed, highly pleased with their noble entertainer and with
+themselves.
+
+Very late that same night, Stanley placed three hundred of his wild Irish
+in the Noorenberg tower, a large white structure which commanded the
+Zutphen gate, and sent bodies of chosen troops to surprise all the
+burgher-guards at their respective stations.  Strong pickets of cavalry
+were also placed in all the principal thoroughfares of the city.  At
+three o'clock in the following morning he told his officers that he was
+about to leave Deventer for a few hours, in order to bring in some
+reinforcements for which he had sent, as he had felt much anxiety for
+some time past as to the disposition of the burghers.  His officers,
+honest Englishmen, suspecting no evil and having confidence in their
+chief, saw nothing strange in this proceeding, and Sir William rode
+deliberately out of Zutphen.  After he had been absent an hour or two,
+the clatter of hoofs and the tramp of infantry was heard without, and
+presently the commandant returned, followed by a thousand musketeers and
+three or four hundred troopers.  It was still pitch dark; but, dimly
+lighted by torches, small detachments of the fresh troops picked their
+way through the black narrow streets, while the main body poured at once
+upon the Brink, or great square.  Here, quietly and swiftly, they were
+marshalled into order, the cavalry, pikemen, and musketeers, lining all
+sides of the place, and a chosen band--among whom stood Sir William
+Stanley, on foot, and an officer of high rank on horseback--occupying the
+central space immediately in front of the town-house.
+
+The drums then beat, and proclamation went forth through the city that
+all burghers, without any distinction--municipal guards and all--were to
+repair forthwith to the city-hall, and deposit their arms.  As the
+inhabitants arose from their slumbers, and sallied forth into the streets
+to inquire the cause of the disturbance, they soon discovered that they
+had, in some mysterious manner, been entrapped.  Wild Irishmen, with
+uncouth garb, threatening gesture, and unintelligible jargon, stood
+gibbering at every corner, instead of the comfortable Flemish faces of
+the familiar burgher-guard.  The chief burgomaster, sleeping heavily
+after Sir William's hospitable banquet, aroused himself at last, and sent
+a militia-captain to inquire the cause of the unseasonable drum-beat and
+monstrous proclamation.  Day was breaking as the trusty captain made his
+way to the scene of action.  The wan light of a cold, drizzly January
+morning showed him the wide, stately square--with its leafless lime-trees
+and its tall many storied, gable-ended houses rising dim and spectral
+through the mist-filled to overflowing with troops, whose uniforms and
+banners resembled nothing that he remembered in Dutch and English
+regiments.  Fires were lighted at various corners, kettles were boiling,
+and camp-followers and sutlers were crouching over them, half perished
+with cold--for it had been raining dismally all night--while burghers,
+with wives and children, startled from their dreams by the sudden
+reveillee, stood gaping about, with perplexed faces and despairing
+gestures.  As he approached the town-house--one of those magnificent,
+many-towered, highly-decorated, municipal palaces of the Netherlands--he
+found troops all around it; troops guarding the main entrance, troops on
+the great external staircase leading to the front balcony, and officers,
+in yellow jerkin and black bandoleer, grouped in the balcony itself.
+
+The Flemish captain stood bewildered, when suddenly the familiar form of
+Stanley detached itself from the central group and advanced towards him.
+Taking him by the hand with much urbanity, Sir William led the militia-
+man through two or three ranks of soldiers, and presented him to the
+strange officer on horseback
+
+"Colonel Tassis," said he, "I recommend to you a very particular friend
+of mine.  Let me bespeak your best offices in his behalf."
+
+"Ah God!"  cried the honest burgher, "Tassis!  Tassis!  Then are we
+indeed most miserably betrayed."
+
+Even the Spanish colonel who was of Flemish origin, was affected by the
+despair of the Netherlander.
+
+"Let those look to the matter of treachery whom it concerns," said he;
+"my business here is to serve the King, my master."
+
+"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the
+things which are God's," said Stanley, with piety.
+
+The burgher-captain was then assured that no harm was intended to the
+city, but that it now belonged to his most Catholic Majesty of Spain--
+Colonel Stanley, to whom its custody had been entrusted, having freely
+and deliberately restored it to its lawful owner.  He was then bid to go
+and fetch the burgomasters and magistrates.
+
+Presently they appeared--a dismal group, weeping and woe-begone--the same
+board of strict Calvinists forcibly placed in office but three months
+before by Leicester, through the agency of this very Stanley, who had so
+summarily ejected their popish predecessors, and who only the night
+before had so handsomely feasted themselves.  They came forward, the
+tears running down their cheeks, crying indeed so piteously that even
+Stanley began to weep bitterly himself.  "I have not done this," he
+sobbed, "for power or pelf.  Not the hope of reward, but the love of God
+hath moved me."
+
+Presently some of the ex-magistrates made their appearance, and a party
+of leading citizens went into a private house with Tassis and Stanley to
+hear statements and explanations--as if any satisfactory ones were
+possible.
+
+Sir William, still in a melancholy tone, began to make a speech, through
+an interpreter, and again to protest that he had not been influenced by
+love of lucre.  But as he stammered and grew incoherent as he approached
+the point, Tassis suddenly interrupted the conference.  "Let us look
+after our soldiers,"  said he, "for they have been marching in the foul
+weather half the night."  So the Spanish troops, who had been, standing
+patiently to be rained upon after their long march, until the burghers
+had all deposited their arms in the city-hall, were now billeted on the
+townspeople.  Tassis gave peremptory orders that no injury should be
+offered to persons or property on pain of death; and, by way of wholesome
+example, hung several Hibernians the same day who had been detected in
+plundering the inhabitants.
+
+The citizens were, as usual in such cases, offered the choice between
+embracing the Catholic religion or going into exile, a certain interval
+being allowed them to wind up their affairs.  They were also required to
+furnish Stanley and his regiment full pay for the whole period of their
+service since coming to the Provinces, and to Tassis three months' wages
+for his Spaniards in advance.  Stanley offered his troops the privilege
+of remaining with him in the service of Spain, or of taking their
+departure unmolested.  The Irish troops were quite willing to continue
+under their old chieftain, particularly as it was intimated to them that
+there was an immediate prospect of a brisk campaign in their native
+island against the tyrant Elizabeth, under the liberating banners of
+Philip.  And certainly, in an age where religion constituted country,
+these fervent Catholics could scarcely be censured for taking arms
+against the sovereign who persecuted their religion and themselves.
+These honest barbarians had broken no oath, violated no trust, had
+never pretended sympathy with freedom; or affection for their Queen.
+They had fought fiercely under the chief who led them into battle--they
+had robbed and plundered voraciously as opportunity served, and had been
+occasionally hanged for their exploits; but Deventer and Fort Zutphen had
+not been confided to their keeping; and it was a pleasant thought to
+them, that approaching invasion of Ireland.  "I will ruin the whole
+country from Holland to Friesland," said Stanley to Captain Newton, "and
+then I will play such a game in Ireland as the Queen has never seen the
+like all the days of her life."
+
+Newton had already been solicited by Roland York to take service under
+Parma, and had indignantly declined.  Sir Edmund Carey and his men, four
+hundred in all, refused, to a man, to take part in the monstrous treason,
+and were allowed to leave the city.  This was the case with all the
+English officers.  Stanley and York were the only gentlemen who on this
+occasion sullied the honour of England.
+
+Captain Henchman, who had been taken prisoner in a skirmish a few days
+before the surrender of Deventer, was now brought to that city, and
+earnestly entreated by Tassis and by Stanley to seize this opportunity
+of entering the service of Spain.
+
+"You shall have great advancement and preferment," said Tassis.  "His
+Catholic Majesty has got ready very many ships for Ireland, and Sir
+William Stanley is to be general of the expedition."
+
+"And you shall choose your own preferment," said Stanley, "for I know you
+to be a brave man."
+
+"I would rather," replied Henchman, "serve my prince in loyalty as a
+beggar, than to be known and reported a rich traitor, with breach of
+conscience."
+
+"Continue so," replied Stanley, unabashed; "for this is the very
+principle of my own enlargement: for, before, I served the devil,
+and now I am serving God."
+
+The offers and the arguments of the Spaniard and the renegade were
+powerless with the blunt captain, and notwithstanding "divers other
+traitorous alledgements by Sir William for his most vile facts," as
+Henchman expressed it, that officer remained in poverty and captivity
+until such time as he could be exchanged.
+
+Stanley subsequently attempted in various ways to defend his character.
+He had a commission from Leicester, he said, to serve whom he chose--as
+if the governor-general had contemplated his serving Philip II. with that
+commission; he had a passport to go whither he liked--as if his passport
+entitled him to take the city of Deventer along with him; he owed no
+allegiance to the States; he was discharged from his promise to the Earl;
+he was his own master; he wanted neither money nor preferment; he had
+been compelled by his conscience and his duty to God to restore the city
+to its lawful master, and so on, and so on.
+
+But whether he owed the States allegiance or not, it is certain that he
+had accepted their money to relieve himself and his troops eight days
+before his treason.  That Leicester had discharged him from his promises
+to such an extent as to justify his surrendering a town committed to his
+honour for safe keeping, certainly deserved no answer; that his duty to
+conscience required him to restore the city argued a somewhat tardy
+awakening of that monitor in the breast of the man who three months
+before had wrested the place with the armed hand from men suspected of
+Catholic inclinations; that his first motive however was not the mere
+love of money, was doubtless true.  Attachment to his religion, a desire
+to atone for his sins against it, the insidious temptings of his evil
+spirit, York, who was the chief organizer of the conspiracy, and the
+prospect of gratifying a wild and wicked ambition--these were the springs
+that moved him.  Sums--varying from L30,000 to a pension of 1500
+pistolets a year--were mentioned, as the stipulated price of his treason,
+by Norris, Wilkes, Conway, and others;  but the Duke of Parma, in
+narrating the whole affair in a private letter to the King, explicitly
+stated that he had found Stanley "singularly disinterested."
+
+"The colonel was only actuated by religious motives," he said, "asking
+for no reward, except that be might serve in his Majesty's army
+thenceforth--and this is worthy to be noted."
+
+At the same time it appears from this correspondence, that the Duke,
+recommended, and that the King bestowed, a "merced," which Stanley did
+not refuse; and it was very well known that to no persons in, the world
+was Philip apt to be so generous as to men of high rank, Flemish,
+Walloon, or English, who deserted the cause of his rebellious subjects to
+serve under his own banners.  Yet, strange to relate, almost at the very
+moment that Stanley was communicating his fatal act of treason, in order
+that he might open a high career for his ambition, a most brilliant
+destiny was about to dawn upon him.  The Queen had it in contemplation,
+in recompense for his distinguished services, and by advice of Leicester,
+to bestow great honors and titles upon him, and to appoint him Viceroy of
+Ireland--of that very country which he was now proposing, as an enemy to
+his sovereign and as the purchased tool of a foreign despot, to invade.
+
+Stanley's subsequent fate was obscure.  A price of 3000 florins was put
+by the States upon his head and upon that of York.  He went to Spain, and
+afterwards returned to the Provinces.  He was even reported to have
+become, through the judgment of God, a lunatic, although the tale wanted
+confirmation; and it is certain that at the close of the year he had
+mustered his regiment under Farnese, prepared to join the Duke in the
+great invasion of England.
+
+Roland York, who was used to such practices, cheerfully consummated his
+crime on the same day that witnessed the surrender of Deventer.  He rode
+up to the gates of that city on the morning of the 29th January, inquired
+quietly whether Tassis was master of the place, and then galloped
+furiously back the ten miles to his fort.  Entering, he called his
+soldiers together, bade them tear in pieces the colours of England, and
+follow him into the city of Zutphen.  Two companies of States' troops
+offered resistance, and attempted to hold the place; but they were
+overpowered by the English and Irish, assisted by a force of Spaniards,
+who, by a concerted movement, made their appearance from the town.  He
+received a handsome reward, having far surpassed the Duke of Parma's
+expectations, when he made his original offer of service.  He died very
+suddenly, after a great banquet at Deventer, in the course of the sane
+year, not having succeeded in making his escape into Spain to live at
+ease on his stipend.  It was supposed that he was poisoned; but the
+charge in those days was a common one, and nobody cared to investigate
+the subject.  His body was subsequently exhumed when Deventer came into
+the hands of the patriots--and with impotent and contemptible malice
+hanged upon a gibbet.  This was the end of Roland York.
+
+Parma was highly gratified, as may be imagined, at such successful
+results.  "Thus Fort Zutphen," said he, "about which there have been so
+many fisticuffs, and Deventer--which was the real object of the last
+campaign, and which has cost the English so much blood and money, and is
+the safety of Groningen and of all those Provinces--is now your
+Majesty's.  Moreover, the effect of this treason must be to sow great
+distrust between the English and the rebels, who will henceforth never
+know in whom they can confide."
+
+Parma was very right in this conjuncture.  Moreover, there was just then
+a fearful run against the States.  The castle of Wauw, within a league of
+Bergen-op-Zoom, which had been entrusted to one Le Marchand, a Frenchman
+in the service of the republic, was delivered by him to Parma for 16,000
+florins.  "'Tis a very important post," said the Duke, "and the money was
+well laid out."
+
+The loss of the city of Gelder, capital of the Province of the same name,
+took place in the summer.  This town belonged to the jurisdiction of
+Martin Schenk, and was, his chief place of deposit for the large and
+miscellaneous property acquired by him during his desultory, but most
+profitable, freebooting career.  The Famous partisan was then absent,
+engaged in a lucrative job in the way of his profession.  He had made a
+contract--in a very-business-like way--with the States, to defend the
+city of Rheinberg and all the country, round against the Duke of Parma,
+pledging himself to keep on foot for that purpose an army of 3300 foot
+and 700 horse.  For this extensive and important operation, he was to
+receive 20,000 florins a month from the general exchequer; and in
+addition he was to be allowed the brandschatz--the black-mail, that is
+to say--of the whole country-side, and the taxation upon all vessels
+going up and down the river before Rheinberg; an ad valorem duty, in
+short, upon all river-merchandise, assessed and collected in summary
+fashion.  A tariff thus enforced was not likely to be a mild one; and
+although the States considered that they had got a "good penny-worth" by
+the job, it was no easy thing to get the better, in a bargain, of the
+vigilant Martin, who was as thrifty a speculator as he was a desperate
+fighter.  A more accomplished highwayman, artistically and
+enthusiastically devoted to his pursuit, never lived.  Nobody did his
+work more thoroughly--nobody got himself better paid for his work--and
+Thomas Wilkes, that excellent man of business, thought the States not
+likely to make much by their contract.  Nevertheless, it was a comfort to
+know that the work would not be neglected.
+
+Schenk was accordingly absent, jobbing the Rheinberg siege, and in his
+place one Aristotle Patton, a Scotch colonel in the States' service, was
+commandant of Gelders.  Now the thrifty Scot had an eye to business, too,
+and was no more troubled with qualms of conscience than Rowland York
+himself.  Moreover, he knew himself to be in great danger of losing his
+place, for Leicester was no friend to him, and intended to supersede him.
+Patton had also a decided grudge against Schenk, for that truculent
+personage had recently administered to him a drubbing, which no doubt he
+had richly deserved.  Accordingly, when; the Duke of Parma made a secret
+offer to him of 36,000 florins if he would quietly surrender the city
+entrusted to him, the colonel jumped at so excellent an opportunity of
+circumventing Leicester, feeding his grudge against Martin, and making a
+handsome fortune for himself.  He knew his trade too well, however, to
+accept the offer too eagerly, and bargained awhile for better terms, and
+to such good purpose, that it was agreed he should have not only the
+36,000 florins, but all the horses, arms, plate, furniture, and other
+moveables in the city belonging to Schenk, that he could lay his hands
+upon.  Here were revenge and solid damages for the unforgotten assault
+and battery--for Schenk's property alone made no inconsiderable fortune--
+and accordingly the city, towards Midsummer, was surrendered to the
+Seigneur d'Haultepenne.  Moreover, the excellent Patton had another and
+a loftier motive.  He was in love.  He had also a rival.  The lady of his
+thoughts was the widow of Pontus de Noyelle, Seigneur de Bours, who had
+once saved the citadel of Antwerp, and afterwards sold that city and
+himself.  His rival was no other than the great Seigneur de Champagny,
+brother of Cardinal Granvelle, eminent as soldier, diplomatist, and
+financier, but now growing old, not in affluent circumstances, and much
+troubled with the gout.  Madame de Bours had, however, accepted his hand,
+and had fixed the day for the wedding, when the Scotchman, thus suddenly
+enriched, renewed a previously unsuccessful suit.  The widow then,
+partially keeping her promise, actually celebrated her nuptials on the
+appointed evening; but, to the surprise of the Provinces, she became not
+the 'haulte et puissante dame de Champagny,' but Mrs. Aristotle Patton.
+
+For this last treason neither Leicester nor the English were responsible.
+Patton was not only a Scot, but a follower of Hohenlo, as Leicester
+loudly protested.  Le Merchant was a Frenchman.  But Deventer and Zutphen
+were places of vital importance, and Stanley an Englishman of highest
+consideration, one who had been deemed worthy of the command in chief in
+Leicester's absence.  Moreover, a cornet in the service of the Earl's
+nephew, Sir Robert Sidney, had been seen at Zutphen in conference with
+Tassis; and the horrible suspicion went abroad that even the illustrious
+name of Sidney was to be polluted also.  This fear was fortunately false,
+although the cornet was unquestionably a traitor, with whom the enemy had
+been tampering; but the mere thought that Sir Robert Sidney could betray
+the trust reposed in him was almost enough to make the still unburied
+corpse of his brother arise from the dead.
+
+Parma was right when he said that all confidence of the Netherlanders in
+the Englishmen would now be gone, and that the Provinces would begin to
+doubt their best friends.  No fresh treasons followed, but they were
+expected every day.  An organized plot to betray the country was believed
+in, and a howl of execration swept through the land.  The noble deeds of
+Sidney and Willoughby, and Norris and Pelham, and Roger Williams, the
+honest and valuable services of Wilkes, the generosity and courage of
+Leicester, were for a season forgotten.  The English were denounced in
+every city and village of the Netherlands as traitors and miscreants.
+Respectable English merchants went from hostelry to hostelry, and from
+town to town, and were refused a lodging for love or money.  The nation
+was put under ban.  A most melancholy change from the beginning of the
+year, when the very men who were now loudest in denunciation and fiercest
+in hate, had been the warmest friends of Elizabeth, of England, and of
+Leicester.
+
+At Hohenlo's table the opinion was loudly expressed, even in the presence
+of Sir Roger Williams, that it was highly improbable, if a man like
+Stanley, of such high rank in the kingdom of England, of such great
+connections and large means, could commit such a treason, that he could
+do so without the knowledge and consent of her Majesty.
+
+Barneveld, in council of state, declared that Leicester, by his
+restrictive letter of 24th November, had intended to carry the authority
+over the republic into England, in order to dispose of everything at his
+pleasure, in conjunction with the English cabinet-council, and that the
+country had never been so cheated by the French as it had now been by the
+English, and that their government had become insupportable.
+
+Councillor Carl Roorda maintained at the table of Elector Truchsess that
+the country had fallen 'de tyrannide in tyrrannidem;' and--if they had
+spurned the oppression of the Spaniards and the French--that it was now
+time to, rebel against the English.  Barneveld and Buys loudly declared
+that the Provinces were able to protect themselves without foreign
+assistance, and that it was very injurious to impress a contrary opinion
+upon the public mind.
+
+The whole college of the States-General came before the state-council,
+and demanded the name of the man to whom the Earl's restrictive letter
+had been delivered--that document by which the governor had dared
+surreptitiously to annul the authority which publicly he had delegated to
+that body, and thus to deprive it of the power of preventing anticipated
+crimes.  After much colloquy the name of Brackel was given, and, had not
+the culprit fortunately been absent, his life might have, been in danger,
+for rarely had grave statesmen been so thoroughly infuriated.
+
+No language can exaggerate the consequences of this wretched treason.
+Unfortunately, too; the abject condition to which the English troops had
+been reduced by the niggardliness of their sovereign was an additional
+cause of danger.  Leicester was gone, and since her favourite was no
+longer in the Netherlands, the Queen seemed to forget that there was a
+single Englishman upon that fatal soil.  In five months not one penny had
+been sent to her troops.  While the Earl had been there one hundred and
+forty thousand pounds had been sent in seven or eight months.  After his
+departure not five thousand pounds were sent in one half year.
+
+The English soldiers, who had fought so well in every Flemish battle-
+field of freedom, had become--such as were left of them--mere famishing
+half naked vagabonds and marauders.  Brave soldiers had been changed by
+their sovereign into brigands, and now the universal odium which suddenly
+attached itself to the English name converted them into outcasts.
+Forlorn and crippled creatures swarmed about the Provinces, but were
+forbidden to come through the towns, and so wandered about, robbing hen-
+roosts and pillaging the peasantry.  Many deserted to the enemy.  Many
+begged their way to England, and even to the very gates of the palace,
+and exhibited their wounds and their misery before the eyes of that good
+Queen Bess who claimed to be the mother of her subjects,--and begged for
+bread in vain.
+
+The English cavalry, dwindled now to a body of five hundred, starving and
+mutinous, made a foray into Holland, rather as highwaymen than soldiers.
+Count Maurice commanded their instant departure, and Hohenlo swore that
+if the order were not instantly obeyed, he would put himself at the head
+of his troops and cut every man of them to pieces.  A most painful and
+humiliating condition for brave men who had been fighting the battles of
+their Queen and of the republic, to behold themselves--through the
+parsimony of the one and the infuriated sentiment of the other--compelled
+to starve, to rob, or to be massacred by those whom they had left their
+homes to defend.
+
+At last, honest Wilkes, ever watchful of his duty, succeeded in borrowing
+eight hundred pounds sterling for two months, by "pawning his own
+carcase" as he expressed himself.  This gave the troopers about thirty
+shillings a man, with which relief they became, for a time, contented and
+well disposed.
+
+Is this picture exaggerated?  Is it drawn by pencils hostile to the
+English nation or the English Queen?  It is her own generals and
+confidential counsellors who have told a story in all its painful
+details, which has hardly found a place in other chronicles.  The
+parsimony of the great Queen must ever remain a blemish on her character,
+and it was never more painfully exhibited than towards her brave soldiers
+in Flanders in the year 1587.  Thomas Wilkes, a man of truth, and a man
+of accounts, had informed Elizabeth that the expenses of one year's war,
+since Leicester had been governor-general, had amounted to exactly five
+hundred and seventy-nine thousand three hundred and sixty pounds and
+nineteen shillings, of which sum one hundred and forty-six thousand three
+hundred and eighty-six pounds and eleven shillings had been spent by her
+Majesty, and the balance had been paid, or was partly owing by the
+States.  These were not agreeable figures, but the figures of honest
+accountants rarely flatter, and Wilkes was not one of those financiers
+who have the wish or the gift to make things pleasant.  He had
+transmitted the accounts just as they had been delivered, certified by
+the treasurers of the States and by the English paymasters, and the Queen
+was appalled at the sum-totals.  She could never proceed with such a war
+as that, she said, and she declined a loan of sixty thousand pounds which
+the States requested, besides stoutly refusing to advance her darling
+Robin a penny to pay off the mortgages upon two-thirds of his estates,
+on which the equity of redemption was fast expiring, or to give him the
+slightest help in furnishing him forth anew for the wars.
+
+Yet not one of her statesmen doubted that these Netherland battles were
+English battles, almost as much as if the fighting-ground had been the
+Isle of Wight or the coast of Kent, the charts of which the statesmen and
+generals of Spain were daily conning.
+
+Wilkes, too, while defending Leicester stoutly behind his back, doing his
+best, to explain his short-comings, lauding his courage and generosity,
+and advocating his beloved theory of popular sovereignty with much
+ingenuity and eloquence, had told him the truth to his face.  Although
+assuring him that if he came back soon, he might rule the States "as a
+schoolmaster doth his boys," he did not fail to set before him the
+disastrous effects of his sudden departure and of his protracted absence;
+he had painted in darkest colours the results of the Deventer treason,
+he had unveiled the cabals against his authority, he had repeatedly and
+vehemently implored his return; he had, informed the Queen, that
+notwithstanding some errors of, administration, he was much the fittest
+man to represent her in the Netherlands, and, that he could accomplish,
+by reason of his experience, more in three months than any other man
+could do in a year.  He bad done his best to reconcile the feuds which
+existed between him and important personages in the Netherlands, he had
+been the author of the complimentary letters sent to him in the name of
+the States-General--to the great satisfaction of the Queen--but he had
+not given up his friendship with Sir John Norris, because he said "the
+virtues of the man made him as worthy of love as any one living, and
+because the more he knew him, the more he had cause to affect and to
+admire him."
+
+This was the unpardonable offence, and for this, and for having told the
+truth about the accounts, Leicester denounced Wilkes to the Queen as a
+traitor and a hypocrite, and threatened repeatedly to take his life.  He
+had even the meanness to prejudice Burghley against him--by insinuating
+to the Lord-Treasurer that he too had been maligned by Wilkes--and thus
+most effectually damaged the character of the plain-spoken councillor
+with the Queen and many of her advisers; notwithstanding that he
+plaintively besought her to "allow him to reiterate his sorry song, as
+doth the cuckoo, that she would please not condemn her poor servant
+unheard."
+
+Immediate action was taken on the Deventer treason, and on the general
+relations between the States-General and the English government.
+Barneveld immediately drew up a severe letter to the Earl of Leicester.
+On the 2nd February Wilkes came by chance into the assembly of the
+States-General, with the rest of the councillors, and found Barneveld
+just demanding the public reading of that document.  The letter was read.
+Wilkes then rose and made a few remarks.
+
+"The letter seems rather sharp upon his Excellency," he observed.  "There
+is not a word in it," answered Barneveld curtly, "that is not perfectly
+true;" and with this he cut the matter short, and made a long speech upon
+other matters which were then before the assembly.
+
+Wilkes, very anxious as to the effect of the letter, both upon public
+feeling in England and upon his own position as English councillor,
+waited immediately upon Count Maurice, President van der Myle, and upon
+Villiers the clergyman, and implored their interposition to prevent the
+transmission of the epistle.  They promised to make an effort to delay
+its despatch or to mitigate its tone.  A fortnight afterwards, however,
+Wilkes learned with dismay, that the document (the leading passages of
+which will be given hereafter) had been sent to its destination.
+
+Meantime, a consultation of civilians and of the family council of Count
+Maurice was held, and it was determined that the Count should assume the
+title of Prince more formally than he had hitherto done, in order that
+the actual head of the Nassaus might be superior in rank to Leicester or
+to any man who could be sent from England.  Maurice was also appointed by
+the States, provisionally, governor-general, with Hohenlo for his
+lieutenant-general.  That formidable personage, now fully restored to
+health, made himself very busy in securing towns and garrisons for the
+party of Holland, and in cashiering all functionaries suspected of
+English tendencies.  Especially he became most intimate with Count
+Moeurs, stadholder of Utrecht--the hatred of which individual and his
+wife towards Leicester and the English nation; springing originally from
+the unfortunate babble of Otheman, had grown more intense than ever,--
+"banquetting and feasting" with him all day long, and concocting a
+scheme; by which, for certain considerations, the province of Utrecht was
+to be annexed to Holland under the perpetual stadholderate of Prince
+Maurice.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station
+The sapling was to become the tree
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v51
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 52, 1587
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     Leicester in England--Trial of the Queen of Scots--Fearful
+     Perplexity at the English Court--Infatuation and Obstinacy of the
+     Queen--Netherland Envoys in England--Queen's bitter Invective
+     against them--Amazement of the Envoys--They consult with her chief
+     Councillors--Remarks of Burghley and Davison--Fourth of February
+     Letter from the States--Its severe Language towards Leicester--
+     Painful Position of the Envoys at Court--Queen's Parsimony towards
+     Leicester.
+
+The scene shifts, for a brief interval, to England.  Leicester had
+reached the court late in November.  Those "blessed beams," under whose
+shade he was wont to find so much "refreshment and nutrition," had again
+fallen with full radiance upon him.  "Never since I was born," said he,
+"did I receive a more gracious welcome."--[Leicester to 'Wilkes, 4 Dec.
+1587.  (S. P. Office MS)]--Alas, there was not so much benignity for the
+starving English soldiers, nor for the Provinces, which were fast growing
+desperate; but although their cause was so intimately connected with the
+"great cause," which then occupied Elizabeth, almost to the exclusion of
+other matter, it was, perhaps, not wonderful, although unfortunate, that
+for a time the Netherlands should be neglected.
+
+The "daughter of debate" had at last brought herself, it was supposed,
+within the letter of the law, and now began those odious scenes of
+hypocrisy on the part of Elizabeth, that frightful comedy--more
+melancholy even than the solemn tragedy which it preceded and followed--
+which must ever remain the darkest passage in the history of the Queen.
+
+It is unnecessary, in these pages, to make more than a passing allusion
+to the condemnation and death of the Queen of Scots.  Who doubts her
+participation in the Babington conspiracy?  Who doubts that she was the
+centre of one endless conspiracy by Spain and Rome against the throne and
+life of Elizabeth?  Who doubts that her long imprisonment in England was
+a violation of all law, all justice, all humanity?  Who doubts that the
+fineing, whipping, torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and
+children, guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith,
+had assisted the Pope and Philip, and their band of English, Scotch, and
+Irish conspirators, to shake Elizabeth's throne and endanger her life?
+Who doubts that; had the English sovereign been capable of conceiving the
+great thought of religious toleration, her reign would have been more
+glorious than, it was, the cause of Protestantism and freedom more
+triumphant, the name of Elizabeth Tudor dearer to human hearts?  Who
+doubts that there were many enlightened and noble spirits among her
+Protestant subjects who lifted up their voices, over and over again, in
+parliament and out of it, to denounce that wicked persecution exercised
+upon their innocent Catholic brethren, which was fast converting loyal
+Englishmen, against their will, into traitors and conspirators?  Yet who
+doubts that it would have required, at exactly that moment, and in the
+midst of that crisis; more elevation of soul than could fairly be
+predicated of any individual, for Elizabeth in 1587 to pardon Mary,
+or to relax in the severity of her legislation towards English Papists?
+
+Yet, although a display of sublime virtue, such as the world has rarely
+seen, was not to be expected, it was reasonable to look for honest and
+royal dealing, from a great sovereign, brought at last face to face with
+a great event.  The "great cause" demanded, a great, straightforward
+blow.  It was obvious, however, that it would be difficult, in the midst
+of the tragedy and the comedy, for the Netherland business to come fairly
+before her Majesty.  "Touching the Low Country causes," said Leicester;
+"very little is done yet, by reason of the continued business we have had
+about the Queen of Scots' matters.  All the speech I have had with her
+Majesty hitherto touching those causes hath been but private."--
+[Leicester to Wilkes, 4 Des 1586.  (S. P. Office MS.)]--Walsingham,
+longing for retirement, not only on account of his infinite grief for the
+death of Sir Philip Sidney, "which hath been the cause;" he said, "that I
+have ever since betaken myself into solitariness, and withdrawn; from
+public affairs," but also by reason of the perverseness an difficulty
+manifested in the gravest affairs by the sovereign he so faithfully
+served, sent information, that, notwithstanding the arrival of some of
+the States' deputies, Leicester was persuading her Majesty to proceed
+first in the great cause.  "Certain principal persons, chosen as
+committees," he said, "of both Houses are sent as humble suitors, to her
+Majesty to desire that she would be pleased to give order for the
+execution of the Scottish Queen.  Her Majesty made answer that she was
+loath to proceed in so violent a course against the said Queen; as the
+taking away of her life, and therefore prayed them to think of some other
+way which might be for her own and their safety.  They replied, no other
+way but her execution.  Her Majesty, though she yielded no answer to this
+their latter reply, is contented to give order that the proclamation be
+published, and so also it is hoped that she, will be moved by this, their
+earnest instance to proceed to the thorough ending of the cause."
+
+And so the cause went slowly on to its thorough ending.  And when
+"no other way" could be thought of but to take Mary's life, and when
+"no other way of taking that life could be devised," at Elizabeth's
+suggestion, except by public execution, when none of the gentlemen
+"of the association," nor Paulet, nor Drury--how skilfully soever their
+"pulses had been felt" by Elizabeth's command--would commit assassination
+to serve a Queen who was capable of punishing them afterwards for the
+murder, the great cause came to its inevitable conclusion, and Mary
+Stuart was executed by command of Elizabeth Tudor.  The world may
+continue to differ as to the necessity of the execution but it has long
+since pronounced a unanimous verdict as to the respective display of
+royal dignity by the two Queens upon that great occasion.
+
+During this interval the Netherland matter, almost as vital to England as
+the execution of Mary, was comparatively neglected.  It was not
+absolutely in abeyance, but the condition of the Queen's mind coloured
+every state-affair with its tragic hues.  Elizabeth, harassed, anxious,
+dreaming dreams, and enacting a horrible masquerade, was in the worst
+possible temper to be approached by the envoys.  She was furious with the
+Netherlanders for having maltreated her favourite.  She was still more
+furious because their war was costing so much money.  Her disposition
+became so uncertain, her temper so ungovernable, as to drive her
+counsellors to their wit's ends.  Burghley confessed himself "weary of
+his miserable life," and protested "that the only desire he had in the
+world was to be delivered from the ungrateful burthen of service, which
+her Majesty laid upon him so very heavily."  Walsingham wished himself
+"well established in Basle."  The Queen set them all together by the
+ears.  She wrangled spitefully over the sum-totals from the Netherlands;
+she worried Leicester, she scolded Burghley for defending Leicester, and
+Leicester abused Burghley for taking part against him.
+
+The Lord-Treasurer, overcome with "grief which pierced both his body and
+his heart," battled his way--as best he could--through the throng of
+dangers which beset the path of England in that great crisis.  It was
+most obvious to every statesman in the realm that this was not the time--
+when the gauntlet had been thrown full in the face of Philip and Sixtus
+and all Catholicism, by the condemnation of Mary--to leave the Netherland
+cause "at random," and these outer bulwarks of her own kingdom
+insufficiently protected.
+
+"Your Majesty will hear," wrote Parma to Philip, "of the disastrous,
+lamentable, and pitiful end of the, poor Queen of Scots.  Although for
+her it will be immortal glory, and she will be placed among the number of
+the many martyrs whose blood has been shed in the kingdom of England, and
+be crowned in Heaven with a diadem more precious than the one she wore on
+earth, nevertheless one cannot repress one's natural emotions.  I believe
+firmly that this cruel deed will be the concluding crime of the many
+which that Englishwoman has committed, and that our Lord will be pleased
+that she shall at last receive the chastisement which she has these many
+long years deserved, and which has been reserved till now, for her
+greater ruin and confusion."--[Parma to Philip IL, 22 March.  1587.
+(Arch. de Simancas, MS.)]--And with this, the Duke proceeded to discuss
+the all important and rapidly-preparing invasion of England.  Farnese was
+not the man to be deceived by the affected reluctance of Elizabeth before
+Mary's scaffold, although he was soon to show that he was himself a
+master in the science of grimace.  For Elizabeth--more than ever disposed
+to be friends with Spain and Rome, now that war to the knife was made
+inevitable--was wistfully regarding that trap of negotiation, against
+which all her best friends were endeavouring to warn her.  She was more
+ill-natured than ever to the Provinces, she turned her back upon the
+Warnese, she affronted Henry III. by affecting to believe in the fable of
+his envoy's complicity in the Stafford conspiracy against her life.
+
+"I pray God to open her eyes," said Walsingham, "to see the evident peril
+of the course she now holdeth .  .  .  .  If it had pleased her to have
+followed the advice given her touching the French ambassador, our ships
+had been released .  .  .  .  but she has taken a very strange course by
+writing a very sharp letter unto the French King, which I fear will cause
+him to give ear to those of the League, and make himself a party with
+them, seeing so little regard had to him here.  Your Lordship may see
+that our courage doth greatly increase, for that we make no difficulty to
+fall out with all the world .  .  .  .  .  I never saw her worse affected
+to the poor King of Navarre, and yet doth she seek in no sort to yield
+contentment to the French King.  If to offend all the world;" repeated
+the Secretary bitterly, "be it good cause of government, then can we not
+do amiss .  .  .  .  . I never found her less disposed to take a course
+of prevention of the approaching mischiefs toward this realm than at this
+present.  And to be plain with you, there is none here that hath either
+credit or courage to deal effectually with her in any of her great
+causes."
+
+Thus distracted by doubts and dangers, at war with her best friends, with
+herself, and with all-the world, was Elizabeth during the dark days and
+months which, preceded and followed the execution of the Scottish Queen.
+If the great fight was at last to be fought triumphantly through, it was
+obvious that England was to depend upon Englishmen of all ranks and
+classes, upon her prudent and far-seeing statesmen, upon her nobles and
+her adventurers, on her Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman blood ever mounting
+against, oppression, on Howard and Essex, Drake and Williams, Norris, and
+Willoughby, upon high-born magnates, plebeian captains, London merchants,
+upon yeomen whose limbs were made in England, and upon Hollanders and
+Zeelanders whose fearless mariners were to swarm to the protection of her
+coasts, quite as much in that year of anxious expectation as upon the
+great Queen herself.  Unquestionable as were her mental capacity and her
+more than woman's courage, when fairly, brought face, to face with the
+danger, it was fortunately not on one man or woman's brain and arm that
+England's salvation depended in that crisis of her fate.
+
+As to the Provinces, no one ventured to speak very boldly in their
+defence.  "When I lay before her the peril," said Walsingham, "she
+scorneth at it.  The hope of a peace with Spain has put her into a most
+dangerous security."  Nor would any man now assume responsibility.  The
+fate of Davison--of the man who had already in so detestable a manner
+been made the scape-goat for Leicester's sins in the Netherlands, and
+who had now been so barbarously sacrificed by the Queen for faithfully
+obeying her orders in regard to the death-warrant, had sickened all
+courtiers and counsellors for the time.  "The late severe, dealing
+used by her Highness towards Mr. Secretary Davison," said Walsingham
+to Wilkes, "maketh us very circumspect and careful not to proceed in
+anything but wherein we receive direction from herself, and therefore
+you must not find it strange if we now be more sparing than heretofore
+hath been accustomed."
+
+Such being the portentous state of the political atmosphere, and such
+the stormy condition of the royal mind, it may be supposed that the
+interviews of the Netherland envoys with her Majesty during this period
+were not likely to be genial.  Exactly at the most gloomy moment--
+thirteen days before the execution of Mary--they came first into
+Elizabeth's presence at Greenwich.
+
+The envoys were five in number, all of them experienced and able
+statesmen--Zuylen van Nyvelt, Joos de Menyn, Nicasius de Silla, Jacob
+Valck, and Vitus van Kammings.  The Queen was in the privy council-
+chamber, attended by the admiral of England, Lord Thomas Howard, Lord
+Hunsdon, great-chamberlain, Sir Christopher Hatton, vice-chamberlain,
+Secretary Davison, and many other persons of distinction.
+
+The letters of credence were duly presented, but it was obvious from the
+beginning of the interview that the Queen was ill-disposed toward the
+deputies, and had not only been misinformed as to matters of fact, but as
+to the state of feeling of the Netherlanders and of the States-General
+towards herself.
+
+Menyu, however, who was an orator by profession--being pensionary of
+Dort--made, in the name of his colleagues, a brief but pregnant speech,
+to which the Queen listened attentively, although, with frequent
+indications of anger and impatience.  He commenced by observing that
+the United Provinces still entertained the hope that her Majesty would
+conclude, upon further thoughts, to accept the sovereignty over them,
+with reasonable conditions; but the most important passages of his
+address were those relating to the cost of the war.  "Besides our
+stipulated contributions," said the pensionary, "of 200,000 florins the
+month, we have furnished 500,000 as an extraordinary grant; making for
+the year 2,900,000 florins, and this over and above the particular and
+special expenditures of the Provinces, and other sums for military
+purposes.  We confess, Madam, that the succour of your Majesty is a truly
+royal one, and that there have been few princes in history who have given
+such assistance to their neighbours unjustly oppressed.  It is certain
+that by means of that help, joined with the forces of the United
+Provinces, the Earl of Leicester has been able to arrest the course
+of the Duke of Parma's victories and to counteract his designs.
+Nevertheless, it appears, Madam, that these forces have not been
+sufficient to drive the enemy out of the country.  We are obliged, for
+regular garrison work and defence of cities, to keep; up an army of at
+least 27,000 foot and 3500 horse.  Of this number your Majesty pays 5000
+foot and 1000 horse, and we are now commissioned, Madam, humbly to
+request an increase of your regular succour during the war to 10,000 foot
+and 2000 horse.  We also implore the loan of L60,000 sterling, in order
+to assist us in maintaining for the coming season a sufficient force in
+the field."
+
+Such, in brief, was the oration of pensionary Menyn, delivered in the
+French language.  He had scarcely concluded, when the Queen--evidently in
+a great passion--rose to her feet, and without any hesitation, replied in
+a strain of vehement eloquence in the same tongue.
+
+"Now I am not deceived, gentlemen," she said, "and that which I have been
+fearing has occurred.  Our common adage, which we have in England, is a
+very good one.  When one fears that an evil is coming, the sooner it
+arrives the better.  Here is a quarter of a year that I have been
+expecting you, and certainly for the great benefit I have conferred on
+you, you have exhibited a great ingratitude, and I consider myself very
+ill treated by you.  'Tis very strange that you should begin by
+soliciting still greater succour without rendering me any satisfaction
+for your past actions, which have been so extraordinary, that I swear by
+the living God I think it impossible to find peoples or states more
+ungrateful or ill-advised than yourselves.
+
+"I have sent you this year fifteen, sixteen, aye seventeen or eighteen
+thousand men.  You have left them without payment, you have let some of
+them die of hunger, driven others to such desperation that they have
+deserted to the enemy.  Is it not mortifying for the English nation and
+a great shame for you that Englishmen should say that they have found
+more courtesy from Spaniards than from Netherlanders?  Truly, I tell you
+frankly that I will never endure such indignities.  Rather will I act
+according to my will, and you may do exactly, as you think best.
+
+"If I chose, I could do something very good without you, although some
+persons are so fond of saying that it was quite necessary for the Queen
+of England to do what she does for her own protection.  No, no!  Disabuse
+yourselves of that impression.  These are but false persuasions.  Believe
+boldly that I can play an excellent game without your assistance, and a
+better one than I ever did with it!  Nevertheless, I do not choose to do
+that, nor do I wish you so much harm.  But likewise do I not choose that
+you should hold such language to me.  It is true that I should not wish
+the Spaniard so near me if he should be my enemy.  But why should I
+not live in peace, if we were to be friends to each other?  At the
+commencement of my reign we lived honourably together, the King of Spain
+and I, and he even asked me to, marry him, and, after that, we lived a
+long time very peacefully, without any attempt having been made against
+my life.  If we both choose, we can continue so to do.
+
+"On the other hand, I sent you the Earl of Leicester, as lieutenant of
+my forces, and my intention was that he should have exact knowledge of
+your finances and contributions.  But, on the contrary, he has never
+known anything about them, and you have handled them in your own manner
+and amongst yourselves.  You have given him the title of governor, in
+order, under this name, to cast all your evils on his head.  That title
+he accepted against my will, by doing which he ran the risk of losing his
+life, and his estates, and the grace and favour of his Princess, which
+was more important to him than all.  But he did it in order to maintain
+your tottering state.  And what authority, I pray you, have you given
+him?  A shadowy authority, a purely imaginary one.  This is but mockery.
+He is, at any rate, a gentleman, a man of honour and of counsel.  You had
+no right to treat him thus.  If I had accepted the title which you wished
+to give me, by the living God, I would not have suffered you so to treat
+me.
+
+"But you are so badly advised that when there is a man of worth who
+discovers your tricks you wish him ill, and make an outcry against him;
+and yet some of you, in order to save your money, and others in the hope
+of bribes, have been favouring the Spaniard, and doing very wicked work.
+No, believe me that God will punish those who for so great a benefit wish
+to return me so much evil.  Believe, boldly too, that the King of Spain
+will never trust men who have abandoned the party to which they belonged,
+and from which they have received so many benefits, and will never
+believe a word of what they promise him.  Yet, in order to cover up their
+filth, they spread the story that the Queen of England is thinking of
+treating for peace without their knowledge.  No, I would rather be dead
+than that any one should have occasion to say that I had not kept my
+promise.  But princes must listen to both sides, and that can be done
+without breach of faith.  For they transact business in a certain way,
+and with a princely intelligence, such as private persons cannot imitate.
+
+"You are States, to be sure, but private individuals in regard to
+princes.  Certainly, I would never choose to do anything without your
+knowledge, and I would never allow the authority which you have among
+yourselves, nor your privileges, nor your statutes, to be infringed.
+Nor will I allow you to be perturbed in your consciences.  What then
+would you more of me?  You have issued a proclamation in your country
+that no one is to talk of peace.  Very well, very good.  But permit
+princes likewise to do as they shall think best for the security of their
+state, provided it does you no injury.  Among us princes we are not wont
+to make such long orations as you do, but you ought to be content with
+the few words that we bestow upon you, and make yourself quiet thereby.
+
+"If I ever do anything for you again, I choose to be treated more
+honourably.  I shall therefore appoint some personages of my council to
+communicate with you.  And in the first place I choose to hear and see
+for myself what has taken place already, and have satisfaction about
+that, before I make any reply to what you have said to me as to greater
+assistance.  And so I will leave you to-day, without troubling you
+further."
+
+With this her Majesty swept from the apartment, leaving the deputies
+somewhat astounded at the fierce but adroit manner in which the tables
+had for a moment been turned upon them.
+
+It was certainly a most unexpected blow, this charge of the States having
+left the English soldiers--whose numbers the Queen had so suddenly
+multiplied by three--unpaid and unfed.  Those Englishmen who, as
+individuals, had entered the States' service, had been--like all the
+other troops regularly paid.  This distinctly appeared from the
+statements of her own counsellors and generals.  On the other hand,
+the Queen's contingent, now dwindled to about half their original
+number, had been notoriously unpaid for nearly six months.
+
+This has already been made sufficiently clear from the private letters
+of most responsible persons.  That these soldiers were starving,
+deserting; and pillaging, was, alas! too true; but the envoys of the
+States hardly expected to be censured by her Majesty, because she had
+neglected to pay her own troops.  It was one of the points concerning
+which they had been especially enjoined to complain, that the English
+cavalry, converted into highwaymen by want of pay, had been plundering
+the peasantry, and we have seen that Thomas Wilkes had "pawned his
+carcase" to provide for their temporary relief.
+
+With regard to the insinuation that prominent personages in the country
+had been tampered with by the enemy, the envoys were equally astonished
+by such an attack.  The great Deventer treason had not yet been heard of
+in England for it had occurred only a week before this first interview--
+but something of the kind was already feared; for the slippery dealings
+of York and Stanley with Tassis and Parma, had long been causing painful
+anxiety, and had formed the subject of repeated remonstrances on the part
+of the 'States' to Leicester and to the Queen.  The deputies were hardly,
+prepared therefore to defend their own people against dealing privately
+with the King of Spain.  The only man suspected of such practices was
+Leicester's own favourite and financier, Jacques Ringault, whom the Earl
+had persisted in employing against the angry remonstrances of the States,
+who believed him to be a Spanish spy; and the man was now in prison, and
+threatened with capital punishment.
+
+To suppose that Buys or Barneveld, Roorda, Meetkerk, or any other leading
+statesman in the Netherlands, was contemplating a private arrangement
+with Philip II., was as ludicrous a conception as to imagine Walsingham
+a pensioner of the Pope, or Cecil in league with the Duke of Guise.  The
+end and aim of the States' party was war.  In war they not only saw the
+safety of the reformed religion, but the only means of maintaining the
+commercial prosperity of the commonwealth.  The whole correspondence of
+the times shows that no politician in the country dreamed of peace,
+either by public or secret negotiation.  On the other hand--as will be
+made still clearer than ever--the Queen was longing for peace, and was
+treating for peace at that moment through private agents, quite without
+the knowledge of the States, and in spite of her indignant disavowals in
+her speech to the envoys.
+
+Yet if Elizabeth could have had the privilege of entering--as we are
+about to do--into the private cabinet of that excellent King of Spain,
+with whom, she had once been such good friends, who had even sought her
+hand in marriage, and with whom she saw no reason whatever why she should
+not live at peace, she might have modified her expressions an this
+subject.  Certainly, if she could have looked through the piles of
+papers--as we intend to do--which lay upon that library-table, far beyond
+the seas and mountains, she would have perceived some objections to the
+scheme of living at peace with that diligent letter-writer.
+
+Perhaps, had she known how the subtle Farnese was about to express
+himself concerning the fast-approaching execution of Mary, and the as
+inevitably impending destruction of "that Englishwoman" through the
+schemes of his master and himself, she would have paid less heed to the
+sentiments couched in most exquisite Italian which Alexander was at the
+same time whispering in her ear, and would have taken less offence at the
+blunt language of the States-General.
+
+Nevertheless, for the present, Elizabeth would give no better answer than
+the hot-tempered one which had already somewhat discomfited the deputies.
+
+Two days afterwards, the five envoys had an interview with several
+members of her Majesty's council, in the private apartment of the Lord-
+Treasurer in Greenwich Palace.  Burghley, being indisposed, was lying
+upon his bed.  Leicester, Admiral Lord Howard, Lord Hunsden, Sir
+Christopher Hatton, Lord Buckhurst, and Secretary Davison, were present,
+and the Lord-Treasurer proposed that the conversation should be in Latin,
+that being the common language most familiar to them all.  Then, turning
+over the leaves of the report, a copy of which lay on his bed, he asked
+the envoys, whether, in case her Majesty had not sent over the assistance
+which she had done under the Earl of Leicester, their country would not
+have been utterly ruined.
+
+"To all appearance, yes," replied Menyn.
+
+"But," continued Burghley, still running through the pages of the
+document, and here and there demanding an explanation of an obscure
+passage or two, "you are now proposing to her Majesty to send 10,000 foot
+and 2000 horse, and to lend L60,000.  This is altogether monstrous and
+excessive.  Nobody will ever dare even to speak to her Majesty on the
+subject.  When you first came in 1585, you asked for 12,000 men, but you
+were fully authorized to accept 6000.  No doubt that is the case now."
+
+"On that occasion," answered Menyn, "our main purpose was to induce her
+Majesty to accept the sovereignty, or at least the perpetual protection
+of our country.  Failing in that we broached the third point, and not
+being able to get 12,000 soldiers we compounded for 5000, the agreement
+being subject to ratification by our principals.  We gave ample security
+in shape of the mortgaged cities.  But experience has shown us that these
+forces and this succour are insufficient.  We have therefore been sent to
+beg her Majesty to make up the contingent to the amount originally
+requested."
+
+"But we are obliged to increase the garrisons in the cautionary towns,"
+said one of the English councillors, "as 800 men in a city like Flushing
+are very little."
+
+"Pardon me," replied Valck, "the burghers are not enemies but friends to
+her Majesty and to the English nation.  They are her dutiful subjects
+like all the inhabitants of the Netherlands."
+
+"It is quite true," said Burghley, after having made some critical
+remarks upon the military system of the Provinces, "and a very common
+adage, 'quod tunc tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet,' but,
+nevertheless, this war principally concerns you.  Therefore you are bound
+to do your utmost to meet its expenses in your own country, quite as much
+as a man who means to build a house is expected to provide the stone and
+timber himself.  But the States have not done their best.  They have not
+at the appointed time come forward with their extraordinary contributions
+for the last campaign.  "How many men," he asked, "are required for
+garrisons in all the fortresses and cities, and for the field?"
+
+"But," interposed Lord Hunsden, "not half so many men are needed in the
+garrisons; for the burghers ought to be able to defend their own cities.
+Moreover it is probable that your ordinary contributions might be
+continued and doubled and even tripled."
+
+"And on the whole," observed the Lord Admiral, "don't you think that the
+putting an army in the field might be dispensed with for this year?  Her
+Majesty at present must get together and equip a fleet of war vessels
+against the King of Spain, which will be an excessively large pennyworth,
+besides the assistance which she gives her neighbours."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Secretary Davison, "it would be difficult to
+exaggerate the enormous expense which her Majesty must encounter this
+year for defending and liberating her own kingdoms against the King of
+Spain.  That monarch is making great naval preparations, and is treating
+all Englishmen in the most hostile manner.  We are on the brink of
+declared war with Spain, with the French King, who is arresting all
+English persons and property within his kingdom, and with Scotland, all
+which countries are understood to have made a league together on account
+of the Queen of Scotland, whom it will be absolutely necessary to put to
+death in order to preserve the life of her Majesty, and are about to make
+war upon England.  This matter then will cost us, the current year, at
+least eight hundred thousand pounds sterling.  Nevertheless her Majesty
+is sure to assist you so far as her means allow; and I, for my part, will
+do my best to keep her Majesty well disposed to your cause, even as I
+have ever done, as you well know."
+
+Thus spoke poor Davison, but a few days before the fatal 8th of February,
+little dreaming that the day for his influencing the disposition of her
+Majesty would soon be gone, and that he was himself to be crushed for
+ever by the blow which was about to destroy the captive Queen.  The
+political combinations resulting from the tragedy were not to be exactly
+as he foretold, but there is little doubt that in him the Netherlands,
+and Leicester, and the Queen of England, were to lose an honest,
+diligent, and faithful friend.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the Lord-Treasurer, after a few more questions
+concerning the financial abilities of the States had been asked and
+answered, "it is getting late into the evening, and time for you all to
+get back to London.  Let me request you, as soon as may be, to draw up
+some articles in writing, to which we will respond immediately."
+
+Menyn then, in the name of the deputies, expressed thanks for the
+urbanity shown them in the conference, and spoke of the deep regret with
+which they had perceived, by her Majesty's answer two days before, that
+she was so highly offended with them and with the States-General.  He
+then, notwithstanding Burghley's previous hint as to the lateness of the
+hour, took up the Queen's answer, point by point, contradicted all its
+statements, appealing frequently to Lord Leicester for confirmation of
+what he advanced, and concluded by begging the councillors to defend the
+cause of the Netherlands to her Majesty, Burghley requested them to make
+an excuse or reply to the Queen in writing, and send it to him to
+present.  Thus the conference terminated, and the envoys returned to
+London.  They were fully convinced by the result of, these interviews,
+as they told their constituents, that her Majesty, by false statements
+and reports of persons either grossly ignorant or not having the good of
+the commonwealth before their eyes, had been very incorrectly informed as
+to the condition of the Provinces, and of the great efforts made by the
+States-General to defend their country against the enemy: It was obvious,
+they said, that their measures had been exaggerated in order to deceive
+the Queen and her council.
+
+And thus statements and counter-statements, protocols and apostilles,
+were glibly exchanged; the heap of diplomatic rubbish was rising higher
+and higher, and the councillors and envoys, pleased with their work, were
+growing more and more amicable, when the court was suddenly startled by
+the news of the Deventer and Zutphen treason.  The intelligence was
+accompanied by the famous 4th of February letter, which descended, like a
+bombshell, in the midst of the, decorous council-chamber.  Such language
+had rarely been addressed to the Earl of Leicester, and; through him; to
+the imperious sovereign herself, as the homely truths with which
+Barneveld, speaking with the voice of the States-General, now smote the
+delinquent governor.
+
+"My Lord," said he, "it is notorious; and needs no illustration whatever,
+with what true confidence and unfeigned affection we received your
+Excellency in our land; the States-General, the States-Provincial,
+the magistrates, and the communities of the chief cities in the United
+Provinces, all uniting to do honour to her serene Majesty of England
+and to yourself, and to confer upon you the government-general over us.
+And although we should willingly have placed some limitations upon the
+authority thus bestowed on you; in, order that by such a course your own
+honour and the good and constitutional condition of the country might be
+alike preserved, yet finding your Excellency not satisfied with those
+limitations, we postponed every objection, and conformed ourselves
+to your pleasure.  Yet; before coming to that decision, we had well
+considered that by doing so we might be opening a door to many ambitious,
+avaricious, and pernicious persons, both of these countries and from
+other nations, who might seize the occasion to advance their own private
+profits, to the detriment of the country and the dishonour of your
+Excellency.
+
+"And, in truth, such persons have done their work so efficiently as to
+inspire you with distrust against the most faithful and capable men in
+the Provinces, against the Estates General and Provincial, magistrates,
+and private persons, knowing very well that they could never arrive
+at their own ends so long as you were guided by the constitutional
+authorities of the country.  And precisely upon the distrust; thus
+created as a foundation, they raised a back-stairs council, by means
+of which they were able to further their ambitious, avaricious, and
+seditious practices, notwithstanding the good advice and remonstrances
+of the council of state, and the States General and Provincial."
+
+He proceeded to handle the subjects of the English rose-noble; put in
+circulation by Leicester's finance or back-stairs council at two florins
+above its value, to the manifest detriment of the Provinces, to the
+detestable embargo which had prevented them from using the means bestowed
+upon them by God himself to defend their country, to the squandering.
+and embezzlement of the large sums contributed by the Province; and
+entrusted to the Earl's administration; to the starving condition of the
+soldiers; maltreated by government, and thus compelled to prey upon the
+inhabitants--so that troops in the States' service had never been so
+abused during the whole war, although the States had never before voted
+such large contributions nor paid them so promptly--to the placing in
+posts of high honour and trust men of notoriously bad character and even
+Spanish spies; to the taking away the public authority from those to whom
+it legitimately belonged, and conferring it on incompetent and
+unqualified persons; to the illegal banishment of respectable citizens,
+to the violation of time-honoured laws and privileges, to the shameful
+attempts to repudiate the ancient authority of the States, and to usurp a
+control over the communities and nobles by them represented, and to the
+perpetual efforts to foster dissension, disunion, and rebellion among the
+inhabitants.  Having thus drawn up a heavy bill of indictment, nominally
+against the Earl's illegal counsellors, but in reality against the Earl
+himself, he proceeded to deal with the most important matter of all.
+
+"The principal cities and fortresses in the country have been placed in
+hands of men suspected by the States on legitimate grounds, men who had
+been convicted of treason against these Provinces, and who continued to
+be suspected, notwithstanding that your Excellency had pledged your own
+honour for their fidelity.  Finally, by means of these scoundrels, it was
+brought to pass, that the council of state having been invested by your
+Excellency with supreme authority during your absence--a secret document,
+was brought to light after your departure, by which the most substantial
+matters, and those most vital to the defence of the country, were
+withdrawn from the disposition of that council.  And now, alas, we see
+the effects of these practices!
+
+"Sir William Stanley, by you appointed governor of Deventer, and Rowland
+York, governor of Fort Zutphen, have refused, by virtue of that secret
+document, to acknowledge any authority in this country.  And
+notwithstanding that since your departure they and their soldiers have
+been supported at our expense, and had just received a full month's pay
+from the States, they have traitorously and villainously delivered the
+city and the fortress to the enemy, with a declaration made by Stanley
+that he did the deed to ease his conscience, and to render to the King of
+Spain the city which of right was belonging to him.  And this is a crime
+so dishonourable, scandalous, ruinous, and treasonable, as that, during
+this, whole war, we have never seen the like.  And we are now, in daily
+fear lest the English commanders in Bergen-op-Zoom, Ostend, and other
+cities, should commit the same crime.  And although we fully suspected
+the designs of Stanley and York, yet your Excellency's secret document
+had deprived us of the power to act.
+
+"We doubt not that her Majesty and your Excellency will think this
+strange language.  But we can assure you, that we too think it strange
+and grievous that those places should have been confided to such men,
+against our repeated remonstrances, and that, moreover, this very Stanley
+should have been recommended by your Excellency for general of all the
+forces.  And although we had many just and grave reasons for opposing
+your administration--even as our ancestors were often wont to rise
+against the sovereigns of the country--we have, nevertheless, patiently
+suffered for a long time, in order not to diminish your authority, which
+we deemed so important to our welfare, and in the hope that you would at
+last be moved by the perilous condition of the commonwealth, and awake to
+the artifices of your advisers.
+
+"But at last-feeling that the existence of the state can no longer be
+preserved without proper authority, and that the whole community is full
+of emotion and distrust, on account of these great treasons--we, the
+States-General, as well as the States-Provincial, have felt constrained
+to establish such a government as we deem meet for the emergency.  And of
+this we think proper to apprize your Excellency."
+
+He then expressed the conviction that all these evil deeds had been
+accomplished against the intentions of the Earl and the English
+government, and requested his Excellency so to deal with her Majesty that
+the contingent of horse and foot hitherto accorded by her "might be
+maintained in good order, and in better pay."
+
+Here, then, was substantial choleric phraseology, as good plain speaking
+as her Majesty had just been employing, and with quite as sufficient
+cause.  Here was no pleasant diplomatic fencing, but straightforward
+vigorous thrusts.  It was no wonder that poor Wilkes should have thought
+the letter "too sharp," when he heard it read in the assembly, and that
+he should have done his best to prevent it from being despatched.  He
+would have thought it sharper could he have seen how the pride of her
+Majesty and of Leicester was wounded by it to the quick.  Her list of
+grievances against the States seem to vanish into air.  Who had been
+tampering with the Spaniards now?  Had that "shadowy and imaginary
+authority" granted to Leicester not proved substantial enough?  Was it
+the States-General, the state-council, or was it the "absolute governor"
+--who had carried off the supreme control of the commonwealth in his
+pocket--that was responsible for the ruin effected by Englishmen who had
+scorned all "authority" but his own?
+
+The States, in another blunt letter to the Queen herself, declared the
+loss of Deventer to be more disastrous to them than even the fall of
+Antwerp had been; for the republic had now been split asunder, and its
+most ancient and vital portions almost cut away.  Nevertheless they were
+not "dazzled nor despairing," they said, but more determined than ever to
+maintain their liberties, and bid defiance to the Spanish tyrant.  And
+again they demanded of, rather than implored; her Majesty to be true to
+her engagements with them.
+
+The interviews which followed were more tempestuous than ever.  "I had
+intended that my Lord of Leicester should return to you," she said to the
+envoys.  "But that shall never be.  He has been treated with gross
+ingratitude, he has served the Provinces with ability, he has consumed
+his own property there, he has risked his life, he has lost his near
+kinsman, Sir Philip Sidney, whose life I should be glad to purchase with
+many millions, and, in place of all reward, he receives these venomous
+letters, of which a copy has been sent to his sovereign to blacken him
+with her."  She had been advising him to return, she added, but she was
+now resolved that he should "never set foot in the Provinces again."
+
+Here the Earl, who, was present, exclaimed--beating himself on the
+breast--"a tali officio libera nos, Domine!"
+
+But the States, undaunted by these explosions of wrath, replied that it
+had ever been their custom, when their laws and liberties were invaded,
+to speak their mind boldly to kings and governors, and to procure redress
+of their grievances, as became free men.
+
+During that whole spring the Queen was at daggers drawn with all her
+leading counsellors, mainly in regard to that great question of
+questions--the relations of England with the Netherlands and Spain.
+Walsingham--who felt it madness to dream of peace, and who believed it
+the soundest policy to deal with Parma and his veterans upon the soil of
+Flanders, with the forces of the republic for allies, rather than to
+await his arrival in London--was driven almost to frenzy by what he
+deemed the Queen's perverseness.
+
+"Our sharp words continue," said the Secretary, "which doth greatly
+disquiet her Majesty, and discomfort her poor servants that attend her.
+The Lord-Treasurer remaineth still in disgrace, and, behind my back,
+her Majesty giveth out very hard speeches of myself, which I the rather
+credit, for that I find, in dealing with her, I am nothing gracious;
+and if her Majesty could be otherwise served, I know I should not be used
+.  .  .  .  .  Her Majesty doth wholly lend herself to devise some
+further means to disgrace her poor council, in respect whereof she
+neglecteth all other causes .  .  .  .  .  The discord between her
+Majesty and her council hindereth the necessary consultations that were
+to be destined for the preventing of the manifold perils that hang over
+this realm .  .  .  .  .  .  Sir Christopher Hatton hath dealt very
+plainly and dutifully with her, which hath been accepted in so evil part
+as he is resolved to retire for a time.  I assure you I find every man
+weary of attendance here .  .  .  .  .  .  I would to God I could find
+as good resolution in her Majesty to proceed in a princely course in
+relieving the United Provinces, as I find an honorable disposition in
+your Lordship to employ yourself in their service."
+
+The Lord-Treasurer was much puzzled, very wretched, but philosophically
+resigned.  "Why her Majesty useth me thus strangely, I know not," he
+observed.  "To some she saith that she meant not I should have gone from
+the court; to some she saith, she may not admit me, nor give me
+contentment.  I shall dispose myself to enjoy God's favour, and shall do
+nothing to deserve her disfavour.  And if I be suffered to be a stranger
+to her affairs, I shall have a quieter life."
+
+Leicester, after the first burst of his anger was over, was willing to
+return to the Provinces.  He protested that he had a greater affection
+for the Netherland people--not for the governing powers--even than he
+felt for the people of England.--"There is nothing sticks in my
+stomach," he said, "but the good-will of that poor afflicted people, for
+whom, I take God to record, I could be content to lose any limb I have to
+do them good."  But he was crippled with debt, and the Queen resolutely
+refused to lend him a few thousand pounds, without which he could not
+stir.  Walsingham in vain did battle with her parsimony, representing how
+urgently and vividly the necessity of his return had been depicted by all
+her ministers in both countries, and how much it imported to her own
+safety and service.  But she was obdurate.  "She would rather," he said
+bitterly to Leicester, "hazard the increase of confusion there--which may
+put the whole country in peril--than supply your want.  The like course
+she holdeth in the rest of her causes, which maketh me to wish myself
+from the helm."  At last she agreed to advance him ten thousand pounds,
+but on so severe conditions, that the Earl declared himself heart-broken
+again, and protested that he would neither accept the money, nor ever set
+foot in the Netherlands.  "Let Norris stay there," he said in a fury;
+"he will do admirably, no doubt.  Only let it not be supposed that I can
+be there also.  Not for one hundred thousand pounds would I be in that
+country with him."
+
+Meantime it was agreed that Lord Buckhurst should be sent forth on what
+Wilkes termed a mission of expostulation, and a very ill-timed one.  This
+new envoy was to inquire into the causes of the discontent, and to do his
+best to remove them: as if any man in England or in Holland doubted as to
+the causes, or as to the best means of removing them; or as if it were
+not absolutely certain that delay was the very worst specific that could
+be adopted--delay--which the Netherland statesmen, as well as the Queen's
+wisest counsellors, most deprecated, which Alexander and Philip most
+desired, and by indulging in which her Majesty was most directly playing
+into her adversary's hand.  Elizabeth was preparing to put cards upon the
+table against an antagonist whose game was close, whose honesty was
+always to be suspected, and who was a consummate master in what was then
+considered diplomatic sleight of hand.  So Lord Buckhurst was to go forth
+to expostulate at the Hague, while transports were loading in Cadiz and
+Lisbon, reiters levying in Germany, pikemen and musketeers in Spain and
+Italy, for a purpose concerning which Walsingham and Barneveld had for a
+long time felt little doubt.
+
+Meantime Lord Leicester went to Bath to drink the waters, and after
+he had drunk the waters, the Queen, ever anxious for his health, was
+resolved that he should not lose the benefit of those salubrious draughts
+by travelling too soon, or by plunging anew into the fountains of
+bitterness which flowed perennially in the Netherlands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     Buckhurst sent to the Netherlands--Alarming State of Affairs on his
+     Arrival--His Efforts to conciliate--Democratic Theories of Wilkes--
+     Sophistry of the Argument--Dispute between Wilkes and Barneveld--
+     Religious Tolerance by the States--Their Constitutional Theory--
+     Deventer's bad Counsels to Leicester--Their pernicious Effect--Real
+     and supposed Plots against Hohenlo--Mutual Suspicion and Distrust--
+     Buckhurst seeks to restore good Feeling--The Queen angry and
+     vindictive--She censures Buckhurst's Course--Leicester's wrath at
+     Hohenlo's Charges of a Plot by the Earl to murder him--Buckhurst's
+     eloquent Appeals to the Queen--Her perplexing and contradictory
+     Orders--Despair of Wilkes--Leicester announces his Return--His
+     Instructions--Letter to Junius--Barneveld denounces him in the
+     States.
+
+We return to the Netherlands.  If ever proof were afforded of the
+influence of individual character on the destiny of nations and of the
+world, it certainly was seen in the year 1587.  We have lifted the
+curtain of the secret council-chamber at Greenwich.  We have seen all
+Elizabeth's advisers anxious to arouse her from her fatal credulity,
+from her almost as fatal parsimony.  We have seen Leicester anxious to
+return, despite all fancied indignities, Walsingham eager to expedite the
+enterprise, and the Queen remaining obdurate, while month after month of
+precious time was melting away.
+
+In the Netherlands, meantime, discord and confusion had been increasing
+every day; and the first great cause of such a dangerous condition of
+affairs was the absence of the governor.  To this all parties agreed.
+The Leicestrians, the anti-Leicestriana, the Holland party, the Utrecht
+party, the English counsellors, the English generals, in private letter,
+in solemn act, all warned the Queen against the lamentable effects
+resulting from Leicester's inopportune departure and prolonged absence.
+
+On the first outbreak of indignation after the Deventer Affair, Prince
+Maurice was placed at the head of the general government, with the
+violent Hohenlo as his lieutenant.  The greatest exertions were made by
+these two nobles and by Barneveld, who guided the whole policy of the
+party, to secure as many cities as possible to their cause.  Magistrates
+and commandants of garrisons in many towns willingly gave in their
+adhesion to the new government; others refused; especially Diedrich
+Sonoy, an officer of distinction, who was governor of Enkhuyzen, and
+influential throughout North Holland, and who remained a stanch partisan
+of Leicester.  Utrecht, the stronghold of the Leicestrians, was wavering
+and much torn by faction; Hohenlo and Moeurs had "banquetted and feasted"
+to such good purpose that they had gained over half the captains of the
+burgher-guard, and, aided by the branch of nobles, were making a good
+fight against the Leicester magistracy and the clerical force, enriched
+by the plunder of the old Catholic livings, who denounced as Papistical
+and Hispaniolized all who favoured the party of Maurice and Barneveld.
+
+By the end of March the envoys returned from London, and in their company
+came Lord Buckhurst, as special ambassador from the Queen.
+
+Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst--afterwards Earl of Dorset and lord-
+treasurer--was then fifty-one years of age.  A man of large culture-poet,
+dramatist, diplomatist-bred to the bar; afterwards elevated to the
+peerage; endowed with high character and strong intellect; ready with
+tongue and pen; handsome of person, and with a fascinating address, he
+was as fit a person to send on a mission of expostulation as any man to
+be found in England.  But the author of the 'Induction to the Mirror for
+Magistrates' and of 'Gorboduc,' had come to the Netherlands on a forlorn
+hope.  To expostulate in favour of peace with a people who knew that
+their existence depended on war, to reconcile those to delay who felt
+that delay was death, and to, heal animosities between men who were
+enemies from their cradles to their graves, was a difficult mission.
+But the chief ostensible object of Buckhurst was to smooth the way for
+Leicester, and, if possible, to persuade the Netherlanders as to the good
+inclinations of the English government.  This was no easy task, for they
+knew that their envoys had been dismissed, without even a promise of
+subsidy.  They had asked for twelve thousand soldiers and sixty thousand
+pounds, and had received a volley of abuse.  Over and over again, through
+many months, the Queen fell into a paroxysm of rage when even an allusion
+was made to the loan of fifty or sixty thousand pounds; and even had she
+promised the money, it would have given but little satisfaction.  As
+Count Moeurs observed, he would rather see one English rose-noble than a
+hundred royal promises.  So the Hollanders and Zeelanders--not fearing
+Leicester's influence within their little morsel of a territory--were
+concentrating their means of resistance upon their own soil, intending to
+resist Spain, and, if necessary, England, in their last ditch, and with
+the last drop of their blood.
+
+While such was the condition of affairs, Lord Buckhurst landed at
+Flushing--four months after the departure of Leicester--on the 24th
+March, having been tossing three days and nights at sea in a great storm,
+"miserably sick and in great danger of drowning."  Sir William Russell,
+governor of Flushing, informed him of the progress making by Prince
+Maurice in virtue of his new authority.  He told him that the Zeeland
+regiment, vacant by Sidney's death, and which the Queen wished bestowed
+upon Russell himself, had been given to Count Solms; a circumstance which
+was very sure to exite her Majesty's ire; but that the greater number,
+and those of the better sort; disliked the alteration of government, and
+relied entirely upon the Queen.  Sainte Aldegonde visited him at
+Middelburgh, and in a "long discourse" expressed the most friendly
+sentiments towards England, with free offers of personal service.
+"Nevertheless," said Buckhurst, cautiously, "I mean to trust the effect,
+not his words, and so I hope he will not much deceive me.  His opinion is
+that the Earl of Leicester's absence hath chiefly caused this change, and
+that without his return it will hardly be restored again, but that upon
+his arrival all these clouds will prove but a summershower."
+
+As a matter of course the new ambassador lifted up his voice, immediately
+after setting foot on shore, in favour of the starving soldiers of his
+Queen.  "'Tis a most lamentable thing," said he, "to hear the complaints
+of soldiers and captains for want of pay."  .  .  .  .  Whole companies
+made their way into his presence, literally crying aloud for bread.  "For
+Jesus' sake," wrote Buckhurst, "hasten to send relief with all speed, and
+let such victuallers be appointed as have a conscience not to make
+themselves rich with the famine of poor soldiers.  If her Majesty send
+not money, and that with speed, for their payment, I am afraid to think
+what mischief and miseries are like to follow."
+
+Then the ambassador proceeded to the Hague, holding interviews with
+influential personages in private, and with the States-General in public.
+Such was the charm of his manner, and so firm the conviction of sincerity
+and good-will which he inspired, that in the course of a fortnight there
+was already a sensible change in the aspect of affairs.  The enemy, who,
+at the time of their arrival, had been making bonfires and holding
+triumphal processions for joy of the great breach between Holland and
+England, and had been "hoping to swallow them all up, while there were so
+few left who knew how to act," were already manifesting disappointment.
+
+In a solemn meeting of the States-General with the State-council,
+Buckhurst addressed the assembly upon the general subject of her
+Majesty's goodness to the Netherlands.  He spoke of the gracious
+assistance rendered by her, notwithstanding her many special charges for
+the common cause, and of the mighty enmities which she had incurred for
+their sake.  He sharply censured the Hollanders for their cruelty to men
+who had shed their blood in their cause, but who were now driven forth
+from their towns; and left to starve on the highways, and hated for their
+nation's sake; as if the whole English name deserved to be soiled "for
+the treachery of two miscreants."  He spoke strongly of their demeanour
+towards the Earl of Leicester, and of the wrongs they had done him, and
+told them, that, if they were not ready to atone to her Majesty for such
+injuries, they were not to wonder if their deputies received no better
+answer at her hands.  "She who embraced your cause," he said, "when other
+mighty princes forsook you, will still stand fast unto you, yea, and
+increase her goodness, if her present state may suffer it."
+
+After being addressed in this manner the council of state made what
+Counsellor Clerk called a "very honest, modest, and wise answer;" but the
+States-General, not being able "so easily to discharge that which had so
+long boiled within them," deferred their reply until the following day.
+They then brought forward a deliberate rejoinder, in which they expressed
+themselves devoted to her Majesty, and, on the whole, well disposed to
+the Earl.  As to the 4th February letter, it had been written "in
+amaritudine cordis," upon hearing the treasons of York and Stanley, and
+in accordance with "their custom and liberty used towards all princes,
+whereby they had long preserved their estate," and in the conviction that
+the real culprits for all the sins of his Excellency's government were
+certain "lewd persons who sought to seduce his Lordship, and to cause him
+to hate the States."
+
+Buckhurst did not think it well to reply, at that moment, on the ground
+that there had been already crimination and recrimination more than
+enough, and that "a little bitterness more had rather caused them to
+determine dangerously than solve for the best."
+
+They then held council together--the envoys and the State-General, as to
+the amount of troops absolutely necessary--casting up the matter "as
+pinchingly as possibly might be." And the result was, that 20,000 foot
+and 2000 horse for garrison work, and an army of 13,000 foot, 5000 horse,
+and pioneers, for a campaign of five or six months, were pronounced
+indispensable.  This would require all their L240,000 sterling a-year,
+regular contribution, her Majesty's contingent of L140,000, and an extra
+sum of L150,000 sterling.  Of this sum the States requested her Majesty
+should furnish two-thirds, while they agreed to furnish the other third,
+which would make in all L240,000 for the Queen, and L290,000 for the
+States.  As it was understood that the English subsidies were only a
+loan, secured by mortgage of the cautionary towns, this did not seem very
+unreasonable, when the intimate blending of England's welfare with that
+of the Provinces was considered.
+
+Thus it will be observed that Lord Buckhurst--while doing his best to
+conciliate personal feuds and heart-burnings--had done full justice to
+the merits of Leicester, and had placed in strongest light the favours
+conferred by her Majesty.
+
+He then proceeded to Utrecht, where he was received with many
+demonstrations of respect, "with solemn speeches" from magistrates and
+burgher-captains, with military processions, and with great banquets,
+which were, however, conducted with decorum, and at which even Count
+Moeurs excited universal astonishment by his sobriety.  It was difficult,
+however, for matters to go very smoothly, except upon the surface.  What
+could be more disastrous than for a little commonwealth--a mere handful
+of people, like these Netherlanders, engaged in mortal combat with the
+most powerful monarch in the world, and with the first general of the
+age, within a league of their borders--thus to be deprived of all
+organized government at a most critical moment, and to be left to wrangle
+with their allies and among themselves, as to the form of polity to be
+adopted, while waiting the pleasure of a capricious and despotic woman?
+
+And the very foundation of the authority by which the Spanish yoke had
+been abjured, the sovereignty offered to Elizabeth, and the government-
+general conferred on Leicester, was fiercely assailed by the confidential
+agents of Elizabeth herself.  The dispute went into the very depths of
+the social contract.  Already Wilkes, standing up stoutly for the
+democratic views of the governor, who was so foully to requite him, had
+assured the English government that the "people were ready to cut the
+throats" of the Staten-General at any convenient moment.  The sovereign
+people, not the deputies, were alone to be heeded, he said, and although
+he never informed the world by what process he had learned the deliberate
+opinion of that sovereign, as there had been no assembly excepting those
+of the States-General and States-Provincial--he was none the less fully
+satisfied that the people were all with Leicester, and bitterly opposed
+to the States.
+
+"For the sovereignty, or supreme authority," said he, through failure of
+a legitimate prince, belongs to the people, and not to you, gentlemen,
+who are only servants, ministers, and deputies of the people.  You have
+your commissions or instructions surrounded by limitations--which
+conditions are so widely different from the power of sovereignty, as the
+might of the subject is in regard to his prince, or of a servant in,
+respect to his master.  For sovereignty is not limited either as to power
+or as to time.  Still less do you represent the sovereignty; for the
+people, in giving the general and absolute government to the Earl of
+Leicester, have conferred upon him at once the exercise of justice, the
+administration of polity, of naval affairs, of war, and of all the other
+points of sovereignty.  Of these a governor-general is however only the
+depositary or guardian, until such time as it may please the prince or
+people to revoke the trust; there being no other in this state who can do
+this; seeing that it was the people, through the instrumentality of your
+offices--through you as its servants--conferred on his Excellency, this
+power, authority, and government.  According to the common rule law,
+therefore, 'quo jure quid statuitur, eodem jure tolli debet.'  You having
+been fully empowered by the provinces and cities, or, to speak more
+correctly, by your masters and superiors, to confer the government on
+his Excellency, it follows that you require a like power in order to take
+it away either in whole or in part.  If then you had no commission to
+curtail his authority, or even that of the state-council, and thus to
+tread upon and usurp his power as governor general and absolute, there
+follows of two things one: either you did not well understand what you
+were doing, nor duly consider how far that power reached, or--much more
+probably--you have fallen into the sin of disobedience, considering how
+solemnly you swore allegiance to him.
+
+Thus subtly and ably did Wilkes defend the authority of the man who had
+deserted his post at a most critical moment, and had compelled the
+States, by his dereliction, to take the government into their own hands.
+
+For, after all, the whole argument of the English counsellor rested upon
+a quibble.  The people were absolutely sovereign, he said, and had lent
+that sovereignty to Leicester.  How had they made that loan?  Through the
+machinery of the States-General.  So long then as the Earl retained the
+absolute sovereignty, the States were not even representatives of the
+sovereign people.  The sovereign people was merged into one English Earl.
+The English Earl had retired--indefinitely--to England.  Was the
+sovereign people to wait for months, or years, before it regained its
+existence?  And if not, how was it to reassert its vitality?  How but
+through the agency of the States-General, who--according to Wilkes
+himself--had been fully empowered by the Provinces and Cities to confer
+the government on the Earl?  The people then, after all, were the
+provinces and cities.  And the States-General were at that moment as much
+qualified to represent those provinces and cities as they ever had been,
+and they claimed no more.  Wilkes, nor any other of the Leicester party,
+ever hinted at a general assembly of the people.  Universal suffrage was
+not dreamed of at that day.  By the people, he meant, if he meant
+anything, only that very small fraction of the inhabitants of a country,
+who, according to the English system, in the reign of Elizabeth,
+constituted its Commons.  He chose, rather from personal and political
+motives than philosophical ones, to draw a distinction between the people
+and the States, but it is quite obvious, from the tone of his private
+communications, that by the 'States' he meant the individuals who
+happened, for the time-being, to be the deputies of the States of each
+Province.  But it was almost an affectation to accuse those individuals
+of calling or considering themselves 'sovereigns;' for it was very well
+known that they sat as envoys, rather than as members of a congress, and
+were perpetually obliged to recur to their constituents, the States of
+each Province, for instructions.  It was idle, because Buys and
+Barneveld, and Roorda, and other leaders, exercised the influence due to
+their talents, patriotism, and experience, to stigmatize them as usurpers
+of sovereignty, and to hound the rabble upon them as tyrants and
+mischief-makers.  Yet to take this course pleased the Earl of Leicester,
+who saw no hope for the liberty of the people, unless absolute and
+unconditional authority over the people, in war, naval affairs, justice,
+and policy, were placed in his hands.  This was the view sustained by the
+clergy of the Reformed Church, because they found it convenient, through
+such a theory, and by Leicester's power, to banish Papists, exercise
+intolerance in matters of religion, sequestrate for their own private
+uses the property of the Catholic Church, and obtain for their own a
+political power which was repugnant to the more liberal ideas of the
+Barneveld party.
+
+The States of Holland--inspired as it were by the memory of that great
+martyr to religious and political liberty, William the Silent--maintained
+freedom of conscience.
+
+The Leicester party advocated a different theory on the religious
+question.  They were also determined to omit no effort to make the States
+odious.
+
+"Seeing their violent courses," said Wilkes to Leicester, "I have not
+been negligent, as well by solicitations to the ministers, as by my
+letters to such as have continued constant in affection to your Lordship,
+to have the people informed of the ungrateful and dangerous proceedings
+of the States.  They have therein travailed with so good effect, as the
+people are now wonderfully well disposed, and have delivered everywhere
+in speeches, that if, by the overthwart dealings of the States, her
+Majesty shall be drawn to stay her succours and goodness to them, and
+that thereby your Lordship be also discouraged to return, they will cut
+their throats."
+
+Who the "people" exactly were, that had been so wonderfully well disposed
+to throat-cutting by the ministers of the Gospel, did not distinctly
+appear.  It was certain, however, that they were the special friends of
+Leicester, great orators, very pious, and the sovereigns of the country.
+So much could not be gainsaid.
+
+"Your Lordship would wonder," continued the councillor, "to see the
+people--who so lately, by the practice of the said States and the
+accident of Deventer, were notably alienated--so returned to their former
+devotion towards her Majesty, your Lordship, and our nation."
+
+Wilkes was able moreover to gratify the absent governor-general with the
+intelligence--of somewhat questionable authenticity however--that the
+States were very "much terrified with these threats of the people."  But
+Barneveld came down to the council to inquire what member of that body it
+was who had accused the States of violating the Earl's authority.
+"Whoever he is," said the Advocate, "let him deliver his mind frankly,
+and he shall be answered."  The man did not seem much terrified by the
+throat-cutting orations.  "It is true," replied Wilkes, perceiving
+himself to be the person intended, "that you have very injuriously, in
+many of your proceedings, derogated from and trodden the authority of his
+Lordship and of this council under your feet."
+
+And then he went into particulars, and discussed, 'more suo,' the
+constitutional question, in which various Leicestrian counsellors
+seconded him.
+
+But Barneveld grimly maintained that the States were the sovereigns,
+and that it was therefore unfit that the governor, who drew his authority
+from them, should call them to account for their doings.  "It was as if
+the governors in the time of Charles V.," said the Advocate, "should have
+taxed that Emperor for any action of his done in the government."
+
+In brief, the rugged Barneveld, with threatening voice, and lion port,
+seemed to impersonate the Staten, and to hold reclaimed sovereignty in
+his grasp.  It seemed difficult to tear it from him again.
+
+"I did what I could," said Wilkes, "to beat them from this humour of
+their sovereignty, showing that upon that error they had grounded the
+rest of their wilful absurdities."
+
+Next night, he drew up sixteen articles, showing the disorders of the
+States, their breach of oaths, and violations of the Earl's authority;
+and with that commenced a series of papers interchanged by the two
+parties, in which the topics of the origin of government and the
+principles of religious freedom were handled with much ability on both
+sides, but at unmerciful length.
+
+On the religious question, the States-General, led by Barneveld and by
+Francis Franck, expressed themselves manfully, on various occasions,
+during the mission of Buckhurst.
+
+"The nobles and cities constituting the States," they said, "have been
+denounced to Lord Leicester as enemies of religion, by the self-seeking
+mischief-makers who surround him.  Why?  Because they had refused the
+demand of certain preachers to call a general synod, in defiance of the
+States-General, and to introduce a set of ordinances, with a system of
+discipline, according to their arbitrary will.  This the late Prince of
+Orange and the States-General had always thought detrimental both to
+religion and polity.  They respected the difference in religious
+opinions, and leaving all churches in their freedom, they chose to compel
+no man's conscience--a course which all statesmen, knowing the diversity
+of human opinions, had considered necessary in order to maintain
+fraternal harmony."
+
+Such words shine through the prevailing darkness of the religious
+atmosphere at that epoch, like characters of light.  They are beacons in
+the upward path of mankind.  Never before, had so bold and wise a tribute
+to the genius of the reformation been paid by an organized community.
+Individuals walking in advance of their age had enunciated such truths,
+and their voices had seemed to die away, but, at last, a little,
+struggling, half-developed commonwealth had proclaimed the rights of
+conscience for all mankind--for Papists and Calvinists, Jews and
+Anabaptists--because "having a respect for differences in religious
+opinions, and leaving all churches in their freedom, they chose to compel
+no man's conscience."
+
+On the constitutional question, the States commenced by an astounding
+absurdity.  "These mischief-makers, moreover," said they, "have not been
+ashamed to dispute, and to cause the Earl of Leicester to dispute, the
+lawful constitution of the Provinces; a matter which has not been
+disputed for eight hundred years."
+
+This was indeed to claim a respectable age for their republic.  Eight
+hundred years took them back to the days of Charlemagne, in whose time it
+would have been somewhat difficult to detect a germ of their States-
+General and States-Provincial.  That the constitutional government--
+consisting of nobles and of the vroedschaps of chartered cities--should
+have been in existence four hundred and seventeen years before the first
+charter had ever been granted to a city, was a very loose style of
+argument.  Thomas Wilkes, in reply; might as well have traced the English
+parliament to Hengist and Horsa.  "For eight hundred years;" they said,
+"Holland had been governed by Counts and Countesses, on whom the nobles
+and cities, as representing the States, had legally conferred
+sovereignty."
+
+Now the first incorporated city of Holland and Zeeland that ever existed
+was Middelburg, which received its charter from Count William I. of
+Holland and Countess Joan of Flanders; in the year 1217.  The first Count
+that had any legal recognized authority was Dirk the First to whom
+Charles the Simple presented the territory of Holland, by letters-patent,
+in 922.  Yet the States-General, in a solemn and eloquent document,
+gravely dated their own existence from the year 787, and claimed the
+regular possession and habitual delegation of sovereignty from that epoch
+down!
+
+After this fabulous preamble, they proceeded to handle the matter of fact
+with logical precision.  It was absurd, they said, that Mr. Wilkes and
+Lord Leicester should affect to confound the persons who appeared in the
+assembly with the States themselves; as if those individuals claimed or
+exercised sovereignty.  Any man who had observed what had been passing
+during the last fifteen years, knew very well that the supreme authority
+did not belong to the thirty or forty individuals who came to the
+meetings .  .  .  .  .  The nobles, by reason of their ancient dignity
+and splendid possessions, took counsel together over state matters, and
+then, appearing at the assembly, deliberated with the deputies of the
+cities.  The cities had mainly one form of government--a college of
+counsellors; or wise men, 40, 32, 28, or 24 in number, of the most
+respectable out of the whole community.  They were chosen for life, and
+vacancies were supplied by the colleges themselves out of the mass of
+citizens.  These colleges alone governed the city, and that which had
+been ordained by them was to be obeyed by all the inhabitants--a system
+against which there had never been any rebellion.  The colleges again,
+united with those of the nobles, represented the whole state, the whole
+body of the population; and no form of government could be imagined,
+they said, that could resolve, with a more thorough knowledge of the
+necessities of the country, or that could execute its resolves with more
+unity of purpose and decisive authority.  To bring the colleges into an
+assembly could only be done by means of deputies.  These deputies, chosen
+by their colleges, and properly instructed, were sent to the place of
+meeting.  During the war they had always been commissioned to resolve in
+common on matters regarding the liberty of the land.  These deputies,
+thus assembled, represented, by commission, the States; but they are not,
+in their own persons, the States; and no one of them had any such
+pretension.  "The people of this country," said the States, "have an
+aversion to all ambition; and in these disastrous times, wherein nothing
+but trouble and odium is to be gathered by public employment, these
+commissions are accounted 'munera necessaria' .  .  .  .  .  This form of
+government has, by God's favour, protected Holland and Zeeland, during
+this war, against a powerful foe, without lose of territory, without any
+popular outbreak, without military mutiny, because all business has been
+transacted with open doors; and because the very smallest towns are all
+represented, and vote in the assembly."
+
+In brief, the constitution of the United Provinces was a matter of fact.
+It was there in good working order, and had, for a generation of mankind,
+and throughout a tremendous war, done good service.  Judged by the
+principles of reason and justice, it was in the main a wholesome
+constitution, securing the independence and welfare of the state, and
+the liberty and property of the individual, as well certainly as did any
+polity then existing in the world.  It seemed more hopeful to abide by it
+yet a little longer than to adopt the throat-cutting system by the
+people, recommended by Wilkes and Leicester as an improvement on the old
+constitution.  This was the view of Lord Buckhurst.  He felt that threats
+of throat-cutting were not the best means of smoothing and conciliating,
+and he had come over to smooth and conciliate.
+
+"To spend the time," said he, "in private brabbles and piques between the
+States and Lord Leicester, when we ought to prepare an army against the
+enemy, and to repair the shaken and torn state, is not a good course for
+her Majesty's service."  Letters were continually circulating from hand
+to hand among the antagonists of the Holland party, written out of
+England by Leicester, exciting the ill-will of the populace against the
+organized government.  "By such means to bring the States into hatred,"
+said Buckhurst, "and to stir up the people against them; tends to great
+damage and miserable end.  This his Lordship doth full little consider,
+being the very way to dissolve all government, and so to bring all into
+confusion, and open the door for the enemy.  But oh, how lamentable a
+thing it is, and how doth my Lord of Leicester abuse her Majesty, making
+her authority the means to uphold and justify, and under her name to
+defend and maintain, all his intolerable errors.  I thank God that
+neither his might nor his malice shall deter me from laying open all
+those things which my conscience knoweth, and which appertaineth to be
+done for the good of this cause and of her Majesty's service.  Herein,
+though I were sure to lose my life, yet will I not offend neither the
+one nor the other, knowing very well that I must die; and to die in her
+Majesty's faithful service, and with a good conscience, is far more happy
+than the miserable life that I am in.  If Leicester do in this sort stir
+up the people against the States to follow his revenge against them, and
+if the Queen do yield no better aid, and the minds of Count Maurice and
+Hohenlo remain thus in fear and hatred of him, what good end or service
+can be hoped for here?"--[Buckhurst to Walsingham, 13th June, 1587.
+(Brit. Mus.  Galba, D. I. p. 95, MS.)]
+
+Buckhurst was a man of unimpeached integrity and gentle manners.  He had
+come over with the best intentions towards the governor-general, and it
+has been seen that he boldly defended him in, his first interviews with
+the States.  But as the intrigues and underhand plottings of the Earl's
+agents were revealed to him, he felt more and more convinced that there
+was a deep laid scheme to destroy the government, and to constitute a
+virtual and absolute sovereignty for Leicester.  It was not wonderful
+that the States were standing vigorously on the defensive.
+
+The subtle Deventer, Leicester's evil genius, did not cease to poison the
+mind of the governor, during his protracted absence, against all persons
+who offered impediments to the cherished schemes of his master and
+himself.  "Your Excellency knows very well," he said, "that the state of
+this country is democratic, since, by failure of a prince, the sovereign
+disposition of affairs has returned to the people.  That same people is
+everywhere so incredibly affectionate towards you that the delay in your
+return drives them to extreme despair.  Any one who would know the real
+truth has but to remember the fine fear the States-General were in when
+the news of your displeasure about the 4th February letter became known."
+
+Had it not been for the efforts of Lord Buckhurst in calming the popular
+rage, Deventer assured the Earl that the writers of the letter would
+"have scarcely saved their skins;" and that they had always continued in
+great danger.
+
+He vehemently urged upon Leicester, the necessity of his immediate
+return--not so much for reasons drawn from the distracted state of the
+country, thus left to a provisional government and torn by faction--but
+because of the facility with which he might at once seize upon arbitrary
+power.  He gratified his master by depicting in lively colours the abject
+condition into which Barneveld, Maurice, Hohenlo, and similar cowards,
+would be thrown by his sudden return.
+
+"If," said he, "the States' members and the counts, every one of them,
+are so desperately afraid of the people, even while your Excellency is
+afar off, in what trepidation will they be when you are here!  God,
+reason, the affection of the sovereign people, are on your side.  There
+needs, in a little commonwealth like ours, but a wink of the eye, the
+slightest indication of dissatisfaction on your part, to take away all
+their valour from men who are only brave where swords are too short.
+A magnanimous prince like yourself should seek at once the place where
+such plots are hatching, and you would see the fury of the rebels change
+at once to cowardice.  There is more than one man here in the Netherlands
+that brags of what he will do against the greatest and most highly
+endowed prince in England, because he thinks he shall never see him
+again, who, at the very first news of your return, my Lord, would think
+only of packing his portmanteau, greasing his boots, or, at the very
+least, of sneaking back into his hole."
+
+But the sturdy democrat was quite sure that his Excellency, that most
+magnanimous prince of England would not desert his faithful followers--
+thereby giving those "filthy rascals," his opponents, a triumph, and
+"doing so great an injury to the sovereign people, who were ready to get
+rid of them all at a single blow, if his Excellency would but say the
+word."
+
+He then implored the magnanimous prince to imitate the example of Moses,
+Joshua, David, and that of all great emperors and captains, Hebrew,
+Greek, and Roman, to come at once to the scene of action, and to smite
+his enemies hip and thigh.  He also informed his Excellency, that if the
+delay should last much longer, he would lose all chance of regaining
+power, because the sovereign people had quite made up their mind to
+return to the dominion of Spain within three months, if they could not
+induce his Excellency to rule over them.  In that way at least, if in
+no other, they could circumvent those filthy rascals whom they so much
+abhorred, and frustrate the designs of Maurice, Hohenlo, and Sir John
+Norris, who were represented as occupying the position of the triumvirs
+after the death of Julius Caesar.
+
+To place its neck under the yoke of Philip II.  and the Inquisition,
+after having so handsomely got rid of both, did not seem a sublime
+manifestation of sovereignty on the part of the people, and even Deventer
+had some misgivings as to the propriety of such a result.  "What then
+will become of our beautiful churches?"  he cried, "What will princes
+say, what will the world in general say, what will historians say, about
+the honour of the English nation?"
+
+As to the first question, it is probable that the prospect of the
+reformed churches would not have been cheerful, had the inquisition been
+re-established in Holland and Utrecht, three months after that date.  As
+to the second, the world and history were likely to reply, that the
+honour of the English nation was fortunately not entirely, entrusted at
+that epoch to the "magnanimous prince" of Leicester, and his democratic,
+counsellor-in-chief, burgomaster Deventer.
+
+These are but samples of the ravings which sounded incessantly in the
+ears of the governor-general.  Was it strange that a man, so thirsty for
+power, so gluttonous of flattery, should be influenced by such passionate
+appeals?  Addressed in strains of fulsome adulation, convinced that
+arbitrary power was within his reach, and assured that he had but to wink
+his eye to see his enemies scattered before him, he became impatient of
+all restraint; and determined, on his return, to crush the States into
+insignificance.
+
+Thus, while Buckhurst had been doing his best as a mediator to prepare
+the path for his return, Leicester himself end his partisans had been
+secretly exerting themselves to make his arrival the signal for discord;
+perhaps of civil war.  The calm, then, immediately succeeding the mission
+of Buckhurst was a deceitful one, but it seemed very promising. The best
+feelings were avowed and perhaps entertained.  The States professed great
+devotion to her Majesty and friendly regard for the governor.  They
+distinctly declared that the arrangements by which Maurice and Hohenlo
+had been placed in their new positions were purely provisional ones,
+subject to modifications on the arrival of the Earl.  "All things are
+reduced to a quiet calm," said Buckhurst, "ready to receive my Lord of
+Leicester and his authority, whenever he cometh."
+
+The quarrel of Hohenlo with Sir Edward Norris had been, by the exertions
+of Buckhurst, amicably arranged: the Count became an intimate friend of
+Sir John, "to the gladding of all such as wished well to, the country;"
+but he nourished a deadly hatred to the Earl.  He ran up and down like a
+madman whenever his return was mentioned.  "If the Queen be willing to
+take the sovereignty," he cried out at his own dinner-table to a large
+company, "and is ready to proceed roundly in this action, I will serve
+her to the last drop of my blood; but if she embrace it in no other sort
+than hitherto she hath done, and if Leicester is to return, then am I as
+good a man as Leicester, and will never be commanded by him.  I mean to
+continue on my frontier, where all who love me can come and find me."
+
+He declared to several persons that he had detected a plot on the
+part of Leicester to have him assassinated; and the assertion seemed so
+important, that Villiers came to Councillor Clerk to confer with him on
+the subject.  The worthy Bartholomew, who had again, most reluctantly,
+left his quiet chambers in the Temple to come again among the guns and
+drums, which his soul abhorred, was appalled by such a charge. It was
+best to keep it a secret, he said, at least till the matter could be
+thoroughly investigated.  Villiers was of the same opinion, and
+accordingly the councillor, in the excess of his caution, confided the
+secret only--to whom?  To Mr. Atye, Leicester's private secretary.  Atye,
+of course, instantly told his master--his master in a frenzy of rage,
+told the Queen, and her Majesty, in a paroxysm of royal indignation at
+this new insult to her favourite, sent furious letters to her envoys,
+to the States-General, to everybody in the Netherlands--so that the
+assertion of Hohenlo became the subject of endless recrimination.
+Leicester became very violent, and denounced the statement as an impudent
+falsehood, devised wilfully in order to cast odium upon him and to
+prevent his return.  Unquestionably there was nothing in the story but
+table-talk; but the Count would have been still more ferocious towards
+Leicester than he was, had he known what was actually happening at that
+very moment.
+
+While Buckhurst was at Utrecht, listening to the "solemn-speeches" of the
+militia-captains and exchanging friendly expressions at stately banquets
+with Moeurs, he suddenly received a letter in cipher from her Majesty.
+Not having the key, he sent to Wilkes at the Hague.  Wilkes was very ill;
+but the despatch was marked pressing and immediate, so he got out of bed
+and made the journey to Utrecht.  The letter, on being deciphered, proved
+to be an order from the Queen to decoy Hohenlo into some safe town, on
+pretence of consultation and then to throw him into prison, on the ground
+that he had been tampering with the enemy, and was about to betray the
+republic to Philip.
+
+The commotion which would have been excited by any attempt to enforce
+this order, could be easily imagined by those familiar with Hohenlo and
+with the powerful party in the Netherlands of which he was one of the
+chiefs.  Wilkes stood aghast as he deciphered the letter.  Buckhurst felt
+the impossibility of obeying the royal will.  Both knew the cause, and
+both foresaw the consequences of the proposed step.  Wilkes had heard
+some rumours of intrigues between Parma's agents at Deventer and Hohenlo,
+and had confided them to Walsingham, hoping that the Secretary would keep
+the matter in his own breast, at least till further advice.  He was
+appalled at the sudden action proposed on a mere rumour, which both
+Buckhurst and himself had begun to consider an idle one.  He protested,
+therefore, to Walsingham that to comply with her Majesty's command would
+not only be nearly impossible, but would, if successful, hazard the ruin
+of the republic.  Wilkes was also very anxious lest the Earl of Leicester
+should hear of the matter.  He was already the object of hatred to that
+powerful personage, and thought him capable of accomplishing his
+destruction in any mode.  But if Leicester could wreak his vengeance
+upon his enemy Wilkes by the hand of his other deadly enemy Hohenlo,
+the councillor felt that this kind of revenge would have a double
+sweetness for him.  The Queen knows what I have been saying, thought
+Wilkes, and therefore Leicester knows it; and if Leicester knows it, he
+will take care that Hohenlo shall hear of it too, and then wo be unto me.
+"Your honour knoweth," he said to Walsingham, "that her Majesty can hold
+no secrets, and if she do impart it to Leicester, then am I sped."
+
+Nothing came of it however, and the relations of Wilkes and Buckhurst
+with Hohenlo continued to be friendly.  It was a lesson to Wilkes to
+be more cautious even with the cautious Walsingham.  "We had but bare
+suspicions," said Buckhurst, "nothing fit, God knoweth, to come to such a
+reckoning.  Wilkes saith he meant it but for a premonition to you there;
+but I think it will henceforth be a premonition to himself--there being
+but bare presumptions, and yet shrewd presumptions."
+
+Here then were Deventer and Leicester plotting to overthrow the
+government of the States; the States and Hohenlo arming against
+Leicester; the extreme democratic party threatening to go over to the
+Spaniards within three months; the Earl accused of attempting the life of
+Hohenlo; Hohenlo offering to shed the last drop of his blood for Queen
+Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth giving orders to throw Hohenlo into prison as
+a traitor; Councillor Wilkes trembling for his life at the hands both of
+Leicester and Hohenlo; and Buckhurst doing his best to conciliate all
+parties, and imploring her Majesty in vain to send over money to help on
+the war, and to save her soldiers from starving.
+
+For the Queen continued to refuse the loan of fifty thousand pounds which
+the provinces solicited, and in hope of which the States had just agreed
+to an extra contribution of a million florins (L100,000), a larger sum
+than had been levied by a single vote since the commencement of the war.
+It must be remembered, too, that the whole expense of the war fell upon
+Holland and Zeeland.  The Province of Utrecht, where there was so strong
+a disposition to confer absolute authority upon Leicester, and to destroy
+the power of the States-General contributed absolutely nothing.  Since
+the Loss of Deventer, nothing could be raised in the Provinces of
+Utrecht, Gelderland or Overyssel; the Spaniards levying black mail upon
+the whole territory, and impoverishing the inhabitants till they became
+almost a nullity.  Was it strange then that the States of Holland and
+Zeeland, thus bearing nearly the whole; burden of the war, should be
+dissatisfied with the hatred felt toward them by their sister Provinces
+so generously protected by them?  Was it unnatural that Barneveld, and
+Maurice, and Hohenlo, should be disposed to bridle the despotic
+inclinations of Leicester, thus fostered by those who existed, as it
+were, at their expense?
+
+But the Queen refused the L50,000, although Holland and Zeeland had voted
+the L100,000.  "No reason that breedeth charges," sighed Walsingham, "can
+in any sort be digested."
+
+It was not for want of vehement entreaty on the part of the Secretary of
+State and of Buckhurst that the loan was denied.  At least she was
+entreated to send over money for her troops, who for six months past were
+unpaid.  "Keeping the money in your coffers," said Buckhurst, "doth yield
+no interest to you, and--which is above all earthly, respects--it shall
+be the means of preserving the lives of many of your faithful subjects
+which otherwise must needs, daily perish.  Their miseries, through want
+of meat and money, I do protest to God so much moves, my soul with
+commiseration of that which is past, and makes my heart tremble to think
+of the like to come again, that I humbly beseech your Majesty, for Jesus
+Christ sake, to have compassion on their lamentable estate past, and send
+some money to prevent the like hereafter."
+
+These were moving words,--but the money did not come--charges could not
+be digested.
+
+"The eternal God," cried Buckhurst, "incline your heart to grant the
+petition of the States for the loan of the L50,000, and that speedily,
+for the dangerous terms of the State here and the mighty and forward
+preparation of the enemy admit no minute of delay; so that even to grant
+it slowly is to deny it utterly."
+
+He then drew a vivid picture of the capacity of the Netherlands to assist
+the endangered realm of England, if delay were not suffered to destroy
+both commonwealths, by placing the Provinces in an enemy's hand.
+
+"Their many and notable good havens," he said, "the great number of ships
+and mariners, their impregnable towns, if they were in the hands of a
+potent prince that would defend them, and, lastly, the state of this
+shore; so near and opposite unto the land and coast of England--lo, the
+sight of all this, daily in mine eye, conjoined with the deep, enrooted
+malice of that your so mighty enemy who seeketh to regain them; these
+things entering continually into the, meditations of my heart--so much do
+they import the safety of yourself and your estate--do enforce me, in the
+abundance of my love and duty to your Majesty, most earnestly to speak,
+write, and weep unto you, lest when the occasion yet offered shall be
+gone by, this blessed means of your defence, by God's provident goodness
+thus put into your hand, will then be utterly lost, lo; never, never more
+to be recovered again."
+
+It was a noble, wise, and eloquent appeal, but it was muttered in vain.
+Was not Leicester--his soul filled with petty schemes of reigning in
+Utrecht, and destroying the constitutional government of the Provinces
+--in full possession of the royal ear?  And was not the same ear lent,
+at most critical moment, to the insidious Alexander Farnese, with his
+whispers of peace, which were potent enough to drown all the preparations
+for the invincible Armada?
+
+Six months had rolled away since Leicester had left the Netherlands; six
+months long, the Provinces, left in a condition which might have become
+anarchy, had been saved by the wise government of the States-General; six
+months long the English soldiers had remained unpaid by their sovereign;
+and now for six weeks the honest, eloquent, intrepid, but gentle
+Buckhurst had done his best to conciliate all parties, and to mould the
+Netherlanders into an impregnable bulwark for the realm of England.  But
+his efforts were treated with scorn by the Queen.  She was still maddened
+by a sense of the injuries done by the States to Leicester.  She was
+indignant that her envoy should have accepted such lame apologies for the
+4th of February letter; that he should have received no better atonement
+for their insolent infringements of the Earl's orders during his absence;
+that he should have excused their contemptuous proceedings and that, in
+short, he should have been willing to conciliate and forgive when he
+should have stormed and railed.  "You conceived, it seemeth," said her
+Majesty, "that a more sharper manner of proceeding would have exasperated
+matters to the prejudice of the service, and therefore you did think it
+more fit to wash the wounds rather with water than vinegar, wherein we
+would rather have wished, on the other side, that you had better
+considered that festering wounds had more need of corrosives than
+lenitives.  Your own judgment ought to have taught that such a alight and
+mild kind of dealing with a people so ingrate and void of consideration
+as the said Estates have showed themselves toward us, is the ready way to
+increase their contempt."
+
+The envoy might be forgiven for believing that at any rate there would be
+no lack of corrosives or vinegar, so long as the royal tongue or pen
+could do their office, as the unfortunate deputies had found to their
+cost in their late interviews at Greenwich, and as her own envoys in the
+Netherlands were perpetually finding now.  The Queen was especially
+indignant that the Estates should defend the tone of their letters to the
+Earl on the ground that he had written a piquant epistle to them.  "But
+you can manifestly see their untruths in naming it a piquant letter,"
+said Elizabeth, "for it has no sour or sharp word therein, nor any clause
+or reprehension, but is full of gravity and gentle admonition.  It
+deserved a thankful answer, and so you may maintain it to them to their
+reproof."
+
+The States doubtless thought that the loss of Deventer and, with it, the
+almost ruinous condition of three out of the seven Provinces, might
+excuse on their part a little piquancy of phraseology, nor was it easy
+for them to express gratitude to the governor for his grave and gentle
+admonitions, after he had, by his secret document of 24th November,
+rendered himself fully responsible for the disaster they deplored.
+
+She expressed unbounded indignation with Hohenlo, who, as she was well
+aware, continued to cherish a deadly hatred for Leicester.  Especially
+she was exasperated, and with reason, by the assertion the Count had made
+concerning the governor's murderous designs upon him.  "'Tis a matter,"
+said the Queen, "so foul and dishonourable that doth not only touch
+greatly the credit of the Earl, but also our own honour, to have one who
+hath been nourished and brought up by us, and of whom we have made show
+to the world to have extraordinarily favoured above any other of our own
+subjects, and used his service in those countries in a place of that
+reputation he held there, stand charged with so horrible and unworthy a
+crime.  And therefore our pleasure is, even as you tender the continuance
+of our favour towards you, that you seek, by all the means you may,
+examining the Count Hollock, or any other party in this matter, to
+discover and to sift out how this malicious imputation hath been wrought;
+for we have reason to think that it hath grown out of some cunning device
+to stay the Earl's coming, and to discourage him from the continuance of
+his service in those countries."
+
+And there the Queen was undoubtedly in the right.  Hohenlo was resolved,
+if possible, to make the Earl's government of the Netherlands impossible.
+There was nothing in the story however; and all that by the most diligent
+"sifting" could ever be discovered, and all that the Count could be
+prevailed upon to confess, was an opinion expressed by him that if he had
+gone with Leicester to England, it might perhaps have fared ill with him.
+But men were given to loose talk in those countries.  There was great
+freedom of tongue and pen; and as the Earl, whether with justice or not,
+had always been suspected of strong tendencies to assassination, it was
+not very wonderful that so reckless an individual as Hohenlo should
+promulgate opinions on such subjects, without much reserve.  "The number
+of crimes that have been imputed to me," said Leicester, "would be
+incomplete, had this calumny not been added to all preceding ones."
+It is possible that assassination, especially poisoning, may have been
+a more common-place affair in those days than our own.  At any rate, it
+is certain that accusations of such crimes were of ordinary occurrence.
+Men were apt to die suddenly if they had mortal enemies, and people would
+gossip.  At the very same moment, Leicester was deliberately accused not
+only of murderous intentions towards Hohenlo, but towards Thomas Wilkes
+and Count Lewis William of Nassau likewise.  A trumpeter, arrested in
+Friesland, had just confessed that he had been employed by the Spanish
+governor of that Province, Colonel Verdugo, to murder Count Lewis, and
+that four other persons had been entrusted with the same commission.
+The Count wrote to Verdugo, and received in reply an indignant denial
+of the charge.  "Had I heard of such a project," said the Spaniard,
+"I would, on the contrary, have given you warning.  And I give you one
+now."  He then stated, as a fact known to him on unquestionable
+authority, that the Earl of Leicester had assassins at that moment in his
+employ to take the life of Count Lewis, adding that as for the trumpeter,
+who had just been hanged for the crime suborned by the writer, he was a
+most notorious lunatic.  In reply, Lewis, while he ridiculed this plea of
+insanity set up for a culprit who had confessed his crime succinctly and
+voluntarily, expressed great contempt for the counter-charge against
+Leicester.  "His Excellency," said the sturdy little Count," is a
+virtuous gentleman, the most pious and God-fearing I have ever known.  I
+am very sure that he could never treat his enemies in the manner stated,
+much less his friends.  As for yourself, may God give me grace, in
+requital of your knavish trick, to make such a war upon you as becomes an
+upright soldier and a man of honour."
+
+Thus there was at least one man--and a most important, one--in the
+opposition--party who thoroughly believed in the honour of the governor-
+general.
+
+The Queen then proceeded to lecture Lord Buckhurst very severely for
+having tolerated an instant the States' proposition to her for a loan of
+L50,000.  "The enemy," she observed, "is quite unable to attempt the
+siege of any town."
+
+Buckhurst was, however, instructed, in case the States' million should
+prove insufficient to enable the army to make head against the enemy, and
+in the event of "any alteration of the good-will of the people towards
+her, caused by her not yielding, in this their necessity, some convenient
+support," to let them then understand, "as of himself, that if they would
+be satisfied with a loan of ten or fifteen thousand pounds, he, would do
+his best endeavour to draw her Majesty to yield unto the furnishing of
+such a sum, with assured hope to obtaining the same at her hands."
+
+Truly Walsingham was right in saying that charges of any kind were
+difficult of digestion: Yet, even at that moment, Elizabeth had no more
+attached subjects in England than sere the burghers of the Netherlands;
+who were as anxious ever to annex their territory to her realms.
+
+'Thus, having expressed an affection for Leicester which no one doubted,
+having once more thoroughly brow-beaten the states, and having soundly
+lectured Buckhurst--as a requital for his successful efforts to bring
+about a more wholesome condition of affairs--she gave the envoy a parting
+stab, with this postscript;--"There is small disproportion," she said
+"twist a fool who useth not wit because he hath it not, and him that useth
+it not when it should avail him."  Leicester, too, was very violent in
+his attacks upon Buckhurst.  The envoy had succeeded in reconciling
+Hohenlo with the brothers Norris, and had persuaded Sir John to offer the
+hand of friendship to Leicester, provided it were sure of being accepted.
+Yet in this desire to conciliate, the Earl found renewed cause for
+violence.  "I would have had more regard of my Lord of Buckhurst," he
+said, "if the case had been between him and Norris, but I must regard my
+own reputation the more that I see others would impair it.  You have
+deserved little thanks of me, if I must deal plainly, who do equal me
+after this sort with him, whose best place is colonel under me, and once
+my servant, and preferred by me to all honourable place he had."  And
+thus were enterprises of great moment, intimately affecting the, safety
+of Holland, of England, of all Protestantism, to be suspended between
+triumph and ruin, in order that the spleen of one individual--one Queen's
+favourite--might be indulged.  The contempt of an insolent grandee for a
+distinguished commander--himself the son, of a Baron, with a mother the
+dear friend of her sovereign--was to endanger the existence of great
+commonwealths.  Can the influence of the individual, for good or bad,
+upon the destinies of the race be doubted, when the characters and
+conduct of Elizabeth and Leicester, Burghley and Walsingham, Philip and
+Parma, are closely scrutinized and broadly traced throughout the wide
+range of their effects?
+
+"And I must now, in your Lordship's sight," continued Leicester, "be made
+a counsellor with this companion, who never yet to this day hath done so
+much as take knowledge of my mislike of him; no, not to say this much,
+which I think would well become his better, that he was sorry, to hear I
+had mislike to him, that he desired my suspension till he might either
+speak with me, or be charged from me, and if then he were not able to
+satisfy me, he would acknowledge his fault, and make me any honest
+satisfaction.  This manner of dealing would have been no disparagement to
+his better.  And even so I must think that your Lordship doth me wrong,
+knowing what you do, to make so little difference between John Norris, my
+man not long since, and now but my colonel under me, as though we were
+equals.  And I cannot but more than marvel at this your proceeding, when
+I remember your promises of friendship, and your opinions resolutely set
+down .  .  .  .  You were so determined before you went hence, but must
+have become wonderfully enamoured of those men's unknown virtues in a few
+days of acquaintance, from the alteration that is grown by their own
+commendations of themselves.  You know very well that all the world
+should not make me serve with John Norris.  Your sudden change from
+mislike to liking has, by consequence, presently cast disgrace upon me.
+But all is not gold that glitters, nor every shadow a perfect
+representation .  .  .  .  You knew he should not serve with me, but
+either you thought me a very inconstant man, or else a very simple soul,
+resolving with you as I did, for you to take the course you have done."
+He felt, however, quite strong in her Majesty's favour.  He knew himself
+her favourite, beyond all chance or change, and was sure, so long as
+either lived, to thrust his enemies, by her aid, into outer darkness.
+Woe to Buckhurst, and Norris, and Wilkes, and all others who consorted
+with his enemies.  Let them flee from the wrath to come!  And truly they
+were only too anxious to do so, for they knew that Leicester's hatred was
+poisonous.  "He is not so facile to forget as ready to revenge," said
+poor Wilkes, with neat alliteration.  "My very heavy and mighty adversary
+will disgrace and undo me.
+
+"It sufficeth," continued Leicester, "that her Majesty both find my
+dealings well enough, and so, I trust will graciously use me.  As for the
+reconciliations and love-days you have made there, truly I have liked
+well of it; for you did sow me your disposition therein before, and I
+allowed of it, and I had received letters both from Count Maurice and
+Hohenlo of their humility and kindness, but now in your last letters you
+say they have uttered the cause of their mislike towards me, which you
+forbear to write of, looking so speedily for my return."
+
+But the Earl knew well enough what the secret was, for had it not been
+specially confided by the judicious Bartholomew to Atye, who had
+incontinently told his master?  "This pretense that I should kill
+Hohenlo," cried Leicester, "is a matter properly foisted in to bring me
+to choler.  I will not suffer it to rest, thus.  Its authors shall be
+duly and severely punished.  And albeit I see well enough the plot of
+this wicked device, yet shall it not work the effect the devisers have
+done it for.  No, my Lord, he is a villain and a false lying knave
+whosoever he be, and of what, nation soever that hath forged this device.
+Count Hohenlo doth know I never gave him cause to fear me so much.  There
+were ways and means offered me to have quitted him of the country if I
+had so liked.  This new monstrous villany which is now found out I do
+hate and detest, as I would look for the right judgment of God to fall
+upon myself, if I had but once imagined it.  All this makes good proof of
+Wilkes's good dealing with me, that hath heard of so vile and villainous
+a reproach of me, and never gave me knowledge.  But I trust your Lordship
+shall receive her Majesty's order for this, as for a matter that toucheth
+herself in honour, and me her poor servant and minister, as dearly as any
+matter can do; and I will so take it and use it to the uttermost."
+
+We have seen how anxiously Buckhurst had striven to do his duty upon a
+most difficult mission.  Was it unnatural that so fine a nature as his
+should be disheartened, at reaping nothing but sneers and contumely from
+the haughty sovereign he served, and from the insolent favourite who
+controlled her councils?  "I beseech your Lordship," he said to Burghley,
+"keep one ear for me, and do not hastily condemn me before you hear mine
+answer.  For if I ever did or shall do any acceptable service to her
+Majesty, it was in, the stay and appeasing of these countries, ever ready
+at my coming to have cast off all good respect towards us, and to have
+entered even into some desperate cause.  In the meantime I am hardly
+thought of by her Majesty, and in her opinion condemned before mine
+answer be understood.  Therefore I beseech you to help me to return, and
+not thus to lose her Majesty's favour for my good desert, wasting here my
+mind, body, my wits, wealth, and all; with continual toils, taxes, and
+troubles, more than I am able to endure."
+
+But besides his instructions to smooth and expostulate, in which he had
+succeeded so well, and had been requited so ill; Buckhurst had received a
+still more difficult commission.  He had been ordered to broach the
+subject of peace, as delicately as possible, but without delay; first
+sounding the leading politicians, inducing them to listen to the Queen's
+suggestions on the subject, persuading them that they ought to be
+satisfied with the principles of the pacification of Ghent, and that it
+was hopeless for the Provinces to continue the war with their mighty
+adversary any longer.
+
+Most reluctantly had Buckhurst fulfilled his sovereign's commands in this
+disastrous course.  To talk to the Hollanders of the Ghent pacification
+seemed puerile.  That memorable treaty, ten years before, had been one of
+the great landmarks of progress, one of the great achievements of William
+the Silent.  By its provisions, public exercise of the reformed religion
+had been secured for the two Provinces of Holland and Zeeland, and it had
+been agreed that the secret practice of those rites should be elsewhere
+winked at, until such time as the States-General, under the auspices of
+Philip II., should otherwise ordain.  But was it conceivable that now,
+after Philip's authority had been solemnly abjured, and the reformed
+worship had become the, public, dominant religion, throughout all the
+Provinces,--the whole republic should return to the Spanish dominion,
+and to such toleration as might be sanctioned by an assembly professing
+loyalty to the most Catholic King?
+
+Buckhurst had repeatedly warned the Queen, in fervid and eloquent
+language, as to the intentions of Spain.  "There was never peace well
+made," he observed, "without a mighty war preceding, and always, the
+sword in hand is the best pen to write the conditions of peace."
+
+"If ever prince had cause," he continued, "to think himself beset with
+doubt and danger, you, sacred Queen, have most just cause not only to
+think it, but even certainly to believe it.  The Pope doth daily plot
+nothing else but how he may bring to pass your utter overthrow; the
+French King hath already sent you threatenings of revenge, and though for
+that pretended cause I think little will ensue, yet he is blind that
+seeth not the mortal dislike that boileth deep in his heart for other
+respects against you.  The Scottish King, not only in regard of his
+future hope, but also by reason of some over conceit in his heart, may
+be thought a dangerous neighbour to you.  The King of Spain armeth and
+extendeth all his power to ruin both you and your estate.  And if the
+Indian gold have corrupted also the King of Denmark, and made him
+likewise Spanish, as I marvellously fear; why will not your Majesty,
+beholding the flames of your enemies on every side kindling around,
+unlock all your coffers and convert your treasure for the advancing of
+worthy men, and for the arming of ships and men-of-war that may defend
+you, since princes' treasures serve only to that end, and, lie they never
+so fast or so full in their chests, can no ways so defend them?
+
+"The eternal God, in whose hands the hearts of kings do rest, dispose and
+guide your sacred Majesty to do that which may be most according to His
+blessed will, and best for you, as I trust He will, even for His mercy's
+sake, both toward your Majesty and the whole realm of England, whose
+desolation is thus sought and compassed."
+
+Was this the language of a mischievous intriguer, who was sacrificing the
+true interest of his country, and whose proceedings were justly earning
+for him rebuke and disgrace at the hands of his sovereign?  Or was it
+rather the noble advice of an upright statesman, a lover of his country,
+a faithful servant of his Queen, who had looked through the atmosphere of
+falsehood in which he was doing his work, and who had detected, with rare
+sagacity, the secret purposes of those who were then misruling the world?
+
+Buckhurst had no choice, however, but to obey.  His private efforts were
+of course fruitless, but he announced to her Majesty that it was his
+intention very shortly to bring the matter--according to her wish--before
+the assembly.
+
+But Elizabeth, seeing that her counsel had been unwise and her action
+premature, turned upon her envoy, as she was apt to do, and rebuked him
+for his obedience, so soon as obedience had proved inconvenient to
+herself.
+
+"Having perused your letters," she said, "by which you at large debate
+unto us what you have done in the matter of peace .  .  .  .  .  we find
+it strange that you should proceed further.  And although we had given
+you full and ample direction to proceed to a public dealing in that
+cause, yet our own discretion, seeing the difficulties and dangers that
+you yourself saw in the propounding of the matter, ought to have led you
+to delay till further command from us."
+
+Her Majesty then instructed her envoy, in case he had not yet "propounded
+the matter in the state-house to the general assembly," to pause entirely
+until he heard her further pleasure.  She concluded, as usual, with a
+characteristic postcript in her own hand.
+
+"Oh weigh deeplier this matter," she said, "than, with so shallow a
+judgment, to spill the cause, impair my honour, and shame yourself, with
+all your wit, that once was supposed better than to lose a bargain for
+the handling."
+
+Certainly the sphinx could have propounded no more puzzling riddles than
+those which Elizabeth thus suggested to Buckhurst.  To make war without
+an army, to support an army without pay, to frame the hearts of a whole
+people to peace who were unanimous for war, and this without saying a
+word either in private or public; to dispose the Netherlanders favourably
+to herself and to Leicester, by refusing them men and money, brow-beating
+them for asking for it, and subjecting them to a course of perpetual
+insults, which she called "corrosives," to do all this and more seemed
+difficult.  If not to do it, were to spill the cause and to lose the
+bargain, it was more than probable that they would be spilt and lost.
+
+But the ambassador was no OEdipus--although a man of delicate perceptions
+and brilliant intellect--and he turned imploringly to a wise counsellor
+for aid against the tormentor who chose to be so stony-faced and
+enigmatical.
+
+"Touching the matter of peace," said he to Walsingham, "I have written
+somewhat to her Majesty in cipher, so as I am sure you will be called for
+to decipher it.  If you did know how infinitely her Majesty did at my
+departure and before--for in this matter of peace she hath specially used
+me this good while--command me, pray me, and persuade me to further and
+hasten the same with all the speed possible that might be, and how, on
+the other side, I have continually been the man and the mean that have
+most plainly dehorted her from such post-haste, and that she should never
+make good peace without a puissant army in the field, you would then say
+that I had now cause to fear her displeasure for being too slow, and not
+too forward.  And as for all the reasons which in my last letters are set
+down, her Majesty hath debated them with me many times."
+
+And thus midsummer was fast approaching, the commonwealth was without a
+regular government, Leicester remained in England nursing his wrath and
+preparing his schemes, the Queen was at Greenwich, corresponding with
+Alexander Farnese, and sending riddles to Buckhurst, when the enemy--who,
+according to her Majesty, was "quite unable to attempt the, siege of any
+town" suddenly appeared in force in Flanders, and invested Sluy's.  This
+most important seaport, both for the destiny of the republic and of
+England at that critical moment, was insufficiently defended.  It was
+quite time to put an army in the field, with a governor-general to
+command it.
+
+On the 5th June there was a meeting of the state-council at the Hague.
+Count Maurice, Hohenlo, and Moeurs were present, besides several members
+of the States-General.  Two propositions were before the council.  The
+first was that it was absolutely necessary to the safety of the republic,
+now that the enemy had taken the field, and the important city of Sluy's
+was besieged, for Prince Maurice to be appointed captain-general, until
+such time as the Earl of Leicester or some other should be sent by her
+Majesty.  The second was to confer upon the state-council the supreme
+government in civil affairs, for the same period, and to repeal all
+limitations and restrictions upon the powers of the council made secretly
+by the Earl.
+
+Chancellor Leoninus, "that grave, wise old man," moved the propositions.
+The deputies of the States were requested to withdraw.  The vote of each
+councillor was demanded.  Buckhurst, who, as the Queen's representative--
+together with Wilkes and John Norris--had a seat in the council, refused
+to vote.  "It was a matter," he discreetly observed with which "he had not
+been instructed by her Majesty to intermeddle."  Norris and Wilkes also
+begged to be excused from voting, and, although earnestly urged to do so
+by the whole council, persisted in their refusal.  Both measures were
+then carried.
+
+No sooner was the vote taken, than an English courier entered the
+council-chamber, with pressing despatches from Lord Leicester.  The
+letters were at once read.  The Earl announced his speedy arrival, and
+summoned both the States-General and the council to meet him at Dort,
+where his lodgings were already taken.  All were surprised, but none more
+than Buckhurst, Wilkes, and Norris; for no intimation of this sudden
+resolution had been received by them, nor any answer given to various
+propositions, considered by her Majesty as indispensable preliminaries to
+the governor's visit.
+
+The council adjourned till after dinner, and Buckhurst held conference
+meantime with various counsellors and deputies.  On the reassembling of
+the board, it was urged by Barneveld, in the name of the States, that the
+election of Prince Maurice should still hold good.  "Although by these
+letters," said he, "it would seem that her Majesty had resolved upon the
+speedy return of his Excellency, yet, inasmuch as the counsels and
+resolutions of princes are often subject to change upon new occasion, it
+does not seem fit that our late purpose concerning Prince Maurice should
+receive any interruption."
+
+Accordingly, after brief debate, both resolutions, voted in the morning,
+were confirmed in the afternoon.
+
+"So now," said Wilkes, "Maurice is general of all the forces, 'et quid
+sequetur nescimus.'"
+
+But whatever else was to follow, it was very certain that Wilkes would
+not stay.  His great enemy had sworn his destruction, and would now take
+his choice, whether to do him to death himself, or to throw him into the
+clutch of the ferocious Hohenlo.  "As for my own particular," said the
+counsellor, "the word is go, whosoever cometh or cometh not," and he
+announced to Walsingham his intention of departing without permission,
+should he not immediately receive it from England.  "I shall stay to be
+dandled with no love-days nor leave-takings," he observed.
+
+But Leicester had delayed his coming too long.  The country felt that it-
+had been trifled with by his: absence--at so critical a period--of seven
+months.  It was known too that the Queen was secretly treating with the
+enemy, and that Buckhurst had been privately sounding leading personages
+upon that subject, by her orders.  This had caused a deep, suppressed
+indignation.  Over and over again had the English government been warned
+as to the danger of delay.  "Your length in resolving;" Wilkes had said,
+"whatsoever your secret purposes may be--will put us to new plunges
+before long."  The mission of Buckhurst was believed to be "but a stale,
+having some other intent than was expressed."  And at last, the new
+plunge had been fairly taken.  It seemed now impossible for Leicester to
+regain the absolute authority, which he coveted; and which he had for a
+brief season possessed. The States-General, under able leaders, had
+become used to a government which had been forced upon them, and which
+they had wielded with success.  Holland and Zeeland, paying the whole
+expense of the war, were not likely to endure again the absolute
+sovereignty of a foreigner, guided by a back stairs council of reckless
+politicians--most of whom were unprincipled, and some of whom had been
+proved to be  felons--and established, at Utrecht, which contributed
+nothing to the general purse.  If Leicester were really-coming, it seemed
+certain that he would be held to acknowledge the ancient constitution,
+and to respect the sovereignty of the States-General.  It was resolved
+that he should be well bridled.  The sensations of Barneveld and his
+party may therefore be imagined, when a private letter of Leicester, to
+his secretary "the fellow named Junius," as Hohenlo called him--having
+been intercepted at this moment, gave them an opportunity of studying
+the Earl's secret thoughts.
+
+The Earl informed his correspondent that he was on the point of starting
+for the Netherlands.  He ordered him therefore to proceed at once to
+reassure those whom he knew well disposed as to the good intentions of
+her Majesty and of the governor-general.  And if, on the part of Lord
+Buckhurst or others, it should be intimated that the Queen was resolved
+to treat for peace with the King of Spain; and wished to have the opinion
+of the Netherlanders on that subject, he was to say boldly that Lord
+Buckhurst never had any such charge, and that her Majesty had not been
+treating at all.  She had only been attempting to sound the King's
+intentions towards the Netherlands, in case of any accord.  Having
+received no satisfactory assurance on the subject, her Majesty was
+determined to proceed with the defence of these countries.  This appeared
+by the expedition of Drake against Spain, and by the return of the Earl,
+with a good cumber of soldiers paid by her Majesty, over and above her
+ordinary subsidy.
+
+"You are also;" said the Earl, "to tell those who have the care of the
+people" (the ministers of the reformed church and others), "that I am
+returning, in the confidence that they will, in future, cause all past
+difficulties to cease, and that they will yield to me a legitimate
+authority, such as befits for administering the sovereignty of the
+Provinces, without my being obliged to endure all the oppositions and
+counterminmgs of the States, as in times past.  The States must content
+themselves with retaining the power which they claim to have exercised
+under the governors of the Emperor and the King--without attempting
+anything farther during my government--since I desire to do nothing of
+importance without the advice of the council, which will be composed
+legitimately of persons of the country.  You will also tell them that her
+Majesty commands me to return unless I can obtain from the States the
+authority which is necessary, in order not to be governor in appearance
+only and on paper.  And I wish that those who are good may be apprized of
+all this, in order that nothing may happen to their prejudice and ruin,
+and contrary to their wishes."
+
+There were two very obvious comments to be made upon this document.
+Firstly, the States--de jure, as they claimed, and de facto most
+unquestionably--were in the position of the Emperor and King.  They were
+the sovereigns.  The Earl wished them to content themselves with the
+power which they exercised under the Emperor's governors.  This was like
+requesting the Emperor, when in the Netherlands, to consider himself
+subject to his own governor.  The second obvious reflection was that the
+Earl, in limiting his authority by a state-council, expected, no doubt,
+to appoint that body himself--as he had done before--and to allow the
+members only the right of talking, and of voting,--without the power of
+enforcing their decisions.  In short, it was very plain that Leicester
+meant to be more absolute than ever.
+
+As to the flat contradiction given to Buckhurst's proceedings in the
+matter of peace, that statement could scarcely deceive any one who had
+seen her Majesty's letters and instructions to her envoy.
+
+It was also a singularly deceitful course to be adopted by Leicester
+towards Buckhurst and towards the Netherlands, because his own private
+instructions, drawn up at the same moment, expressly enjoined him to do
+exactly what Buckhurst had been doing.  He was most strictly and
+earnestly commanded to deal privately with all such persons as bad
+influence with the "common sort of people," in order that they should use
+their influence with those common people in favour of peace, bringing
+vividly before them the excessive burthens of the war, their inability to
+cope with so potent a prince as Philip, and the necessity the Queen was
+under of discontinuing her contributions to their support.  He was to
+make the same representations to the States, and he was further most
+explicitly to inform all concerned, that, in case they were unmoved by
+these suggestions, her Majesty had quite made up her mind to accept the
+handsome offers of peace held out by the King of Spain, and to leave them
+to their fate.
+
+It seemed scarcely possible that the letter to Junius and the
+instructions for the Earl should have been dated the same week, and
+should have emanated from the same mind; but such was the fact.
+
+He was likewise privately to assure Maurice and Hohenlo--in order to
+remove their anticipated opposition to the peace--that such care should
+be taken in providing for them, as that "they should have no just cause
+to dislike thereof, but to rest satisfied withal."
+
+With regard to the nature of his authority, he was instructed to claim a
+kind of dictatorship in everything regarding the command of the forces,
+and the distribution of the public treasure.  All offices were to be at
+his disposal.  Every florin contributed by the States was to be placed in
+his hands, and spent according to his single will.  He was also to have
+plenary power to prevent the trade in victuals with the enemy by death
+and confiscation.
+
+If opposition to any of these proposals were made by the States-General,
+he was to appeal to the States of each Province; to the towns and
+communities, and in case it should prove impossible for him "to be
+furnished with the desired authority," he was then instructed to say that
+it was "her Majesty's meaning to leave them to their own counsel and
+defence, and to withdraw the support that she had yielded to them: seeing
+plainly that the continuance of the confused government now reigning
+among them could not but work their ruin."
+
+Both these papers came into Barneveld's hands, through the agency of
+Ortel, the States' envoy in England, before the arrival of the Earl in
+the Netherlands.
+
+Of course they soon became the topics of excited conversation and of
+alarm in every part of the country.  Buckhurst, touched to the quick by
+the reflection upon those--proceedings of his which had been so
+explicitly enjoined upon him, and so reluctantly undertaken--appealed
+earnestly to her Majesty.  He reminded her, as delicately as possible,
+that her honour, as well as his own, was at stake by Leicester's insolent
+disavowals of her authorized ambassador.  He besought her to remember
+"what even her own royal hand had written to the Duke of Parma;" and how
+much his honour was interested "by the disavowing of his dealings about
+the peace begun by her Majesty's commandment."  He adjured her with much
+eloquence to think upon the consequences of stirring up the common and
+unstable multitude against their rulers; upon the pernicious effects of
+allowing the clergy to inflame the passions of the people against the
+government.  "Under the name of such as have charge over the people,"
+said Buckhurst, "are understood the ministers and chaplains of the
+churches in every town, by the means of whom it, seems that his Lordship
+tendeth his whole purpose to attain to his desire of the administration
+of the sovereignty."  He assured the Queen that this scheme of Leicester
+to seize virtually upon that sovereignty, would be a disastrous one.
+"The States are resolved," said he, "since your Majesty doth refuse the
+sovereignty, to lay it upon no creature else, as a thing contrary to
+their oath and allegiance to their country."  He reminded her also that
+the States had been dissatisfied with the Earl's former administration,
+believing that he had exceeded his commission, and that they were
+determined therefore to limit his authority at his return.  "Your sacred
+Majesty may consider," he said, "what effect all this may work among the
+common and ignorant people, by intimating that, unless they shall procure
+him the administration of such a sovereignty as he requireth, their ruin
+may ensue."  Buckhurst also informed her that he had despatched
+Councillor Wilkes to England, in order that he might give more ample
+information on all these affairs by word of mouth than could well be
+written.
+
+It need hardly be stated that Barneveld came down to the states'-house
+with these papers in his hand, and thundered against the delinquent and
+intriguing governor till the general indignation rose to an alarming
+height.  False statements of course were made to Leicester as to the
+substance of the Advocate's discourse.  He was said to have charged upon
+the English government an intention to seize forcibly upon their cities,
+and to transfer them to Spain on payment of the sums due to the Queen
+from the States, and to have declared that he had found all this treason
+in the secret instructions of the Earl.  But Barneveld had read the
+instructions, to which the attention of the reader has just been called,
+and had strictly stated the truth which was damaging enough, without need
+of exaggeration.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+All business has been transacted with open doors
+Beacons in the upward path of mankind
+Been already crimination and recrimination more than enough
+Casting up the matter "as pinchingly as possibly might be"
+Disposed to throat-cutting by the ministers of the Gospel
+During this, whole war, we have never seen the like
+Even to grant it slowly is to deny it utterly
+Evil is coming, the sooner it arrives the better
+Fool who useth not wit because he hath it not
+Guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith
+Individuals walking in advance of their age
+Never peace well made, he observed, without a mighty war
+Rebuked him for his obedience
+Respect for differences in religious opinions
+Sacrificed by the Queen for faithfully obeying her orders
+Succeeded so well, and had been requited so ill
+Sword in hand is the best pen to write the conditions of peace
+Their existence depended on war
+They chose to compel no man's conscience
+Torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and children
+Universal suffrage was not dreamed of at that day
+Waiting the pleasure of a capricious and despotic woman
+Who the "people" exactly were
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v52
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 53, 1587
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     Situation of Sluys--Its Dutch and English Garrison--Williams writes
+     from Sluys to the Queen--Jealousy between the Earl and States--
+     Schemes to relieve Sluys--Which are feeble and unsuccessful--The
+     Town Capitulates--Parma enters--Leicester enraged--The Queen angry
+     with the Anti-Leicestrians--Norris, Wilkes, and Buckhurst punished--
+     Drake sails for Spain--His Exploits at Cadiz and Lisbon--He is
+     rebuked by Elizabeth.
+
+When Dante had passed through the third circle of the Inferno--a desert
+of red-hot sand, in which lay a multitude of victims of divine wrath,
+additionally tortured by an ever-descending storm of fiery flakes--he was
+led by Virgil out of this burning wilderness along a narrow causeway.
+This path was protected, he said, against the showers of flame, by the
+lines of vapour which rose eternally from a boiling brook.  Even by such
+shadowy bulwarks, added the poet, do the Flemings between Kadzand and
+Bruges protect their land against the ever-threatening sea.
+
+It was precisely among these slender dykes between Kadzand and Bruges
+that Alexander Farnese had now planted all the troops that he could
+muster in the field.  It was his determination to conquer the city of
+Sluys; for the possession of that important sea-port was necessary for
+him as a basis for the invasion of England, which now occupied all the
+thoughts of his sovereign and himself.
+
+Exactly opposite the city was the island of Kadzand, once a fair and
+fertile territory, with a city and many flourishing villages upon its
+surface, but at that epoch diminished to a small dreary sand-bank by the
+encroachments of the ocean.
+
+A stream of inland water, rising a few leagues to the south of Sluys,
+divided itself into many branches just before reaching the city,
+converted the surrounding territory into a miniature archipelago--the
+islands of which were shifting treacherous sand-banks at low water, and
+submerged ones at flood--and then widening and deepening into a
+considerable estuary, opened for the city a capacious harbour, and an
+excellent although intricate passage to the sea.  The city, which was
+well built and thriving, was so hidden in its labyrinth of canals and
+streamlets, that it seemed almost as difficult a matter to find Sluys as
+to conquer it.  It afforded safe harbour for five hundred large vessels;
+and its possession, therefore, was extremely important for Parma.
+Besides these natural defences, the place was also protected by
+fortifications; which were as well constructed as the best of that
+period.  There was a strong rampire and many towers.  There was also a
+detached citadel of great strength, looking towards the sea, and there
+was a ravelin, called St. Anne's, looking in the direction of Bruges.
+A mere riband of dry land in that quarter was all of solid earth to be
+found in the environs of Sluys.
+
+The city itself stood upon firm soil, but that soil had been hollowed
+into a vast system of subterranean magazines, not for warlike purposes,
+but for cellars, as Sluys had been from a remote period the great
+entrepot of foreign wines in the Netherlands.
+
+While the eternal disputes between Leicester and the States were going on
+both in Holland and in England, while the secret negotiations between
+Alexander Farnese and Queen slowly proceeding at Brussels and Greenwich,
+the Duke, notwithstanding the destitute condition of his troops, and the
+famine which prevailed throughout the obedient Provinces, had succeeded
+in bringing a little army of five thousand foot,  and something less than
+one thousand horse, into the field.  A portion of this force he placed
+under the command of the veteran La Motte.  That distinguished campaigner
+had assured the commander-in-chief that the reduction of the city would
+be an easy achievement.  Alexander soon declared that the enterprise was
+the most difficult one that he had ever undertaken.  Yet, two years
+before, he had carried to its triumphant conclusion the famous siege of
+Antwerp.  He stationed his own division upon the isle of Kadzand, and
+strengthened his camp by additionally fortifying those shadowy bulwarks,
+by which the island, since the age of Dante, had entrenched itself
+against the assaults of ocean.
+
+On the other hand, La Motte, by the orders of his chief, had succeeded,
+after a sharp struggle, in carrying the fort of St. Anne.  A still more
+important step was the surprising of Blankenburg, a small fortified place
+on the coast, about midway between Ostend and Sluys, by which the sea-
+communications with the former city for the relief of the beleaguered
+town were interrupted.
+
+Parma's demonstrations against Sluys had commenced in the early days of
+June.  The commandant of the place was Arnold de Groenevelt, a Dutch
+noble of ancient lineage and approved valour.  His force was, however,
+very meagre, hardly numbering more than eight hundred, all Netherlanders,
+but counting among its officers several most distinguished personages-
+Nicholas de Maulde, Adolphus de Meetkerke and his younger brother,
+Captain Heraugiere, and other well-known partisans.
+
+On the threatening of danger the commandant had made application to
+Sir William Russell, the worthy successor of Sir Philip Sidney in the
+government of Flushing.  He had received from him, in consequence, a
+reinforcement of eight hundred English soldiers, under several eminent
+chieftains, foremost among whom were the famous Welshman Roger Williams,
+Captain Huntley, Baskerville, Sir Francis Vere, Ferdinando Gorges, and
+Captain Hart.  This combined force, however, was but a slender one; there
+being but sixteen hundred men to protect two miles and a half of rampart,
+besides the forts and ravelins.
+
+But, such as it was, no time was lost in vain regrets.  The sorties
+against the besiegers were incessant and brilliant.  On one occasion Sir
+Francis Vere--conspicuous in the throng, in his red mantilla, and
+supported only by one hundred Englishmen and Dutchmen, under Captain
+Baskerville--held at bay eight companies of the famous Spanish legion
+called the Terzo Veijo, at push of pike, took many prisoners, and forced
+the Spaniards from the position in which they were entrenching
+themselves.  On the other hand, Farnese declared that he had never in his
+life witnessed anything so unflinching as the courage of his troops;
+employed as they were in digging trenches where the soil was neither land
+nor water, exposed to inundation by the suddenly-opened sluices, to a
+plunging fire from the forts, and to perpetual hand-to-hand combats with
+an active and fearless foe, and yet pumping away in the coffer-dams-which
+they had invented by way of obtaining a standing-ground for their
+operations--as steadily and sedately as if engaged in purely pacific
+employments.  The besieged here inspired by a courage equally remarkable.
+The regular garrison was small enough, but the burghers were courageous,
+and even the women organized themselves into a band of pioneers.  This
+corps of Amazons, led by two female captains, rejoicing in the names of
+'May in the Heart' and 'Catherine the Rose,' actually constructed an
+important redoubt between the citadel and the rampart, which received, in
+compliment to its builders, the appellation of 'Fort Venus.'
+
+The demands of the beleaguered garrison, however, upon the States and
+upon Leicester were most pressing.  Captain Hart swam thrice out of the
+city with letters to the States, to the governor-general, and to Queen
+Elizabeth; and the same perilous feat was performed several times by a
+Netherland officer.  The besieged meant to sell their lives dearly, but
+it was obviously impossible for them, with so slender a force, to resist
+a very long time.
+
+"Our ground is great and our men not so many," wrote Roger Williams to
+his sovereign, "but we trust in God and our valour to defend it .  .  .
+.  .  .  .  We mean, with God's help, to make their downs red and black,
+and to let out every acre of our ground for a thousand of their lives,
+besides our own."
+
+The Welshman was no braggart, and had proved often enough that he was
+more given to performances than promises.  "We doubt not your Majesty
+will succour us," he said, "for our honest mind and plain dealing toward
+your royal person and dear country;" adding, as a bit of timely advice,
+"Royal Majesty, believe not over much your peacemakers.  Had they their
+mind, they will not only undo your friend's abroad, but, in the end, your
+royal estate."
+
+Certainly it was from no want of wholesome warning from wise statesmen
+and blunt soldiers that the Queen was venturing into that labyrinth of
+negotiation which might prove so treacherous.  Never had been so
+inopportune a moment for that princess to listen to the voice of him who
+was charming her so wisely, while he was at the same moment battering
+the place, which was to be the basis of his operations against her
+realm.  Her delay in sending forth Leicester, with at least a moderate
+contingent, to the rescue, was most pernicious.  The States--ignorant
+of the Queen's exact relations with Spain, and exaggerating her
+disingenuousness into absolute perfidy became on their own part
+exceedingly to blame.  There is no doubt whatever that both Hollanders
+and English men were playing into the hands of Parma as adroitly as if
+he had actually directed their movements.  Deep were the denunciations
+of Leicester and his partisans by the States' party, and incessant the
+complaints of the English and Dutch troops shut up in Sluys against the
+inactivity or treachery of Maurice and Hohenlo.
+
+"If Count Maurice and his base brother, the Admiral (Justinus de Nassau),
+be too young to govern, must Holland and Zeeland lose their countries and
+towns to make them expert men of war?" asked Roger Williams.'  A pregnant
+question certainly, but the answer was, that by suspicion and jealousy,
+rather than by youth and inexperience, the arms were paralyzed which
+should have saved the garrison.  "If these base fellows (the States) will
+make Count Hollock their instrument," continued the Welshman; "to cover
+and maintain their folly and lewd dealing, is it necessary for her royal
+Majesty to suffer it?  These are too great matters to be rehearsed by me;
+but because I am in the town, and do resolve to, sign with my blood my
+duty in serving my sovereign and country, I trust her Majesty will pardon
+me."  Certainly the gallant adventurer on whom devolved at least half the
+work of directing the defence of the city, had a right to express his
+opinions.  Had he known the whole truth, however, those opinions would
+have been modified.  And he wrote amid the smoke and turmoil of daily and
+nightly battle.
+
+"Yesterday was the fifth sally we made," he observed: "Since I followed
+the wars I never saw valianter captains, nor willinger soldiers.  At
+eleven o'clock the enemy entered the ditch of our fort, with trenches
+upon wheels, artillery-proof.  We sallied out, recovered their trenches,
+slew the governor of Dam, two Spanish captains, with a number of others,
+repulsed them into their artillery, kept the ditch until yesternight, and
+will recover it, with God's help, this night, or else pay dearly for it .
+.  .  .  .  I care not what may become of me in this world, so that her
+Majesty's honour,--with the rest of honourable good friends, will think
+me an honest man."
+
+No one ever doubted the simple-hearted Welshman's honesty, any more than
+his valour; but he confided in the candour of others who were somewhat
+more sophisticated than himself.  When he warned her, royal Majesty
+against the peace-makers, it was impossible for him to know that the
+great peace-maker was Elizabeth herself.
+
+After the expiration of a month the work had become most fatiguing.  The
+enemy's trenches had been advanced close to the ramparts, and desperate
+conflicts were of daily occurrence.  The Spanish mines, too, had been
+pushed forward towards the extensive wine-caverns below the city, and the
+danger of a vast explosion or of a general assault from beneath their
+very feet, seemed to the inhabitants imminent.  Eight days long, with
+scarcely an intermission, amid those sepulchral vaults, dimly-lighted
+with torches, Dutchmen, Englishmen, Spaniards, Italians, fought hand to
+hand, with pike, pistol, and dagger, within the bowels of the earth.
+
+Meantime the operations of the States were not commendable.  The
+ineradicable jealousy between the Leicestrians and the Barneveldians had
+done its work.  There was no hearty effort for the relief of Sluys.
+There were suspicions that, if saved, the town would only be taken
+possession of by the Earl of Leicester, as an additional vantage-point
+for coercing the country into subjection to his arbitrary authority.
+Perhaps it would be transferred to Philip by Elizabeth as part of the
+price for peace.  There was a growing feeling in Holland and Zeeland that
+as those Provinces bore all the expense of the war, it was an imperative
+necessity that they should limit their operations to the defence of their
+own soil.  The suspicions as to the policy of the English government were
+sapping the very foundations of the alliance, and there was small
+disposition on the part of the Hollanders, therefore, to protect what
+remained of Flanders, and thus to strengthen the hands of her whom they
+were beginning to look upon as an enemy.
+
+Maurice and Hohenlo made, however, a foray into Brabant, by way of
+diversion to the siege of Sluys, and thus compelled Farnese to detach a
+considerable force under Haultepenne into that country, and thereby to
+weaken himself.  The expedition of Maurice was not unsuccessful.  There
+was some sharp skirmishing between Hohenlo and Haultepenne, in which the
+latter, one of the most valuable and distinguished generals on the royal
+side, was defeated and slain; the fort of Engel, near Bois-le-Duc, was
+taken, and that important city itself endangered; but, on the other hand,
+the contingent on which Leicester relied from the States to assist in
+relieving Sluys was not forthcoming.
+
+For, meantime, the governor-general had at last been sent back by his
+sovereign to the post which he had so long abandoned.  Leaving Leicester
+House on the 4th July (N. S.), he had come on board the fleet two days
+afterwards at Margate.  He was bringing with him to the Netherlands three
+thousand fresh infantry, and thirty thousand pounds, of which sum fifteen
+thousand pounds had been at last wrung from Elizabeth as an extra loan,
+in place of the sixty thousand pounds which the States had requested.  As
+he sailed past Ostend and towards Flushing, the Earl was witness to the
+constant cannonading between the besieged city and the camp of Farnese,
+and saw that the work could hardly be more serious; for in one short day
+more shots were fired than had ever been known before in a single day in
+all Parma's experience.
+
+Arriving at Flushing, the governor-general was well received by the
+inhabitants; but the mischief, which had been set a-foot six months
+before, had done its work.  The political intrigues, disputes, and the
+conflicting party-organizations, have already been set in great detail
+before the reader, in order that their effect might now be thoroughly
+understood without--explanation.  The governor-general came to Flushing
+at a most critical moment.  The fate of all the Spanish Netherlands, of
+Sluys, and with it the whole of Philip and Parma's great project, were,
+in Farnese's own language, hanging by a thread.
+
+It would have been possible--had the transactions of the past six months,
+so far as regarded Holland and England, been the reverse of what they had
+been--to save the city; and, by a cordial and united effort, for the two
+countries to deal the Spanish power such a blow, that summer, as would
+have paralyzed it for a long time to come, and have placed both
+commonwealths in comparative security.
+
+Instead of all this, general distrust and mutual jealousy prevailed.
+Leicester had, previously to his departure from England, summoned the
+States to meet him at Dort upon his arrival.  Not a soul appeared.  Such
+of the state-councillors as were his creatures came to him, and Count
+Maurice made a visit of ceremony.  Discussions about a plan for relieving
+the siege became mere scenes of bickering and confusion.  The officers
+within Sluys were desirous that a fleet should force its way into the
+harbour, while, at the same time, the English army, strengthened by the
+contingent which Leicester had demanded from the States, should advance
+against the Duke of Parma by land.  It was, in truth, the only way to
+succour the place.  The scheme was quite practicable.  Leicester
+recommended it, the Hollanders seemed to favour it, Commandant Groenevelt
+and Roger Williams urged it.
+
+"I do assure you," wrote the honest Welshman to Leicester, "if you will
+come afore this town, with as many galliots and as many flat-bottomed
+boats as can cause two men-of-war to enter, they cannot stop their
+passage, if, your mariners will do a quarter of their duty, as I saw them
+do divers times.  Before, they make their entrance, we will come with our
+boats, and fight with the greatest part, and show them there is no such
+great danger.  Were it not for my wounded arm, I would be, in your first
+boat to enter.  Notwithstanding, I and other Englishmen will approach
+their boats in such sort, that we will force them to give their saker of
+artillery upon us.  If, your Excellency will give ear unto those false
+lewd fellows (the Captain meant the States-General), you shall lose great
+opportunity.  Within ten or twelve days the enemy will make his bridge
+from Kadzand unto St. Anne, and force you to hazard battle before you
+succour this town.  Let my Lord Willoughby and Sir William Russell land
+at Terhoven, right against Kadzand, with 4000, and entrench hard by the
+waterside, where their boats can carry them victual and munition.  They
+may approach by trenches without engaging any dangerous fight .  .  .  .
+We dare not show the estate of this town more than we have done by
+Captain Herte.  We must fight this night within our rampart in the fort.
+You may sure the world here are no Hamerts, but valiant captains and
+valiant soldiers, such as, with God's help, had rather be buried in the
+place than be disgraced in any point that belongs to such a number of
+men-of-war."
+
+But in vain did the governor of the place, stout Arnold Froenevelt,
+assisted by the rough and direct eloquence of Roger Williams, urge upon
+the Earl of Leicester and the States-General the necessity and the
+practicability of the plan proposed.  The fleet never entered the
+harbour.  There was no William of Orange to save Antwerp and Sluys,
+as Leyden had once been saved, and his son was not old enough to unravel
+the web of intrigue by which he was surrounded, or to direct the whole
+energies of the commonwealth towards an all-important end.  Leicester had
+lost all influence, all authority, nor were his military abilities equal
+to the occasion, even if he had been cordially obeyed.
+
+Ten days longer the perpetual battles on the ramparts and within the
+mines continued, the plans conveyed by the bold swimmer, Captain Hart,
+for saving the place were still unattempted, and the city was tottering
+to its fall.  "Had Captain Hart's words taken place," wrote Williams,
+bitterly," we had been succoured, or, if my letters had prevailed, our
+pain had been, no peril: All wars are best executed in sight of the enemy
+.  .  .  .  The last night of June (10th July, N. S.) the enemy entered
+the ditches of our fort in three several places, continuing in fight in
+mine and on rampart for the space of eight nights.  The ninth; he
+battered us furiously,  made a breach of five score paces suitable for
+horse and man.  That day be attempted us in all, places with a general,
+assault for the space of almost five hours."
+
+The citadel was now lost.  It had been gallantly defended; and it was
+thenceforth necessary to hold the town itself, in the very teeth of an
+overwhelming force.  "We were forced to quit the fort," said-Sir Roger,
+"leaving nothing behind us but bare earth.  But here we do remain
+resolutely to be buried, rather than to be dishonoured in the least
+point."
+
+It was still possible for the fleet to succour the city.  "I do assure
+you," said-Williams, "that your captains and mariners do not their duty
+unless they enter with no great loss; but you must consider that no wars
+may be made without danger.  What you mean to do, we beseech you to do
+with expedition, and persuade yourself that we will die valiant, honest-
+men.  Your Excellency will do well to thank the old President de Meetkerk
+far the honesty and valour of his son."
+
+Count Maurice and his natural brother, the Admiral, now undertook the
+succour by sea; but, according to the Leicestrians, they continued
+dilatory and incompetent.  At any rate, it is certain that they did
+nothing.  At last, Parma had completed the bridge; whose construction,
+was so much dreaded: The haven was now enclosed by a strong wooden
+structure, resting an boats, on a plan similar to that of the famous
+bridge with which he had two years before bridled the Scheldt, and Sluys
+was thus completely shut in from the sea.  Fire-ships were now
+constructed, by order of Leicester--feeble imitations: of the floating
+volcanoes of Gianihelli--and it was agreed that they should be sent
+against the bridge with the first flood-tide.  The propitious moment
+never seemed to arrive, however, and, meantime, the citizens of Flushing,
+of their own accord, declared that they would themselves equip and
+conduct a fleet into the harbour of Sluys.  But the Nassaus are said to
+have expressed great disgust that low-born burghers should presume to
+meddle with so important an enterprise, which of right belonged to their
+family.  Thus, in the midst of these altercations and contradictory
+schemes; the month of July wore away, and the city was reduced to its
+last gasp.
+
+For the cannonading had thoroughly done its work.  Eighteen days long the
+burghers and what remained of the garrison had lived upon the ramparts,
+never leaving their posts, but eating, sleeping, and fighting day and
+night.  Of the sixteen hundred Dutch and English but seven hundred
+remained.  At last a swimming messenger was sent out by the besieged with
+despatches for the States, to the purport that the city could hold out no
+longer.  A breach in the wall had been effected wide enough to admit a
+hundred men abreast.  Sluys had, in truth, already fallen, and it was
+hopeless any longer to conceal the fact.  If not relieved within a day or
+two, the garrison would be obliged to surrender; but they distinctly
+stated, that they had all pledged themselves, soldiers and burghers, men,
+women, and all, unless the most honourable terms were granted, to set
+fire to the city in a hundred places, and then sally, in mass, from the
+gates, determined to fight their way through, or be slain in the attempt.
+The messenger who carried these despatches was drowned, but the letters
+were saved, and fell into Parma's hands.
+
+At the same moment, Leicester was making, at last, an effort to raise the
+siege.  He brought three or four thousand men from Flushing, and landed
+them at Ostend; thence he marched to Blanckenburg.  He supposed that if
+he could secure that little port, and thus cut the Duke completely off
+from the sea, he should force the Spanish commander to raise (or at least
+suspend) the siege in order to give him battle.  Meantime, an opportunity
+would be afforded for Maurice and Hohenlo to force an entrance into the
+harbour of Sluys, In this conjecture he was quite correct; but
+unfortunately he did not thoroughly carry out his own scheme.  If the
+Earl had established himself at Blanckenburg, it would have been
+necessary for Parma--as he himself subsequently declared-to raise the
+siege.  Leicester carried the outposts of the place successfully; but, so
+soon as Farnese was aware of this demonstration, he detached a few
+companies with orders to skirmish with the enemy until the commander-in-
+chief, with as large a force as he could spare, should come in person to
+his support.  To the unexpected gratification of Farnese, however, no
+sooner did the advancing Spaniards come in sight, than the Earl,
+supposing himself invaded by the whole of the Duke's army, under their
+famous general, and not feeling himself strong enough for such an
+encounter, retired, with great precipitation, to his boats, re-embarked
+his troops with the utmost celerity, and set sail for Ostend.
+
+The next night had been fixed for sending forth the fireships against the
+bridge, and for the entrance of the fleet into the harbour.  One fire-
+ship floated a little way towards the bridge and exploded ingloriously.
+Leicester rowed in his barge about the fleet, superintending the
+soundings and markings of the channel, and hastening the preparations;
+but, as the decisive moment approached, the pilots who had promised to
+conduct the expedition came aboard his pinnace and positively refused to
+have aught to do with the enterprise, which they now declared an
+impossibility.  The Earl was furious with the pilots, with Maurice, with
+Hohenlo, with Admiral de Nassau, with the States, with all the world.  He
+stormed and raged and beat his breast, but all in vain.  His ferocity
+would have been more useful the day before, in face of the Spaniards,
+than now, against the Zeeland mariners: but the invasion by the fleet
+alone, unsupported by a successful land-operation, was pronounced
+impracticable, and very soon tie relieving fleet was seen by the
+distressed garrison sailing away from the neighbourhood, and it soon
+disappeared beneath the horizon.  Their fate was sealed.  They entered
+into treaty with Parma, who, secretly instructed, as has been seen, of
+their desperate intentions, in case any but the most honourable
+conditions were offered, granted those conditions.  The garrison were
+allowed to go out with colours displayed, lighted matches, bullet in
+mouth, and with bag and baggage.  Such burghers as chose to conform to
+the government of Spain and the church of Rome; were permitted to remain.
+Those who preferred to depart were allowed reasonable time to make their
+necessary arrangements.
+
+"We have hurt and slain very near eight hundred," said Sir Roger
+Williams."  We had not powder to fight two hours.  There was a breach of
+almost four hundred paces, another of three score, another of fifty,
+saltable for horse and men.  We had lain continually eighteen nights all
+on the breaches.  He gave us honourable composition.  Had the state of
+England lain on it, our lives could not defend the place, three hours,
+for half the rampires were his, neither had we any pioneers but
+ourselves.  We were sold by their negligence who are now angry with us."
+
+On the 5th August Parma entered the city.  Roger Williams with his gilt
+morion rather battered, and his great plume of feathers much bedraggled-
+was a witness to the victor's entrance.  Alexander saluted respectfully
+an officer so well known to him by reputation, and with some
+complimentary remarks urged him to enter the Spanish service,
+and to take the field against the Turks.
+
+"My sword," replied the doughty Welshman, "belongs to her royal Majesty,
+Queen Elizabeth, above and before all the world.  When her Highness has
+no farther use for it, it is at the service of the King of Navarre."
+Considering himself sufficiently answered, the Duke then requested Sir
+Roger to point out Captain Baskerville--very conspicuous by a greater
+plume of feathers than even that of the Welshman himself--and embraced
+that officer; when presented to him, before all his staff.  "There serves
+no prince in Europe a braver man than this Englishman," cried Alexander,
+who well knew how to appreciate high military qualities, whether in his
+own army or in that of his foes.
+
+The garrison then retired, Sluy's became Spanish, and a capacious
+harbour, just opposite the English coast, was in Parma's hands.  Sir
+Roger Williams was despatched by Leicester to bear the melancholy tidings
+to his government, and the Queen was requested to cherish the honest
+Welshman, and at least to set him on horseback; for he was of himself not
+rich enough to buy even a saddle.  It is painful to say that the captain
+did not succeed in getting the horse.
+
+The Earl was furious in his invectives against Hohenlo, against Maurice,
+against the States, uniformly ascribing the loss of Sluy's to negligence
+and faction.  As for Sir John Norris, he protested that his misdeeds in
+regard to this business would, in King Henry VIII.'s time, have "cost him
+his pate."
+
+The loss of Sluys was the beginning and foreshadowed the inevitable end
+of Leicester's second administration.  The inaction of the States was one
+of the causes of its loss.  Distrust of Leicester was the cause of the
+inaction.  Sir William Russell, Lord Willoughby, Sir William Pelham, and
+other English officers, united in statements exonerating the Earl from
+all blame for the great failure to relieve the place.  At the same time,
+it could hardly be maintained that his expedition to Blanckenburg and his
+precipitate retreat on the first appearance of the enemy were proofs of
+consummate generalship.  He took no blame to himself for the disaster;
+but he and his partisans were very liberal in their denunciations of the
+Hollanders, and Leicester was even ungrateful enough to censure Roger
+Williams, whose life had been passed, as it were, at push of pike with
+the Spaniards, and who was one of his own most devoted adherents.
+
+The Queen was much exasperated when informed of the fall of the city.
+She severely denounced the Netherlanders, and even went so far as to
+express dissatisfaction with the great Leicester himself.  Meantime,
+Farnese was well satisfied with his triumph, for he had been informed
+that "all England was about to charge upon him," in order to relieve the
+place.  All England, however, had been but feebly represented by three
+thousand raw recruits with a paltry sum of L15,000 to help pay a long
+bill of arrears.
+
+Wilkes and Norris had taken their departure from the Netherlands before
+the termination of the siege, and immediately after the return of
+Leicester.  They did not think it expedient to wait upon the governor
+before leaving the country, for they had very good reason to believe that
+such an opportunity of personal vengeance would be turned to account by
+the Earl.  Wilkes had already avowed his intention of making his escape
+without being dandled with leave-takings, and no doubt he was right.  The
+Earl was indignant when he found that they had given him the slip, and
+denounced them with fresh acrimony to the Queen, imploring her to wreak
+full measure of wrath upon their heads; and he well knew that his
+entreaties would meet with the royal attention.
+
+Buckhurst had a parting interview with the governor-general, at which
+Killigrew and Beale, the new English counsellors who had replaced Wilkes
+and Clerk, were present.  The conversation was marked by insolence on the
+part of Leicester, and by much bitterness on that of Buckhurst.  The
+parting envoy refused to lay before the Earl a full statement of the
+grievances between the States-General and the governor, on the ground
+that Leicester had no right to be judge in his own cause.  The matter,
+he said, should be laid before the Queen in council, and by her august
+decision he was willing to abide.  On every other subject he was ready to
+give any information in his power.  The interview lasted a whole forenoon
+and afternoon.  Buckhurst, according to his own statement, answered,
+freely all questions put to him by Leicester and his counsellors; while,
+if the report of those personages is to be trusted, he passionately
+refused to make any satisfactory communication.  Under the circumstances,
+however, it may well be believed that no satisfactory communication was
+possible.
+
+On arriving in England, Sir John Norris was forbidden to come into her
+Majesty's presence, Wilkes was thrown into the Fleet Prison, and
+Buckhurst was confined in his own country house.
+
+Norris had done absolutely nothing, which, even by implication, could be
+construed into a dereliction of duty; but it was sufficient that he was
+hated by Leicester, who had not scrupled, over and over again, to
+denounce this first general of England as a fool, a coward, a knave, and
+a liar.
+
+As for Wilkes, his only crime was a most conscientious discharge of his
+duty, in the course of which he had found cause to modify his abstract
+opinions in regard to the origin of sovereignty, and had come reluctantly
+to the conviction that Leicester's unpopularity had made perhaps another
+governor-general desirable.  But this admission had only been made
+privately and with extreme caution; while, on the other hand, he had
+constantly defended the absent Earl, with all the eloquence at his
+command.  But the hatred cf Leicester was sufficient to consign this able
+and painstaking public servant to a prison; and thus was a man of worth,
+honour, and talent, who had been placed in a position of grave
+responsibility and immense fatigue, and who had done his duty like an
+upright, straight-forward Englishman, sacrificed to the wrath of a
+favourite.  "Surely, Mr. Secretary," said the Earl, "there was never a
+falser creature, a more seditious wretch, than Wilkes.  He is a villain,
+a devil, without faith or religion."
+
+As for Buckhurst himself, it is unnecessary to say a word in his defence.
+The story of his mission has been completely detailed from the most
+authentic and secret documents, and there is not a single line written to
+the Queen, to her ministers, to the States, to any public body or to any
+private friend, in England or elsewhere, that does not reflect honour on
+his name.  With sagacity, without passion, with unaffected sincerity,
+he had unravelled the complicated web of Netherland politics, and, with
+clear vision, had penetrated the designs of the mighty enemy whom England
+and Holland had to encounter in mortal combat.  He had pointed out the
+errors of the Earl's administration--he had fearlessly, earnestly, but
+respectfully deplored the misplaced parsimony of the Queen--he had warned
+her against the delusions which had taken possession of her keen
+intellect--he had done--his best to place the governor-general upon good
+terms with the States and with his sovereign; but it had been impossible
+for him to further his schemes for the acquisition of a virtual
+sovereignty over the Netherlands, or to extinguish the suspicions of the
+States that the Queen was secretly negotiating with the Spaniard, when he
+knew those suspicions to be just.
+
+For deeds, such as these, the able and high-minded ambassador,
+the accomplished statesman and poet, was forbidden to approach his
+sovereign's presence, and was ignominiously imprisoned in his own house
+until the death of Leicester.  After that event, Buckhurst emerged from
+confinement, received the order of the garter and the Earldom of Dorset,
+and on the death of Burghley succeeded that statesman in the office of
+Lord-Treasurer.  Such was the substantial recognition of the merits of a
+man who was now disgraced for the conscientious discharge of the most
+important functions that had yet been confided to him.
+
+It would be a thankless and superfluous task to give the details of the
+renewed attempt, during a few months, made by Leicester to govern the
+Provinces.  His second administration consisted mainly of the same
+altercations with the States, on the subject of sovereignty, the same
+mutual recriminations and wranglings, that had characterized the period
+of his former rule.  He rarely met the States in person, and almost never
+resided at the Hague, holding his court at Middleburg, Dort, or Utrecht,
+as his humour led him.
+
+The one great feature of the autumn of 1587 was the private negotiation
+between Elizabeth and the Duke of Parma.
+
+Before taking a glance at the nature of those secrets, however, it is
+necessary to make a passing allusion to an event which might have seemed
+likely to render all pacific communications with Spain, whether secret or
+open, superfluous.
+
+For while so much time had been lost in England and Holland, by
+misunderstandings and jealousies, there was one Englishman who had not
+been losing time.  In the winter and early spring of 1587, the Devonshire
+skipper had organized that expedition which he had come to the
+Netherlands, the preceding autumn, to discuss.  He meant to aim a blow
+at the very heart of that project which Philip was shrouding with so much
+mystery, and which Elizabeth was attempting to counteract by so much
+diplomacy.
+
+On the 2nd April, Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth with four ships
+belonging to the Queen, and with twenty-four furnished by the merchants
+of London, and other private individuals.  It was a bold buccaneering
+expedition--combining chivalrous enterprise with the chance of enormous
+profit--which was most suited to the character of English adventurers at
+that expanding epoch.  For it was by England, not by Elizabeth, that the
+quarrel with Spain was felt to be a mortal one.  It was England, not its
+sovereign, that was instinctively arming, at all points, to grapple with
+the great enemy of European liberty.  It was the spirit of self-help, of
+self-reliance, which was prompting the English nation to take the great
+work of the age into its own hands.  The mercantile instinct of the
+nation was flattered with the prospect of gain, the martial quality of
+its patrician and of its plebeian blood was eager to confront danger, the
+great Protestant mutiny.  Against a decrepit superstition in combination
+with an aggressive tyranny, all impelled the best energies of the English
+people against Spain, as the embodiment of all which was odious and
+menacing to them, and with which they felt that the life and death
+struggle could not long be deferred.
+
+And of these various tendencies, there were no more fitting
+representatives than Drake and Frobisher, Hawkins and Essex, Cavendish
+and Grenfell, and the other privateersmen of the sixteenth century.  The
+same greed for danger, for gold, and for power, which, seven centuries
+before, had sent the Norman race forth to conquer all Christendom, was
+now sending its Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman kindred to take possession
+of the old world and the new.
+
+"The wind commands me away," said Drake on the 2nd April, 1587; "our ship
+is under sail.  God grant that we may so live in His fear, that the enemy
+may have cause to say that God doth fight for her Majesty abroad as well
+as at home."
+
+But he felt that he was not without enemies behind him, for the strong
+influence brought to bear against the bold policy which Walsingham
+favoured, was no secret to Drake.  "If we deserve ill," said he, "let us
+be punished.  If we discharge our duty, in doing our best, it is a hard
+measure to be reported ill by those who will either keep their fingers
+out of the fire; or who too well affect that alteration in our government
+which I hope in God they shall never live to see."  In latitude 40 deg.
+he spoke two Zeeland ships, homeward bound, and obtained information of
+great warlike stores accumulating in Cadiz and Lisbon.  His mind was
+instantly made up.  Fortunately, the pinnace which the Queen despatched
+with orders to stay his hand in the very act of smiting her great
+adversary, did not sail fast enough to overtake the swift corsair and his
+fleet.  Sir Francis had too promptly obeyed the wind, when it "commanded
+him away," to receive the royal countermand.  On the 19th April, the
+English ships entered the harbour of Cadiz, and destroyed ten thousand
+tons of shipping, with their contents, in the very face of a dozen great
+galleys, which the nimble English vessels soon drove under their forts
+for shelter.  Two nights and a day, Sir Francis, that "hater of
+idleness," was steadily doing his work; unloading, rifling, scuttling,
+sinking, and burning those transportships which contained a portion of
+the preparations painfully made by Philip for his great enterprise.
+Pipe-staves and spikes, horse-shoes and saddles, timber and cutlasses,
+wine, oil, figs, raisins, biscuits, and flour, a miscellaneous mass of
+ingredients long brewing for the trouble of England, were emptied into
+the harbour, and before the second night, the blaze of a hundred and
+fifty burning vessels played merrily upon the grim walls of Philip's
+fortresses.  Some of these ships were of the largest size then known.
+There was one belonging to Marquis Santa Cruz of 1500 tons, there was a
+Biscayan of 1200, there were several others of 1000, 800, and of nearly
+equal dimensions.
+
+Thence sailing for Lisbon, Sir Francis, captured and destroyed a hundred
+vessels more, appropriating what was portable of the cargoes, and
+annihilating the rest.  At Lisbon, Marquis Santa Cruz, lord high admiral
+of Spain and generalissimo of the invasion, looked on, mortified and
+amazed, but offering no combat, while the Plymouth privateersman swept
+the harbour of the great monarch of the world.  After thoroughly
+accomplishing his work, Drake sent a message to Santa Cruz, proposing to
+exchange his prisoners for such Englishmen as might then be confined in
+Spain.  But the marquis denied all prisoners.  Thereupon Sir Francis
+decided to sell his captives to the Moors, and to appropriate the
+proceeds of the sale towards the purchase of English slaves put of the
+same bondage.  Such was the fortune of war in the sixteenth century.
+
+Having dealt these great blows, Drake set sail again from Lisbon, and,
+twenty leagues from St. Michaels, fell in with one of those famous
+Spanish East Indiamen, called carracks, then the great wonder of the
+seas.  This vessel, San Felipe by name, with a cargo of extraordinary
+value, was easily captured, and Sir Francis now determined to return.  He
+had done a good piece of work in a few weeks, but he was by no means of
+opinion that he had materially crippled the enemy.  On the contrary, he
+gave the government warning as to the enormous power and vast
+preparations of Spain.  "There would be forty thousand men under way ere
+long," he said, "well equipped and provisioned; "and he stated, as the
+result of personal observation, that England could not be too energetic
+in, its measures of resistance.  He had done something with his little
+fleet, but he was no braggart, and had no disposition to underrate the
+enemy's power.  "God make us all thankful again and again," he observed,
+"that we have, although it be little, made a beginning upon the coast of
+Spain."  And modestly as he spoke of what he had accomplished, so with
+quiet self-reliance did he allude to the probable consequences.  It was
+certain, he intimated, that the enemy would soon seek revenge with all
+his strength, and "with all the devices and traps he could devise."  This
+was a matter which could not be doubted.  "But," said Sir Francis, "I
+thank them much that they have staid so long, and when they come they
+shall be but the sons of mortal men."
+
+Perhaps the most precious result of the expedition, was the lesson which
+the Englishmen had thus learned in handling the great galleys of Spain.
+It might soon stand them in stead.  The little war-vessels which had come
+from Plymouth, had sailed round and round these vast unwieldy hulks, and
+had fairly driven them off the field, with very slight damage to
+themselves.  Sir Francis had already taught the mariners of England,
+even if he had done nothing else by this famous Cadiz expedition,
+that an armada, of Spain might not be so invincible as men imagined.
+
+Yet when the conqueror returned from his great foray, he received no
+laurels.  His sovereign met him, not with smiles, but with frowns and
+cold rebukes.  He had done his duty, and helped to save her endangered
+throne, but Elizabeth was now the dear friend of Alexander Farnese, and
+in amicable correspondence with his royal master.  This "little"
+beginning on the coast of Spain might not seem to his Catholic Majesty
+a matter to be thankful for, nor be likely to further a pacification,
+and so Elizabeth hastened to disavow her Plymouth captain.'
+
+     ["True it is, and I avow it on my faith, her Majesty did send a ship
+     expressly before he went to Cadiz with a message by letters charging
+     Sir Francis Drake not to show any act of hostility, which messenger
+     by contrary winds could never come to the place where he was, but
+     was constrained to come home, and hearing of Sir F. Drake's actions,
+     her Majesty commanded the party that returned to have been punished,
+     but that he acquitted himself by the oaths of himself and all his
+     company.  And so unwitting yea unwilling to her Majesty those
+     actions were committed by Sir F. Drake, for the which her Majesty is
+     as yet greatly offended with him."  Burghley to Andreas de Loo, 18
+     July, 1587.  Flanders Correspondence.' (S. P. Office MS.)]
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+The blaze of a hundred and fifty burning vessels
+We were sold by their negligence who are now angry with us
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v53
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 54, 1587
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     Secret Treaty between Queen and Parma--Excitement and Alarm in the
+     States--Religious Persecution in England--Queen's Sincerity toward
+     Spain--Language and Letters of Parma--Negotiations of De Loo--
+     English Commissioners appointed--Parma's affectionate Letter to the
+     Queen--Philip at his Writing-Table--His Plots with Parma against
+     England--Parma's secret Letters to the King--Philip's Letters to
+     Parma Wonderful Duplicity of Philip--His sanguine Views as to
+     England--He is reluctant to hear of the Obstacles--and imagines
+     Parma in England--But Alexander's Difficulties are great--He
+     denounces Philip's wild Schemes--Walsingham aware of the Spanish
+     Plot--which the States well understand--Leicester's great
+     Unpopularity--The Queen warned against Treating--Leicester's Schemes
+     against Barneveld--Leicestrian Conspiracy at Leyden--The Plot to
+     seize the City discovered--Three Ringleaders sentenced to Death--
+     Civil War in France--Victory gained by Navarre, and one by Guise--
+     Queen recalls Leicester--Who retires on ill Terms with the States--
+     Queen warned as to Spanish Designs--Result's of Leicester's
+     Administration.
+
+The course of Elizabeth towards the Provinces, in the matter of the
+peace, was certainly not ingenuous, but it was not absolutely deceitful.
+She concealed and denied the negotiations, when the Netherland statesmen
+were perfectly aware of their existence, if not of their tenour; but she
+was not prepared, as they suspected, to sacrifice their liberties and
+their religion, as the price of her own reconciliation with Spain.
+Her attitude towards the States was imperious, over-bearing, and abusive.
+She had allowed the Earl of Leicester to return, she said, because of her
+love for the poor and oppressed people, but in many of her official and
+in all her private communications, she denounced the men who governed
+that people as ungrateful wretches and impudent liars!
+
+These were the corrosives and vinegar which she thought suitable for the
+case; and the Earl was never weary in depicting the same statesmen as
+seditious, pestilent, self-seeking, mischief-making traitors.  These
+secret, informal negotiations, had been carried on during most of the
+year 1587.  It was the "comptroller's peace;", as Walsingham
+contemptuously designated the attempted treaty; for it will be
+recollected that Sir James Croft, a personage of very mediocre abilities,
+had always been more busy than any other English politician in these
+transactions.  He acted; however, on the inspiration of Burghley, who
+drew his own from the fountainhead.
+
+But it was in vain for the Queen to affect concealment.  The States knew
+everything which was passing, before Leicester knew.  His own secret
+instructions reached the Netherlands before he did.  His secretary,
+Junius, was thrown into prison, and his master's letter taken from him,
+before there had been any time to act upon its treacherous suggestions.
+When the Earl wrote letters with, his own hand to his sovereign, of so
+secret a nature that he did not even retain a single copy for himself,
+for fear of discovery, he found, to his infinite disgust, that the States
+were at once provided with an authentic transcript of every line that he
+had written.  It was therefore useless, almost puerile, to deny facts
+which were quite as much within the knowledge of the Netherlanders as of
+himself.  The worst consequence of the concealment was, that a deeper
+treachery was thought possible than actually existed.  "The fellow they
+call Barneveld," as Leicester was in the habit of designating one of the
+first statesmen in Europe, was perhaps justified, knowing what he did, in
+suspecting more.  Being furnished with a list of commissioners, already
+secretly agreed upon between the English and Spanish governments, to
+treat for peace, while at the same time the Earl was beating his breast,
+and flatly denying that there was any intention of treating with Parma at
+all, it was not unnatural that he should imagine a still wider and deeper
+scheme than really existed, against the best interests of his country.
+He may have expressed, in private conversation, some suspicions of this
+nature, but there is direct evidence that he never stated in public
+anything which was not afterwards proved to be matter of fact, or of
+legitimate inference from the secret document which had come into his
+hands.  The Queen exhausted herself in opprobious language against those
+who dared to impute to her a design to obtain possession of the cities
+and strong places of the Netherlands, in order to secure a position in
+which to compel the Provinces into obedience to her policy.  She urged,
+with much logic, that as she had refused the sovereignty of the whole
+country when offered to her, she was not likely to form surreptitious
+schemes to make herself mistress of a portion of it.  On the other hand,
+it was very obvious, that to accept the sovereignty of Philip's
+rebellious Provinces, was to declare war upon Philip; whereas, had she
+been pacifically inclined towards that sovereign, and treacherously
+disposed towards the Netherlands, it would be a decided advantage to her
+to have those strong places in her power.  But the suspicions as to her
+good faith were exaggerated.  As to the intentions of Leicester, the
+States were justified in their almost unlimited distrust.  It is very
+certain that both in 1586, and again, at this very moment, when Elizabeth
+was most vehement in denouncing such aspersions on her government, he had
+unequivocally declared to her his intention of getting possession, if
+possible, of several cities, and of the whole Island of Walcheren, which,
+together with the cautionary towns already in his power, would enable the
+Queen to make good terms for herself with Spain, "if the worst came to
+the, worst."  It will also soon be shown that he did his best to carry
+these schemes into execution.  There is no evidence, however, and no
+probability, that he had received the royal commands to perpetrate such a
+crime.
+
+The States believed also, that in those secret negotiations with Parma
+the Queen was disposed to sacrifice the religious interests of the
+Netherlands.  In this they were mistaken.  But they had reason for their
+mistake, because the negotiator De Loo, had expressly said, that, in her
+overtures to Farnese, she had abandoned that point altogether.  If this
+had been so, it would have simply been a consent on the part of
+Elizabeth, that the Catholic religion and the inquisition should be
+re-established in the Provinces, to the exclusion of every other form of
+worship or polity.  In truth, however, the position taken by her Majesty
+on the subject was as fair as could be reasonably expected.  Certainly
+she was no advocate for religious liberty.  She chose that her own
+subjects should be Protestants, because she had chosen to be a Protestant
+herself, and because it was an incident of her supremacy, to dictate
+uniformity of creed to all beneath her sceptre.  No more than her father,
+who sent to the stake or gallows heretics to transubstantiation as well
+as believers in the Pope, had Elizabeth the faintest idea of religious
+freedom.  Heretics to the English Church were persecuted, fined,
+imprisoned, mutilated, and murdered, by sword, rope, and fire.  In some
+respects, the practice towards those who dissented from Elizabeth was
+more immoral and illogical, even if less cruel, than that to which those
+were subjected who rebelled against Sixtus.  The Act of Uniformity
+required Papists to assist at the Protestant worship, but wealthy Papists
+could obtain immunity by an enormous fine.  The Roman excuse to destroy
+bodies in order to save souls, could scarcely be alleged by a Church
+which might be bribed into connivance at heresy, and which derived a
+revenue from the very nonconformity for which humbler victims were sent
+to the gallows.  It would, however, be unjust in the extreme to overlook
+the enormous difference in the amount of persecution, exercised
+respectively by the Protestant and the Roman Church.  It is probable that
+not many more than two hundred Catholics were executed as such, in
+Elizabeth's reign, and this was ten score too many.  But what was this
+against eight hundred heretics burned, hanged, and drowned, in one Easter
+week by Alva, against the eighteen thousand two hundred went to stake and
+scaffold, as he boasted during his administration, against the vast
+numbers of Protestants, whether they be counted by tens or by hundreds of
+thousands, who perished by the edicts of Charles V., in the Netherlands,
+or in the single Saint Bartholomew Massacre in France?  Moreover, it
+should never be forgotten--from undue anxiety for impartiality--that most
+of the Catholics who were executed in England, suffered as conspirators
+rather than as heretics.  No foreign potentate, claiming to be vicegerent
+of Christ, had denounced Philip as a bastard and, usurper, or had, by
+means of a blasphemous fiction, which then was a terrible reality,
+severed the bonds of allegiance by which his subjects were held, cut him
+off from all communion with his fellow-creatures, and promised temporal
+rewards and a crown of glory in heaven to those who should succeed in
+depriving him of throne and life.  Yet this was the position of
+Elizabeth.  It was war to the knife between her and Rome, declared by
+Rome itself; nor was there any doubt whatever that the Seminary Priests
+--seedlings transplanted from foreign nurseries, which were as watered
+gardens for the growth of treason--were a perpetually organized band of
+conspirators and assassins, with whom it was hardly an act of excessive
+barbarity to deal in somewhat summary fashion.  Doubtless it would have
+been a more lofty policy, and a far more intelligent one, to extend
+towards the Catholics of England, who as a body were loyal to their
+country, an ample toleration.  But it could scarcely be expected that
+Elizabeth Tudor, as imperious and absolute by temperament as her father
+had ever been, would be capable of embodying that great principle.
+
+When, in the preliminaries to the negotiations of 1587, therefore, it was
+urged on the part of Spain, that the Queen was demanding a concession of
+religious liberty from Philip to the Netherlanders which she refused to
+English heretics, and that he only claimed the same right of dictating a
+creed to his subjects which she exercised in regard to her own, Lord
+Burghley replied that the statement was correct.  The Queen permitted--
+it was true--no man to profess any religion but the one which she
+professed.  At the same time it was declared to be unjust, that those
+persons in the Netherlands who had been for years in the habit of
+practising Protestant rites, should be suddenly compelled, without
+instruction, to abandon that form of worship.  It was well known that
+many would rather die than submit to such oppression, and it was affirmed
+that the exercise of this cruelty would be resisted by her to the
+uttermost.  There was no hint of the propriety--on any logical basis--
+of leaving the question of creed as a matter between man and his Maker,
+with which any dictation on the part of crown or state was an act of
+odious tyranny.  There was not even a suggestion that the Protestant
+doctrines were true, and the Catholic doctrines false.  The matter was
+merely taken up on the 'uti possidetis' principle, that they who had
+acquired the fact of Protestant worship had a right to retain it, and
+could not justly be deprived of it, except by instruction and persuasion.
+It was also affirmed that it was not the English practice to inquire into
+men's consciences.  It would have been difficult, however, to make that
+very clear to Philip's comprehension, because, if men, women, and
+children, were scourged with rods, imprisoned and hanged, if they refused
+to conform publicly to a ceremony at which their consciences revolted-
+unless they had money enough to purchase non-conformity--it seemed to be
+the practice to inquire very effectively into their consciences.
+
+But if there was a certain degree of disingenuousness on the part of
+Elizabeth towards the States, her attitude towards Parma was one of
+perfect sincerity.  A perusal of the secret correspondence leaves no
+doubt whatever on that point.  She was seriously and fervently desirous
+of peace with Spain.  On the part of Farnese and his master, there was
+the most unscrupulous mendacity, while the confiding simplicity and
+truthfulness of the Queen in these negotiations was almost pathetic.
+Especially she declared her trust in the loyal and upright character of
+Parma, in which she was sure of never being disappointed.  It is only
+doing justice to Alexander to say that he was as much deceived by her
+frankness as she by his falsehood.  It never entered his head that a
+royal personage and the trusted counsellors of a great kingdom could be
+telling the truth in a secret international transaction, and he justified
+the industry with which his master and himself piled fiction upon
+fiction, by their utter disbelief in every word which came to them from
+England.
+
+The private negotiations had been commenced, or rather had been renewed,
+very early in February of this year.  During the whole critical period
+which preceded and followed the execution of Mary, in the course of which
+the language of Elizabeth towards the States had been so shrewish, there
+had been the gentlest diplomatic cooing between Farnese and herself.  It
+was--Dear Cousin, you know how truly I confide in your sincerity, how
+anxious I am that this most desirable peace should be arranged; and it
+was--Sacred Majesty, you know how much joy I feel in your desire for the
+repose of the world, and for a solid peace between your Highness and the
+King my master; how much I delight in concord--how incapable I am by
+ambiguous words of spinning out these transactions, or of deceiving your
+Majesty, and what a hatred I feel for steel, fire, and blood.'
+
+Four or five months rolled on, during which Leicester had been wasting
+time in England, Farnese wasting none before Sluys, and the States doing
+their best to counteract the schemes both of their enemy and of their
+ally.  De Loo made a visit, in July, to the camp of the Duke of Parma,
+and received the warmest assurances of his pacific dispositions.  "I am
+much pained," said Alexander, "with this procrastination.  I am so full
+of sincerity myself, that it seems to me a very strange matter, this
+hostile descent by Drake upon the coasts of Spain.  The result of such
+courses will be, that the King will end by being exasperated, and I shall
+be touched in my honour--so great is the hopes I have held out of being
+able to secure a peace.  I have ever been and I still am most anxious for
+concord, from the affection I bear to her sacred Majesty.  I have been
+obliged, much against my will, to take the field again.  I could wish now
+that our negotiations might terminate before the arrival of my fresh
+troops, namely, 9000 Spaniards and 9000 Italians, which, with Walloons,
+Germans, and Lorrainers, will give me an effective total of 30,000
+soldiers.  Of this I give you my word as a gentleman.  Go, then, Andrew
+de Loo," continued the Duke, "write to her sacred Majesty, that I desire
+to make peace; and to serve her faithfully; and that I shall not change
+my mind, even in case of any great success, for I like to proceed rather
+by the ways of love than of rigour and effusion of bleed."
+
+"I can assure you, oh, most serene Duke," replied Andrew, "that the most
+serene Queen is in the very same dispositions with yourself."
+
+"Excellent well then," said the Duke, "we shall come to an agreement
+at once, and the sooner the deputies on both sides are appointed the
+better."
+
+A feeble proposition was then made, on the part of the peace-loving
+Andrew, that the hostile operations against Sluy's should be at once
+terminated.  But this did not seem so clear to the most serene Duke.  He
+had gone to great expense in that business; and he had not built bridges,
+erected forts, and dug mines, only to abandon them for a few fine words,
+Fine words were plenty, but they raised no sieges.  Meantime these
+pacific and gentle murmurings from Farnese's camp had lulled the Queen
+into forgetfulness of Roger Williams and Arnold Groenevelt and their men,
+fighting day and night in trench and mine during that critical midsummer.
+The wily tongue of the Duke had been more effective than his batteries in
+obtaining the much-coveted city.  The Queen obstinately held back her men
+and money, confident of effecting a treaty, whether Sluys fell or not.
+Was it strange that the States should be distrustful of her intentions,
+and, in their turn, become neglectful of their duty?
+
+And thus summer wore into autumn, Sluys fell, the States and their
+governor-general were at daggers-drawn, the Netherlanders were full of
+distrust with regard to England, Alexander hinted doubts as to the
+Queen's sincerity; the secret negotiations, though fertile in suspicions,
+jealousies, delays, and such foul weeds, had produced no wholesome fruit,
+and the excellent De Loo became very much depressed.  At last a letter
+from Burghley relieved his drooping spirits.  From the most disturbed and
+melancholy man in the world, he protested, he had now become merry and
+quiet.  He straightway went off to the Duke of Parma, with the letter in
+his pocket, and translated it to him by candlelight, as he was careful to
+state, as an important point in his narrative.  And Farnese was fuller of
+fine phrases than ever.
+
+"There is no cause whatever," said he, in a most loving manner, "to doubt
+my sincerity.  Yet the Lord-Treasurer intimates that the most serene
+Queen is disposed so to do.  But if I had not the very best intentions,
+and desires for peace, I should never have made the first overtures.  If
+I did not wish a pacific solution, what in the world forced me to do what
+I have done?  On the contrary, it is I that have reason to suspect the
+other parties with their long delays, by which they have made me lose the
+best part of the summer."
+
+He then commented on the strong expressions in the English letters, as to
+the continuance of her Majesty in her pious resolutions; observed that he
+was thoroughly advised of the disputes between the Earl of Leicester and
+the States; and added that it was very important for the time indicated
+by the Queen.
+
+"Whatever is to be done," said he, in conclusion, "let it be done
+quickly;" and with that he said he would go and eat a bit of supper.
+
+"And may I communicate Lord Burghley's letter to any one else?" asked De
+Loo.
+
+"Yes, yes, to the Seigneur de Champagny, and to my secretary Cosimo,"
+answered his Highness.
+
+So the merchant negotiator proceeded at once to the mansion of Champagny,
+in company with the secretary Cosimo.  There was a long conference, in
+which De Loo was informed of many things which he thoroughly believed,
+and faithfully transmitted to the court of Elizabeth.  Alexander had done
+his best, they said, to delay the arrival of his fresh troops.  He had
+withdrawn from the field, on various pretexts, hoping, day after day,
+that the English commissioners would arrive, and that a firm and
+perpetual peace would succeed to the miseries of war.  But as time wore
+away, and there came no commissioners, the Duke had come to the painful
+conclusion that he had been trifled with.  His forces would now be sent
+into Holland to find something to eat; and this would ensure the total
+destruction of all that territory.  He had also written to command all
+the officers of the coming troops to hasten their march, in order that
+he might avoid incurring still deeper censure.  He was much ashamed,
+in truth, to have been wheedled into passing the whole fine season in
+idleness.  He had been sacrificing himself for her sacred Majesty, and
+to, serve her best interests; and now he found himself the object of her
+mirth.  Those who ought to be well informed had assured him that the
+Queen was only waiting to see how the King of Navarre was getting on with
+the auxiliary force just, going to him from Germany, that she had no
+intention whatever to make peace, and that, before long, he might expect
+all these German mercenaries upon his shoulders in the Netherlands.
+Nevertheless he was prepared to receive them with 40,000 good infantry,
+a splendid cavalry force, and plenty of money.'
+
+All this and more did the credulous Andrew greedily devour; and he lost
+no time in communicating the important intelligence to her Majesty and
+the Lord-Treasurer.  He implored her, he said, upon his bare knees,
+prostrate on the ground, and from the most profound and veritable centre
+of his heart and with all his soul and all his strength, to believe in
+the truth of the matters thus confided to him.  He would pledge his
+immortal soul, which was of more value to him--as he correctly observed
+--than even the crown of Spain, that the King, the Duke, and his
+counsellors, were most sincerely desirous of peace, and actuated by the
+most loving and benevolent motives.  Alexander Farnese was "the antidote
+to the Duke of Alva," kindly sent by heaven, 'ut contraria contrariis
+curenter,' and if the entire security of the sacred Queen were not now
+obtained, together with a perfect reintegration of love between her
+Majesty and the King of Spain, and with the assured tranquillity and
+perpetual prosperity of the Netherlands, it would be the fault of
+England; not of Spain.
+
+And no doubt the merchant believed all that was told him, and--what was
+worse--that he fully impressed his own convictions upon her Majesty and
+Lord Burghley, to say nothing of the comptroller, who, poor man, had
+great facility in believing anything that came from the court of the
+most Catholic King: yet it is painful to reflect, that in all these
+communications of Alexander and his agents, there was not one single
+word of truth.--It was all false from beginning to end, as to the
+countermanding of the troops,--as to the pacific intentions of the King
+and Duke, and as to the proposed campaign in Friesland, in case of
+rupture; and all the rest.  But this will be conclusively proved a little
+later.
+
+Meantime the conference had been most amicable and satisfactory.  And
+when business was over, Champagny--not a whit the worse for the severe
+jilting which he had so recently sustained from the widow De Bours, now
+Mrs. Aristotle Patton--invited De Loo and Secretary Cosimo to supper.
+And the three made a night of it, sitting up late, and draining such huge
+bumpers to the health of the Queen of England, that--as the excellent
+Andrew subsequently informed Lord Burghley--his head ached most bravely
+next morning.
+
+And so, amid the din of hostile preparation not only in Cadiz and Lisbon,
+but in Ghent and Sluys and Antwerp, the import of which it seemed
+difficult to mistake, the comedy of, negotiation was still rehearsing,
+and the principal actors were already familiar with their respective
+parts.  There were the Earl of Derby, knight of the garter, and my Lord
+Cobham; and puzzling James Croft, and other Englishmen, actually
+believing that the farce was a solemn reality.  There was Alexander of
+Parma thoroughly aware of the contrary.  There was Andrew de Loo, more
+talkative, more credulous, more busy than ever, and more fully impressed
+with the importance of his mission, and there was the white-bearded
+Lord-Treasurer turning complicated paragraphs; shaking his head and
+waving his wand across the water, as if, by such expedients, the storm
+about to burst over England could, be dispersed.
+
+The commissioners should come, if only the Duke of Parma would declare
+on his word of honour, that these hostile preparations with which all
+Christendom was ringing; were not intended against England; or if that
+really were the case--if he would request his master to abandon all such
+schemes, and if Philip in consequence would promise on the honour of a
+prince, to make no hostile attempts against that country.
+
+There would really seem an almost Arcadian simplicity in such demands,
+coming from so practised a statesman as the Lord-Treasurer, and from a
+woman of such brilliant intellect as Elizabeth unquestionably possessed.
+But we read the history of 1587, not only by the light of subsequent
+events, but by the almost microscopic revelations of sentiments and
+motives, which a full perusal of the secret documents in those ancient
+cabinets afford.  At that moment it was not ignorance nor dulness which
+was leading England towards the pitfall so artfully dug by Spain.  There
+was trust in the plighted word of a chivalrous soldier like Alexander
+Farnese, of a most religious and anointed monarch like Philip II.
+English frankness, playing cards upon the table, was no match for Italian
+and Spanish legerdemain, a system according to which, to defraud the
+antagonist by every kind of falsehood and trickery was the legitimate end
+of diplomacy and statesmanship.  It was well known that there were great
+preparations in Spain, Portugal, and the obedient Netherlands, by land
+and sea.  But Sir Robert Sidney was persuaded that the expedition was
+intended for Africa; even the Pope was completely mystified--to the
+intense delight of Philip--and Burghley, enlightened by the sagacious
+De Loo, was convinced, that even in case of a rupture, the whole strength
+of the Spanish arms was to be exerted in reducing Friesland and
+Overyssel.  But Walsingham was never deceived; for he had learned from
+Demosthenes a lesson with which William the Silent, in his famous
+Apology, had made the world familiar, that the only citadel against a
+tyrant and a conqueror was distrust.
+
+Alexander, much grieved that doubts should still be felt as to his
+sincerity, renewed the most exuberant expressions of that sentiment,
+together with gentle complaints against the dilatoriness which had
+proceeded from the doubt.  Her Majesty had long been aware, he said,
+of his anxiety to bring about a perfect reconciliation; but he had
+waited, month after month, for her commissioners, and had waited in vain.
+His hopes had been dashed to the ground.  The affair had been
+indefinitely spun out, and he could not resist the conviction that her
+Majesty had changed her mind.  Nevertheless, as Andrew de Loo was again
+proceeding to England, the Duke seized the opportunity once more to kiss
+her hand, and--although he had well nigh resolved to think no more on the
+subject--to renew his declarations, that, if the much-coveted peace were
+not concluded, the blame could not be imputed to him, and that he should
+stand guiltless before God and the world.  He had done, and was still
+ready to do, all which became a Christian and a man desirous of the
+public welfare and tranquillity.
+
+When Burghley read these fine phrases, he was much impressed;
+and they were pronounced at the English court to be "very princely and
+Christianly."  An elaborate comment too was drawn up by the comptroller
+on every line of the letter.  "These be very good words," said the
+comptroller.
+
+But the Queen was even more pleased with the last proof of the Duke's
+sincerity, than even Burghley and Croft had been.  Disregarding all the
+warnings of Walsingham, she renewed her expressions of boundless
+confidence in the wily Italian.  "We do assure you," wrote the Lords,
+"and so you shall do well to avow it to the Duke upon our honours,
+that her Majesty saith she thinketh both their minds to accord upon one
+good and Christian meaning, though their ministers may perchance sound
+upon a discord."  And she repeated her resolution to send over her
+commissioners, so soon as the Duke had satisfied her as to the hostile
+preparations.
+
+We have now seen the good faith of the English Queen towards the Spanish
+government.  We have seen her boundless trust in the sincerity of Farnese
+and his master.  We have heard the exuberant professions of an honest
+intention to bring about a firm and lasting peace, which fell from the
+lips of Farnese and of his confidential agents.  It is now necessary to
+glide for a moment into the secret cabinet of Philip, in order to satisfy
+ourselves as to the value of all those professions.  The attention of the
+reader is solicited to these investigations, because the year 1587 was a
+most critical period in the history of English, Dutch, and European
+liberty.  The coming year 1588 had been long spoken of in prophecy, as
+the year of doom, perhaps of the destruction of the world, but it was in
+1587, the year of expectation and preparation, that the materials were
+slowly combining out of which that year's history was to be formed.
+
+And there sat the patient letter-writer in his cabinet, busy with his
+schemes.  His grey head was whitening fast.  He was sixty years of age.
+His frame was slight, his figure stooping, his digestion very weak, his
+manner more glacial and sepulchral than ever; but if there were a hard-
+working man in Europe, that man was Philip II.  And there he sat at his
+table, scrawling his apostilles.  The fine innumerable threads which
+stretched across the surface of Christendom, and covered it as with a
+net, all converged in that silent cheerless cell.  France was kept in a
+state of perpetual civil war; the Netherlands had been converted into a
+shambles; Ireland was maintained in a state of chronic rebellion;
+Scotland was torn with internal feuds, regularly organized and paid for
+by Philip; and its young monarch--"that lying King of Scots," as
+Leicester called him--was kept in a leash ready to be slipped upon
+England, when his master should give the word; and England herself was
+palpitating with the daily expectation of seeing a disciplined horde of
+brigands let loose upon her shores; and all this misery, past, present,
+and future, was almost wholly due to the exertions of that grey-haired
+letter-writer at his peaceful library-table.
+
+At the very beginning of the year the King of Denmark had made an offer
+to Philip of mediation.  The letter, entrusted to a young Count de
+Rantzan, had been intercepted by the States--the envoy not having availed
+himself, in time, of his diplomatic capacity, and having in consequence
+been treated, for a moment, like a prisoner of war.  The States had
+immediately addressed earnest letters of protest to Queen Elizabeth,
+declaring that nothing which the enemy could do in war was half so
+horrible to them as the mere mention of peace.  Life, honour, religion,
+liberty, their all, were at stake, they said, and would go down in one
+universal shipwreck, if peace should be concluded; and they implored her
+Majesty to avert the proposed intercession of the Danish King.  Wilkes
+wrote to Walsingham denouncing that monarch and his ministers as
+stipendiaries of Spain, while, on the other hand, the Duke of Parma,
+after courteously thanking the King for his offer of mediation, described
+him to Philip as such a dogged heretic, that no good was to be derived
+from him, except by meeting his fraudulent offers with an equally
+fraudulent response.  There will be nothing lost, said Alexander, by
+affecting to listen to his proposals, and meantime your Majesty must
+proceed with the preparations against England.  This was in the first
+week of the year 1587.
+
+In February, and almost on the very day when Parma was writing those
+affectionate letters to Elizabeth, breathing nothing but peace, he was
+carefully conning Philip's directions in regard to the all-important
+business of the invasion.  He was informed by his master, that one
+hundred vessels, forty of them of largest size, were quite ready,
+together with 12,000 Spanish infantry, including 3000 of the old legion,
+and that there were volunteers more than enough.  Philip had also taken
+note, he said, of Alexander's advice as to choosing the season when the
+crops in England had just been got in, as the harvest of so fertile a
+country would easily support an invading force; but he advised
+nevertheless that the army should be thoroughly victualled at starting.
+Finding that Alexander did not quite approve of the Irish part of the
+plan, he would reconsider the point, and think more of the Isle of Wight;
+but perhaps still some other place might be discovered, a descent upon
+which might inspire that enemy with still greater terror and confusion.
+It would be difficult for him, he said, to grant the 6000 men asked for
+by the Scotch malcontents, without seriously weakening his armada; but
+there must be no positive refusal, for a concerted action with the Scotch
+lords and their adherents was indispensable.  The secret, said the King,
+had been profoundly kept, and neither in Spain nor in Rome had anything
+been allowed to transpire.  Alexander was warned therefore to do his best
+to maintain the mystery, for the enemy was trying very hard to penetrate
+their actions and their thoughts.
+
+And certainly Alexander did his best.  He replied to his master, by
+transmitting copies of the letters he had been writing with his own hand
+to the Queen, and of the, pacific messages he had sent her through
+Champagny.  and De Loo.  She is just now somewhat confused, said he, and
+those of her counsellors who desire peace, are more eager, than ever for
+negotiation.  She is very much afflicted with the loss of Deventer, and
+is quarrelling with the French ambassador about the new conspiracy for
+her assassination.  The opportunity is a good one, and if she writes an
+answer to my letter, said Alexander, we can keep the negotiation, alive,
+while, if she does not, 'twill be a proof that she has contracted leagues
+with other parties.  But, in any event, the Duke fervently implored
+Philip not to pause in his preparations for the great enterprise which he
+had conceived in his royal breast.  So urgent for the invasion was the
+peace-loving general.
+
+He alluded also to the supposition that the quarrel between her Majesty
+and the French envoy was a mere fetch, and only one of the results of
+Bellievre's mission.  Whether that diplomatist had been sent to censure,
+or in reality to approve, in the name of his master, of the Scottish
+Queen's execution, Alexander would leave to be discussed by Don
+Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in Paris; but he was of
+opinion that the anger of the Queen with France was a fiction, and her
+supposed league with France and Germany against Spain a fact.  Upon this
+point, as it appears from Secretary Walsingham's lamentations, the astute
+Farnese was mistaken.
+
+In truth he was frequently, led into error to the English policy the same
+serpentine movement and venomous purpose which characterized his own; and
+we have already seen; that Elizabeth was ready, on the contrary, to
+quarrel with the States, with France, with all the world, if she could
+only secure the good-will of Philip.
+
+The French-matter, indissolubly connected in that monarch's schemes, with
+his designs upon England and Holland, was causing Alexander much anxiety.
+He foresaw great difficulty in maintaining that, indispensable civil war
+in France, and thought that a peace might, some fine day, be declared
+between Henry III. and the Huguenots, when least expected.  In
+consequence, the Duke of Guise was becoming very importunate for Philip's
+subsidies.  "Mucio comes begging to me," said Parma, "with the very
+greatest earnestness, and utters nothing but lamentations and cries of
+misery.  He asked for 25,000 of the 150,000 ducats promised him.  I gave
+them.  Soon afterwards he writes, with just as much anxiety, for 25,000
+more.  These I did not give; firstly, because I had them not," (which
+would seem a sufficient reason) "and secondly, because I wished to
+protract matters as much as possible.  He is constantly reminding me of
+your Majesty's promise of 300,000 ducats, in case he comes to a rupture
+with the King of France, and I always assure him that your Majesty will
+keep all promises."
+
+Philip, on his part, through the months of spring, continued to assure
+his generalissimo of his steady preparations--by sea and land.  He had
+ordered Mendoza to pay the Scotch lords the sum demanded by them, but not
+till after they had done the deed as agreed upon; and as to the 6000 men,
+he felt obliged, he said, to defer that matter for the moment; and to
+leave the decision upon it to the Duke.  Farnese kept his sovereign
+minutely informed of the negociations carried on through Champagny and De
+Loo, and expressed his constant opinion that the Queen was influenced by
+motives as hypocritical as his own.  She was only seeking, he said, to
+deceive, to defraud, to put him to sleep, by those feigned negotiations,
+while, she was making her combinations with France and Germany, for the
+ruin of Spain.  There was no virtue to be expected from her, except she
+was compelled thereto by pure necessity.  The English, he said, were
+hated and abhorred by the natives of Holland and Zeeland, and it behoved
+Philip to seize so favourable an opportunity for urging on his great plan
+with all the speed in the world.  It might be that the Queen, seeing
+these mighty preparations, even although not suspecting that she herself
+was to be invaded, would tremble for her safety, if the Netherlands
+should be crushed.  But if she succeeded in deceiving Spain, and putting
+Philip and Parma to sleep, she might well boast of having made fools of
+them all.  The negotiations for peace and the preparations for the
+invasion should go simultaneously forward therefore, and the money would,
+in consequence, come more sparingly to the Provinces from the English
+coffers, and the disputes between England and the States would be
+multiplied.  The Duke also begged to be informed whether any terms could
+be laid down, upon which the King really would conclude peace; in order
+that he might make no mistake for want of instructions or requisite
+powers.  The condition of France was becoming more alarming every day, he
+said.  In other words, there was an ever-growing chance of peace for that
+distracted country.  The Queen of England was cementing a strong league
+between herself, the French King, and the Huguenots; and matters were
+looking very serious.  The impending peace in France would never do, and
+Philip should prevent it in time, by giving Mucio his money.  Unless the
+French are entangled and at war among themselves, it is quite clear, said
+Alexander, that we can never think of carrying out our great scheme of
+invading England.
+
+The King thoroughly concurred in all that was said and done by his
+faithful governor and general.  He had no intention of concluding a peace
+on any terms whatever, and therefore could name no conditions; but he
+quite approved of a continuance of the negotiations.  The English,
+he was convinced, were utterly false on their part, and the King of
+Denmark's proposition to-mediate was part and parcel of the same general
+fiction.  He was quite sensible of the necessity of giving Mucio the
+money to prevent a pacification in France, and would send letters of
+exchange on Agostino Spinola for the 300,000 ducats.  Meantime Farnese
+was to go on steadily with his preparations for the invasion.
+
+The secretary-of-state, Don Juan de Idiaquez, also wrote most earnestly
+on the great subject to the Duke.  "It is not to be exaggerated", he
+said, "how set his Majesty is in the all-important business.  If you wish
+to manifest towards him the most flattering obedience on earth, and to
+oblige him as much as you could wish, give him this great satisfaction
+this year.  Since you have money, prepare everything out there, conquer
+all difficulties, and do the deed so soon as the forces of Spain and
+Italy arrive, according to the plan laid down by your Excellency last
+year.  Make use of the negotiations for peace for this one purpose, and
+no more, and do the business like the man you are.  Attribute the liberty
+of this advice to my desire to serve you more than any other, to my
+knowledge of how much you will thereby gratify his Majesty, and to my
+fear of his resentment towards you, in the contrary case."
+
+And, on the same day, in order that there might be no doubt of the royal
+sentiments, Philip expressed himself at length on the whole subject.  The
+dealings of Farnese with the English, and his feeding them with hopes of
+peace, would have given him more satisfaction, he observed, if it had
+caused their preparations to slacken; but, on the contrary, their
+boldness had increased.  They had perpetrated the inhuman murder of the
+Queen of Scots, and moreover, not content with their piracies at sea and
+in the Indies, they had dared to invade the ports of Spain, as would
+appear in the narrative transmitted to Farnese of the late events at
+Cadiz.  And although that damage was small, said Philip; there resulted a
+very great obligation to take them 'seriously in hand.'  He declined
+sending fill powers for treating; but in order to make use of the same
+arts employed by the English, he preferred that Alexander should not
+undeceive them, but desired him to express, as out of his own head; to
+the negotiators, his astonishment that while they were holding such
+language they should commit such actions.  Even their want of prudence in
+thus provoking the King; when their strength was compared to his, should
+be spoken of by Farnese as--wonderful, and he was to express the opinion
+that his Majesty would think him much wanting in circumspection, should
+he go on negotiating while they were playing such tricks.  "You must show
+yourself very sensitive, about this event," continued Philip, "and you
+must give them to understand that I am quite as angry as you.  You must
+try to draw from them some offer of satisfaction--however false it will
+be in reality--such as a proposal to recall the fleet, or an, assertion
+that the deeds of Drake in Cadiz were without the knowledge and contrary
+to the will of the Queen, and that she very much regrets them, or
+something of that sort."
+
+It has already been shown that Farnese was very successful in eliciting
+from the Queen, through the mouth of Lord' Burghley, as ample a disavowal
+and repudiation of Sir Francis Drake as the King could possibly desire.
+Whether it would have the desired effect--of allaying the wrath of
+Philip; might have been better foretold, could the letter, with which we
+are now occupied, have been laid upon the Greenwich council-board.
+
+"When you have got, such a disavowal," continued his Majesty, "you are to
+act as if entirely taken in and imposed upon by them, and, pretending to
+believe everything they tell you, you must renew the negotiations,
+proceed to name commissioners, and propose a meeting upon neutral
+territory.  As for powers; say that you, as my governor-general, will
+entrust them to your deputies, in regard to the Netherlands.  For all
+other matters, say that you have had full powers for many months, but
+that you cannot exhibit them until conditions worthy of my acceptance
+have been offered.--Say this only for the sake of appearance.  This is
+the true way to take them in, and so the peace-commissioners may meet.
+But to you only do I declare that my intention is that this shall never
+lead to any result, whatever conditions maybe offered by them.  On the
+contrary, all this is done--just as they do--to deceive them, and to cool
+them in their preparations for defence, by inducing them to believe that
+such preparations will be unnecessary.  You are well aware that the
+reverse of all this is the truth, and that on our part there is to be no
+slackness, but the greatest diligence in our efforts for the invasion of
+England, for which we have already made the most abundant provision in
+men, ships, and money, of which you are well aware."
+
+Is it strange that the Queen of England was deceived?  Is it matter of
+surprise, censure, or shame, that no English statesman was astute enough
+or base enough to contend with such diplomacy, which seemed inspired only
+by the very father of lies?
+
+"Although we thus enter into negotiations," continued the King--unveiling
+himself, with a solemn indecency, not agreeable to contemplate--"without
+any intention of concluding them, you can always get out of them with
+great honour, by taking umbrage about the point of religion and about
+some other of the outrageous propositions which they are like to propose,
+and of which there are plenty, in the letters of Andrew de Loo.  Your
+commissioners must be instructed; to refer all important matters to your
+personal decision.  The English will be asking for damages for money,
+spent in assisting my rebels; your commissioners will contend that
+damages are rather due to me.  Thus, and in other ways, time will be
+agent.  Your own envoys are not to know the secret any more than the
+English themselves.  I tell it to you only.  Thus you will proceed with
+the negotiations, now, yielding on one point, and now insisting on
+another, but directing all to the same object--to gain time while
+proceeding with the preparation for the invasion, according to the plan
+already agreed upon."
+
+Certainly the most Catholic King seemed, in this remarkable letter to
+have outdone himself; and Farnese--that sincere Farnese, in whose loyal,
+truth-telling, chivalrous character, the Queen and her counsellors placed
+such implicit reliance--could thenceforward no longer be embarrassed as
+to the course he was to adopt.  To lie daily, through, thick, and thin,
+and with every variety of circumstance and detail which; a genius fertile
+in fiction could suggest, such was the simple rule prescribed by his
+sovereign.  And the rule was implicitly obeyed, and the English sovereign
+thoroughly deceived.  The secret confided only, to the faithful breast of
+Alexander was religiously kept.  Even the Pope was outwitted.  His
+Holiness proposed to, Philip the invasion of England, and offered a
+million to further the plan.  He was most desirous to be informed if the
+project was, resolved upon, and, if so, when it was to be accomplished.
+The King took the Pope's million, but refused the desired information.
+He answered evasively.  He had a very good will to invade the country, he
+said, but there were great difficulties in the way.  After a time, the
+Pope again tried to pry into the matter, and again offered the million
+which Philip had only accepted for the time when it might be wanted;
+giving him at the same time, to understand that it was not necessary at
+that time, because there were then great impediments.  "Thus he is
+pledged to give me the subsidy, and I am not pledged for the time," said
+Philip, "and I keep my secret, which is the most important of all."
+
+Yet after all, Farnese did not see his way clear towards the consummation
+of the plan.  His army had wofully dwindled, and before he could
+seriously set about ulterior matters, it would be necessary to take
+the city of Sluys.  This was to prove--as already seen--a most arduous
+enterprise.  He complained to Philip' of his inadequate supplies both in
+men and money.  The project conceived in the royal breast was worth
+spending millions for, he said, and although by zeal and devotion he
+could accomplish something, yet after all he was no more than a man,
+and without the necessary means the scheme could not succeed.  But
+Philip, on the contrary, was in the highest possible spirits.  He had
+collected more money, he declared than had ever been seen before in the
+world.  He had two million ducats in reserve, besides the Pope's million;
+the French were in a most excellent state of division, and the invasion
+should be made this year without fail.  The fleet would arrive in the
+English channel by the end of the summer; which would be exactly in
+conformity with Alexander's ideas.  The invasion was to be threefold:
+from Scotland, under the Scotch earls and their followers, with the money
+and troops furnished by Philip; from the Netherlands, under Parma; and by
+the great Spanish armada itself, upon the Isle of Wight.  Alexander must
+recommend himself to God, in whose cause he was acting, and then do his
+duty; which lay very plain before him.  If he ever wished to give his
+sovereign satisfaction in his life; he was to do the deed that year,
+whatever might betide.  Never could there be so fortunate a conjunction
+of circumstances again.  France was in a state of revolution, the German
+levies were weak, the Turk was fully occupied in Persia, an enormous mass
+of money, over and above the Pope's million, had been got together, and
+although the season was somewhat advanced, it was certain that the Duke
+would conquer all impediments, and be the instrument by which his royal
+master might render to God that service which he was so anxious to
+perform.  Enthusiastic, though gouty, Philip grasped the pen in order to
+scrawl a few words with his own royal hand.  "This business is of such
+importance," he said, "and it is so necessary that it should not be
+delayed, that I cannot refrain from urging it upon you as much as I can.
+I should do it even more amply; if this hand would allow me, which has
+been crippled with gout these several days, and my feet as well, and
+although it is unattended with pain, yet it is an impediment to writing."
+
+Struggling thus against his own difficulties, and triumphantly,
+accomplishing a whole paragraph with disabled hand, it was natural that
+the King should expect Alexander, then deep in the siege of Sluy's, to
+vanquish all his obstacles as successfully; and to effect the conquest of
+England so soon as the harvests of that kingdom should be garnered.
+
+Sluy's was surrendered at last, and the great enterprise seemed opening
+from hour to hour.  During the months of autumn; upon the very days when
+those loving messages, mixed with gentle reproaches, were sent by
+Alexander to Elizabeth, and almost at the self-same hours in which honest
+Andrew de Loo was getting such head-aches by drinking the Queen's health
+with Cosimo, and Champagny, the Duke and Philip were interchanging
+detailed information as to the progress of the invasion.  The King
+calculated that by the middle of September Alexander would have 30,000
+men in the Netherlands ready for embarcation.--Marquis Santa Cruz was
+announced as nearly ready to, sail for the English channel with 22,000
+more, among whom were to be 16,000 seasoned Spanish infantry.  The
+Marquis was then to extend the hand to Parma, and protect that passage to
+England which the Duke was at once to effect.  The danger might be great
+for so large a fleet to navigate the seas at so late a season of the
+year; but Philip was sure that God, whose cause it was, would be pleased
+to give good weather.  The Duke was to send, with infinite precautions of
+secrecy, information which the Marquis would expect off Ushant, and be
+quite ready to act so soon as Santa Cruz should arrive.  Most earnestly
+and anxiously did the King deprecate any, thought of deferring the
+expedition to another year.  If delayed, the obstacles of the following
+summer--a peace in France, a peace between the Turk and Persia, and other
+contingencies--would cause the whole project to fail, and Philip
+declared, with much iteration, that money; reputation, honour, his
+own character and that of Farnese, and God's service, were all at stake.
+He was impatient at suggestions of difficulties occasionally, ventured by
+the Duke, who was reminded that he had been appointed chief of the great
+enterprise by the spontaneous choice of his master, and that all his
+plans had been minutely followed.  "You are the author of the whole
+scheme," said Philip, "and if it, is all to vanish into space, what kind
+of a figure shall we cut the coming year?"  Again and again he referred
+to the immense sum collected--such as never before had been seen since
+the world was made--4,800,000 ducats with 2,000,000 in reserve, of which
+he was authorized to draw for 500,000 in advance, to say nothing of the
+Pope's million.
+
+But Alexander,  while straining every nerve to obey his master's
+wishes about the invasion, and to blind the English by the fictitious
+negotiations, was not so sanguine as his sovereign.  In truth, there was
+something puerile in the eagerness which Philip manifested.  He had made
+up his mind that England was to be conquered that autumn, and had
+endeavoured--as well as he could--to comprehend, the plans which his
+illustrious general had laid down for accomplishing that purpose.  Of,
+course; to any man of average intellect, or, in truth, to any man outside
+a madhouse; it would seem an essential part of the conquest that the
+Armada should arrive.  Yet--wonderful to relate-Philip, in his
+impatience, absolutely suggested that the Duke might take possession of
+England without waiting for Santa Cruz and his Armada.  As the autumn had
+been wearing away, and there had been unavoidable delays about the
+shipping in Spanish ports, the King thought it best not to defer matters
+till, the winter.  "You are, doubtless, ready," he said to Farnese.
+"If you think you can make the passage to England before the fleet from
+Spain arrives, go at once.  You maybe sure that it will come ere long to
+support, you.  But if, you prefer, to wait, wait.  The dangers of winter,
+to the fleet and to your own person are to be regretted; but God, whose
+cause it is; will protect you."
+
+It was, easy to sit quite out of harm's way, and to make such excellent,
+arrangements for smooth weather in the wintry channel, and for the.
+conquest of a maritime and martial kingdom by a few flat bottoms.  Philip
+had little difficulty on that score, but the affairs of France were not
+quite to his mind.  The battle of Coutras, and the entrance of the German
+and Swiss mercenaries into that country, were somewhat perplexing.
+Either those auxiliaries of the Huguenots would be defeated, or they
+would be victorious, or both parties would come to an agreement.  In the
+first event, the Duke, after sending a little assistance to Mucio, was to
+effect his passage to England at once.  In the second case, those troops,
+even though successful, would doubtless be so much disorganized that it
+might be still safe for Farnese to go on.  In the third contingency--that
+of an accord--it would be necessary for him to wait till the foreign
+troops had disbanded and left France.  He was to maintain all his forces
+in perfect readiness, on pretext of the threatening aspect of French
+matters and, so soon as the Swiss and Germane were dispersed, he was to
+proceed to business without delay.  The fleet would be ready in Spain in
+all November, but as sea-affairs were so doubtful, particularly in
+winter, and as the Armada could not reach the channel till mid-winter;
+the Duke was not to wait for its arrival.  "Whenever you see a favourable
+opportunity," said Philip, "you must take care not to lose it, even if
+the fleet has not made its appearance.  For you may be sure that it will
+soon come to give you assistance, in one way or another."
+
+Farnese had also been strictly enjoined to deal gently with the English,
+after the conquest, so that they would have cause to love their new
+master.  His troops were not to forget discipline after victory.  There
+was to be no pillage or rapine.  The Catholics were to be handsomely
+rewarded and all the inhabitants were to be treated with so much
+indulgence that, instead of abhorring Parma and his soldiers, they would
+conceive a strong affection for them all, as the source of so many
+benefits.  Again the Duke was warmly commended for the skill with which
+he had handled the peace negotiation.  It was quite right to appoint
+commissioners, but it was never for an instant to be forgotten that the
+sole object of treating was to take the English unawares.  "And therefore
+do you guide them to this end," said the King with pious unction, "which
+is what you owe to God, in whose service I  have engaged in this
+enterprise, and to whom I have dedicated the whole."  The King of France,
+too--that unfortunate Henry III., against whose throne and life Philip
+maintained in constant pay an organized band of conspirators--was
+affectionately adjured, through the Spanish envoy in Paris, Mendoza,--to
+reflect upon the advantages to France of a Catholic king and kingdom of
+England, in place of the heretics now in power.
+
+But Philip, growing more and more sanguine, as those visions of fresh
+crowns and conquered kingdoms rose before him in his solitary cell, had
+even persuaded himself that the deed was already done.  In the early days
+of December, he expressed a doubt whether his 14th November letter had
+reached the Duke, who by that time was probably in England.  One would
+have thought the King addressing a tourist just starting on a little
+pleasure-excursion.  And this was precisely the moment when Alexander had
+been writing those affectionate phrases to the Queen which had been
+considered by the counsellors at Greenwich so "princely and Christianly,"
+and which Croft had pronounced such "very good words."
+
+If there had been no hostile, fleet to prevent, it was to be hoped, said
+Philip, that, in the name of God, the passage had been made.  "Once
+landed there," continued the King, "I am persuaded that you will give me
+a good account of yourself, and, with the help of our Lord, that you will
+do that service which I desire to render to Him, and that He will guide
+our cause, which is His own, and of such great importance to His Church."
+A part of the fleet would soon after arrive and bring six thousand
+Spaniards, the Pope's million, and other good things, which might prove
+useful to Parma, presupposing that they would find him established on the
+enemy's territory.
+
+This conviction that the enterprise had been already accomplished grew
+stronger in the King's breast every day.  He was only a little disturbed
+lest Farnese should have misunderstood that 14th November letter.
+Philip--as his wont was--had gone into so many petty and puzzling
+details, and had laid down rules of action suitable for various
+contingencies, so easy to put comfortably upon paper, but which might
+become perplexing in action, that it was no wonder he should be a little
+anxious.  The third contingency suggested by him had really occurred.
+There had been a composition between the foreign mercenaries and the
+French King.  Nevertheless they had also been once or twice defeated, and
+this was contingency number two.  Now which of the events would the Duke
+consider as having really occurred.  It was to be hoped that he would
+have not seen cause for delay, for in truth number three was not exactly
+the contingency which existed.  France was still in a very satisfactory
+state of discord and rebellion.  The civil war was by no means over.
+There was small fear of peace that winter.  Give Mucio his pittance with
+frugal hand, and that dangerous personage would ensure tranquillity for
+Philip's project, and misery for Henry III. and his subjects for an
+indefinite period longer.  The King thought it improbable that Farnese
+could have made any mistake.  He expressed therefore a little anxiety at
+having received no intelligence from him, but had great confidence that,
+with the aid of the Lord and of with his own courage he had accomplished
+the great exploit.  Philip had only, recommended delay in event of a
+general peace in France--Huguenots, Royalists, Leaguers, and all.
+This had not happened.  "Therefore, I trust," said the King; "that you--
+perceiving that this is not contingency number three which was to justify
+a pause--will have already executed the enterprise, and fulfilled my
+desire.  I am confident that the deed is done, and that God has blessed
+it, and I am now expecting the news from hour to hour."
+
+But Alexander had not yet arrived in England.  The preliminaries for the
+conquest caused him more perplexity than the whole enterprise occasioned
+to Philip.  He was very short of funds.  The five millions were not to be
+touched, except for the expenses of the invasion.  But as England was to
+be subjugated, in order that rebellious Holland might be recovered, it
+was hardly reasonable to go away leaving such inadequate forces in the
+Netherlands as to ensure not only independence to the new republic, but
+to hold out temptation for revolt to the obedient Provinces.  Yet this
+was the dilemma in which the Duke was placed.  So much money had been set
+aside for the grand project that there was scarcely anything for the
+regular military business.  The customary supplies had not been sent.
+Parma had leave to draw for six hundred thousand ducats, and he was able
+to get that draft discounted on the Antwerp Exchange by consenting to
+receive five hundred thousand, or sacrificing sixteen per cent. of the
+sum.  A good number of transports, and scows had been collected, but
+there had been a deficiency of money for their proper equipment, as the
+five millions had been very slow in coming, and were still upon the road.
+The whole enterprise was on the point of being sacrificed, according to
+Farnese, for want of funds.  The time for doing the deed had arrived, and
+he declared himself incapacitated by poverty.  He expressed his disgust
+and resentment in language more energetic than courtly; and protested
+that he was not to blame.  "I always thought," said he bitterly, "that
+your Majesty would provide all that was necessary even in superfluity,
+and not limit me beneath the ordinary.  I did not suppose, when it was
+most important to have ready money, that I should be kept short, and not
+allowed to draw certain sums by anticipation, which I should have done
+had you not forbidden."
+
+This was, through life, a striking characteristic of Philip.  Enormous
+schemes were laid out with utterly inadequate provision for their
+accomplishment, and a confident expectation entertained that wild,
+visions were; in some indefinite way, to be converted into substantial
+realities, without fatigue or personal exertion on his part, and with a
+very trifling outlay of ready money.
+
+Meantime the faithful Farnese did his best.  He was indefatigable night
+and day in getting his boats together and providing his munitions of war.
+He dug a canal from Sas de Gand--which was one of his principal depots--
+all the way to Sluys, because the water-communication between those two
+points was entirely in the hands of the Hollanders and Zeelanders.  The
+rebel cruisers swarmed in the Scheldt, from, Flushing almost to Antwerp,
+so that it was quite impossible for Parma's forces to venture forth at
+all; and it also seemed hopeless to hazard putting to sea from Sluys.
+At the same, time he had appointed his, commissioners to treat with the
+English envoys already named by the Queen.  There had been much delay in
+the arrival of those deputies, on account of the noise raised by
+Barneveld and his followers; but Burghley was now sanguine that the
+exposure of what he called the Advocate's seditious, false, and perverse
+proceedings, would enable Leicester to procure the consent of the States
+to a universal peace.
+
+And thus, with these parallel schemes of invasion and negotiation,
+spring; summer, and autumn, had worn away.  Santa Cruz was still with his
+fleet in Lisbon, Cadiz, and the Azores; and Parma was in Brussels, when
+Philip fondly imagined him established in Greenwich Palace.  When made
+aware of his master's preposterous expectations, Alexander would have
+been perhaps amused, had he not been half beside himself with
+indignation.  Such folly seemed incredible.  There was not the slightest
+appearance of a possibility of making a passage without the protection of
+the Spanish fleet, he observed.  His vessels were mere transport-boats,
+without the least power of resisting an enemy.  The Hollanders and
+Zeelanders, with one hundred and forty cruisers, had shut him up in all
+directions.  He could neither get out from Antwerp nor from Sluys.  There
+were large English ships, too, cruising in the channel, and they were
+getting ready in the Netherlands and in England "most furiously."  The
+delays had been so great, that their secret had been poorly kept, and the
+enemy was on his guard.  If Santa Cruz had come, Alexander declared that
+he should have already been in England.  When he did come he should still
+be prepared to make the passage; but to talk of such an attempt without
+the Armada was senseless, and he denounced the madness of that
+proposition to his Majesty in vehement and unmeasured terms.  His army,
+by sickness and other causes, had been reduced to one-half the number
+considered necessary for the invasion, and the rebels had established
+regular squadrons in the Scheldt, in the very teeth of the forts, at
+Lillo, Liefkenshoek, Saftingen, and other points close to Antwerp.  There
+were so many of these war-vessels, and all in such excellent order, that
+they were a most notable embarrassment to him, he observed, and his own
+flotilla would run great risk of being utterly destroyed.  Alexander had
+been personally superintending matters at Sluys, Ghent, and Antwerp, and
+had strengthened with artillery the canal which he had constructed
+between Sas and Sluys.  Meantime his fresh troops had been slowly
+arriving, but much sickness prevailed among them.  The Italians were
+dying fast, almost all the Spaniards were in hospital, and the others
+were so crippled and worn out that it was most pitiable to behold them;
+yet it was absolutely necessary that those who were in health should
+accompany him to England, since otherwise his Spanish force would be
+altogether too weak to do the service expected.  He had got together a
+good number of transports.  Not counting his Antwerp fleet--which could
+not stir from port, as he bitterly complained, nor be of any use, on
+account of the rebel blockade--he had between Dunkerk and Newport
+seventy-four vessels of various kinds fit for sea-service, one hundred
+and fifty flat-bottoms (pleytas), and seventy riverhoys, all which were
+to be assembled at Sluys, whence they would--so soon as Santa Cruz should
+make his appearance--set forth for England.  This force of transports he
+pronounced sufficient, when properly protected by the Spanish Armada, to
+carry himself and his troops across the channel.  If, therefore, the
+matter did not become publicly known, and if the weather proved
+favourable, it was probable that his Majesty's desire would soon be
+fulfilled according to the plan proposed.  The companies of light horse
+and of arquebusmen, with which he meant to make his entrance into London,
+had been clothed, armed, and mounted, he said, in a manner delightful to
+contemplate, and those soldiers at least might be trusted--if they could
+only effect their passage--to do good service, and make matters quite
+secure.
+
+But craftily as the King and Duke had been dealing, it had been found
+impossible to keep such vast preparations entirely secret.  Walsingham
+was in full possession of their plans down to the most minute details.
+The misfortune was that he was unable to persuade his sovereign, Lord
+Burghley, and others of the peace-party, as to the accuracy of his
+information.  Not only was he thoroughly instructed in regard to the
+number of men, vessels, horses, mules, saddles, spurs, lances, barrels of
+beer and tons of biscuit, and other particulars of the contemplated
+invasion, but he had even received curious intelligence as to the
+gorgeous equipment of those very troops, with which the Duke was just
+secretly announcing to the King his intention of making his triumphal
+entrance into the English capital.  Sir Francis knew how many thousand
+yards of cramoisy velvet, how many hundredweight of gold and silver
+embroidery, how much satin and feathers, and what quantity of pearls and
+diamonds; Farnese had been providing himself withal.  He knew the
+tailors, jewellers, silversmiths, and haberdashers, with whom the great
+Alexander--as he now began to be called--had been dealing;
+
+     ["There is provided for lights a great number of torches, and so
+     tempered that no water can put them out.  A great number of little
+     mills for grinding corn, great store of biscuit baked and oxen
+     salted, great number of saddles and boots also there is made 500
+     pair of velvet shoes-red, crimson velvet, and in every cloister
+     throughout the country great quantity of roses made of silk, white
+     and red, which are to be badges for divers of his gentlemen.  By
+     reason of these roses it is expected he is going for England.  There
+     is sold to the Prince by John Angel, pergaman, ten hundred-weight of
+     velvet, gold and silver to embroider his apparel withal.  The
+     covering to his mules is most gorgeously embroidered with gold and
+     silver, which carry his baggage.  There is also sold to him by the
+     Italian merchants at least 670 pieces of velvet to apparel him and
+     his train.  Every captain has received a gift from the Prince to
+     make himself brave, and for Captain Corralini, an Italian, who hath
+     one cornet of horse, I have seen with my eyes a saddle with the
+     trappings of his horse, his coat and rapier and dagger, which cost
+     3,500 French crowns.  (!!) All their lances are painted of divers
+     colours, blue and white, green and White, and most part blood-red--
+     so there is as great preparation for a triumph as for war.  A great
+     number of English priests come to Antwerp from all places.  The
+     commandment is given to all the churches to read the Litany daily
+     for the prosperity of the Prince in his enterprise." John Giles to
+     Walsingham, 4 Dec. 1587.(S. P. Office MS.)
+
+     The same letter conveyed also very detailed information concerning
+     the naval preparations by the Duke, besides accurate intelligence in
+     regard to the progress of the armada in Cadiz and Lisbon.
+
+     Sir William Russet wrote also from Flushing concerning these
+     preparations in much the same strain; but it is worthy of note that
+     he considered Farnese to be rather intending a movement against
+     France.
+
+     "The Prince of Parma," he said, "is making great preparations for
+     war, and with all expedition means to march a great army, and for a
+     triumph, the coats and costly, apparel for his own body doth exceed
+     for embroidery, and beset with jewels; for all the embroiderers and
+     diamond-cutters work both night and day, such haste is made.  Five
+     hundred velvet coats of one sort for lances, and a great number of
+     brave new coats made for horsemen; 30,000 men are ready, and gather
+     in Brabant and Flanders.  It is said that there shall be in two days
+     10,000 to do some great exploit in these parts, and 20,000 to march
+     with the Prince into France, and for certain it is not known what
+     way or how they shall march, but all are ready at an hour's warning
+     --4,000 saddles, 4000 lances.  6,000 pairs of boots, 2,000 barrels of
+     beer, biscuit sufficient for a camp of 20,000 men, &c.  The Prince
+     hath received a marvellous costly garland or crown from the Pope,
+     and is chosen chief of the holy league..."]
+
+but when he spoke at the council-board, it was to ears wilfully deaf.
+Nor was much concealed from the Argus-eyed politicians in the republic.
+The States were more and more intractable.  They knew nearly all the
+truth with regard to the intercourse between the Queen's government and
+Farnese, and they suspected more than the truth.  The list of English
+commissioners privately agreed upon between Burghley and De Loo was known
+to Barneveld, Maurice, and Hohenlo, before it came to the ears of
+Leicester.  In June, Buckhurst had been censured by Elizabeth for opening
+the peace matter to members of the States, according to her bidding, and
+in July Leicester was rebuked for exactly the opposite delinquency.  She
+was very angry that he had delayed the communication of her policy so
+long, but she expressed her anger only when that policy had proved so
+transparent as to make concealment hopeless.  Leicester, as well as
+Buckhurst, knew that it was idle to talk to the Netherlanders of peace,
+because of their profound distrust in every word that came from Spanish
+or Italian lips; but Leicester, less frank than Buckhurst, preferred to
+flatter his sovereign, rather than to tell her unwelcome truths.  More
+fortunate than Buckhurst, he was rewarded for his flattery by boundless
+affection, and promotion to the very highest post in England when the
+hour of England's greatest peril had arrived, while the truth-telling
+counsellor was consigned to imprisonment and disgrace.  When the Queen
+complained sharply that the States were mocking her, and that she was
+touched in honour at the prospect of not keeping her plighted word to
+Farnese, the Earl assured her that the Netherlanders were fast changing
+their views; that although the very name of peace had till then been
+odious and loathsome, yet now, as coming from her Majesty, they would
+accept it with thankful hearts.
+
+The States, or the leading members of that assembly, factious fellows,
+pestilent and seditious knaves, were doing their utmost, and were singing
+sirens' songs' to enchant and delude the people, but they were fast
+losing their influence--so warmly did the country desire to conform to
+her Majesty's pleasure.  He expatiated, however, upon the difficulties in
+his path.  The knowledge possessed by the pestilent fellows as to the
+actual position of affairs, was very mischievous.  It was honey to
+Maurice and Hohenlo, he said, that the Queen's secret practices with
+Farnese had thus been discovered.  Nothing could be more marked than the
+jollity with which the ringleaders hailed these preparations for peace-
+making, for they now felt certain that the government of their country
+had been fixed securely in their own hands.  They were canonized, said
+the Earl, for their hostility to peace.
+
+Should not this conviction, on the part of men who had so many means of
+feeling the popular pulse, have given the Queen's government pause?  To
+serve his sovereign in truth, Leicester might have admitted a possibility
+at least of honesty on the part of men who were so ready to offer up
+their lives for their country.  For in a very few weeks ho was obliged to
+confess that the people were no longer so well disposed to acquiesce in
+her Majesty's policy.  The great majority, both of the States and the
+people, were in favour, he agreed, of continuing the war.  The
+inhabitants of the little Province of Holland alone, he said, had avowed
+their determination to maintain their rights--even if obliged to fight
+single-handed--and to shed the last drop in their veins, rather than to
+submit again to Spanish tyranny.  This seemed a heroic resolution, worthy
+the sympathy of a brave Englishman, but the Earl's only comment upon it
+was, that it proved the ringleaders "either to be traitors or else the
+most blindest asses in the world."  He never scrupled, on repeated
+occasions, to insinuate that Barneveld, Hohenlo, Buys, Roorda, Sainte
+Aldegonde, and the Nassaus, had organized a plot to sell their country to
+Spain.  Of this there was not the faintest evidence, but it was the only
+way in which he chose to account for their persistent opposition to the
+peace-negotiations, and to their reluctance to confer absolute power on
+himself.  "'Tis a crabbed, sullen, proud kind of people," said he, "and
+bent on establishing a popular government,"--a purpose which seemed
+somewhat inconsistent with the plot for selling their country to Spain,
+which he charged in the same breath on the same persons.
+
+Early in August, by the Queen's command, he had sent a formal
+communication respecting the private negotiations to the States, but he
+could tell them no secret.  The names of the commissioners, and even the
+supposed articles of a treaty already concluded, were flying from town to
+town, from mouth to mouth, so that the Earl pronounced it impossible for
+one, not on the spot, to imagine the excitement which existed.
+
+He had sent a state-counsellor, one Bardesius, to the Hague, to open the
+matter; but that personage had only ventured to whisper a word to one or
+two members of the States, and was assured that the proposition, if made,
+would raise such a tumult of fury, that he might fear for his life.  So
+poor Bardesius came back to Leicester, fell on his knees, and implored
+him; at least to pause in these fatal proceedings.  After an interval, he
+sent two eminent statesmen, Valk and Menin, to lay the subject before the
+assembly.  They did so, and it was met by fierce denunciation.  On their
+return, the Earl, finding that so much violence had been excited,
+pretended that they had misunderstood his meaning, and that he had never
+meant to propose peace-negotiations.  But Valk and Menin were too old
+politicians to be caught in such a trap, and they produced a brief, drawn
+up in Italian--the foreign language best understood by the Earl--with his
+own corrections and interlineations, so that he was forced to admit that
+there had been no misconception.
+
+Leicester at last could no longer doubt that he was universally odious in
+the Provinces.  Hohenlo, Barneveld, and the rest, who had "championed the
+country against the peace," were carrying all before them.  They had
+persuaded the people, that the "Queen was but a tickle stay for them,"
+and had inflated young Maurice with vast ideas of his importance, telling
+him that he was "a natural patriot, the image of his noble father, whose
+memory was yet great among them, as good reason, dying in their cause, as
+be had done."  The country was bent on a popular government, and on
+maintaining the war.  There was no possibility, he confessed, that they
+would ever confer the authority on him which they had formerly bestowed.
+The Queen had promised, when he left England the second time, that his
+absence should be for but three months, and he now most anxiously claimed
+permission to depart.  Above all things, he deprecated being employed as
+a peace-commissioner.  He was, of all men, the most unfit for such a
+post.  At the same time he implored the statesmen at home to be wary in
+selecting the wisest persons for that arduous duty, in order that the
+peace might be made for Queen Elizabeth, as well as for King Philip.
+He strongly recommended, for that duty, Beale, the councillor, who with
+Killigrew had replaced the hated Wilkes and the pacific Bartholomew
+Clerk.  "Mr. Beale, brother-in-law to Walsingham, is in my books a
+prince," said the Earl.  "He was drowned in England, but most useful in
+the Netherlands.  Without him I am naked."
+
+And at last the governor told the Queen what Buckhurst and Walsingham had
+been perpetually telling her, that the Duke of Parma meant mischief; and
+he sent the same information as to hundreds of boats preparing, with six
+thousand shirts for camisados, 7000 pairs of wading boots, and saddles,
+stirrups, and spurs, enough for a choice band of 3000 men.  A shrewd
+troop, said the Earl, of the first soldiers in Christendom, to be landed
+some fine morning in England.  And he too had heard of the jewelled suits
+of cramoisy velvet, and all the rest of the finery with which the
+triumphant Alexander was intending to astonish London.  "Get horses
+enough, and muskets enough in England," exclaimed Leicester, "and then
+our people will not be beaten, I warrant you, if well led."
+
+And now, the governor--who, in order to soothe his sovereign and comply
+with her vehement wishes, had so long misrepresented the state of public
+feeling--not only confessed that Papists and Protestants, gentle and
+simple, the States and the people, throughout the republic, were all
+opposed to any negotiation with the enemy, but lifted up his own voice,
+and in earnest language expressed his opinion of the Queen's infatuation.
+
+"Oh, my Lord, what a treaty is this for peace," said he to Burghley,
+"that we must treat, altogether disarmed and weakened, and the King
+having made his forces stronger than ever he had known in these parts,
+besides what is coming out, of Spain, and yet we will presume of good
+conditions.  It grieveth me to the heart.  But I fear you will all smart
+for it, and I pray God her Majesty feel it not, if it be His blessed
+will.  She meaneth well and sincerely to have peace, but God knows that
+this is not the way.  Well, God Almighty defend us and the realm, and
+especially her Majesty.  But look for a sharp war, or a miserable peace,
+to undo others and ourselves after."
+
+Walsingham, too, was determined not to act as a commissioner.  If his
+failing health did not serve as an excuse, he should be obliged to
+refuse, he said, and so forfeit her Majesty's favour, rather than be
+instrumental in bringing about her ruin, and that of his country.  Never
+for an instant had the Secretary of State faltered in his opposition to
+the timid policy of Burghley.  Again and again he had detected the
+intrigues of the Lord-Treasurer and Sir James Croft, and ridiculed the
+"comptroller's peace."
+
+And especially did Walsingham bewail the implicit confidence which the
+Queen placed in the sugary words of Alexander, and the fatal parsimony
+which caused her to neglect defending herself against Scotland; for he
+was as well informed as was Farnese himself of Philip's arrangements with
+the Scotch lords, and of the subsidies in men and money by which their
+invasion of England was to be made part of the great scheme.  "No one
+thing," sighed Walsingham, "doth more prognosticate an alteration of this
+estate, than that a prince of her Majesty's judgment should neglect, in
+respect of a little charges, the stopping of so dangerous a gap .  .  .
+.  .  The manner of our cold and careless proceeding here, in this time
+of peril, maketh me to take no comfort of my recovery of health, for that
+I see, unless it shall please God in mercy and miraculously to preserve
+us, we cannot long stand."
+
+Leicester, finding himself unable to counteract the policy of Barneveld
+and his party, by expostulation or argument, conceived a very dangerous
+and criminal project before he left the country.  The facts are somewhat
+veiled in mystery; but he was suspected, on weighty evidence, of a design
+to kidnap both Maurice and Barneveld, and carry them off to England.  Of
+this intention, which was foiled at any rate, before it could be carried
+into execution, there is perhaps not conclusive proof, but it has already
+been shown, from a deciphered letter, that the Queen had once given
+Buckhurst and Wilkes peremptory orders to seize the person of Hohenlo,
+and it is quite possible that similar orders may have been received at a
+later moment with regard to the young Count and the Advocate.  At any
+rate, it is certain that late in the autumn, some friends of Barneveld
+entered his bedroom, at the Hague, in the dead of night, and informed him
+that a plot was on foot to lay violent hands upon him, and that an armed
+force was already on its way to execute this purpose of Leicester, before
+the dawn of day.  The Advocate, without loss of time, took his departure
+for Delft, a step which was followed, shortly afterwards, by Maurice.
+
+Nor was this the only daring--stroke which the Earl had meditated.
+During the progress of the secret negotiations with Parma, he had not
+neglected those still more secret schemes to which he had occasionally
+made allusion.  He had determined, if possible, to obtain possession of
+the most important cities in Holland and Zeeland.  It was very plain to
+him, that he could no longer hope, by fair means, for the great authority
+once conferred upon him by the free will of the States.  It was his
+purpose, therefore, by force and stratagem to recover his lost power.
+We have heard the violent terms in which both the Queen and the Earl
+denounced the men who accused the English government of any such
+intention.  It had been formally denied by the States-General that
+Barneveld had ever used the language in that assembly with which he had
+been charged.  He had only revealed to them the exact purport of the
+letter to Junius, and of the Queen's secret instructions to Leicester.
+Whatever he may have said in private conversation, and whatever
+deductions he may have made among his intimate friends, from the admitted
+facts in the case, could hardly be made matters of record.  It does not
+appear that he, or the statesmen who acted with him, considered the Earl
+capable of a deliberate design to sell the cities, thus to be acquired,
+to Spain, as the price of peace for England.  Certainly Elizabeth would
+have scorned such a crime, and was justly indignant at rumours prevalent
+to that effect; but the wrath of the Queen and of her favourite were,
+perhaps, somewhat simulated, in order to cover their real mortification
+at the discovery of designs on the part of the Earl which could not be
+denied.  Not only had they been at last compelled to confess these
+negotiations, which for several months had been concealed and stubbornly
+denied, but the still graver plots of the Earl to regain his much-coveted
+authority had been, in a startling manner, revealed.  The leaders of the
+States-General had a right to suspect the English Earl of a design to
+reenact the part of the Duke of Anjou, and were justified in taking
+stringent measures to prevent a calamity, which, as they believed, was
+impending over their little commonwealth.  The high-handed dealings of
+Leicester in the city of Utrecht have been already described.  The most
+respectable and influential burghers of the place had been imprisoned and
+banished, the municipal government wrested from the hands to which it
+legitimately belonged, and confided to adventurers, who wore the cloak of
+Calvinism to conceal their designs, and a successful effort had been
+made, in the name of democracy, to eradicate from one ancient province
+the liberty on which it prided itself.
+
+In the course of the autumn, an attempt was made to play the same game at
+Amsterdam.  A plot was discovered, before it was fairly matured, to seize
+the magistrates of that important city, to gain possession of the
+arsenals, and to place the government in the hands of well-known
+Leicestrians.  A list of fourteen influential citizens, drawn up in the
+writing of Burgrave, the Earl's confidential secretary, was found, all of
+whom, it was asserted, had been doomed to the scaffold.
+
+The plot to secure Amsterdam had failed, but, in North Holland, Medenblik
+was held firmly for Leicester, by Diedrich Sonoy, in the very teeth of
+the States.  The important city of Enkhuyzen, too, was very near being
+secured for the Earl, but a still more significant movement was made at
+Leyden.  That heroic city, ever since the famous siege of 1574, in which
+the Spaniard had been so signally foiled, had distinguished itself by
+great liberality of sentiment in religious matters.  The burghers were
+inspired by a love of country, and a hatred of oppression, both civil
+and, ecclesiastical; and Papists and Protestants, who had fought side by
+side against the common foe, were not disposed to tear each other to
+pieces, now that he had been excluded from their gates.  Meanwhile,
+however, refugee Flemings and Brabantines had sought an asylum in the
+city, and being, as usual, of the strictest sect of the Calvinists were
+shocked at the latitudinarianism which prevailed.  To the honour of the
+city--as it seems to us now--but, to their horror, it was even found that
+one or two Papists had seats in the magistracy.  More than all this,
+there was a school in the town kept by a Catholic, and Adrian van der
+Werff himself--the renowned burgomaster, who had sustained the city
+during the dreadful leaguer of 1574, and who had told the famishing
+burghers that they might eat him if they liked, but that they should
+never surrender to the Spaniards while he remained alive--even Adrian van
+der Werff had sent his son to this very school?  To the clamour made by
+the refugees against this spirit of toleration, one of the favourite
+preachers in the town, of Arminian tendencies, had declared in the
+pulpit, that he would as lieve see the Spanish as the Calvinistic
+inquisition established over his country; using an expression, in regard
+to the church of Geneva, more energetic than decorous.
+
+It was from Leyden that the chief opposition came to a synod, by which a
+great attempt was to be made towards subjecting the new commonwealth to a
+masked theocracy; a scheme which the States of Holland had resisted with
+might and main.  The Calvinistic party, waxing stronger in Leyden,
+although still in a minority, at last resolved upon a strong effort to
+place the city in the hands of that great representative of Calvinism,
+the Earl of Leicester.  Jacques Volmar, a deacon of the church, Cosmo de
+Pescarengis, a Genoese captain of much experience in the service of the
+republic, Adolphus de Meetkerke, former president of Flanders, who had
+been, by the States, deprived of the seat in the great council to which
+the Earl had appointed him; Doctor Saravia, professor of theology in the
+university, with other deacons, preachers, and captains, went at
+different times from Leyden to Utrecht, and had secret interviews with
+Leicester.
+
+A plan was at last agreed upon, according to which, about the middle of
+October, a revolution should be effected in Leyden.  Captain Nicholas de
+Maulde, who had recently so much distinguished himself in the defence of
+Sluys, was stationed with two companies of States' troops in the city.
+He had been much disgusted--not without reason--at the culpable
+negligence through which the courageous efforts of the Sluys garrison
+had been set at nought, and the place sacrificed, when it might so easily
+have been relieved; and he ascribed the whole of the guilt to Maurice,
+Hohenlo, and the States, although it could hardly be denied that at least
+an equal portion belonged to Leicester and his party.  The young captain
+listened, therefore, to a scheme propounded to him by Colonel Cosine, and
+Deacon Volmar, in the name of Leicester.  He agreed, on a certain day, to
+muster his company, to leave the city by the Delft gate--as if by command
+of superior authority--to effect a junction with Captain Heraugiere,
+another of the distinguished malcontent defenders of Sluys, who was
+stationed, with his command, at Delft, and then to re-enter Leyden, take
+possession of the town-hall, arrest all the magistrates, together with
+Adrian van der Werff, ex-burgomaster, and proclaim Lord Leicester, in the
+name of Queen Elizabeth, legitimate master of the city.  A list of
+burghers, who were to be executed, was likewise agreed upon, at a final
+meeting of the conspirators in a hostelry, which bore the ominous name of
+'The Thunderbolt.'  A desire had been signified by Leicester, in the
+preliminary interviews at Utrecht, that all bloodshed, if possible,
+should be spared, but it was certainly an extravagant expectation,
+considering the, temper, the political convictions, and the known courage
+of the Leyden burghers, that the city would submit, without a struggle,
+to this invasion of all their rights.  It could hardly be doubted that
+the streets would run red with blood, as those of Antwerp had done, when
+a similar attempt, on the part of Anjou, had been foiled.
+
+Unfortunately for the scheme, a day or two before the great stroke was to
+be hazarded, Cosmo de Pescarengis had been accidentally arrested for
+debt.  A subordinate accomplice, taking alarm, had then gone before the
+magistrate and revealed the plot.  Volmar and de Maulde fled at once, but
+were soon arrested in the neighbourhood.  President de Meetkerke,
+Professor Saravia, the preacher Van der Wauw, and others most
+compromised, effected their escape.  The matter was instantly laid before
+the States of Holland by the magistracy of Leyden, and seemed of the
+gravest moment.  In the beginning of the year, the fatal treason of York
+and Stanley had implanted a deep suspicion of Leicester in the hearts of
+almost all the Netherlanders, which could not be eradicated.  The painful
+rumours concerning the secret negotiations with Spain, and the design
+falsely attributed to the English Queen, of selling the chief cities of
+the republic to Philip as the price of peace, and of reimbursement for
+expenses incurred by her, increased the general excitement to fever.  It
+was felt by the leaders of the States that as mortal a combat lay before
+them with the Earl of Leicester, as with the King of Spain, and that it
+was necessary to strike a severe blow, in order to vindicate their
+imperilled authority.
+
+A commission was appointed by the high court of Holland, acting in
+conjunction with the States of the Provinces, to try the offenders.
+Among the commissioners were Adrian van der Werff, John van der Does, who
+had been military commandant of Leyden during the siege, Barneveld, and
+other distinguished personages, over whom Count Maurice presided.  The
+accused were subjected to an impartial trial.  Without torture, they
+confessed their guilt.  It is true, however, that Cosmo was placed within
+sight of the rack.  He avowed that his object had been to place the city
+under the authority of Leicester, and to effect this purpose, if
+possible, without bloodshed.  He declared that the attempt was to be made
+with the full knowledge and approbation of the Earl, who had promised him
+the command of a regiment of twelve companies, as a recompense for his
+services, if they proved successful.  Leicester, said Cosmo, had also
+pledged himself, in case the men, thus executing his plans, should be
+discovered and endangered, to protect and rescue them, even at the
+sacrifice of all his fortune, and of the office he held.  When asked if
+he had any written statement from his Excellency to that effect, Cosmo
+replied, no, nothing but his princely word which he had voluntarily
+given.
+
+Volmar made a similar confession.  He, too, declared that he had acted
+throughout the affair by express command of the Earl of Leicester.  Being
+asked if he had any written evidence of the fact, he, likewise, replied
+in the negative.  "Then his Excellency will unquestionably deny your
+assertion," said the judges.  "Alas, then am I a dead man," replied
+Volmar, and the unfortunate deacon never spoke truer words.  Captain de
+Maulde also confessed his crime.  He did not pretend, however, to have
+had any personal communication with Leicester, but said that the affair
+had been confided to him by Colonel Cosmo, on the express authority of
+the Earl, and that he had believed himself to be acting in obedience to
+his Excellency's commands.
+
+On the 26th October, after a thorough investigation, followed by a full
+confession on the part of the culprits, the three were sentenced to
+death.  The decree was surely a most severe one.  They had been guilty of
+no actual crime, and only in case of high treason could an intention to
+commit a crime be considered, by the laws of the state, an offence
+punishable with death.  But it was exactly because it was important to
+make the crime high treason that the prisoners were condemned.  The
+offence was considered as a crime not against Leyden, but as an attempt
+to levy war upon a city which was a member of the States of Holland and
+of the United States.  If the States were sovereign, then this was a
+lesion of their sovereignty.  Moreover, the offence had been aggravated
+by the employment of United States' troops against the commonwealth of
+the United States itself.  To cut off the heads of these prisoners was a
+sharp practical answer to the claims of sovereignty by Leicester, as
+representing the people, and a terrible warning to all who might, in
+future; be disposed to revive the theories of Deventer and Burgrave.
+
+In the case of De Maulde the punishment seemed especially severe.  His
+fate excited universal sympathy, and great efforts were made to obtain
+his pardon.  He was a universal favourite; he was young; he was very
+handsome; his manners were attractive; he belonged to an ancient and
+honourable race.  His father, the Seigneur de Mansart, had done great
+services in the war of independence, had been an intimate friend of the
+great Prince of Orange, and had even advanced large sums of money to
+assist his noble efforts to liberate the country.  Two brothers of the
+young captain had fallen in the service of the republic.  He, too, had
+distinguished himself at Ostend, and his gallantry during the recent
+siege of Sluys had been in every mouth, and had excited the warm applause
+of so good a judge of soldiership as the veteran Roger Williams.  The
+scars of the wounds received in the desperate conflicts of that siege
+were fresh upon his breast.  He had not intended to commit treason, but,
+convinced by the sophistry of older soldiers than himself, as well as by
+learned deacons and theologians, he had imagined himself doing his duty,
+while obeying the Earl of Leicester.  If there were ever a time for
+mercy, this seemed one, and young Maurice of Nassau might have
+remembered, that even in the case of the assassins who had attempted the
+life of his father, that great-hearted man had lifted up his voice--which
+seemed his dying one--in favour of those who had sought his life.
+
+But they authorities were inexorable.  There was no hope of a mitigation
+of punishment, but a last effort was made, under favour of a singular
+ancient custom, to save the life of De Maulde.  A young lady of noble
+family in Leyden--Uytenbroek by name--claimed the right of rescuing the
+condemned malefactor, from the axe, by appearing upon the scaffold, and
+offering to take him for her husband.
+
+Intelligence was brought to the prisoner in his dungeon, that the young,
+lady had made the proposition, and he was told to be of good cheer: But
+he refused to be comforted. He was slightly acquainted with the gentle-
+woman, he observed; and doubted much whether her request would be
+granted.  Moreover if contemporary chronicle can be trusted he even
+expressed a preference for the scaffold, as the milder fate of the two.
+The lady, however, not being aware of those uncomplimentary sentiments,
+made her proposal to the magistrates, but was dismissed with harsh
+rebukes.  She had need be ashamed, they said; of her willingness to take
+a condemned traitor for her husband.  It was urged, in her behalf, that
+even in the cruel Alva's time, the ancient custom had been respected,
+and that victims had been saved from the executioners, on a demand in
+marriage made even by women of abandoned character.  But all was of no
+avail.  The prisoners were executed on the 26th October, the same day
+on which the sentence had been pronounced.  The heads of Volmar and Cosmo
+were exposed on one of the turrets of the city.  That of Maulde was
+interred with his body.
+
+The Earl was indignant when he heard of the event.  As there had been no
+written proof of his complicity in the conspiracy, the judges had thought
+it improper to mention his name in the sentences.  He, of course, denied
+any knowledge of the plot, and its proof rested therefore only on the
+assertion of the prisoners themselves, which, however, was
+circumstantial, voluntary, and generally believed!
+
+France, during the whole of this year of expectation, was ploughed
+throughout its whole surface by perpetual civil war.  The fatal edict of
+June, 1585, had drowned the unhappy land in blood.  Foreign armies,
+called in by the various contending factions, ravaged its-fair territory,
+butchered its peasantry, and changed its fertile plains to a wilderness.
+The unhappy creature who wore the crown of Charlemagne and of Hugh Capet,
+was but the tool in the hands of the most profligate and designing of his
+own subjects, and of foreigners.  Slowly and surely the net, spread by
+the hands of his own mother, of his own prime minister, of the Duke of
+Guise, all obeying the command and receiving the stipend of Philip,
+seemed closing over him.  He was without friends, without power to know
+his friends, if he had them.  In his hatred to the Reformation, he had
+allowed himself to be made the enemy of the only man who could be his
+friend, or the friend of France.  Allied with his mortal foe, whose
+armies were strengthened by contingents from Parma's forces, and paid for
+by Spanish gold, he was forced to a mock triumph over the foreign
+mercenaries who came to save his crown, and to submit to the defeat of
+the flower of his chivalry, by the only man who could rescue France from
+ruin, and whom France could look up to with respect.
+
+For, on the 20th October, Henry of Navarre had at last gained a victory.
+After twenty-seven years of perpetual defeat, during which they had been
+growing stronger and stronger, the Protestants had met the picked troops
+of Henry III., under the Due de Joyeuse, near the burgh of Contras.  His
+cousins Conde and Soissons each commanded a wing in the army of the
+Warnese.  "You are both of my family," said Henry, before the engagement,
+"and the Lord so help me, but I will show you that I am the eldest born."
+And during that bloody day the white plume was ever tossing where the
+battle, was fiercest.  "I choose to show myself.  They shall see the
+Bearnese," was his reply to those who implored him to have a care for his
+personal safety.  And at last, when the day was done, the victory gained,
+and more French nobles lay dead on the field, as Catharine de' Medici
+bitterly declared, than had fallen in a battle for twenty years; when two
+thousand of the King's best troops had been slain, and when the bodies of
+Joyeuse and his brother had been laid out in the very room where the
+conqueror's supper, after the battle, was served, but where he refused,
+with a shudder, to eat, he was still as eager as before--had the wretched
+Valois been possessed of a spark of manhood, or of intelligence--to
+shield him and his kingdom from the common enemy.'
+
+For it could hardly be doubtful, even to Henry III., at that moment, that
+Philip II. and his jackal, the Duke of Guise, were pursuing him to the
+death, and that, in his breathless doublings to escape, he had been
+forced to turn upon his natural protector.  And now Joyeuse was defeated
+and slain.  Had it been my brother's son," exclaimed Cardinal de Bourbon,
+weeping and wailing, "how much better it would have been."  It was not
+easy to slay the champion of French Protestantism; yet, to one less
+buoyant, the game, even after the brilliant but fruitless victory of
+Contras, might have seemed desperate.  Beggared and outcast, with
+literally scarce a shirt to his back, without money to pay a corporal's
+guard, how was he to maintain an army?
+
+But 'Mucio' was more successful than Joyeuse had been, and the German and
+Swiss mercenaries who had come across the border to assist the Bearnese,
+were adroitly handled by Philip's great stipendiary.  Henry of Valois,
+whose troops had just been defeated at Contras, was now compelled to
+participate in a more fatal series of triumphs.  For alas, the victim had
+tied himself to the apron-string of "Madam League," and was paraded by
+her, in triumph, before the eyes of his own subjects and of the world.
+The passage of the Loire by the auxiliaries was resisted; a series of
+petty victories was gained by Guise, and, at last, after it was obvious
+that the leaders of the legions had been corrupted with Spanish ducats,
+Henry allowed them to depart, rather than give the Balafre opportunity
+for still farther successes.
+
+Then came the triumph in Paris--hosannahs in the churches, huzzas in the
+public places--not for the King, but for Guise.  Paris, more madly in
+love with her champion than ever, prostrated herself at his feet.  For
+him paeans as to a deliverer.  Without him the ark would have fallen into
+the hands of the Philistines.  For the Valois, shouts of scorn from the
+populace, thunders from the pulpit, anathemas from monk and priest,
+elaborate invectives from all the pedants of the Sorbonne, distant
+mutterings of excommunication from Rome--not the toothless beldame of
+modern days, but the avenging divinity of priest-rid monarchs.  Such were
+the results of the edicts of June.  Spain and the Pope had trampled upon
+France, and the populace in her capital clapped their hands and jumped
+for joy.  "Miserable country miserable King," sighed an illustrious
+patriot, "whom his own countrymen wish rather to survive, than to die to
+defend him!  Let the name of Huguenot and of Papist be never heard of
+more.  Let us think only of the counter-league.  Is France to be saved by
+opening all its gates to Spain?  Is France to be turned out of France, to
+make a lodging for the Lorrainer and the Spaniard?"  Pregnant questions,
+which could not yet be answered, for the end was not yet.  France was to
+become still more and more a wilderness.  And well did that same brave
+and thoughtful lover, of his: country declare, that he who should
+suddenly awake from a sleep of twenty-five years, and revisit that once
+beautiful land, would deem himself transplanted to a barbarous island of
+cannibals.--[Duplessis Mornay, 'Mem.' iv. 1-34.]
+
+It had now become quite obvious that the game of Leicester was played
+out.  His career--as it has now been fully exhibited--could have but one
+termination.  He had made himself thoroughly odious to the nation whom he
+came to govern.  He had lost for ever the authority once spontaneously
+bestowed; and he had attempted in vain, both by fair means and foul, to
+recover that power.  There was nothing left him but retreat.  Of this he
+was thoroughly convinced.  He was anxious to be gone, the republic most
+desirous to be rid of him, her Majesty impatient to have her favourite
+back again.  The indulgent Queen, seeing nothing to blame in his conduct,
+while her indignation, at the attitude maintained by the Provinces was
+boundless, permitted him, accordingly, to return; and in her letter to
+the States, announcing this decision, she took a fresh opportunity of
+emptying her wrath upon their heads.
+
+She told them, that, notwithstanding her frequent messages to them,
+signifying her evil contentment with their unthankfulness for her
+exceeding great benefits, and with their gross violations of their
+contract with herself and with Leicester, whom they had, of their own
+accord, made absolute governor without her instigation; she had never
+received any good answer to move, her to commit their sins to oblivion,
+nor had she remarked, any amendment in their conduct.  On the contrary,
+she complained: that they daily increased their offences, most
+notoriously in the sight of--the world and in so many points that she
+lacked words to express them in one letter.  She however thought it worth
+while to allude to some of their transgressions.  She, declared that
+their sinister, or rather barbarous interpretation of her conduct had
+been notorious in perverting and falsifying her princely and Christian
+intentions; when she imparted to them the overtures that had been made to
+her for a treaty of peace for herself and for them with the King of
+Spain.  Yet although she had required their allowance, before she would
+give her assent, she had been grieved that the world should see what
+impudent untruths had been forged upon her, not only by their.
+sufferance; but by their special permission for her Christian good
+meaning towards them.  She denounced the statements as to her having
+concluded a treaty, not only without their knowledge; but with the
+sacrifice of their liberty and religion, as utterly false, either for
+anything done in act, or intended in thought, by her.  She complained
+that upon this most false ground had been heaped a number of like
+untruths and malicious slanders against her cousin Leicester, who had
+hazarded his life, spend his substance, left his native country, absented
+himself from her, and lost his time, only for their service.  It had been
+falsely stated among them, she said, that the Earl had come over the last
+time, knowing that peace had been secretly concluded.  It was false that
+he had intended to surprise divers of their towns, and deliver them to
+the King of Spain.  All such untruths contained matter so improbable,
+that it was most, strange that any person; having any sense, could
+imagine them correct.  Having thus slightly animadverted upon their
+wilfulness, unthankfulness, and bad government, and having, in very
+plain English, given them the lie, eight distinct and separate times
+upon a single page, she proceeded to inform them that she had recalled
+her cousin Leicester, having great cause to use his services in England,
+and not seeing how, by his tarrying there, he could either profit them or
+herself.  Nevertheless she protested herself not void of compassion for
+their estate, and for the pitiful condition of the great multitude of
+kind and godly people, subject to the miseries which, by the States
+government, were like to fall upon them, unless God should specially
+interpose; and she had therefore determined, for the time, to continue
+her subsidies, according to the covenant between them.  If, meantime, she
+should conclude a peace with Spain, she promised to them the same care
+for their country as for her own.
+
+Accordingly the Earl, after despatching an equally ill-tempered letter to
+the States, in which he alluded, at unmerciful length, to all the old
+grievances, blamed them for the loss of Sluys, for which place he
+protested that they had manifested no more interest than if it had been
+San Domingo in Hispaniola, took his departure for Flushing.  After
+remaining there, in a very moody frame of mind, for several days,
+expecting that the States would, at least, send a committee to wait upon
+him and receive his farewells, he took leave of them by letter.  "God
+send me shortly a wind to blow me from them all," he exclaimed--a prayer
+which was soon granted--and before the end of the year he was safely
+landed in England.  "These legs of mine," said he, clapping his hands
+upon them as he sat in his chamber at Margate, "shall never go again into
+Holland.  Let the States get others to serve their mercenary turn, for me
+they shall not have."  Upon giving up the government, he caused a medal
+to be struck in his own honour.  The device was a flock of sheep watched
+by an English mastiff.  Two mottoes--"non gregem aed ingratos," and
+"invitus desero"--expressed his opinion of Dutch ingratitude and his own
+fidelity.  The Hollanders, on their part, struck several medals to
+commemorate the same event, some of which were not destitute of
+invention.  Upon one of them, for instance, was represented an ape
+smothering her young ones to death in her embrace, with the device,
+"Libertas ne its chara ut simiae catuli;" while upon the reverse was a
+man avoiding smoke and falling into the fire, with the inscription,
+"Fugiens fumum, incidit in ignem."
+
+Leicester found the usual sunshine at Greenwich.  All the efforts of
+Norris, Wilkes, and Buckhurst, had been insufficient to raise even a
+doubt in Elizabeth's mind as to the wisdom and integrity by which his
+administration of the Provinces had been characterised from beginning to
+end.  Those who had appealed from his hatred to the justice of their
+sovereign, had met with disgrace and chastisement.  But for the great
+Earl; the Queen's favour was a rock of adamant.  At a private interview
+he threw himself at her feet, and with tears and sobs implored her not to
+receive him in disgrace whom she had sent forth in honour.  His
+blandishments prevailed, as they had always done.  Instead, therefore,
+of appearing before the council, kneeling, to answer such inquiries as
+ought surely to have been instituted, he took his seat boldly among his
+colleagues, replying haughtily to all murmurs by a reference to her
+Majesty's secret instructions.
+
+The unhappy English soldiers, who had gone forth under his banner in
+midsummer, had been returning, as they best might, in winter, starving,
+half-naked wretches, to beg a morsel of bread at the gates of Greenwich
+palace, and to be driven away as vagabonds, with threats of the stock.
+This was not the fault of the Earl, for he had fed them with his own
+generous hand in the Netherlands, week after week, when no money for
+their necessities could be obtained from the paymasters.  Two thousand
+pounds had been sent by Elizabeth to her soldiers when sixty-four
+thousand pounds arrearage were due, and no language could exaggerate the
+misery to which these outcasts, according to eye-witnesses of their own
+nation, were reduced.
+
+Lord Willoughby was appointed to the command, of what remained of these
+unfortunate troops, upon--the Earl's departure.  The sovereignty of the
+Netherlands remained undisputed with the States.  Leicester resigned his,
+commission by an instrument dated 17/27 December, which, however, never
+reached the Netherlands till April of the following year.  From that time
+forth the government of the republic maintained the same forms which the
+assembly had claimed for it in the long controversy with the governor-
+general, and which have been sufficiently described.
+
+Meantime the negotiations for a treaty, no longer secret, continued.
+The Queen; infatuated as ever, still believed in the sincerity of
+Farnese, while that astute personage and his master were steadily
+maturing their schemes.  A matrimonial alliance was secretly projected
+between the King of Scots and Philip's daughter, the Infants Isabella,
+with the consent of the Pope and the whole college of cardinals; and
+James, by the whole force of the Holy League, was to be placed upon the
+throne of Elizabeth.  In the case of his death, without issue, Philip
+was to succeed quietly to the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
+Nothing could be simpler or more rational, and accordingly these
+arrangements were the table-talk at Rome, and met with general
+approbation.
+
+Communications to this effect; coming straight from the Colonna palace,
+were thought sufficiently circumstantial to be transmitted to the English
+government.  Maurice of Nassau wrote with his own hand to Walsingham,
+professing a warm attachment to the cause in which Holland and England
+were united, and perfect personal devotion to the English Queen.
+
+His language, was not that of a youth, who, according to Leicester's
+repeated insinuations, was leagued with the most distinguished soldiers
+and statesmen of the Netherlands to sell their country to Spain.
+
+But Elizabeth was not to be convinced.  She thought it extremely probable
+that the Provinces would be invaded, and doubtless felt some anxiety for
+England.  It was unfortunate that the possession of Sluys had given
+Alexander such a point of vantage; and there was moreover, a fear that he
+might take possession of Ostend.  She had, therefore, already recommended
+that her own troops should be removed from that city, that its walls
+should be razed; its marine bulwarks destroyed, and that the ocean.
+should be let in to swallow the devoted city forever--the inhabitants
+having been previously allowed to take their departure.  For it was
+assumed by her Majesty that to attempt resistance would be idle, and that
+Ostend could never stand a siege.
+
+The advice was not taken; and before the end of her reign Elizabeth was
+destined to see this indefensible city--only fit, in her judgment, to be
+abandoned to the waves--become memorable; throughout all time, for the
+longest; and, in many respects, the most remarkable siege which modern
+history has recorded, the famous leaguer, in which the first European
+captains of the coming age were to take their lessons, year after year,
+in the school of the great Dutch soldier, who was now but a "solemn, sly
+youth," just turned of twenty.
+
+The only military achievement which characterized the close of the year,
+to the great satisfaction of the Provinces and the annoyance of Parma,
+was the surprise of the city of Bonn.  The indefatigable Martin Schenk--
+in fulfilment of his great contract with the States-General, by which the
+war on the Rhine had been farmed out to him on such profitable terms:--
+had led his mercenaries against this important town.  He had found one of
+its gates somewhat insecurely guarded, placed a mortar under it at night,
+and occupied a neighbouring pig-stye with a number of his men, who by
+chasing, maltreating, and slaughtering the swine, had raised an unearthly
+din, sufficient to drown the martial operations at the gate.  In brief,
+the place was easily mastered, and taken possession of by Martin, in the
+name of the deposed elector, Gebhard Truchsess--the first stroke of good
+fortune which had for a long time befallen that melancholy prelate.
+
+The administration of Leicester has been so minutely pictured, that it
+would be superfluous to indulge in many concluding reflections.  His acts
+and words have been made to speak for themselves.  His career in the
+country has been described with much detail, because the period was a
+great epoch of transition.  The republic of the Netherlands, during those
+years, acquired consistency and permanent form.  It seemed possible, on
+the Earl's first advent, that the Provinces might become part and parcel
+of the English realm.  Whether such a consummation would have been
+desirable or not, is a fruitless enquiry.  But it is certain that the
+selection of such a man as Leicester made that result impossible.
+Doubtless there were many errors committed by all parties.  The Queen
+was supposed by the Netherlands to be secretly desirous of accepting the
+sovereignty of the Provinces, provided she were made sure, by the Earl's
+experience, that they were competent to protect themselves.  But this
+suspicion was unfounded.  The result of every investigation showed the
+country so full of resources, of wealth, and of military and naval
+capabilities, that, united with England, it would have been a source of
+great revenue and power, not a burthen and an expense.  Yet, when
+convinced of such facts, by the statistics which were liberally laid
+before her by her confidential agents, she never manifested, either in
+public or private, any intention of accepting the sovereignty.  This
+being her avowed determination, it was an error on the part of the
+States, before becoming thoroughly acquainted with the man's character,
+to confer upon Leicester the almost boundless authority which they
+granted on, his first arrival.  It was a still graver mistake, on the
+part of Elizabeth, to give way to such explosions of fury, both against
+the governor and the States, when informed of the offer and acceptance of
+that authority.  The Earl, elevated by the adulation of others, and by
+his own vanity, into an almost sovereign attitude, saw himself chastised
+before the world, like an aspiring lackey, by her in whose favour he
+had felt most secure.  He found, himself, in an instant, humbled and
+ridiculous.  Between himself and the Queen it was, something of a lovers'
+quarrel, and he soon found balsam in the hand that smote him.  But though
+reinstated in authority, he was never again the object of reverence in
+the land he was attempting to rule.  As he came to know the Netherlanders
+better, he recognized the great capacity which their statesmen concealed
+under a plain and sometimes a plebeian exterior, and the splendid grandee
+hated, where at first he had only despised.  The Netherlanders, too, who
+had been used to look up almost with worship to a plain man of kindly
+manners, in felt hat and bargeman's woollen jacket, whom they called
+"Father William," did not appreciate, as they ought, the magnificence of
+the stranger who had been sent to govern them.  The Earl was handsome,
+quick-witted, brave; but he was, neither wise in council nor capable in
+the field.  He was intolerably arrogant, passionate, and revengeful.
+He hated easily, and he hated for life.  It was soon obvious that no
+cordiality of feeling or of action could exist between him and the plain,
+stubborn Hollanders.  He had the fatal characteristic of loving only the
+persons who flattered him.  With much perception of character, sense of
+humour, and appreciation of intellect, he recognized the power of the
+leading men in the nation, and sought to gain them.  So long as he hoped
+success, he was loud in their praises.  They were all wise, substantial,
+well-languaged, big fellows, such as were not to be found in England or
+anywhere else.  When they refused to be made his tools, they became
+tinkers, boors, devils, and atheists.  He covered them with curses and
+devoted them to the gibbet.  He began by warmly commending Buys and
+Barneveld, Hohenlo and Maurice, and endowing them with every virtue.
+Before he left the country he had accused them of every crime, and would
+cheerfully, if he could, have taken the life of every one of them.  And
+it was quite the same with nearly every Englishman who served with or
+under him.  Wilkes and Buckhurst, however much the objects of his
+previous esteem; so soon as they ventured to censure or even to criticise
+his proceedings, were at once devoted to perdition.  Yet, after minute
+examination of the record, public and private, neither Wilkes nor
+Buckhurst can be found guilty of treachery or animosity towards him, but
+are proved to have been governed, in all their conduct, by a strong sense
+of duty to their sovereign, the Netherlands, and Leicester himself.
+
+To Sir John Norris, it must be allowed, that he was never fickle,
+for he had always entertained for that distinguished general an honest,
+unswerving, and infinite hatred, which was not susceptible of increase
+or diminution by any act or word.  Pelham, too, whose days were numbered,
+and who was dying bankrupt and broken-hearted, at the close of the,
+Earl's administration, had always been regarded by him with tenderness
+and affection.  But Pelham had never thwarted him, had exposed his life
+for him, and was always proud of being his faithful, unquestioning,
+humble adherent.  With perhaps this single exception, Leicester found
+himself at the end of his second term in the Provinces, without a single
+friend and with few respectable partisans.  Subordinate mischievous
+intriguers like Deventer, Junius, and Otheman, were his chief advisers
+and the instruments of his schemes.
+
+With such qualifications it was hardly possible--even if the current of
+affairs had been flowing smoothly--that he should prove a successful
+governor of the new republic.  But when the numerous errors and
+adventitious circumstances are considered--for some of which he was
+responsible, while of others he was the victim--it must be esteemed
+fortunate that no great catastrophe occurred.  His immoderate elevation;
+his sudden degradation, his controversy in regard to the sovereignty, his
+abrupt departure for England, his protracted absence, his mistimed
+return, the secret instructions for his second administration, the
+obstinate parsimony and persistent ill-temper of the Queen--who, from the
+beginning to the end of the Earl's government, never addressed a kindly
+word to the Netherlanders, but was ever censuring and brow beating them
+in public state-papers and private epistles--the treason of York and
+Stanley, above all, the disastrous and concealed negotiations with Parma,
+and the desperate attempts upon Amsterdam and Leyden--all placed him in a
+most unfortunate position from first to last.  But he was not competent
+for his post under any circumstances.  He was not the statesman to deal
+in policy with Buys, Barneveld, Ortel, Sainte Aldegonde; nor the soldier
+to measure himself against Alexander Farnese.  His administration was a
+failure; and although he repeatedly hazarded his life, and poured out his
+wealth in their behalf with an almost unequalled liberality, he could
+never gain the hearts of the Netherlanders.  English valour, English
+intelligence, English truthfulness, English generosity, were endearing
+England more and more to Holland.  The statesmen of both countries were
+brought into closest union, and learned to appreciate and to respect
+each other, while they recognized that the fate of their respective
+commonwealths was indissolubly united.  But it was to the efforts of
+Walsingham, Drake, Raleigh, Wilkes, Buckburst, Norris, Willoughby,
+Williams, Vere, Russell, and the brave men who fought under their banners
+or their counsels, on every battle-field, and in every beleaguered town
+in the Netherlands, and to the universal spirit and sagacity of the
+English nation, in this grand crisis of its fate, that these fortunate
+results were owing; not to the Earl of Leicester, nor--during the term of
+his administration--to Queen Elizabeth herself.
+
+In brief, the proper sphere of this remarkable personage, and the one
+in which he passed the greater portion of his existence, was that of a
+magnificent court favourite, the spoiled darling, from youth to his
+death-bed, of the great English Queen; whether to the advantage or not of
+his country and the true interests of his sovereign, there can hardly be
+at this day any difference of opinion.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Act of Uniformity required Papists to assist
+As lieve see the Spanish as the Calvinistic inquisition
+Elizabeth (had not) the faintest idea of religious freedom
+God, whose cause it was, would be pleased to give good weather
+Heretics to the English Church were persecuted
+Look for a sharp war, or a miserable peace
+Loving only the persons who flattered him
+Not many more than two hundred Catholics were executed
+Only citadel against a tyrant and a conqueror was distrust
+Stake or gallows (for) heretics to transubstantiation
+States were justified in their almost unlimited distrust
+Undue anxiety for impartiality
+Wealthy Papists could obtain immunity by an enormous fine
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v54
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 55, 1588
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.  Part 1.
+
+     Prophecies as to the Year 1588--Distracted Condition of the Dutch
+     Republic--Willoughby reluctantly takes Command--English
+     Commissioners come to Ostend--Secretary Gamier and Robert Cecil--
+     Cecil accompanies Dale to Ghent--And finds the Desolation complete--
+     Interview of Dale and Cecil with Parma--His fervent Expressions in
+     favour of Peace--Cecil makes a Tour in Flanders--And sees much that
+     is remarkable--Interviews of Dr. Rogers with Parma--Wonderful
+     Harangues of the Envoy--Extraordinary Amenity of Alexander--With
+     which Rogers is much touched--The Queen not pleased with her Envoy--
+     Credulity of the English Commissioners--Ceremonious Meeting of all
+     the Envoys--Consummate Art in wasting Time--Long Disputes about
+     Commissions--The Spanish Commissions meant to deceive--Disputes
+     about Cessation of Arms--Spanish Duplicity and Procrastination--
+     Pedantry and Credulity of Dr. Dale--The Papal Bull and Dr. Allen's
+     Pamphlet--Dale sent to ask Explanations--Parma denies all Knowledge
+     of either--Croft believes to the last in Alexander.
+
+The year 1588 had at last arrived--that fatal year concerning which the
+German astrologers--more than a century before had prognosticated such
+dire events.  As the epoch approached it was firmly believed by many that
+the end of the world was at hand, while the least superstitious could not
+doubt that great calamities were impending over the nations.  Portents
+observed during the winter and in various parts of Europe came to
+increase the prevailing panic.  It rained blood in Sweden, monstrous
+births occurred in France, and at Weimar it was gravely reported by
+eminent chroniclers that the sun had appeared at mid-day holding a drawn
+sword in his mouth--a warlike portent whose meaning could not be
+mistaken.
+
+But, in truth, it needed no miracles nor prophecies to enforce the
+conviction that a long procession of disasters was steadily advancing.
+With France rent asunder by internal convulsions, with its imbecile king
+not even capable of commanding a petty faction among his own subjects,
+with Spain the dark cause of unnumbered evils, holding Italy in its
+grasp, firmly allied with the Pope, already having reduced and nearly
+absorbed France, and now, after long and patient preparation, about to
+hurl the concentrated vengeance and hatred of long years upon the little
+kingdom of England, and its only ally--the just organized commonwealth of
+the Netherlands--it would have been strange indeed if the dullest
+intellect had not dreamed of tragical events.  It was not encouraging
+that there should be distraction in the counsels of the two States so
+immediately threatened; that the Queen of England should be at variance
+with her wisest and most faithful statesmen as to their course of action,
+and that deadly quarrels should exist between the leading men of the
+Dutch republic and the English governor, who had assumed the
+responsibility of directing its energies against the common enemy.
+
+The blackest night that ever descended upon the Netherlands--more
+disappointing because succeeding a period of comparative prosperity and
+triumph--was the winter of 1587-8, when Leicester had terminated his
+career by his abrupt departure for England, after his second brief
+attempt at administration.  For it was exactly at this moment of anxious
+expectation, when dangers were rolling up from the south till not a ray
+of light or hope could pierce the universal darkness, that the little
+commonwealth was left without a chief.  The English Earl departed,
+shaking the dust from his feet; but he did not resign.  The supreme
+authority--so far as he could claim it--was again transferred,--with his
+person, to England.
+
+The consequences were immediate and disastrous.  All the Leicestrians
+refused to obey the States-General.  Utrecht, the stronghold of that
+party, announced its unequivocal intention to annex itself, without any
+conditions whatever, to the English crown, while, in Holland, young
+Maurice was solemnly installed stadholder, and captain-general of the
+Provinces, under the guidance of Hohenlo and Barneveld.  But his
+authority was openly defied in many important cities within his
+jurisdiction by military chieftains who had taken the oaths of allegiance
+to Leicester as governor, and who refused to renounce fidelity to the man
+who had deserted their country, but who had not resigned his authority.
+Of these mutineers the most eminent was Diedrich Sonoy, governor of North
+Holland, a soldier of much experience, sagacity, and courage, who had
+rendered great services to the cause of liberty and Protestantism, and
+had defaced it by acts of barbarity which had made his name infamous.
+Against this refractory chieftain it was necessary for Hohenlo and
+Maurice to lead an armed force, and to besiege him in his stronghold--
+the important city of Medenblik--which he resolutely held for Leicester,
+although Leicester had definitely departed, and which he closed against
+Maurice, although Maurice was the only representative of order and
+authority within the distracted commonwealth.  And thus civil war had
+broken out in the little scarcely-organized republic, as if there were
+not dangers and bloodshed enough impending over it from abroad.  And the
+civil war was the necessary consequence of the Earl's departure.
+
+The English forces--reduced as they were by sickness, famine, and abject
+poverty--were but a remnant of the brave and well-seasoned bands which
+had faced the Spaniards with success on so many battle-fields.
+
+The general who now assumed chief command over them--by direction of
+Leicester, subsequently confirmed by the Queen--was Lord Willoughby.
+A daring, splendid dragoon, an honest, chivalrous, and devoted servant of
+his Queen, a conscientious adherent of Leicester, and a firm believer in
+his capacity and character, he was, however, not a man of sufficient
+experience or subtlety to perform the various tasks imposed upon him by
+the necessities of such a situation.  Quick-witted, even brilliant in
+intellect, and the bravest of the brave on the battle-field, he was
+neither a sagacious administrator nor a successful commander.  And he
+honestly confessed his deficiencies, and disliked the post to which he
+had been elevated.  He scorned baseness, intrigue, and petty quarrels,
+and he was impatient of control.  Testy, choleric, and quarrelsome, with
+a high sense of honour, and a keen perception of insult, very modest and
+very proud, he was not likely to feed with wholesome appetite upon the
+unsavoury annoyances which were the daily bread of a chief commander in
+the Netherlands.  "I ambitiously affect not high titles, but round
+dealing," he said; "desiring rather to be a private lance with
+indifferent reputation, than a colonel-general spotted or defamed with
+wants."  He was not the politician to be matched against the unscrupulous
+and all-accomplished Farnese; and indeed no man better than Willoughby
+could illustrate the enormous disadvantage under which Englishmen
+laboured at that epoch in their dealings with Italians and Spaniards.
+The profuse indulgence in falsehood which characterized southern
+statesmanship, was more than a match for English love of truth.  English
+soldiers and negotiators went naked into a contest with enemies armed in
+a panoply of lies.  It was an unequal match, as we have already seen,
+and as we are soon more clearly to see.  How was an English soldier who
+valued his knightly word--how were English diplomatists--among whom one
+of the most famous--then a lad of twenty, secretary to Lord Essex in the
+Netherlands--had poetically avowed that "simple truth was highest skill,"
+--to deal with the thronging Spanish deceits sent northward by the great
+father of lies who sat in the Escorial?
+
+"It were an ill lesson," said Willoughby, "to teach soldiers the,
+dissimulations of such as follow princes' courts, in Italy.  For my own
+part, it is my only end to be loyal and dutiful to my sovereign, and
+plain to all others that I honour.  I see the finest reynard loses his
+best coat as well as the poorest sheep."  He was also a strong
+Leicestrian, and had imbibed much of the Earl's resentment against the
+leading politicians of the States.  Willoughby was sorely in need of
+council.  That shrewd and honest Welshman--Roger Williams--was, for the
+moment, absent.  Another of the same race and character commanded in
+Bergen-op-Zoom, but was not more gifted with administrative talent than
+the general himself.
+
+"Sir Thomas Morgan is a very sufficient, gallant gentleman," said
+Willoughby, "and in truth a very old soldier; but we both have need of
+one that can both give and keep counsel better than ourselves.  For
+action he is undoubtedly very able, if there were no other means to
+conquer but only to give blows."
+
+In brief, the new commander of the English forces in the Netherlands was
+little satisfied with the States, with the enemy, or with himself; and
+was inclined to take but a dismal view of the disjointed commonwealth,
+which required so incompetent a person as he professed himself to be to
+set it right.
+
+"'Tis a shame to show my wants," he said, "but too great a fault of duty
+that the Queen's reputation be frustrate.  What is my slender experience!
+What an honourable person do I succeed!  What an encumbered popular state
+is left!  What withered sinews, which it passes my cunning to restore!
+What an enemy in head greater than heretofore!  And wherewithal should I
+sustain this burthen?  For the wars I am fitter to obey than to command.
+For the state, I am a man prejudicated in their opinion, and not the
+better liked of them that have earnestly followed the general, and, being
+one that wants both opinion and experience with them I have to deal, and
+means to win more or to maintain that which is left, what good may be
+looked for?"
+
+The supreme authority--by the retirement of Leicester--was once more the
+subject of dispute.  As on his first departure, so also on this his
+second and final one, he had left a commission to the state-council to
+act as an executive body during his absence.  But, although he--nominally
+still retained his office, in reality no man believed in his return; and
+the States-General were ill inclined to brook a species of guardianship
+over them, with which they believed themselves mature enough to dispense.
+Moreover the state-council, composed mainly of Leicestrians, would
+expire, by limitation of its commission, early in February of that year.
+The dispute for power would necessarily terminate, therefore, in favour
+of the States-General.
+
+Meantime--while this internal revolution was taking place in the polity
+of the commonwealth-the gravest disturbances were its natural
+consequence.  There were mutinies in the garrisons of Heusden, of
+Gertruydenberg, of Medenblik, as alarming, and threatening to become as
+chronic in their character, as those extensive military rebellions which
+often rendered the Spanish troops powerless at the most critical epochs.
+The cause of these mutinies was uniformly, want of pay, the pretext, the
+oath to the Earl of Leicester, which was declared incompatible with the
+allegiance claimed by Maurice in the name of the States-General.  The
+mutiny of Gertruydenberg was destined to be protracted; that of
+Medenblik, dividing, as it did, the little territory of Holland in its
+very heart, it was most important at once to suppress.  Sonoy, however--
+who was so stanch a Leicestrian, that his Spanish contemporaries
+uniformly believed him to be an Englishman--held out for a long time,
+as will be seen, against the threats and even the armed demonstrations of
+Maurice and the States.
+
+Meantime the English sovereign, persisting in her delusion, and despite
+the solemn warnings of her own wisest counsellors; and the passionate
+remonstrances of the States-General of the Netherlands, sent her peace-
+commissioners to the Duke of Parma.
+
+The Earl of Derby, Lord Cobham, Sir James Croft, Valentine Dale, doctor
+of laws, and former ambassador at Vienna, and Dr. Rogers, envoys on the
+part of the Queen, arrived in the Netherlands in February.  The
+commissioners appointed on the part of Farnese were Count Aremberg,
+Champagny, Richardot, Jacob Maas, and Secretary Garnier.
+
+If history has ever furnished a lesson, how an unscrupulous tyrant, who
+has determined upon enlarging his own territories at the expense of his
+neighbours, upon oppressing human freedom wherever it dared to manifest
+itself, with fine phrases of religion and order for ever in his mouth,
+on deceiving his friends and enemies alike, as to his nefarious and
+almost incredible designs, by means of perpetual and colossal falsehoods;
+and if such lessons deserve to be pondered, as a source of instruction
+and guidance for every age, then certainly the secret story of the
+negotiations by which the wise Queen of England was beguiled, and her
+kingdom brought to the verge of ruin, in the spring of 1588, is worthy of
+serious attention.
+
+The English commissioners arrived at Ostend.  With them came Robert
+Cecil, youngest son of Lord-Treasurer Burghley, then twenty-five years of
+age.--He had no official capacity, but was sent by his father, that he
+might improve his diplomatic talents, and obtain some information as to
+the condition of the Netherlands.  A slight, crooked, hump-backed young
+gentleman, dwarfish in stature, but with a face not irregular in feature,
+and thoughtful and subtle in expression, with reddish hair, a thin tawny
+beard, and large, pathetic, greenish-coloured eyes, with a mind and
+manners already trained to courts and cabinets, and with a disposition
+almost ingenuous, as compared to the massive dissimulation with which it
+was to be contrasted, and with what was, in aftertimes, to constitute a
+portion of his own character, Cecil, young as he was, could not be
+considered the least important of the envoys.  The Queen, who loved
+proper men, called him "her pigmy;" and "although," he observed with
+whimsical courtliness, "I may not find fault with the sporting name she
+gives me, yet seem I only not to mislike it, because she gives it."  The
+strongest man among them was Valentine Dale, who had much shrewdness,
+experience, and legal learning, but who valued himself, above all things,
+upon his Latinity.  It was a consolation to him, while his adversaries
+were breaking Priscian's head as fast as the Duke, their master, was
+breaking his oaths, that his own syntax was as clear as his conscience.
+The feeblest commissioner was James-a-Croft, who had already exhibited
+himself with very anile characteristics, and whose subsequent
+manifestations were to seem like dotage.  Doctor Rogers, learned in the
+law, as he unquestionably was, had less skill in reading human character,
+or in deciphering the physiognomy of a Farnese, while Lord Derby, every
+inch a grandee, with Lord Cobham to assist him, was not the man to cope
+with the astute Richardot, the profound and experienced Champagny, or
+that most voluble and most rhetorical of doctors of law, Jacob Maas of
+Antwerp.
+
+The commissioners, on their arrival, were welcomed by Secretary Garnier,
+who had been sent to Ostend to greet them.  An adroit, pleasing,
+courteous gentleman, thirty-six years of age, small, handsome, and
+attired not quite as a soldier, nor exactly as one of the long robe,
+wearing a cloak furred to the knee, a cassock of black velvet, with plain
+gold buttons, and a gold chain about his neck, the secretary delivered
+handsomely the Duke of Parma's congratulations, recommended great
+expedition in the negotiations, and was then invited by the Earl of Derby
+to dine with the commissioners.  He was accompanied by a servant in plain
+livery, who--so soon as his master had made his bow to the English
+envoys--had set forth for a stroll through the town.  The modest-looking
+valet, however, was a distinguished engineer in disguise, who had
+been sent by Alexander for the especial purpose of examining the
+fortifications of Ostend--that town being a point much coveted,
+and liable to immediate attack by the Spanish commander.
+
+Meanwhile Secretary Gamier made himself very agreeable, showing wit,
+experience, and good education; and, after dinner, was accompanied to
+his lodgings by Dr. Rogers and other gentlemen, with whom--especially
+with Cecil--he held much conversation.
+
+Knowing that this young gentleman "wanted not an honourable father," the
+Secretary was very desirous that he should take this opportunity to make
+a tour through the Provinces, examine the cities, and especially "note
+the miserable ruins of the poor country and people."  He would then
+feelingly perceive how much they had to answer for, whose mad rebellion
+against their sovereign lord and master had caused so great an effusion
+of blood, and the wide desolation of such goodly towns and territories.
+
+Cecil probably entertained a suspicion that the sovereign lord and
+master, who had been employed, twenty years long, in butchering his
+subjects and in ravaging their territory to feed his executioners and
+soldiers, might almost be justified in treating human beings as beasts
+and reptiles, if they had not at last rebelled.  He simply and
+diplomatically answered, however, that he could not but concur with the
+Secretary in lamenting the misery of the Provinces and people so utterly
+despoiled and ruined, but, as it might be matter of dispute; "from what
+head this fountain of calamity was both fed and derived, he would not
+enter further therein, it being a matter much too high for his capacity."
+He expressed also the hope that the King's heart might sympathize with
+that of her Majesty, in earnest compassion for all this suffering, and in
+determination to compound their differences.
+
+On the following day there was some conversation with Gamier, on
+preliminary and formal matters, followed in the evening by a dinner at
+Lord Cobham's lodgings--a banquet which the forlorn condition of the
+country scarcely permitted to be luxurious.  "We rather pray here for
+satiety," said Cecil, "than ever think of variety."
+
+It was hoped by the Englishmen that the Secretary would take his
+departure after dinner; for the governor of Ostend, Sir John Conway, had
+an uneasy sensation, during his visit, that the unsatisfactory condition
+of the defences would attract his attention, and that a sudden attack by
+Farnese might be the result.  Sir John was not aware however, of the
+minute and scientific observations then making at the very moment when
+Mr. Garnier was entertaining the commissioners with his witty and
+instructive conversation--by the unobtrusive menial who had accompanied
+the Secretary to Ostend.  In order that those observations might be as
+thorough as possible, rather than with any view to ostensible business,
+the envoy of Parma now declared that--on account of the unfavourable
+state of the tide--he had resolved to pass another night at Ostend.
+"We could have spared his company," said Cecil, "but their Lordships
+considered it convenient that he should be used well."  So Mr.
+Comptroller Croft gave the affable Secretary a dinner-invitation
+for the following day.
+
+Here certainly was a masterly commencement on the part of the Spanish
+diplomatists.  There was not one stroke of business during the visit of
+the Secretary.  He had been sent simply to convey a formal greeting, and
+to take the names of the English commissioners--a matter which could have
+been done in an hour as well as in a week.  But it must be remembered,
+that, at that very moment, the Duke was daily expecting intelligence of
+the sailing of the Armada, and that Philip, on his part, supposed the
+Duke already in England, at the head of his army.  Under these
+circumstances, therefore--when the whole object of the negotiation, so
+far as Parma and his master were, concerned, was to amuse and to gain
+time--it was already ingenious in Garnier to have consumed several days
+in doing nothing; and to have obtained plans and descriptions of Ostend
+into the bargain.
+
+Garnier--when his departure could no longer, on any pretext, be deferred
+--took his leave, once more warmly urging Robert Cecil to make a little
+tour in the obedient Netherlands, and to satisfy himself, by personal
+observation, of their miserable condition.  As Dr. Dale purposed making a
+preliminary visit to the Duke of Parma at Ghent, it was determined
+accordingly that he should be accompanied by Cecil.
+
+That young gentleman had already been much impressed by the forlorn
+aspect of the country about Ostend--for, although the town was itself in
+possession of the English, it was in the midst of the enemy's territory.
+Since the fall of Sluys the Spaniards were masters of all Flanders, save
+this one much-coveted point.  And although the Queen had been disposed to
+abandon that city, and to suffer the ocean to overwhelm it, rather than
+that she should be at charges to defend it, yet its possession was of
+vital consequence to the English-Dutch cause, as time was ultimately to
+show.  Meanwhile the position was already a very important one, for--
+according to the predatory system of warfare of the day--it was an
+excellent starting-point for those marauding expeditions against persons
+and property, in which neither the Dutch nor English were less skilled
+than the Flemings or Spaniards.  "The land all about here," said Cecil,
+"is so devastated, that where the open country was wont to be covered
+with kine and sheep, it is now fuller of wild boars and wolves; whereof
+many come so nigh the town that the sentinels--three of whom watch every
+night upon a sand-hill outside the gates--have had them in a dark night
+upon them ere they were aware."
+
+But the garrison of Ostend was quite as dangerous to the peasants and the
+country squires of Flanders, as were the wolves or wild boars; and many a
+pacific individual of retired habits, and with a remnant of property
+worth a ransom, was doomed to see himself whisked from his seclusion by
+Conway's troopers, and made a compulsory guest at the city.  Prisoners
+were brought in from a distance of sixty miles; and there was one old
+gentlemen, "well-languaged," who "confessed merrily to Cecil, that when
+the soldiers fetched him out of his own mansion-house, sitting safe in
+his study, he was as little in fear of the garrison of Ostend as he was
+of the Turk or the devil."
+
+     [And Doctor Rogers held very similar language: "The most dolorous
+     and heavy sights in this voyage to Ghent, by me weighed," he said;
+     "seeing the countries which, heretofore; by traffic of merchants, as
+     much as any other I have seen flourish, now partly drowned, and,
+     except certain great cities, wholly burned, ruined, and desolate,
+     possessed I say, with wolves, wild boars, and foxes--a great,
+     testimony of the wrath of God," &c. &c.  Dr. Rogers to the Queen,-
+     April, 1588.  (S. P.  Office MS.)]
+
+Three days after the departure of Garnier, Dr. Dale and his attendants
+started upon their expedition from Ostend to Ghent--an hour's journey or
+so in these modern times.--The English envoys, in the sixteenth century,
+found it a more formidable undertaking.  They were many hours traversing
+the four miles to Oudenburg, their first halting-place; for the waters
+were out, there having been a great breach of the sea-dyke of Ostend, a
+disaster threatening destruction to town and country.  At Oudenburg, a
+"small and wretched hole," as Garnier had described it to be, there was,
+however, a garrison of three thousand Spanish soldiers, under the Marquis
+de Renti.  From these a convoy of fifty troopers was appointed to protect
+the English travellers to Bruges.  Here they arrived at three o'clock,
+were met outside the gates by the famous General La Motte, and by him
+escorted to their lodgings in the "English house," and afterwards
+handsomely entertained at supper in his own quarters.
+
+The General's wife; Madame de la Motte, was, according to Cecil, "a fair
+gentlewoman of discreet and modest behaviour, and yet not unwilling
+sometimes to hear herself speak;" so that in her society, and in that of
+her sister--"a nun of the order of the Mounts, but who, like the rest of
+the sisterhood, wore an ordinary dress in the evening, and might leave
+the convent if asked in marriage"--the supper passed off very agreeably.
+
+In the evening Cecil found that his father had formerly occupied the same
+bedroom of the English hotel in which he was then lodged; for he found
+that Lord Burghley had scrawled his name in the chimney-corner--a fact
+which was highly gratifying to the son.
+
+The next morning, at seven o'clock, the travellers set forth for Ghent.
+The journey was a miserable one.  It was as cold and gloomy weather as
+even a Flemish month of March could furnish.  A drizzling rain was
+falling all day long, the lanes were foul and miry, the frequent thickets
+which overhung their path were swarming with the freebooters of Zeeland,
+who were "ever at hand," says Cecil, "to have picked our purses, but that
+they descried our convoy, and so saved themselves in the woods."  Sitting
+on horseback ten hours without alighting, under such circumstances as
+these, was not luxurious for a fragile little gentleman like Queen
+Elizabeth's "pigmy;" especially as Dr. Dale and himself had only half a
+red herring between them for luncheon, and supped afterwards upon an
+orange.  The envoy protested that when they could get a couple of eggs a
+piece, while travelling in Flanders, "they thought they fared like
+princes."
+
+Nevertheless Cecil and himself fought it out manfully, and when they
+reached Ghent, at five in the evening, they were met by their
+acquaintance Garnier, and escorted to their lodgings.  Here they were
+waited upon by President Richardot, "a tall gentleman," on behalf of the
+Duke of Parma, and then left to their much-needed repose.
+
+Nothing could be more forlorn than the country of the obedient
+Netherlands, through which their day's journey had led them.  Desolation
+had been the reward of obedience.  "The misery of the inhabitants," said
+Cecil, "is incredible, both without the town, where all things are
+wasted, houses spoiled, and grounds unlaboured, and also, even in these
+great cities, where they are for the most part poor beggars even in the
+fairest houses."
+
+And all this human wretchedness was the elaborate work of one man--one
+dull, heartless bigot, living, far away, a life of laborious ease and
+solemn sensuality; and, in reality, almost as much removed from these
+fellow-creatures of his, whom he called his subjects, as if he had been
+the inhabitant of another planet.  Has history many more instructive
+warnings against the horrors of arbitrary government--against the folly
+of mankind in ever tolerating the rule of a single irresponsible
+individual, than the lesson furnished by the life-work of that crowned
+criminal, Philip the Second?
+
+The longing for peace on the part of these unfortunate obedient Flemings
+was intense.  Incessant cries for peace reached the ears of the envoys on
+every side.  Alas, it would have been better for these peace-wishers, had
+they stood side by side with their brethren, the noble Hollanders and
+Zeelanders, when they had been wresting, if not peace, yet independence
+and liberty, from Philip, with their own right hands.  Now the obedient
+Flemings were but fuel for the vast flame which the monarch was kindling
+for the destruction of Christendom--if all Christendom were not willing
+to accept his absolute dominion.
+
+The burgomasters of Ghent--of Ghent, once the powerful, the industrious,
+the opulent, the free, of all cities in the world now the most abject and
+forlorn--came in the morning to wait upon Elizabeth's envoy, and to
+present him, according to ancient custom, with some flasks of wine.  They
+came with tears streaming down their cheeks, earnestly expressing the
+desire of their hearts for peace, and their joy that at least it had now
+"begun to be thought on."
+
+"It is quite true," replied Dr. Dale, "that her excellent Majesty the
+Queen--filled with compassion for your condition, and having been
+informed that the Duke of Parma is desirous of peace--has vouchsafed to
+make this overture.  If it take not the desired effect, let not the blame
+rest upon her, but upon her adversaries."  To these words the magistrates
+all said Amen, and invoked blessings on her Majesty.  And most certainly,
+Elizabeth was sincerely desirous of peace; even at greater sacrifices
+than the Duke could well have imagined; but there was something almost
+diabolic in the cold dissimulation by which her honest compassion was
+mocked, and the tears of a whole people in its agony made the
+laughingstock of a despot and his tools.
+
+On Saturday morning, Richardot and Garnier waited upon the envoy to
+escort him to the presence of the Duke.  Cecil, who accompanied him, was
+not much impressed with the grandeur of Alexander's lodgings; and made
+unfavourable and rather unreasonable comparisons between them and the
+splendour of Elizabeth's court.  They passed through an ante-chamber into
+a dining-room, thence into an inner chamber, and next into the Duke's
+room.  In the ante-chamber stood Sir William Stanley, the Deventer
+traitor, conversing with one Mockett, an Englishman, long resident in
+Flanders.  Stanley was meanly dressed, in the Spanish fashion, and as
+young Cecil, passing through the chamber, looked him in the face, he
+abruptly turned from him, and pulled his hat over his eyes.  "'Twas well
+he did so," said that young gentleman, "for his taking it off would
+hardly have cost me mine."  Cecil was informed that Stanley was to have
+a commandery of Malta, and was in good favour with the Duke, who was,
+however, quite weary of his mutinous and disorderly Irish regiment.
+
+In the bed-chamber, Farnese--accompanied by the Marquis del Guasto, the
+Marquis of Renty, the Prince of Aremberg, President Richardot, and
+Secretary Cosimo--received the envoy and his companion.  "Small and mean
+was the furniture of the chamber," said Cecil; "and although they
+attribute this to his love of privacy, yet it is a sign that peace is the
+mother of all honour and state, as may best be perceived by the court of
+England, which her Majesty's royal presence doth so adorn, as that it
+exceedeth this as far as the sun surpasseth in light the other stars of
+the firmament."
+
+Here was a compliment to the Queen and her upholsterers drawn in by the
+ears.  Certainly, if the first and best fruit of the much-longed-for
+peace were only to improve the furniture of royal and ducal apartments,
+it might be as well perhaps for the war to go on, while the Queen
+continued to outshine all the stars in the firmament.  But the budding
+courtier and statesman knew that a personal compliment to Elizabeth could
+never be amiss or ill-timed.
+
+The envoy delivered the greetings of her Majesty to the Duke, and was
+heard with great attention.  Alexander attempted a reply in French, which
+was very imperfect, and, apologizing, exchanged that tongue for Italian.
+He alluded with great fervour to the "honourable opinion concerning his
+sincerity and word," expressed to him by her Majesty, through the mouth
+of her envoy.  "And indeed," said he, "I have always had especial care of
+keeping my word.  My body and service are at the commandment of the King,
+my lord and master, but my honour is my own, and her Majesty may be
+assured that I shall always have especial regard of my word to so great
+and famous a Queen as her Majesty."
+
+The visit was one of preliminaries and of ceremony.  Nevertheless Farnese
+found opportunity to impress the envoy and his companions with his
+sincerity of heart.  He conversed much with Cecil, making particular and
+personal inquiries, and with appearance of deep interest, in regard to
+Queen Elizabeth.
+
+"There is not a prince in the world--" he said, "reserving all question
+between her Majesty and my royal master--to whom I desire more to do
+service.  So much have I heard of her perfections, that I wish earnestly
+that things might so fall out, as that it might be my fortune to look
+upon her face before my return to my own country.  Yet I desire to behold
+her, not as a servant to him who is not able still to maintain war, or as
+one that feared any harm that might befall him; for in such matters my
+account was made long ago, to endure all which God may send.  But, in
+truth, I am weary to behold the miserable estate of this people, fallen
+upon them through their own folly, and methinks that he who should do the
+best offices of peace would perform a 'pium et sanctissimum opus.'  Right
+glad am I that the Queen is not behind me in zeal for peace."  He then
+complimented Cecil in regard to his father, whom he understood to be the
+principal mover in these negotiations.
+
+The young man expressed his thanks, and especially for the good affection
+which the Duke had manifested to the Queen and in the blessed cause of
+peace.  He was well aware that her Majesty esteemed him a prince of great
+honour and virtue, and that for this good work, thus auspiciously begun,
+no man could possibly doubt that her Majesty, like himself, was most
+zealously affected to bring all things to a perfect peace.
+
+The matters discussed in this first interview were only in regard to the
+place to be appointed for the coming conferences, and the exchange of
+powers.  The Queen's commissioners had expected to treat at Ostend.
+Alexander, on the contrary, was unable to listen to such a suggestion,
+as it would be utter dereliction of his master's dignity to send envoys
+to a city of his own, now in hostile occupation by her Majesty's forces.
+The place of conference, therefore, would be matter of future
+consideration.  In respect to the exchange of powers, Alexander expressed
+the hope that no man would doubt as to the production on his
+commissioners' part of ample authority both from himself and from the
+King.
+
+Yet it will be remembered, that, at this moment, the Duke had not only no
+powers from the King, but that Philip had most expressly refused to send
+a commission, and that he fully expected the negotiation to be superseded
+by the invasion, before the production of the powers should become
+indispensable.
+
+And when Farnese was speaking thus fervently in favour of peace, and
+parading his word and his honour, the letters lay in his cabinet in that
+very room, in which Philip expressed his conviction that his general was
+already in London, that the whole realm of England was already at the
+mercy of a Spanish soldiery, and that the Queen, upon whose perfection
+Alexander had so long yearned to gaze, was a discrowned captive, entirely
+in her great enemy's power.
+
+Thus ended the preliminary interview.  On the following Monday, 11th
+March, Dr. Dale and his attendants made the best of their way back to
+Ostend, while young Cecil, with a safe conduct from Champagny, set forth
+on a little tour in Flanders.
+
+The journey from Ghent to Antwerp was easy, and he was agreeably
+surprised by the apparent prosperity of the country.  At intervals of
+every few miles; he was refreshed with the spectacle of a gibbet well
+garnished with dangling freebooters; and rejoiced, therefore, in
+comparative security.  For it seemed that the energetic bailiff of
+Waasland had levied a contribution upon the proprietors of the country,
+to be expended mainly in hanging brigands; and so well had the funds been
+applied, that no predatory bands could make their appearance but they
+were instantly pursued by soldiers, and hanged forthwith, without judge
+or trial.  Cecil counted twelve such places of execution on his road
+between Ghent and Antwerp.
+
+On his journey he fell in with an Italian merchant,--Lanfranchi by name,
+of a great commercial house in Antwerp, in the days when Antwerp had
+commerce, and by him, on his arrival the same evening in that town, he
+was made an honoured guest, both for his father's sake and his Queen's.
+"'Tis the pleasantest city that ever I saw," said Cecil, "for situation
+and building; but utterly left and abandoned now by those rich merchants
+that were wont to frequent the place."
+
+His host was much interested in the peace-negotiations, and indeed,
+through his relations with Champagny and Andreas de Loo, had been one of
+the instruments by which it had been commenced.  He inveighed bitterly
+against the Spanish captains and soldiers, to whose rapacity and ferocity
+he mainly ascribed the continuance of the war;--and he was especially
+incensed with Stanley and other--English renegades, who were thought
+fiercer haters of England than were the Spaniards themselves: Even in the
+desolate and abject condition of Antwerp and its neighbourhood, at that
+moment, the quick eye of Cecil detected the latent signs of a possible
+splendour.  Should peace be restored, the territory once more be tilled,
+and the foreign merchants attracted thither again, he believed that the
+governor of the obedient Netherlands might live there in more
+magnificence than the King of Spain himself, exhausted as were his
+revenues by the enormous expense of this protracted war: Eight hundred
+thousand dollars monthly; so Lanfranchi informed Cecil, were the costs
+of the forces on the footing then established.  This, however, was
+probably an exaggeration, for the royal account books showed a less
+formidable sum, although a sufficiently large one to appal a less
+obstinate bigot than Philip.  But what to him were the, ruin of the
+Netherlands; the impoverishment of Spain, and the downfall of her ancient
+grandeur compared to the glory of establishing the Inquisition in England
+and Holland?
+
+While at dinner in Lanfranchi's house; Cecil was witness to another
+characteristic of the times, and one which afforded proof of even more
+formidable freebooters abroad than those for whom the bailiff of Waasland
+had erected his gibbets.  A canal-boat had left Antwerp for Brussels that
+morning, and in the vicinity of the latter city had been set upon by a
+detachment from the English garrison of Bergen-op-Zoom, and captured,
+with twelve prisoners and a freight of 60,000 florins in money.  "This
+struck the company at the dinner-table all in a dump;" said Cecil.  And
+well it might; for the property mainly belonged to themselves, and they
+forthwith did their best to have the marauders waylaid on their return.
+But Cecil, notwithstanding his gratitude for the hospitality of
+Lanfranchi, sent word next day to the garrison of Bergen of the designs
+against them, and on his arrival at the place had the satisfaction of
+being informed by Lord Willoughby that the party had got safe home with
+their plunder.
+
+"And, well worthy they are of it," said young Robert, "considering how
+far they go for it."
+
+The traveller, on, leaving Antwerp, proceeded down the river to Bergen-
+op-Zoom, where he was hospitably entertained by that doughty old soldier
+Sir William Reade, and met Lord Willoughby, whom he accompanied to
+Brielle on a visit to the deposed elector Truchsess, then living in that
+neighbourhood.  Cecil--who was not passion's slave--had small sympathy
+with the man who could lose a sovereignty for the sake of Agnes Mansfeld.
+"'Tis a very goodly gentleman," said he, "well fashioned, and of good
+speech, for which I must rather praise him than for loving a wife better
+than so great a fortune as he lost by her occasion."  At Brielle he
+was handsomely entertained by the magistrates, who had agreeable
+recollections of his brother Thomas, late governor of that city.
+Thence he proceeded by way of Delft--which, like all English travellers,
+he described as "the finest built town that ever he saw"--to the Hague,
+and thence to Fushing, and so back by sea to Ostend.--He had made the
+most of his three weeks' tour, had seen many important towns both in the
+republic and in the obedient Netherlands, and had conversed with many
+"tall gentlemen," as he expressed himself, among the English commanders,
+having been especially impressed by the heroes of Sluys, Baskerville and
+that "proper gentleman Francis Vere."
+
+He was also presented by Lord Willoughby to Maurice of Nassau, and was
+perhaps not very benignantly received by the young prince.  At that
+particular moment, when Leicester's deferred resignation, the rebellion
+of Sonoy in North Holland, founded on a fictitious allegiance to the late
+governor-general, the perverse determination of the Queen to treat for
+peace against the advice of all the leading statesmen of the Netherlands,
+and the sharp rebukes perpetually administered by her, in consequence,
+to the young stadholder and all his supporters, had not tended to produce
+the most tender feelings upon their part towards the English government,
+it was not surprising that the handsome soldier should look askance at
+the crooked little courtier, whom even the great Queen smiled at while
+she petted him.  Cecil was very angry with Maurice.
+
+"In my life I never saw worse behaviour," he said, "except it were in one
+lately come from school.  There is neither outward appearance in him of
+any noble mind nor inward virtue."
+
+Although Cecil had consumed nearly the whole month of March in his tour,
+he had been more profitably employed than were the royal commissioners
+during the same period at Ostend.
+
+Never did statesmen know better how not to do that which they were
+ostensibly occupied in doing than Alexander Farnese and his agents,
+Champagny, Richardot, Jacob Maas, and Gamier.  The first pretext by which
+much time was cleverly consumed was the dispute as to the place of
+meeting.  Doctor Dale had already expressed his desire for Ostend as the
+place of colloquy.  "'Tis a very slow old gentleman, this Doctor Dale,"
+said Alexander; "he was here in the time of Madam my mother, and has also
+been ambassador at Vienna.  I have received him and his attendants with
+great courtesy, and held out great hopes of peace.  We had conversations
+about the place of meeting.  He wishes Ostend: I object.  The first
+conference will probably be at some point between that place and
+Newport."
+
+The next opportunity for discussion and delay was afforded by the
+question of powers.  And it must be ever borne in mind that Alexander was
+daily expecting the arrival of the invading fleets and armies of Spain,
+and was holding himself in readiness to place himself at their head for
+the conquest of England.  This was, of course, so strenuously denied by
+himself and those under his influence, that Queen Elizabeth implicitly.
+believed him, Burghley was lost in doubt, and even the astute Walsingham
+began to distrust his own senses.  So much strength does a falsehood
+acquire in determined and skilful hands.
+
+"As to the commissions, it will be absolutely necessary for, your Majesty
+to send them," wrote Alexander at the moment when he was receiving the
+English envoy at Ghent, "for unless the Armada arrive soon--it will be
+indispensable for me, to have them, in order to keep the negotiation
+alive.  Of course they will never broach the principal matters without
+exhibition of powers.  Richardot is aware of the secret which your
+Majesty confided to me, namely, that the negotiations are only intended
+to deceive the Queen and to gain time for the fleet; but the powers must
+be sent in order that we may be able to produce them; although your
+secret intentions will be obeyed."
+
+The Duke commented, however, on the extreme difficulty of carrying out
+the plan, as originally proposed.  "The conquest of England would have
+been difficult," he said, "even although the country had been taken by
+surprise.  Now they are strong and armed; we are comparatively weak.  The
+danger and the doubt are great; and the English deputies, I think, are
+really desirous of peace.  Nevertheless I am at your Majesty's
+disposition--life and all--and probably, before the answer arrives to
+this letter, the fleet will have arrived, and I shall have undertaken the
+passage to England."
+
+After three weeks had thus adroitly been frittered away, the English
+commissioners became somewhat impatient, and despatched Doctor Rogers to
+the Duke at Ghent.  This was extremely obliging upon their part, for if
+Valentine Dale were a "slow old gentleman," he was keen, caustic, and
+rapid, as compared to John Rogers.  A formalist and a pedant, a man of
+red tape and routine, full of precedents and declamatory commonplaces
+which he mistook for eloquence, honest as daylight and tedious as a king,
+he was just the time-consumer for Alexander's purpose.  The wily Italian
+listened with profound attention to the wise saws in which the excellent
+diplomatist revelled, and his fine eyes often filled with tears at the
+Doctor's rhetoric.
+
+Three interviews--each three mortal hours long--did the two indulge in at
+Ghent, and never, was high-commissioner better satisfied with himself
+than was John Rogers upon those occasions.  He carried every point; he
+convinced, he softened, he captivated the great Duke; he turned the great
+Duke round his finger.  The great Duke smiled, or wept, or fell into his
+arms, by turns.  Alexander's military exploits had rung through the
+world, his genius for diplomacy and statesmanship had never been
+disputed; but his talents as a light comedian were, in these interviews,
+for the first time fully revealed.
+
+On the 26th March the learned Doctor made his first bow and performed his
+first flourish of compliments at Ghent.  "I assure your Majesty," said
+he, "his Highness followed my compliments of entertainment with so much
+honour, as that--his Highness or I, speaking of the Queen of England--he
+never did less than uncover his head; not covering the same, unless I was
+covered also."  And after these salutations had at last been got through
+with, thus spake the Doctor of Laws to the Duke of Parma:--
+
+"Almighty God, the light of lights, be pleased to enlighten the
+understanding of your Alteza, and to direct the same to his glory, to the
+uniting of both their Majesties and the finishing of these most bloody
+wars, whereby these countries, being in the highest degree of misery
+desolate, lie as it were prostrate before the wrathful presence of the
+most mighty God, most lamentably beseeching his Divine Majesty to
+withdraw his scourge of war from them, and to move the hearts of princes
+to restore them unto peace, whereby they might attain unto their ancient
+flower and dignity.  Into the hands of your Alteza are now the lives of
+many thousands, the destruction of cities, towns, and countries, which to
+put to the fortune of war how perilous it were, I pray consider.  Think
+ye, ye see the mothers left alive tendering their offspring in your
+presence, 'nam matribus detestata bells,'"  continued the orator.  "Think
+also of others of all sexes, ages, and conditions, on their knees before
+your Alteza, most humbly praying and crying most dolorously to spare
+their lives, and save their property from the ensanguined scourge of the
+insane soldiers," and so on, and so on.
+
+Now Philip II.  was slow in resolving, slower in action. The ponderous
+three-deckers of Biscay were notoriously the dullest sailers ever known,
+nor were the fettered slaves who rowed the great galleys of Portugal or
+of Andalusia very brisk in their movements; and yet the King might have
+found time to marshal his ideas and his squadrons, and the Armada had
+leisure to circumnavigate the globe and invade England afterwards, if a
+succession of John Rogerses could have entertained his Highness with
+compliments while the preparations were making.
+
+But Alexander--at the very outset of the Doctor's eloquence--found it
+difficult to suppress his feelings.  "I can assure your Majesty," said
+Rogers, "that his eyes--he has a very large eye--were moistened.
+Sometimes they were thrown upward to heaven, sometimes they were fixed
+full upon me, sometimes they were cast downward, well declaring how his
+heart was affected."
+
+Honest John even thought it necessary to mitigate the effect of his
+rhetoric, and to assure his Highness that it was, after all, only he
+Doctor Rogers, and not the minister plenipotentiary of the Queen's most
+serene Majesty, who was exciting all this emotion.
+
+"At this part of my speech," said he, "I prayed his Highness not to be
+troubled, for that the same only proceeded from Doctor Rogers, who, it
+might please him to know, was so much moved with the pitiful case of
+these countries, as also that which of war was sure to ensue, that I
+wished, if my body were full of rivers of blood, the same to be poured
+forth to satisfy any that were blood-thirsty, so there might an assured
+peace follow."
+
+His Highness, at any rate, manifesting no wish to drink of such
+sanguinary streams--even had the Doctor's body contained them--Rogers
+became calmer.  He then descended from rhetoric to jurisprudence and
+casuistry, and argued at intolerable length the propriety of commencing
+the conferences at Ostend, and of exhibiting mutually the commissions.
+
+It is quite unnecessary to follow him as closely as did Farnese.  When he
+had finished the first part of his oration, however, and was "addressing
+himself to the second point," Alexander at last interrupted the torrent
+of his eloquence.
+
+"He said that my divisions and subdivisions," wrote the Doctor, "were
+perfectly in his remembrance, and that he would first answer the first
+point, and afterwards give audience to the second, and answer the same
+accordingly."
+
+Accordingly Alexander put on his hat, and begged the envoy also to be
+covered.  Then, "with great gravity, as one inwardly much moved," the
+Duke took up his part in the dialogue.
+
+"Signor Ruggieri," said he, "you have propounded unto me speeches of two
+sorts: the one proceeds from Doctor Ruggieri, the other from the lord
+ambassador of the most serene Queen of England.  Touching the first, I do
+give you my hearty thanks for your godly speeches, assuring you that
+though, by reason I have always followed the wars, I cannot be ignorant
+of the calamities by you alleged, yet you have so truly represented the
+same before mine eyes as to effectuate in me at this instant, not only
+the confirmation of mine own disposition to have peace, but also an
+assurance that this treaty shall take good and speedy end, seeing that it
+hath pleased God to raise up such a good instrument as you are."
+
+"Many are the causes," continued the Duke, "which, besides my
+disposition, move me to peace.  My father and mother are dead; my son
+is a young prince; my house has truly need of my presence.  I am not
+ignorant how ticklish a thing is the fortune of war, which--how
+victorious soever I have been--may in one moment not only deface the
+same, but also deprive me of my life.  The King, my master, is now,
+stricken in years, his children are young, his dominions in trouble.
+His desire is to live, and to leave his posterity in quietness.  The
+glory of God, the honor of both their Majesties, and the good of these
+countries, with the stay of the effusion of Christian blood, and divers
+other like reasons, force him to peace."
+
+Thus spoke Alexander, like an honest Christian gentleman, avowing the
+most equitable and pacific dispositions on the part of his master and
+himself.  Yet at that moment he knew that the Armada was about to sail,
+that his own nights and days were passed in active preparations for war,
+and that no earthly power could move Philip by one hair's-breadth from
+his purpose to conquer England that summer.
+
+It would be superfluous to follow the Duke or the Doctor through their
+long dialogue on the place of conference, and the commissions.  Alexander
+considered it "infamy" on his name if he should send envoys to a place of
+his master's held by the enemy.  He was also of opinion that it was
+unheard of to exhibit commissions previous to a preliminary colloquy.
+
+Both propositions were strenuously contested by Rogers.  In regard to the
+second point in particular, he showed triumphantly, by citations from the
+"Polonians, Prussians, and Lithuanians," that commissions ought to be
+previously exhibited.  But it was not probable that even the Doctor's
+learning and logic would persuade Alexander to produce his commission;
+because, unfortunately, he had no commission to produce.  A comfortable
+argument on the subject, however, would, none the less, consume time.
+
+Three hours of this work brought them, exhausted and hungry; to the hour
+of noon and of dinner Alexander, with profuse and smiling thanks for the
+envoy's plain dealing and eloquence, assured him that there would have
+been peace long ago "had Doctor Rogers always been the instrument," and
+regretted that he was himself not learned enough to deal creditably with
+him.  He would, however, send Richardot to bear him company at table,
+and chop logic with him afterwards.
+
+Next day, at the same, hour, the Duke and Doctor had another encounter.
+So soon as the envoy made his appearance, he found himself "embraced most
+cheerfully and familiarly by his Alteza," who, then entering at once into
+business, asked as to the Doctor's second point.
+
+The Doctor answered with great alacrity.
+
+"Certain expressions have been reported to her Majesty," said he, "as
+coming both from your Highness and from Richardot, hinting at a possible
+attempt by the King of Spain's forces against the Queen.  Her Majesty,
+gathering that you are going about belike to terrify her, commands me to
+inform you very clearly and very expressly that she does not deal so
+weakly in her government, nor so improvidently, but that she is provided
+for anything that might be attempted against her by the King, and as able
+to offend him as he her Majesty."
+
+Alexander--with a sad countenance, as much offended, his eyes declaring
+miscontentment--asked who had made such a report.
+
+"Upon the honour of a gentleman," said he, "whoever has said this has
+much abused me, and evil acquitted himself.  They who know me best are
+aware that it is not my manner to let any word pass my lips that might
+offend any prince."  Then, speaking most solemnly, he added, "I declare
+really and truly (which two words he said in Spanish), that I know not of
+any intention of the King of Spain against her Majesty or her realm."
+
+At that moment the earth did not open--year of portents though it was--
+and the Doctor, "singularly rejoicing" at this authentic information from
+the highest source, proceeded cheerfully with the conversation.
+
+"I hold myself," he exclaimed, "the man most satisfied in the world,
+because I may now write to her Majesty that I have heard your Highness
+upon your honour use these words."
+
+"Upon my honour, it is true," repeated the Duke; "for so honourably do I
+think of her Majesty, as that, after the King, my master, I would honour
+and serve her before any prince in Christendom."  He added many earnest
+asseverations of similar import.
+
+"I do not deny, however," continued Alexander, "that I have heard of
+certain ships having been armed by the King against that Draak"--he
+pronounced the "a" in Drake's name very broadly, or Doric" who has
+committed so many outrages; but I repeat that I have never heard of any
+design against her Majesty or against England."
+
+The Duke then manifested much anxiety to know by whom he had been so
+misrepresented.  "There has been no one with me but Dr. Dale," said, he,
+"and I marvel that he should thus wantonly have injured me."
+
+"Dr. Dale," replied Ropers, "is a man of honour, of good years, learned,
+and well experienced; but perhaps he unfortunately misapprehended some of
+your Alteza's words, and thought himself bound by his allegiance strictly
+to report them to her Majesty."
+
+"I grieve that I should be misrepresented and injured," answered Farnese,
+"in a manner so important to my honour.  Nevertheless, knowing the
+virtues with which her Majesty is endued, I assure myself that the
+protestations I am now making will entirely satisfy her."
+
+He then expressed the fervent hope that the holy work of negotiation now
+commencing would result in a renewal of the ancient friendship between
+the Houses of Burgundy and of England, asserting that "there had never
+been so favourable a time as the present."
+
+Under former governments of the Netherlands there had been many mistakes
+and misunderstandings.
+
+"The Duke of Alva," said he, "has learned by this time, before the
+judgment-seat of God, how he discharged his functions, succeeding as he
+did my mother, the Duchess of Parma who left the Provinces in so
+flourishing a condition.  Of this, however, I will say no more, because
+of a feud between the Houses of Farnese and of Alva.  As for Requesens,
+he was a good fellow, but didn't understand his business.  Don John of
+Austria again, whose soul I doubt not is in heaven, was young and poor,
+and disappointed in all his designs; but God has never offered so great a
+hope of assured peace as might now be accomplished by her Majesty."
+
+Finding the Duke in so fervent and favourable a state of mind, the envoy
+renewed his demand that at least the first meeting of the commissioners
+might be held at Ostend.
+
+"Her Majesty finds herself so touched in honour upon this point, that if
+it be not conceded--as I doubt not it will be, seeing the singular
+forwardness of your Highness"--said the artful Doctor with a smile,
+"we are no less than commanded to return to her Majesty's presence."
+
+"I sent Richardot to you yesterday," said Alexander; "did he not content
+you?"
+
+"Your Highness, no," replied Ropers.  "Moreover her Majesty sent me to
+your Alteza, and not to Richardot.  And the matter is of such importance
+that I pray you to add to all your graces and favours heaped upon me,
+this one of sending your commissioners to Ostend."
+
+His Highness could hold out no longer; but suddenly catching the Doctor
+in his arms, and hugging him "in most honourable and amiable manner," he
+cried--
+
+"Be contented, be cheerful; my lord ambassador.  You shall be satisfied
+upon this point also."
+
+"And never did envoy depart;" cried the lord ambassador, when he could
+get his breath, "more bound to you; and more resolute to speak honour of
+your Highness than I do."
+
+"To-morrow we will ride together towards Bruges;" said the Duke, in
+conclusion.  "Till then farewell."
+
+Upon, this he again heartily embraced the envoy, and the friends parted
+for the day.
+
+Next morning; 28th March, the Duke, who was on his way to Bruges and
+Sluys to look after his gun-boats, and, other naval, and military
+preparations, set forth on horseback, accompanied by the Marquis del
+Vasto, and, for part of the way, by Rogers.
+
+They conversed on the general topics of the approaching negotiations; the
+Duke, expressing the opinion that the treaty of peace would be made short
+work with; for it only needed to renew the old ones between the Houses of
+England and Burgundy.  As for the Hollanders and Zeelanders, and their
+accomplices, he thought there would be no cause of stay on their account;
+and in regard to the cautionary towns he felt sure that her Majesty had
+never had any intention of appropriating them to herself, and would
+willingly surrender them to the King.
+
+Rogers thought it a good opportunity to put in a word for the Dutchmen;
+who certainly, would not have thanked him for his assistance at that
+moment.
+
+"Not, to give offence to your Highness," he said, "if the Hollanders and
+Zeelanders, with their confederates, like to come into this treaty,
+surely your Highness would not object?"
+
+Alexander, who had been riding along quietly during this conversation;
+with his right, hand, on, his hip, now threw out his arm energetically:
+
+"Let them come into it; let them treat, let them conclude," he exclaimed,
+"in the name of Almighty God!  I have always been well disposed to peace,
+and am now more so than ever.  I could even, with the loss of my life, be
+content to have peace made at this time."
+
+Nothing more, worthy of commemoration, occurred during this concluding
+interview; and the envoy took his leave at Bruges, and returned to
+Ostend.
+
+I have furnished the reader with a minute account of these conversations,
+drawn entirely, from the original records; not so much because the
+interviews were in themselves of vital importance; but because they
+afford a living and breathing example--better than a thousand homilies--
+of the easy victory which diplomatic or royal mendacity may always obtain
+over innocence and credulity.
+
+Certainly never was envoy more thoroughly beguiled than the excellent
+John upon this occasion.  Wiser than a serpent, as he imagined himself
+to be, more harmless than a dove; as Alexander found him, he could not,
+sufficiently congratulate himself upon the triumphs of his eloquence and
+his adroitness; and despatched most glowing accounts of his proceedings
+to the Queen.
+
+His ardour was somewhat damped, however, at receiving a message from her
+Majesty in reply, which was anything but benignant.  His eloquence was
+not commended; and even his preamble, with its touching allusion to the
+live mothers tendering their offspring--the passage: which had brought
+the tears into the large eyes of Alexander--was coldly and cruelly
+censured.
+
+"Her Majesty can in no sort like such speeches"--so ran the return-
+despatch--" in which she is made to beg for peace.  The King of Spain
+standeth in as great need of peace as her self; and she doth greatly
+mislike the preamble of Dr. Rogers in his address to the Duke at Ghent,
+finding it, in very truth quite fond and vain.  I am commanded by a
+particular letter to let him understand how much her Majesty is offended
+with him."
+
+Alexander, on his part, informed his royal master of these interviews, in
+which there had been so much effusion of sentiment, in very brief
+fashion.
+
+"Dr. Rogers, one of the Queen's commissioners, has been here," he said,
+"urging me with all his might to let all your Majesty's deputies go, if
+only for one hour, to Ostend.  I refused, saying, I would rather they
+should go to England than into a city of your Majesty held by English
+troops.  I told him it ought to be satisfactory that I had offered the
+Queen, as a lady, her choice of any place in the Provinces, or on neutral
+ground.  Rogers expressed regret for all the, bloodshed and other
+consequences if the negotiations should fall through for so trifling a
+cause; the more so as in return for this little compliment to the Queen
+she would not only restore to your Majesty everything that she holds in
+the Netherlands, but would assist you to recover the part which remains
+obstinate.  To quiet him and to consume time, I have promised that
+President Richardot shall go and try to satisfy them.  Thus two or three
+weeks more will be wasted.  But at last the time will come for exhibiting
+the powers.  They are very anxious to see mine; and when at last they
+find I have none, I fear that they will break off the negotiations."
+
+Could the Queen have been informed of this voluntary offer on the part of
+her envoy to give up the cautionary towns, and to assist in reducing the
+rebellion, she might have used stronger language of rebuke.  It is quite
+possible, however, that Farnese--not so attentively following the
+Doctor's eloquence as he had appeared to do-had somewhat inaccurately
+reported the conversations, which, after all, he knew to be of no
+consequence whatever, except as time-consumers.  For Elizabeth, desirous
+of peace as she was, and trusting to Farnese's sincerity as she was
+disposed to do, was more sensitive than ever as to her dignity.
+
+"We charge you all," she wrote with her own hand to the commissioners,
+"that no word he overslipt by them, that may, touch our honour and
+greatness, that be not answered with good sharp words.  I am a king that
+will be ever known not to fear any but God."
+
+It would have been better, however, had the Queen more thoroughly
+understood that the day for scolding had quite gone by, and that
+something sharper than the sharpest words would soon be wanted to protect
+England and herself from impending doom.  For there was something almost
+gigantic in the frivolities with which weeks and months of such precious
+time were now squandered.  Plenary powers--"commission bastantissima"--
+from his sovereign had been announced by Alexander as in his possession;
+although the reader has seen that he had no such powers at all.  The
+mission of Rogers had quieted the envoys at Ostend for a time, and they
+waited quietly for the visit of Richardot to Ostend, into which the
+promised meeting of all the Spanish commissioners in that city had
+dwindled.  Meantime there was an exchange of the most friendly amenities
+between the English and their mortal enemies.  Hardly a day passed that
+La Motte, or Renty, or Aremberg, did not send Lord Derby, or Cobham, or
+Robert Cecil, a hare, or a pheasant, or a cast of hawks, and they in
+return sent barrel upon barrel of Ostend oysters, five or six hundred at
+a time.  The Englishmen, too; had it in their power to gratify Alexander
+himself with English greyhounds, for which he had a special liking.
+"You would wonder," wrote Cecil to his father, "how fond he is of English
+dogs."  There was also much good preaching among other occupations, at
+Ostend.  "My Lord of Derby's two chaplains," said Cecil, "have seasoned
+this town better with sermons than it had been before for a year's
+apace."  But all this did not expedite the negotiations, nor did the
+Duke manifest so much anxiety for colloquies as for greyhounds.  So, in
+an unlucky hour for himself, another "fond and vain" old gentleman--James
+Croft, the comptroller who had already figured, not much to his credit,
+in the secret negotiations between the Brussels and English courts--
+betook himself, unauthorized and alone; to the Duke at Bruges.  Here he
+had an interview very similar in character to that in which John Rogers
+had been indulged, declared to Farnese that the Queen was most anxious
+for peace, and invited him to send a secret envoy to England, who would
+instantly have ocular demonstration of the fact.  Croft returned as
+triumphantly as the excellent Doctor had done; averring that there was no
+doubt as to the immediate conclusion of a treaty.  His grounds of belief
+were very similar to those upon which Rogers had founded his faith.
+"Tis a weak old man of seventy," said Parma, "with very little sagacity.
+I am inclined to think that his colleagues are taking him in, that they
+may the better deceive us.  I will see that they do nothing of the kind."
+But the movement was purely one of the comptroller's own inspiration; for
+Sir James had a singular facility for getting himself into trouble, and
+for making confusion.  Already, when he had been scarcely a day in
+Ostend, he had insulted the governor of the place, Sir John Conway, had
+given him the lie in the hearing of many of his own soldiers, had gone
+about telling all the world that he had express authority from her
+Majesty to send him home in disgrace, and that the Queen had called him
+a fool, and quite unfit for his post.  And as if this had not been
+mischief-making enough, in addition to the absurd De Loo and Bodman
+negotiations of the previous year, in which he had been the principal
+actor, he had crowned his absurdities by this secret and officious visit
+to Ghent.  The Queen, naturally very indignant at this conduct,
+reprehended him severely, and ordered him back to England.  The
+comptroller was wretched.  He expressed his readiness to obey her
+commands, but nevertheless implored his dread sovereign to take merciful
+consideration of the manifold misfortunes, ruin, and utter undoing, which
+thereby should fall upon him and his unfortunate family.  All this he
+protested he would "nothing esteem if it tended to her Majesty's pleasure
+or service,"  but seeing it should effectuate nothing but to bring the
+aged carcase of her poor vassal to present decay, he implored compassion
+upon his hoary hairs, and promised to repair the error of his former
+proceedings.  He avowed that he would not have ventured to disobey for a
+moment her orders to return, but "that his aged and feeble limbs did not
+retain sufficient force, without present death, to comply with her
+commandment."  And with that he took to his bed, and remained there until
+the Queen was graciously pleased to grant him her pardon.
+
+At last, early in May--instead of the visit of Richardot--there was a
+preliminary meeting of all the commissioners in tents on the sands;
+within a cannon-shot of Ostend, and between that place and Newport.
+It was a showy and ceremonious interview, in which no business was
+transacted.  The commissioners of Philip were attended by a body of one
+hundred and fifty light horse, and by three hundred private gentlemen in
+magnificent costume.  La Motte also came from Newport with one thousand
+Walloon cavalry while the English Commissioners, on their part were
+escorted from Ostend by an imposing array of English and Dutch troops.'
+As the territory was Spanish; the dignity of the King was supposed to be
+preserved, and Alexander, who had promised Dr. Rogers that the first
+interview should take place within Ostend itself, thought it necessary to
+apologize to his sovereign for so nearly keeping his word as to send the
+envoys within cannon-shot of the town.  "The English commissioners," said
+he, "begged with so much submission for this concession, that I thought
+it as well to grant it."
+
+The Spanish envoys were despatched by the Duke of Parma, well provided
+with full powers for himself, which were not desired by the English
+government, but unfurnished with a commission from Philip, which had been
+pronounced indispensable.  There was, therefore, much prancing of
+cavalry, flourishing of trumpets, and eating of oysters; at the first
+conference, but not one stroke of business.  As the English envoys
+had now been three whole months in Ostend, and as this was the first
+occasion on which they had been brought face to face with the Spanish
+commissioners, it must be confessed that the tactics of Farnese had been
+masterly.  Had the haste in the dock-yards of Lisbon and Cadiz been at
+all equal to the magnificent procrastination in the council-chambers of
+Bruges and Ghent, Medina Sidonia might already have been in the Thames.
+
+But although little ostensible business was performed, there was one
+man who had always an eye to his work.  The same servant in plain livery,
+who had accompanied Secretary Garnier, on his first visit to the English
+commissioners at Ostend, had now come thither again, accompanied by a
+fellow-lackey.  While the complimentary dinner, offered in the name of
+the absent Farnese to the Queen's representatives, was going forward, the
+two menials strayed off together to the downs, for the purpose of rabbit-
+shooting.  The one of them was the same engineer who had already, on the
+former occasion, taken a complete survey of the fortifications of Ostend;
+the other was no less a personage than the Duke of Parma himself.  The
+pair now made a thorough examination of the town and its neighbourhood,
+and, having finished their reconnoitring, made the best of their way back
+to Bruges.  As it was then one of Alexander's favourite objects to reduce
+the city of Ostend, at the earliest possible moment, it must be allowed
+that this preliminary conference was not so barren to himself as it was
+to the commissioners.  Philip, when informed of this manoeuvre, was
+naturally gratified at such masterly duplicity, while he gently rebuked
+his nephew for exposing his valuable life; and certainly it would have
+been an inglorious termination to the Duke's splendid career; had he been
+hanged as a spy within the trenches of Ostend.  With the other details
+of this first diplomatic colloquy Philip was delighted.  "I see you
+understand me thoroughly," he said.  "Keep the negotiation alive till
+my Armada appears, and then carry out my determination, and replant
+the Catholic religion on the soil of England."
+
+The Queen was not in such high spirits.  She was losing her temper very
+fast, as she became more and more convinced that she had been trifled
+with.  No powers had been yet exhibited, no permanent place of conference
+fixed upon, and the cessation of arms demanded by her commissioners for
+England, Spain, and all the Netherlands, was absolutely refused.  She
+desired her commissioners to inform the Duke of Parma that it greatly
+touched his honour--as both before their coming and afterwards, he had
+assured her that he had 'comision bastantissima' from his sovereign--to
+clear himself at once from the imputation of insincerity.  "Let not the
+Duke think," she wrote with her own hand, "that we would so long time
+endure these many frivolous and unkindly dealings, but that we desire all
+the world to know our desire of a kingly peace, and that we will endure
+no more the like, nor any, but will return you from your charge."
+
+Accordingly--by her Majesty's special command--Dr. Dale made another
+visit to Bruges, to discover, once for all, whether there was a
+commission from Philip or not; and, if so, to see it with his own eyes.
+On the 7th May he had an interview with the Duke.  After thanking his
+Highness for the honourable and stately manner in which the conferences
+had been, inaugurated near Ostend, Dale laid very plainly before him her
+Majesty's complaints of the tergiversations and equivocations concerning
+the commission, which had now lasted three months long.
+
+In answer, Alexander made a complimentary harangue; confining himself
+entirely to the first part of the envoy's address, and assuring him in
+redundant phraseology, that he should hold himself very guilty before
+the world, if he had not surrounded the first colloquy between the
+plenipotentiaries of two such mighty princes, with as much pomp as the
+circumstances of time and place would allow.  After this superfluous
+rhetoric had been poured forth, he calmly dismissed the topic which Dr.
+Dale had come all the way from.  Ostend to discuss, by carelessly
+observing that President Richardot would confer with him on the subject
+of the commission.
+
+"But," said the envoy, "tis no matter of conference or dispute.  I desire
+simply to see the commission."
+
+"Richardot and Champagny shall deal with you in the afternoon," repeated
+Alexander; and with this reply, the Doctor was fair to be contented.
+
+Dale then alluded to the point of cessation of arms.
+
+"Although," said he, "the Queen might justly require that the cessation
+should be general for all the King's dominion, yet in order not to stand
+on precise points, she is content that it should extend no further than
+to the towns of Flushing; Brief, Ostend, and Bergen-op-Zoom."
+
+"To this he said nothing," wrote the envoy, "and so I went no further."
+
+In the afternoon Dale had conference with Champagny and Richardot.  As
+usual, Champagny was bound hand and foot by the gout, but was as quick-
+witted and disputatious as ever.  Again Dale made an earnest harangue,
+proving satisfactorily--as if any proof were necessary on such a point--
+that a commission from Philip ought to be produced, and that a commission
+had been promised, over and over again.
+
+After a pause, both the representatives of Parma began to wrangle with
+the envoy in very insolent fashion.  "Richardot is always their mouth-
+piece," said Dale, "only Champagny choppeth in at every word, and would
+do so likewise in ours if we would suffer it."
+
+"We shall never have done with these impertinent demands," said the
+President.  "You ought to be satisfied with the Duke's promise of
+ratification contained in his commission.  We confess what you say
+concerning the former requisitions and promises to be true, but when will
+you have done?  Have we not showed it to Mr. Croft, one of your own
+colleagues?  And if we show it you now, another may come to-morrow, and
+so we shall never have an end."
+
+"The delays come from yourselves," roundly replied the Englishman, "for
+you refuse to do what in reason and law you are bound to do.  And the
+more demands the more 'mora aut potius culpa' in you.  You, of all men,
+have least cause to hold such language, who so confidently and even
+disdainfully answered our demand for the commission, in Mr. Cecil's
+presence, and promised to show a perfect one at the very first meeting.
+As for Mr. Comptroller Croft, he came hither without the command of her
+Majesty and without the knowledge of his colleagues."
+
+Richardot then began to insinuate that, as Croft had come without
+authority, so--for aught they could tell--might Dale also.  But Champagny
+here interrupted, protested that the president was going too far, and
+begged him to show the commission without further argument.
+
+Upon this Richardot pulled out the commission from under his gown, and
+placed it in Dr. Dale's hands!
+
+It was dated 17th April, 1588, signed and sealed by the King,
+and written in French, and was to the effect, that as there had been
+differences between her Majesty and himself; as her Majesty had sent
+ambassadors into the Netherlands, as the Duke of Parma had entered into
+treaty with her Majesty, therefore the King authorised the Duke to
+appoint commissioners to treat, conclude, and determine all controversies
+and misunderstandings, confirmed any such appointments already made, and
+promised to ratify all that might be done by them in the premises.'
+
+Dr. Dale expressed his satisfaction with the tenor of this document,
+and begged to be furnished with a copy of it, but his was peremptorily
+refused.  There was then a long conversation--ending, as usual, in
+nothing--on the two other points, the place for the conferences, namely,
+and the cessation of arms.
+
+Nest morning Dale, in taking leave of the Duke of Parma, expressed the
+gratification which he felt, and which her Majesty was sure to feel at
+the production of the commission.  It was now proved, said the envoy,
+that the King was as earnestly in favour of peace as the Duke was
+himself.
+
+Dale then returned, well satisfied, to Ostend.
+
+In truth the commission had arrived just in time.  "Had I not received it
+soon enough to produce it then," said Alexander, "the Queen would have
+broken off the negotiations.  So I ordered Richardot, who is quite aware
+of your Majesty's secret intentions, from which we shall not swerve one
+jot, to show it privately to Croft, and afterwards to Dr. Dale, but
+without allowing a copy of it to be taken."
+
+"You have done very well," replied Philip, "but that commission is, on no
+account, to be used, except for show.  You know my mind thoroughly."
+
+Thus three months had been consumed, and at last one indispensable
+preliminary to any negotiation had, in appearance, been performed.  Full
+powers on both sides had been exhibited.  When the Queen of England gave
+the Earl of Derby and his colleagues commission to treat with the King's
+envoys, and pledged herself beforehand to, ratify all their proceedings,
+she meant to perform the promise to which she had affixed her royal name
+and seal.  She could not know that the Spanish monarch was deliberately
+putting his name to a lie, and chuckling in secret over the credulity of
+his English sister, who was willing to take his word and his bond.  Of a
+certainty the English were no match for southern diplomacy.
+
+But Elizabeth was now more impatient than ever that the other two
+preliminaries should be settled, the place of conferences, and the
+armistice.
+
+"Be plain with the Duke," she wrote to her envoys, "that we have
+tolerated so many weeks in tarrying a commission, that I will never
+endure more delays.  Let him know he deals with a prince who prizes her
+honour more than her life:  Make yourselves such as stand of your
+reputations."
+
+Sharp words, but not sharp enough to prevent a further delay of a month;
+for it was not till the 6th June that the commissioners at last came
+together at Bourbourg, that "miserable little hole," on the coast between
+Ostend and Newport, against which Gamier had warned them.  And now there
+was ample opportunity to wrangle at full length on the next preliminary,
+the cessation of arms.  It would be superfluous to follow the
+altercations step by step--for negotiations there were none--and it is
+only for the sake of exhibiting at full length the infamy of diplomacy,
+when diplomacy is unaccompanied by honesty, that we are hanging up this
+series of pictures at all.  Those bloodless encounters between credulity
+and vanity upon one side, and gigantic fraud on the other, near those
+very sands of Newport, and in sight of the Northern Ocean, where, before
+long, the most terrible battles, both by land and sea, which the age had
+yet witnessed, were to occur, are quite as full of instruction and moral
+as the most sanguinary combats ever waged.
+
+At last the commissioners exchanged copies of their respective powers.
+After four months of waiting and wrangling, so much had been achieved--
+a show of commissions and a selection of the place for conference.  And
+now began the long debate about the cessation of arms.  The English
+claimed an armistice for the whole dominion of Philip and Elizabeth
+respectively, during the term of negotiation, and for twenty days after.
+The Spanish would grant only a temporary truce, terminable at six days'
+notice, and that only for the four cautionary towns of Holland held by
+the Queen.  Thus Philip would be free to invade England at his leisure
+out of the obedient Netherlands or Spain.  This was inadmissible, of
+course, but a week was spent at the outset in reducing the terms to
+writing; and when the Duke's propositions were at last produced in the
+French tongue, they were refused by the Queen's commissioners, who
+required that the documents should be in Latin.  Great was the triumph of
+Dr. Dale, when, after another interval, he found their Latin full of
+barbarisms and blunders, at which a school-boy would have blushed.  The
+King's commissioners, however, while halting in their syntax, had kept
+steadily to their point.
+
+"You promised a general cessation of aims at our coming," said Dale, at a
+conference on the 2/12 June, "and now ye have lingered five times twenty
+days, and nothing done at all.  The world may see the delays come of you
+and not of us, and that ye are not so desirous of peace as ye pretend."
+
+"But as far your invasion of England," stoutly observed the Earl of
+Derby, "ye shall find it hot coming thither.  England was never so ready
+in any former age,--neither by sea nor by land; but we would show your
+unreasonableness in proposing a cessation of arms by which ye would bind
+her Majesty to forbear touching all the Low Countries, and yet leave
+yourselves at liberty to invade England."
+
+While they were thus disputing, Secretary Gamier rushed into the room,
+looking very much frightened, and announced that Lord Henry Seymour's
+fleet of thirty-two ships of war was riding off Gravelines, and that he
+had sent two men on shore who were now waiting in the ante-chamber.
+
+The men being accordingly admitted, handed letters to the English
+commissioners from Lord Henry, in which be begged to be informed in
+what terms they were standing, and whether they needed his assistance
+or countenance in the cause in which they were engaged.  The envoys found
+his presence very "comfortable," as it showed the Spanish commissioners
+that her Majesty was so well provided as to make a cessation of arms less
+necessary to her than it was to the King.  They therefore sent their
+thanks to the Lord Admiral, begging him to cruise for a time off Dunkirk
+and its neighbourhood, that both their enemies and their friends might
+have a sight of the English ships.
+
+Great was the panic all along the coast at this unexpected demonstration.
+The King's commissioners got into their coaches, and drove down to the
+coast to look at the fleet, and--so soon as they appeared--were received
+with such a thundering cannonade an hour long, by way of salute, as to
+convince them, in the opinion of the English envoys, that the Queen had
+no cause to be afraid of any enemies afloat or ashore.
+
+But these noisy arguments were not much more effective than the
+interchange of diplomatic broadsides which they had for a moment
+superseded.  The day had gone by for blank cartridges and empty
+protocols.  Nevertheless Lord Henry's harmless thunder was answered, the
+next day, by a "Quintuplication" in worse Latin than ever, presented to
+Dr. Dale and his colleagues by Richardot and Champagny, on the subject of
+the armistice.  And then there was a return quintuplication, in choice
+Latin, by the classic Dale, and then there was a colloquy on the
+quintuplication, and everything that had been charged, and truly
+charged, by the English; was now denied by the King's commissioners;
+and Champagny--more gouty and more irascible than ever--"chopped in" at
+every word spoken by King's envoys or Queen's, contradicted everybody,
+repudiated everything said or done by Andrew de Loo, or any of the other
+secret negotiators during the past year, declared that there never had
+been a general cessation of arms promised, and that, at any rate, times
+were now changed, and such an armistice was inadmissible!  Then the
+English answered with equal impatience, and reproached the King's
+representatives with duplicity and want of faith, and censured them for
+their unseemly language, and begged to inform Champagny and Richardot
+that they had not then to deal with such persons as they might formerly
+have been in the habit of treating withal, but with a "great prince who
+did justify the honour of her actions," and they confuted the positions
+now assumed by their opponents with official documents and former
+statements from those very opponents' lips.  And then, after all this
+diplomatic and rhetorical splutter, the high commissioners recovered
+their temper and grew more polite, and the King's "envoys excused
+themselves in a mild, merry manner," for the rudeness of their speeches,
+and the Queen's envoys accepted their apologies with majestic urbanity,
+and so they separated for the day in a more friendly manner than they
+had done the day before.'
+
+"You see to what a scholar's shift we have been driven for want of
+resolution," said Valentine Dale.  "If we should linger here until there
+should be broken heads, in what case we should be God knoweth.  For I can
+trust Champagny and Richardot no farther than I can see them."
+
+And so the whole month of June passed by; the English commissioners
+"leaving no stone unturned to get a quiet cessation of arms in general
+terms," and being constantly foiled; yet perpetually kept in hope that
+the point would soon be carried.  At the same time the signs of the
+approaching invasion seemed to thicken.  "In my opinion," said Dale,
+"as Phormio spake in matters of wars, it were very requisite that my Lord
+Harry should be always on this coast, for they will steal out from hence
+as closely as they can, either to join with the Spanish navy or to land,
+and they may be very easily scattered, by God's grace."  And, with the
+honest pride of a protocol-maker, he added, "our postulates do trouble
+the King's commissioners very much, and do bring them to despair."
+
+The excellent Doctor had not even yet discovered that the King's
+commissioners were delighted with his postulates; and that to have kept
+them postulating thus five months in succession, while naval and military
+preparations were slowly bringing forth a great event--which was soon to
+strike them with as much amazement as if the moon had fallen out of
+heaven--was one of the most decisive triumphs ever achieved by Spanish
+diplomacy.  But the Doctor thought that his logic had driven the King of
+Spain to despair.
+
+At the same time he was not insensible to the merits of another and more
+peremptory style of rhetoric,--"I pray you," said he to Walsingham, "let
+us hear some arguments from my Lord Harry out of her Majesty's navy now
+and then.  I think they will do more good than any bolt that we can shoot
+here.  If they be met with at their going out, there is no possibility
+for them to make any resistance, having so few men that can abide the
+sea; for the rest, as you know, must be sea-sick at first."
+
+But the envoys were completely puzzled.  Even at the beginning of July,
+Sir James Croft was quite convinced of the innocence of the King and the
+Duke; but Croft was in his dotage.  As for Dale, he occasionally opened
+his eyes, and his ears, but more commonly kept them well closed to the
+significance of passing events; and consoled himself with his protocols
+and his classics, and the purity of his own Latin.
+
+"'Tis a very wise saying of Terence," said he, "omnibus nobis ut res dant
+sese; ita magni aut humiles sumus.'  When the King's commissioners hear
+of the King's navy from Spain, they are in such jollity that they talk
+loud .  .  .  .  .  In the mean time--as the wife of Bath sath in Chaucer
+by her husband, we owe them not a word.  If we should die tomorrow;
+I hope her Majesty will find by our writings that the honour of the
+cause, in the opinion of the world, must be with her Majesty; and that
+her commissioners are, neither of such imperfection in their reasons,
+or so barbarous in language, as they who fail not, almost in every line,
+of some barbarism not to be borne in a grammar-school, although in
+subtleness and impudent affirming of untruths and denying of truths, her
+commissioners are not in any respect to match with Champagny and
+Richardot, who are doctors in that faculty."
+
+It might perhaps prove a matter of indifference to Elizabeth and to
+England, when the Queen should be a state-prisoner in Spain and the
+Inquisition quietly established in her kingdom, whether the world should
+admit or not, in case of his decease, the superiority of Dr. Dale's logic
+and latin to those of his antagonists.  And even if mankind conceded the
+best of the argument to the English diplomatists, that diplomacy might
+seem worthless which could be blind to the colossal falsehoods growing
+daily before its eyes.  Had the commissioners been able to read the
+secret correspondence between Parma and his master--as we have had the
+opportunity of doing--they would certainly not have left their homes in
+February, to be made fools of until July; but would, on their knees, have
+implored their royal mistress to awake from her fatal delusion before it
+should be too late.  Even without that advantage, it seems incredible
+that they should have been unable to pierce through the atmosphere of
+duplicity which surrounded them, and to obtain one clear glimpse of the
+destruction so, steadily advancing upon England.
+
+For the famous bull of Sixtus V. had now been fulminated.  Elizabeth had
+bean again denounced as a bastard and usurper, and her kingdom had been
+solemnly conferred upon Philip, with title of defender of the Christian,
+faith, to have and to hold as tributary and feudatory of Rome.  The so-
+called Queen had usurped the crown contrary to the ancient treaties
+between the apostolic stool and the kingdom of England, which country,
+on its reconciliation with the head of the church after the death of
+St. Thomas of Canterbury, had recognised the necessity of the Pope's.
+consent in the succession to its throne; she had deserved chastisement
+for the terrible tortures inflicted by her upon English Catholics and
+God's own saints; and it was declared an act of virtue, to be repaid with
+plenary indulgence and forgiveness of all sins, to lay violent hands on
+the usurper, and deliver her into the hands of the Catholic party.  And
+of the holy league against the usurper, Philip was appointed the head,
+and Alexander of Parma chief commander.  This document was published in
+large numbers in Antwerp in the English tongue.
+
+The pamphlet of Dr. Allen, just named Cardinal, was also translated in
+the same city, under the direction of the Duke of Parma, in-order to be
+distributed throughout England, on the arrival in that kingdom of the
+Catholic troops.  The well-known 'Admonition to the Nobility and People
+of England and Ireland' accused the Queen of every crime and vice which
+can pollute humanity; and was filled with foul details unfit for the
+public eye in these more decent days.
+
+So soon as the intelligence of these publications reached England, the
+Queen ordered her commissioners at Bourbourg to take instant cognizance
+of them, and to obtain a categorical explanation on the subject from
+Alexander himself: as if an explanation were possible, as if the designs
+of Sixtus, Philip, and Alexander, could any longer be doubted, and as if
+the Duke were more likely now than before to make a succinct statement
+of them for the benefit of her Majesty.
+
+"Having discovered," wrote Elizabeth on the 9th July (N.S.), "that this
+treaty of peace is entertained only to abuse us, and being many ways
+given to understand that the preparations which have so long been making,
+and which now are consummated, both in Spain and the Low Countries, are
+purposely to be employed against us and our country; finding that, for
+the furtherance of these exploits, there is ready to be published a vile,
+slanderous, and blasphemous book, containing as many lies as lines,
+entitled, 'An Admonition,' &c., and contrived by a lewd born-subject of
+ours, now become an arrant traitor, named Dr. Allen, lately made, a
+cardinal at Rome; as also a bull of the Pope, whereof we send you a copy,
+both very lately brought into those Low Countries, the one whereof is
+already printed at Antwerp, in a great multitude; in the English tongue,
+and the other ordered to be printed, only to stir up our subjects,
+contrary to the laws of God and their allegiance, to join with such
+foreign purposes as are prepared against us and our realm, to come out of
+those Low Countries and out of Spain; and as it appears by the said bull
+that the Duke of Parma is expressly named and chosen by the Pope and the
+King of Spain to be principal executioner of these intended enterprises,
+we cannot think it honourable for us to continue longer the treaty of
+peace with them that, under colour of treaty, arm themselves with all the
+power they can to a bloody war."
+
+Accordingly the Queen commanded Dr. Dale, as one of the commissioners,
+to proceed forthwith to the Duke, in order to obtain explanations as to
+his contemplated conquest of her realm, and as to his share in the
+publication of the bull and pamphlet, and to "require him, as he would be
+accounted a prince of honour, to let her plainly understand what she
+might think thereof."  The envoy was to assure him that the Queen would
+trust implicitly to his statement, to adjure him to declare the truth,
+and, in case he avowed the publications and the belligerent intentions
+suspected, to demand instant safe-conduct to England for her
+commissioners, who would, of course, instantly leave the Netherlands.
+On the other hand, if the Duke disavowed those infamous documents,
+he was to be requested to punish the printers, and have the books
+burned by the hangman?
+
+Dr. Dale, although suffering from cholic, was obliged to set forth,
+at once upon what he felt would be a bootless journey.  At his return--
+which was upon the 22nd of July (N.S.)the shrewd old gentleman had nearly
+arrived at the opinion that her Majesty might as well break off the
+negotiations.  He had a "comfortless voyage and a ticklish message;"
+found all along the road signs of an approaching enterprise, difficult to
+be mistaken; reported 10,000 veteran Spaniards, to which force Stanley's
+regiment was united; 6000 Italians, 3000 Germans, all with pikes,
+corselets, and slash swords complete; besides 10,000 Walloons.  The
+transports for the cavalry at Gravelingen he did not see, nor was he
+much impressed with what he heard as to the magnitude of the naval
+preparations at Newport.  He was informed that the Duke was about making
+a foot-pilgrimage from Brussels to Our Lady of Halle, to implore victory
+for his banners, and had daily evidence of the soldier's expectation to
+invade and to "devour England."  All this had not tended to cure him of
+the low spirits with which he began the journey.  Nevertheless, although
+he was unable--as will be seen--to report an entirely satisfactory answer
+from Farnese to the Queen upon the momentous questions entrusted to him,
+he, at least, thought of a choice passage in 'The AEneid,' so very apt to
+the circumstances, as almost to console him for the "pangs of his cholic"
+and the terrors of the approaching invasion.
+
+"I have written two or three verses out of Virgil for the Queen to read,"
+said he, "which I pray your Lordship to present unto her.  God grant her
+to weigh them.  If your Lordship do read the whole discourse of Virgil in
+that place, it will make your heart melt.  Observe the report of the
+ambassadors that were sent to Diomedes to make war against the Trojans,
+for the old hatred that he, being a Grecian, did bear unto them; and note
+the answer of Diomedes dissuading them from entering into war with the
+Trojans, the perplexity of the King, the miseries of the country, the
+reasons of Drances that spake against them which would have war, the
+violent persuasions of Turnus to war; and note, I pray you; one word,
+'nec te ullius violentia frangat.'  What a lecture could I make with Mr.
+Cecil upon that passage in Virgil!"
+
+The most important point for the reader to remark is the date of this
+letter.  It was received in the very last days of the month of July.
+Let him observe--as he will soon have occasion to do--the events which
+were occurring on land and sea, exactly at the moment when this classic
+despatch reached its destination, and judge whether the hearts of the
+Queen and Lord Burghley would be then quite at leisure to melt at the
+sorrows of the Trojan War.  Perhaps the doings of Drake and Howard,
+Medina Sidonia, and Ricalde, would be pressing as much on their attention
+as the eloquence of Diomede or the wrath of Turnus.  Yet it may be
+doubted whether the reports of these Grecian envoys might not in truth,
+be almost as much to the purpose as the despatches of the diplomatic
+pedant, with his Virgil and his cholic, into whose hands grave matters of
+peace and war were entrusted in what seemed the day of England's doom.
+
+"What a lecture I could make with Mr. Cecil on the subject!--"An English
+ambassador, at the court of Philip II.'s viceroy, could indulge himself
+in imaginary prelections on the AEneid, in the last days of July, of the
+year of our Lord 1588!
+
+The Doctor, however--to do him justice--had put the questions
+categorically, to his Highness as he had been instructed to do.  He went
+to Bruges so mysteriously; that no living man, that side the sea, save
+Lord Derby and Lord Cobham, knew the cause of his journey. Poor-puzzling
+James Croft, in particular, was moved almost to tears, by being kept out
+of the secret.  On the 8/18 July Dale had audience of the Duke at Bruges.
+After a few commonplaces, he was invited by the Duke to state what
+special purpose had brought him to Bruges.
+
+"There is a book printed at Antwerp," said Dale, "and set forth by a
+fugitive from England, who calleth himself a cardinal."
+
+Upon this the Duke began diligently to listen.
+
+"This book," resumed Dale, "is an admonition to the nobility and people
+of England and Ireland touching the execution of the sentence of the Pope
+against the Queen which the King Catholic hath entrusted to your Highness
+as chief of the enterprise.  There is also a bull of the Pope declaring
+my sovereign mistress illegitimate and an usurper, with other matters too
+odious for any prince or gentleman to name or hear.  In this bull the
+Pope saith that he hath dealt with the most Catholic King to employ all
+the means in his power to the deprivation and deposition of my sovereign,
+and doth charge her subjects to assist the army appointed by the King
+Catholic for that purpose, under the conduct of your Highness.  Therefore
+her Majesty would be satisfied from your Highness in that point, and will
+take satisfaction of none other; not doubting but that as you are a
+prince of word and credit; you will deal plainly with her Majesty.
+Whatsoever it may be, her Majesty will not take it amiss against your
+Highness, so she may only be informed by you of the truth.  Wherefore I
+do require you to satisfy the Queen."
+
+"I am glad," replied the Duke, "that her Majesty and her commissioners do
+take in good part my good-will towards them.  I am especially touched by
+the good opinion her Majesty hath of my sincerity, which I should be glad
+always to maintain.  As to the book to which you refer, I have never read
+it, nor seen it, nor do I take heed of it.  It may well be that her
+Majesty, whom it concerneth, should take notice of it; but, for my part,
+I have nought to do with it, nor can I prevent men from writing or
+printing at their pleasure.  I am at the commandment of my master only."
+
+As Alexander made no reference to the Pope's bull, Dr. Dale observed,
+that if a war had been, of purpose, undertaken at the instance of the
+Pope, all this negotiation had been in vain, and her Majesty would be
+obliged to withdraw her commissioners, not doubting that they would
+receive safe-conduct as occasion should require.
+
+"Yea, God forbid else," replied Alexander; "and further, I know nothing
+of any bull of the Pope, nor do I care for any, nor do I undertake
+anything for him.  But as for any misunderstanding (mal entendu) between
+my master and her Majesty, I must, as a soldier, act at the command of my
+sovereign.  For my part, I have always had such respect for her Majesty,
+being so noble a Queen, as that I would never hearken to anything that
+might be reproachful to her.  After my master, I would do most to serve
+your Queen, and I hope she will take my word for her satisfaction on that
+point.  And for avoiding of bloodshed and the burning of houses and such
+other calamities as do follow the wars, I have been a petitioner to my
+sovereign that all things might be ended quietly by a peace.  That is a
+thing, however," added the Duke; "which you have more cause to desire
+than we; for if the King my master, should lose a battle, he would be
+able to recover it well enough, without harm to himself, being far enough
+off in Spain, while, if the battle be lost on your side, you may lose
+kingdom and all."
+
+"By God's sufferance," rejoined the Doctor, "her Majesty is not without
+means to defend her crown, that hath descended to her from so long a
+succession of ancestors.  Moreover your Highness knows very well that
+one battle cannot conquer a kingdom in another country."
+
+"Well," said the Duke, "that is in God's hand."
+
+"So it is," said the Doctor.
+
+"But make an end of it," continued Alexander quietly, "and if you have
+anything to put into writing; you will do me a pleasure by sending it to
+me."
+
+Dr. Valentine Dale was not the man to resist the temptation to make a
+protocol, and promised one for the next day.
+
+"I am charged only to give your Highness satisfaction," he said, "as to
+her Majesty's sincere intentions, which have already been published to
+the world in English, French, and Italian, in the hope that you may
+also satisfy the Queen upon this other point.  I am but one of her
+commissioners, and could not deal without my colleagues.  I crave leave
+to depart to-morrow morning, and with safe-convoy, as I had in coming."
+
+After the envoy had taken leave, the Duke summoned Andrea de Loo, and
+related to him the conversation which had taken place.  He then, in the
+presence of that personage, again declared--upon his honour and with very
+constant affirmations, that he had never seen nor heard of the book--the
+'Admonition' by Cardinal Allen--and that he knew nothing of any bull, and
+had no regard to it.'
+
+The plausible Andrew accompanied the Doctor to his lodgings, protesting
+all the way of his own and his master's sincerity, and of their
+unequivocal intentions to conclude a peace.  The next day the Doctor,
+by agreement, brought a most able protocol of demands in the name of all
+the commissioners of her Majesty; which able protocol the Duke did not at
+that moment read, which he assuredly never read subsequently, and which
+no human soul ever read afterwards.  Let the dust lie upon it, and upon
+all the vast heaps of protocols raised mountains high during the spring
+and summer of 1588.
+
+"Dr. Dale has been with me two or three, times," said Parma, in giving
+his account of these interviews to Philip.  "I don't know why he came,
+but I think he wished to make it appear, by coming to Bruges, that the
+rupture, when it occurs, was caused by us, not by the English.  He has
+been complaining of Cardinal Allen's book, and I told him that I didn't
+understand a word of English, and knew nothing whatever of the matter."
+
+It has been already seen that the Duke had declared, on his word of
+honour, that he had never heard of the famous pamphlet.  Yet at that very
+moment letters were lying in his cabinet, received more than a fortnight
+before from Philip, in which that monarch thanked Alexander for having
+had the Cardinal's book translated at Antwerp!  Certainly few English
+diplomatists could be a match for a Highness so liberal of his word of
+honour.
+
+But even Dr. Dale had at last convinced himself--even although the Duke
+knew nothing of bull or pamphlet--that mischief was brewing against
+England.  The sagacious man, having seen large bodies of Spaniards and
+Walloons making such demonstrations of eagerness to be led against his
+country, and "professing it as openly as if they were going to a fair or
+market," while even Alexander himself could "no more hide it than did
+Henry VIII. when he went to Boulogne," could not help suspecting
+something amiss.
+
+His colleague, however, Comptroller Croft, was more judicious, for he
+valued himself on taking a sound, temperate, and conciliatory view of
+affairs.  He was not the man to offend a magnanimous neighbour--who
+meant nothing unfriendly by regarding his manoeuvres with superfluous
+suspicion.  So this envoy wrote to Lord Burghley on the 2nd August
+(N.S.)--let the reader mark the date--that, "although a great doubt
+had been conceived as to the King's sincerity, .  .  .  .  yet that
+discretion and experience induced him--the envoy--to think, that besides
+the reverent opinion to be had of princes' oaths, and the general
+incommodity which will come by the contrary, God had so balanced princes'
+powers in that age, as they rather desire to assure themselves at home,
+than with danger to invade their neighbours."
+
+Perhaps the mariners of England--at that very instant exchanging
+broadsides off the coast of Devon and Dorset with the Spanish Armada,
+and doing their best to protect their native land from the most horrible
+calamity which had ever impended over it--had arrived at a less reverent
+opinion of princes' oaths; and it was well for England in that supreme
+hour that there were such men as Howard and Drake, and Winter and
+Frobisher, and a whole people with hearts of oak to defend her, while
+bungling diplomatists and credulous dotards were doing their best to
+imperil her existence.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Bungling diplomatists and credulous dotards
+Fitter to obey than to command
+Full of precedents and declamatory commonplaces
+I am a king that will be ever known not to fear any but God
+Infamy of diplomacy, when diplomacy is unaccompanied by honesty
+Mendacity may always obtain over innocence and credulity
+Never did statesmen know better how not to do
+Pray here for satiety, (said Cecil) than ever think of variety
+Simple truth was highest skill
+Strength does a falsehood acquire in determined and skilful hand
+That crowned criminal, Philip the Second
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v55
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 56, 1588
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.  Part 2.
+
+     Dangerous Discord in North Holland--Leicester's Resignation arrives
+     --Enmity of Willoughby and Maurice--Willoughby's dark Picture of
+     Affairs--Hatred between States and Leicestrians--Maurice's Answer to
+     the Queen's Charges--End of Sonoy's Rebellion--Philip foments the
+     Civil War in France--League's Threats and Plots against Henry--Mucio
+     arrives in Paris--He is received with Enthusiasm--The King flies,
+     and Spain triumphs in Paris--States expostulate with the Queen--
+     English Statesmen still deceived--Deputies from Netherland Churches
+     --Hold Conference with the Queen--And present long Memorials--More
+     Conversations with the Queen--National Spirit of England and
+     Holland--Dissatisfaction with Queen's Course--Bitter Complaints of
+     Lord Howard--Want of Preparation in Army and Navy--Sanguine
+     Statements of Leicester--Activity of Parma--The painful Suspense
+     continues.
+
+
+But it is necessary-in order to obtain a complete picture of that famous
+year 1588, and to understand the cause from which such great events were
+springing--to cast a glance at the internal politics of the States most
+involved in Philip's meshes.
+
+Certainly, if there had ever been a time when the new commonwealth of the
+Netherlands should be both united in itself and on thoroughly friendly
+terms with England, it was exactly that epoch of which we are treating.
+There could be no reasonable doubt that the designs of Spain against
+England were hostile, and against Holland revengeful.  It was at least
+possible that Philip meant to undertake the conquest of England, and to
+undertake it as a stepping-stone to the conquest of Holland.  Both the
+kingdom and the republic should have been alert, armed, full of suspicion
+towards the common foe, full of confidence in each other.  What decisive
+blows might have been struck against Parma in the Netherlands, when his
+troops were starving, sickly, and mutinous, if the Hollanders and
+Englishmen had been united under one chieftain, and thoroughly convinced
+of the impossibility of peace!  Could the English and Dutch statesmen of
+that day have read all the secrets of their great enemy's heart, as it is
+our privilege at this hour to do, they would have known that in sudden
+and deadly strokes lay their best chance of salvation.  But, without that
+advantage, there were men whose sagacity told them that it was the hour
+for deeds and not for dreams.  For to Leicester and Walsingham, as well
+as to Paul Buys and Barneveld, peace with Spain seemed an idle vision.
+It was unfortunate that they were overruled by Queen Elizabeth and
+Burghley, who still clung to that delusion; it was still more disastrous
+that the intrigues of Leicester had done so much to paralyze the
+republic; it was almost fatal that his departure, without laying down his
+authority, had given the signal for civil war.
+
+During the winter, spring, and summer of 1588, while the Duke--in the
+face of mighty obstacles--was slowly proceeding with his preparations in
+Flanders, to co-operate with the armaments from Spain, it would have been
+possible by a combined movement to destroy his whole plan, to liberate
+all the Netherlands, and to avert, by one great effort, the ruin
+impending over England.  Instead of such vigorous action, it was thought
+wiser to send commissioners, to make protocols, to ask for armistices,
+to give profusely to the enemy that which he was most in need of--time.
+Meanwhile the Hollanders and English could quarrel comfortably among
+themselves, and the little republic, for want of a legal head, could come
+as near as possible to its dissolution.
+
+Young Maurice--deep thinker for his years and peremptory in action--was
+not the man to see his great father's life-work annihilated before his
+eyes, so long as he had an arm and brain of his own.  He accepted his
+position at the head of the government of Holland and Zeeland, and as
+chief of the war-party.  The council of state, mainly composed of
+Leicester's creatures, whose commissions would soon expire by their own
+limitation, could offer but a feeble resistance to such determined
+individuals as Maurice, Buys, and Barneveld.  The party made rapid
+progress.  On the other hand, the English Leicestrians did their best
+to foment discord in the Provinces.  Sonoy was sustained in his rebellion
+in North Holland, not only by the Earl's partizans, but by Elizabeth
+herself.  Her rebukes to Maurice, when Maurice was pursuing the only
+course which seemed to him consistent with honour and sound policy,
+were sharper than a sword.  Well might Duplessis Mornay observe, that
+the commonwealth had been rather strangled than embraced by the English
+Queen.  Sonoy, in the name of Leicester, took arms against Maurice and
+the States; Maurice marched against him; and Lord Willoughby, commander-
+in-chief of the English forces, was anxious to march against Maurice.
+It was a spectacle to make angels weep, that of Englishmen and Hollanders
+preparing to cut each other's throats, at the moment when Philip and
+Parma were bending all their energies to crush England and Holland at
+once.
+
+Indeed, the interregnum between the departure of Leicester and his
+abdication was diligently employed by his more reckless partizans to
+defeat and destroy the authority of the States.  By prolonging the
+interval, it was hoped that no government would be possible except the
+arbitrary rule of the Earl, or of a successor with similar views: for a
+republic--a free commonwealth--was thought an absurdity.  To entrust
+supreme power to advocates; merchants, and mechanics, seemed as hopeless
+as it was vulgar.  Willoughby; much devoted to Leicester and much
+detesting Barneveld, had small scruple in fanning the flames of discord.
+
+There was open mutiny against the States by the garrison of
+Gertruydenberg, and Willoughby's brother-in-law, Captain Wingfield,
+commanded in Gertruydenberg.  There were rebellious demonstrations in
+Naarden, and Willoughby went to Naarden.  The garrison was troublesome,
+but most of the magistrates were firm.  So Willoughby supped with the
+burgomasters, and found that Paul Buys had been setting the people
+against Queen Elizabeth, Leicester, and the whole English nation, making
+them all odious.  Colonel Dorp said openly that it was a shame for the
+country to refuse their own natural-born Count for strangers.  He swore
+that he would sing his song whose bread he had eaten.  A "fat militia
+captain" of the place, one Soyssons, on the other hand, privately
+informed Willoughby that Maurice and Barneveld were treating underhand
+with Spain.  Willoughby was inclined to believe the calumny, but feared
+that his corpulent friend would lose his head for reporting it.  Meantime
+the English commander did his best to strengthen the English party in
+their rebellion against the States.
+
+"But how if they make war upon us?"  asked the Leicestrians.
+
+"It is very likely," replied Willoughby, "that if they use violence you
+will have her Majesty's assistance, and then you who continue constant to
+the end will be rewarded accordingly.  Moreover, who would not rather be
+a horse-keeper to her Majesty, than a captain to Barneveld or Buys?"
+
+When at last the resignation of Leicester--presented to the States by
+Killegrew on the 31st March--seemed to promise comparative repose to the
+republic, the vexation of the Leicestrians was intense.  Their efforts.
+to effect a dissolution of the government had been rendered unsuccessful,
+when success seemed within their grasp.  "Albeit what is once executed
+cannot be prevented," said Captain Champernoun; "yet 'tis thought certain
+that if the resignation of Lord Leicester's commission had been deferred
+yet some little time; the whole country and towns would have so revolted
+and mutinied against the government and authority of the States, as that
+they should have had no more credit given them by the people than pleased
+her Majesty.  Most part of the people could see--in consequence of the
+troubles, discontent, mutiny of garrisons, and the like, that it was most
+necessary for the good success of their affairs that the power of the
+States should be abolished, and the whole government of his Excellency
+erected.  As these matters were busily working into the likelihood of
+some good effect, came the resignation of his Excellency's commission and
+authority, which so dashed the proceedings of it, as that all people and
+commanders well affected unto her Majesty and my Lord of Leicester are
+utterly discouraged.  The States, with their adherents, before they had
+any Lord's resignations were much perplexed what course to take, but now
+begin to hoist their heads."  The excellent Leicestrian entertained
+hopes, however; that mutiny and intrigue might still carry the day.
+He had seen the fat militiaman of Naarden and other captains, and,
+hoped much mischief from their schemes.  "The chief mutineers of
+Gertruydenberg," he said, "maybe wrought to send unto 'the States, that
+if they do not procure them some English governor, they will compound
+with the enemy, whereon the States shall be driven to request her Majesty
+to accept the place, themselves entertaining the garrison.  I know
+certain captains discontented with the States for arrears of pay, who
+will contrive to get into Naarden with their companies, with the States
+consent, who, once entered, will keep the place for their satisfaction,
+pay their soldiers out of the contributions of the country; and yet
+secretly hold the place at her Majesty's command."
+
+This is not an agreeable picture; yet it is but one out of many examples
+of the intrigues by which Leicester and his party were doing their best
+to destroy the commonwealth of the Netherlands at a moment when its
+existence was most important to that of England.
+
+To foment mutiny in order to subvert the authority of Maurice, was not
+a friendly or honourable course of action either towards Holland or
+England; and it was to play into the hands of Philip as adroitly as
+his own stipendiaries could have done.
+
+With mischief-makers like Champernoun in every city, and with such
+diplomatists at Ostend as Croft and Ropers and Valentine Dale, was it
+wonderful that the King and the Duke of Parma found time to mature their
+plans for the destruction of both countries?
+
+Lord Willoughby, too, was extremely dissatisfied with his own position.
+He received no commission from the Queen for several months.  When it at
+last reached him, it seemed inadequate, and he became more sullen than
+ever.  He declared that he would rather serve the Queen as a private
+soldier, at his own expense--"lean as his purse was"--than accept the
+limited authority conferred on him.  He preferred to show his devotion
+"in a beggarly state, than in a formal show."  He considered it beneath
+her Majesty's dignity that he should act in the field under the States,
+but his instructions forbade his acceptance of any office from that body
+but that of general in their service.  He was very discontented, and more
+anxious than ever to be rid of his functions.  Without being extremely
+ambitious, he was impatient of control.  He desired not "a larger-shaped
+coat," but one that fitted him better.  "I wish to shape my garment
+homely, after my cloth," he said, "that the better of my parish may not
+be misled by my sumptuousness.  I would live quietly, without great
+noise, my poor roof low and near the ground, not subject to be overblown
+with unlooked-for storms, while the sun seems most shining."
+
+Being the deadly enemy of the States and their leaders, it was a matter
+of course that he should be bitter against Maurice.  That young Prince,
+bold, enterprising, and determined, as he was, did not ostensibly meddle
+with political affairs more than became his years; but he accepted the
+counsels of the able statesmen in whom his father had trusted.  Riding,
+hunting, and hawking, seemed to be his chief delight at the Hague, in the
+intervals of military occupations.  He rarely made his appearance in the
+state-council during the winter, and referred public matters to the
+States-General, to the States of Holland, to Barneveld, Buys, and
+Hohenlo.  Superficial observers like George Gilpin regarded him as a
+cipher; others, like Robert Cecil, thought him an unmannerly schoolboy;
+but Willoughby, although considering him insolent and conceited, could
+not deny his ability.  The peace partisans among the burghers--a very
+small faction--were furious against him, for they knew that Maurice of
+Nassau represented war.  They accused of deep designs against the
+liberties of their country the youth who was ever ready to risk his life
+in their defence.  A burgomaster from Friesland, who had come across the
+Zuyder Zee to intrigue against the States' party, was full of spleen at
+being obliged to dance attendance for a long time at the Hague.  He
+complained that Count Maurice, green of years, and seconded by greener
+counsellors, was meditating the dissolution of the state-council, the
+appointment of a new board from his own creatures, the overthrow of all
+other authority, and the assumption of the, sovereignty of Holland and
+Zeeland, with absolute power.  "And when this is done;" said the rueful
+burgomaster, "he and his turbulent fellows may make what terms they like
+with Spain, to the disadvantage of the Queen and of us poor wretches."
+
+But there was nothing farther from the thoughts of the turbulent fellows
+than any negotiations with Spain.  Maurice was ambitious enough, perhaps,
+but his ambition ran in no such direction.  Willoughby knew better; and
+thought that by humouring the petulant young man it might be possible to
+manage him.
+
+"Maurice is young," he said, "hot-headed; coveting honour.  If we do but
+look at him through our fingers, without much words, but with providence
+enough, baiting his hook a little to his appetite, there is no doubt but
+he might be caught and kept in a fish-pool; while in his imagination he
+may judge it a sea.  If not, 'tis likely he will make us fish in troubled
+waters."
+
+Maurice was hardly the fish for a mill-pond even at that epoch, and it
+might one day be seen whether or not he could float in the great ocean
+of events.  Meanwhile, he swam his course without superfluous gambols or
+spoutings.
+
+The commander of her Majesty's forces was not satisfied with the States,
+nor their generals, nor their politicians.  "Affairs are going 'a malo in
+pejus,'" he said.  "They embrace their liberty as apes their young.  To
+this end are Counts Hollock and Maurice set upon the stage to entertain
+the popular sort.  Her Majesty and my Lord of Leicester are not
+forgotten.  The Counts are in Holland, especially Hollock, for the other
+is but the cipher.  And yet I can assure you Maurice hath wit and spirit
+too much for his time."
+
+As the troubles of the interregnum increased Willoughby was more
+dissatisfied than ever with the miserable condition of the Provinces,
+but chose to ascribe it to the machinations of the States' party,
+rather than to the ambiguous conduct of Leicester.  "These evils,"
+he said, "are especially, derived from the childish ambition of the
+young Count Maurice, from the covetous and furious counsels of the proud
+Hollanders, now chief of the States-General, and, if with pardon it may
+be said, from our slackness and coldness to entertain our friends.  The
+provident and wiser sort--weighing what a slender ground the appetite of
+a young man is, unfurnished with the sinews of war to manage so great a
+cause--for a good space after my Lord of Leicester's departure, gave him
+far looking on, to see him play has part on the stage."
+
+Willoughby's spleen caused him to mix his metaphors more recklessly than
+strict taste would warrant, but his violent expressions painted the
+relative situation of parties more vividly than could be done by a calm
+disquisition.  Maurice thus playing his part upon the stage--as the
+general proceeded to observe--"was a skittish horse, becoming by little
+and little assured of what he had feared, and perceiving the harmlessness
+thereof; while his companions, finding no safety of neutrality in so
+great practices, and no overturning nor barricado to stop his rash wilded
+chariot, followed without fear; and when some of the first had passed the
+bog; the rest, as the fashion is, never started after.  The variable
+democracy; embracing novelty, began to applaud their prosperity; the base
+and lewdest sorts of men, to whom there is nothing more agreeable than
+change of estates, is a better monture to degrees than their merit, took
+present hold thereof.  Hereby Paul Buys, Barneveld, and divers others,
+who were before mantled with a tolerable affection, though seasoned with
+a poisoned intention, caught the occasion, and made themselves the
+Beelzebubs of all these mischiefs, and, for want of better angels, spared
+not to let fly our golden-winged ones in the name of guilders, to prepare
+the hearts and hands that hold money more dearer than honesty, of which
+sort, the country troubles and the Spanish practices having suckled up
+many, they found enough to serve their purpose.  As the breach is safely
+saltable where no defence is made, so they, finding no head, but those
+scattered arms that were disavowed, drew the sword with Peter, and gave
+pardon with the Pope, as you shall plainly perceive by the proceedings
+at Horn.  Thus their force; fair words, or corruption, prevailing
+everywhere, it grew to this conclusion--that the worst were encouraged
+with their good success, and the best sort assured of no fortune or
+favour."
+
+Out of all this hubbub of stage-actors, skittish horses, rash wilded
+chariots, bogs, Beelzebubs, and golden-winged angels, one truth was
+distinctly audible; that Beelzebub, in the shape of Barneveld, had been
+getting the upper hand in the Netherlands, and that the Lecestrians were
+at a disadvantage.  In truth those partisans were becoming extremely
+impatient.  Finding themselves deserted by their great protector, they
+naturally turned their eyes towards Spain, and were now threatening to
+sell themselves to Philip.  The Earl, at his departure, had given them
+privately much encouragement.  But month after month had passed by while
+they were waiting in vain for comfort.  At last the "best"--that is to
+say, the unhappy Leicestrians--came to Willoughby, asking his advice in
+their "declining and desperate cause."
+
+"Well nigh a month longer," said that general, "I nourished them with
+compliments, and assured them that my Lord of Leicester would take care
+of them."  The diet was not fattening.  So they began to grumble more
+loudly than ever, and complained with great bitterness of the miserable
+condition in which they had been left by the Earl, and expressed their
+fears lest the Queen likewise meant to abandon them.  They protested that
+their poverty, their powerful foes, and their slow friends, would.
+compel them either to make their peace with the States' party, or
+"compound with the enemy."
+
+It would have seemed that real patriots, under such circumstances, would
+hardly hesitate in their choice, and would sooner accept the dominion of
+"Beelzebub," or even Paul Buys, than that of Philip II.  But the
+Leicestrians of Utrecht and Friesland--patriots as they were--hated
+Holland worse than they hated the Inquisition.  Willoughby encouraged
+them in that hatred.  He assured him of her Majesty's affection for them,
+complained of the factious proceedings of the States, and alluded to the
+unfavourable state of the weather, as a reason why--near four months
+long--they had not received the comfort out of England which they had a
+right to expect.  He assured them that neither the Queen nor Leicester
+would conclude this honourable action, wherein much had been hazarded,
+"so rawly and tragically" as they seemed to fear, and warned them, that
+"if they did join with Holland, it would neither ease nor help them, but
+draw them into a more dishonourable loss of their liberties; and that,
+after having wound them in, the Hollanders would make their own peace
+with the enemy."
+
+It seemed somewhat unfair-while the Queen's government was straining
+every nerve to obtain a peace from Philip, and while the Hollanders were
+obstinately deaf to any propositions for treating--that Willoughby should
+accuse them of secret intentions to negotiate.  But it must be confessed
+that faction has rarely worn a more mischievous aspect than was presented
+by the politics of Holland and England in the winter and spring of 1588.
+
+Young Maurice was placed in a very painful position.  He liked not to be
+"strangled in the great Queen's embrace;" but he felt most keenly the
+necessity of her friendship, and the importance to both countries of a
+close alliance.  It was impossible for him, however, to tolerate the
+rebellion of Sonoy, although Sonoy was encouraged by Elizabeth, or to fly
+in the face of Barneveld, although Barneveld was detested by Leicester.
+So with much firmness and courtesy, notwithstanding the extravagant
+pictures painted by Willoughby, he suppressed mutiny in Holland, while
+avowing the most chivalrous attachment to the sovereign of England.
+
+Her Majesty expressed her surprise and her discontent, that,
+notwithstanding his expressions of devotion to herself, he should
+thus deal with Sonoy, whose only crime was an equal devotion.  "If you
+do not behave with more moderation in future," she said, "you may believe
+that we are not a princess of so little courage as not to know how to
+lend a helping hand to those who are unjustly oppressed.  We should be
+sorry if we had cause to be disgusted with your actions, and if we were
+compelled to make you a stranger to the ancient good affection which we
+bore to your late father, and have continued towards yourself."
+
+But Maurice maintained a dignified attitude, worthy of his great father's
+name.  He was not the man to crouch like Leicester, when he could no
+longer refresh himself in the "shadow of the Queen's golden beams,"
+important as he knew her friendship to be to himself and his country.
+So he defended himself in a manly letter to the privy council against the
+censures of Elizabeth.  He avowed his displeasure, that, within his own
+jurisdiction, Sonoy should give a special oath of obedience to Leicester;
+a thing never done before in the country, and entirely illegal.  It would
+not even be tolerated in England, he said, if a private gentleman should
+receive a military appointment in Warwickshire or Norfolk without the
+knowledge of the lord-lieutenant of the shire.  He had treated the
+contumacious Sonoy with mildness during a long period, but without
+effect.  He had abstained from violence towards him, out of reverence to
+the Queen, under whose sacred name he sheltered himself.  Sonoy had not
+desisted, but had established himself in organized rebellion at
+Medenblik, declaring that he would drown the whole country, and levy
+black-mail upon its whole property, if he were not paid one hundred
+thousand crowns.  He had declared that he would crush Holland like a
+glass beneath his feet.  Having nothing but religion in his mouth, and
+protecting himself with the Queen's name, he had been exciting all the
+cities of North Holland to rebellion, and bringing the poor people to
+destruction.  He had been offered money enough to satisfy the most
+avaricious soldier in the world, but he stood out for six years' full
+pay for his soldiers, a demand with which it was impossible to comply.
+It was necessary to prevent him from inundating the land and destroying
+the estates of the country gentlemen and the peasants.  "This gentlemen,"
+said Maurice, "is the plain truth; nor do I believe that you will sustain
+against me a man who was under such vast obligations to my late father,
+and who requites his debt by daring to speak of myself as a rascal; or
+that you will countenance his rebellion against a country to which he
+brought only, his cloak and sword, and, whence he has filched one hundred
+thousand crowns.  You will not, I am sure, permit a simple captain, by
+his insubordination to cause such mischief, and to set on fire this and
+other Provinces.
+
+"If, by your advice," continued the Count; "the Queen should appoint
+fitting' personages to office here--men who know what honour is; born
+of illustrious and noble-race, or who by their great virtue have been
+elevated to the honours of the kingdom--to them I will render an account
+of my actions.  And it shall appear that I have more ability and more
+desire to do my duty, to her Majesty than those who render her lip-
+service only, and only make use of her sacred name to fill their purses,
+while I and, mine have been ever ready to employ our lives, and what
+remains of our fortunes, in the cause of God, her Majesty, and our
+country."
+
+Certainly no man had a better right: to speak with consciousness of the
+worth of race than the son of William the Silent, the nephew of Lewis,
+Adolphus, and Henry of Nassau,  who had all laid down their lives for
+the liberty of their country.  But Elizabeth continued to threaten the
+States-General, through the mouth of Willoughby, with the loss of her
+protection, if they should continue thus to requite her favours with
+ingratitude and insubordination: and Maurice once more respectfully but
+firmly replied that Sonoy's rebellion could not and would not be
+tolerated; appealing boldly to her sense of justice, which was the
+noblest attribute of kings.
+
+At last the Queen informed Willoughby, that--as the cause of Sonoy's
+course seemed to be his oath of obedience to Leicester, whose resignation
+of office had not yet been received in the Netherlands--she had now
+ordered Councillor Killigrew to communicate the fact of that resignation.
+She also wrote to Sonoy, requiring him to obey the States and Count
+Maurice, and to accept a fresh commission from them, or at least to
+surrender Medenblik, and to fulfil all their orders with zeal and
+docility.
+
+This act of abdication by Leicester, which had been received on the 22nd
+of January by the English envoy, Herbert, at the moment of his departure
+from the Netherlands, had been carried back by him to England, on the
+ground that its communication to the States at that moment would cause
+him inconveniently to postpone his journey.  It never officially reached
+the States-General until the 31st of March, so that this most dangerous
+crisis was protracted nearly five months long--certainly without
+necessity or excuse--and whether through design, malice, wantonness,
+or incomprehensible carelessness, it is difficult to say.
+
+So soon as the news reached Sonoy, that contumacious chieftain found his
+position untenable, and he allowed the States' troops to take possession
+of Medenblik, and with it the important territory of North Holland.
+
+Maurice now saw himself undisputed governor.  Sonoy was in the course of
+the summer deprived of all office, and betook himself to England.  Here
+he was kindly received by the Queen, who bestowed upon him a ruined
+tower, and a swamp among the fens of Lincolnshire.  He brought over some
+of his countrymen, well-skilled in such operations, set himself to
+draining and dyking, and hoped to find himself at home and comfortable in
+his ruined tower.  But unfortunately, as neither he nor his wife,
+notwithstanding their English proclivities, could speak a word of the
+language; they found their social enjoyments very limited.  Moreover,
+as his work-people were equally without the power of making their wants
+understood, the dyking operations made but little progress.  So the
+unlucky colonel soon abandoned his swamp, and retired to East Friesland,
+where he lived a morose and melancholy life on a pension of one thousand
+florins, granted him by the States of Holland, until the year 1597, when
+he lost his mind, fell into the fire, and thus perished.
+
+And thus; in the Netherlands, through hollow negotiations between enemies
+and ill-timed bickerings among friends, the path of Philip and Parma had
+been made comparatively smooth during the spring and early summer of
+1588.  What was the aspect of affairs in Germany and France?
+
+The adroit capture of Bonn by Martin Schenk had given much trouble.
+Parma was obliged to detach a strong force; under Prince Chimay, to
+attempt the recovery of that important place, which--so long as it
+remained in the power of the States--rendered the whole electorate
+insecure and a source of danger to the Spanish party.  Farnese
+endeavoured in vain to win back the famous partizan by most liberal
+offers, for he felt bitterly the mistake he had made in alienating so
+formidable a freebooter.  But the truculent Martin remained obdurate and
+irascible.  Philip, much offended that the news of his decease had proved
+false, ordered rather than requested the Emperor Rudolph to have a care
+that nothing was done in Germany to interfere with the great design upon
+England.  The King gave warning that he would suffer no disturbance from
+that quarter, but certainly the lethargic condition of Germany rendered
+such threats superfluous.  There were riders enough, and musketeers
+enough, to be sold to the highest bidder.  German food for powder was
+offered largely in the market to any foreign consumer, for the trade in
+their subjects', lives was ever a prolific source of revenue to the petty
+sovereigns--numerous as the days of the year--who owned Germany and the
+Germans.
+
+The mercenaries who had so recently been, making their inglorious
+campaign in France had been excluded from that country at the close of
+1587, and furious were the denunciations of the pulpits and the populace
+of Paris that the foreign brigands who had been devastating the soil of
+France, and attempting to oppose the decrees of the Holy Father of Rome,
+should; have made their escape so easily.  Rabid Lincestre and other
+priests and monks foamed with rage, as they execrated and anathematized
+the devil-worshipper Henry of Valois, in all the churches of that
+monarch's capital.  The Spanish ducats were flying about, more profusely
+than ever, among the butchers and porters, and fishwomen, of the great
+city; and Madam League paraded herself in the day-light with still
+increasing insolence.  There was scarcely a pretence at recognition of
+any authority, save that of Philip and Sixtus.  France had become a
+wilderness--an uncultivated, barbarous province of Spain.  Mucio--Guise
+had been secretly to Rome, had held interviews with the Pope and
+cardinals, and had come back with a sword presented by his Holiness,
+its hilt adorned with jewels, and its blade engraved with tongues of
+fire.  And with this flaming sword the avenging messenger of the holy
+father was to smite the wicked, and to drive them into outer darkness.
+
+And there had been fresh conferences among the chiefs of the sacred
+League within the Lorraine territory, and it was resolved to require of
+the Valois an immediate extermination of heresy and heretics throughout
+the kingdom, the publication of the Council of Trent, and the formal
+establishment of the Holy Inquisition in every province of France.  Thus,
+while doing his Spanish master's bidding, the great Lieutenant of the
+league might, if he was adroit enough, to outwit Philip, ultimately carve
+out a throne for himself.
+
+Yet Philip felt occasional pangs of uneasiness lest there should, after
+all, be peace in France, and lest his schemes against Holland and England
+might be interfered with from that quarter.  Even Farnese, nearer the
+scene, could, not feel completely secure that a sudden reconciliation
+among contending factions might not give rise to a dangerous inroad
+across the Flemish border.  So Guise was plied more vigourously than ever
+by the Duke with advice and encouragement, and assisted with such Walloon
+carabineers as could be spared, while large subsidies and larger promises
+came from Philip, whose prudent policy was never to pay excessive sums,
+until the work contracted for was done.  "Mucio must do the job long
+since agreed upon," said Philip to Farnese, "and you and Mendoza must see
+that he prevents the King of France from troubling me in my enterprize
+against England."  If the unlucky Henry III. had retained one spark of
+intelligence, he would have seen that his only chance of rescue lay in
+the arm of the Bearnese, and in an honest alliance with England.  Yet
+so strong was his love for the monks, who were daily raving against him,
+that he was willing to commit any baseness, in order to win back their
+affection.  He was ready to exterminate heresy and to establish the
+inquisition, but he was incapable of taking energetic measures of any
+kind, even when throne and life were in imminent peril.  Moreover, he
+clung to Epernon and the 'politiques,' in whose swords he alone found
+protection, and he knew that Epernon and the 'politiques' were the
+objects of horror to Paris and to the League.  At the same time he looked
+imploringly towards England and towards the great Huguenot chieftain,
+Elizabeth's knight-errant.  He had a secret interview with Sir Edward
+Stafford, in the garden of the Bernardino convent, and importuned that
+envoy to implore the Queen to break off her negotiations with Philip, and
+even dared to offer the English ambassador a large reward, if such a
+result could be obtained.  Stafford was also earnestly, requested to
+beseech the Queen's influence with Henry of Navarre, that he should
+convert himself to Catholicism, and thus destroy the League.
+
+On the other hand, the magniloquent Mendoza, who was fond of describing
+himself as "so violent and terrible to the French that they wished to be
+rid of him," had--as usual--been frightening the poor King, who, after a
+futile attempt at dignity, had shrunk before the blusterings of the
+ambassador.  "This King," said Don Bernardino, "thought that he could
+impose, upon me and silence me, by talking loud, but as I didn't talk
+softly to him, he has undeceived himself .  .  .  . I have had another
+interview with him, and found him softer than silk, and he made me many
+caresses, and after I went out, he said that I was a very skilful
+minister."
+
+It was the purpose of the League to obtain possession of the King's
+person, and, if necessary, to dispose of the 'politiques' by a general
+massacre, such as sixteen years before had been so successful in the case
+of Coligny and the Huguenots.  So the populace--more rabid than ever--
+were impatient that their adored Balafre should come to Paris and begin
+the holy work.
+
+He came as far as Gonesse to do the job he had promised to Philip, but
+having heard that Henry had reinforced himself with four thousand Swiss
+from the garrison of Lagny, he fell back to Soissons.  The King sent him
+a most abject message, imploring him not to expose his sovereign to so
+much danger, by setting his foot at that moment in the capital.  The
+Balafre hesitated, but the populace raved and roared for its darling.
+The Queen-Mother urged her unhappy son to yield his consent, and the
+Montpensier--fatal sister of Guise, with the famous scissors ever at her
+girdle--insisted that her brother had as good a right as any man to come
+to the city.  Meantime the great chief of the 'politiques,' the hated and
+insolent Epernon, had been appointed governor of Normandy, and Henry had
+accompanied his beloved minion a part of the way towards Rouen.  A plot
+contrived by the Montpensier to waylay the monarch on his return, and to
+take him into the safe-keeping of the League, miscarried, for the King
+reentered the city before the scheme was ripe.  On the other hand,
+Nicholas Poulain, bought for twenty thousand crowns by the 'politiques,'
+gave the King and his advisers-full information of all these intrigues,
+and, standing in Henry's cabinet, offered, at peril of his life, if he
+might be confronted with the conspirators--the leaders of the League
+within the city--to prove the truth of the charges which he had made.
+
+For the whole city was now thoroughly organized.  The number of its
+districts had been reduced from sixteen to five, the better to bring it
+under the control of the League; and, while it could not be denied that
+Mucio, had, been doing his master's work very thoroughly, yet it was
+still in the power of the King--through the treachery of Poulain--to
+strike a blow for life and freedom, before he was quite, taken in the
+trap.  But he stood helpless, paralyzed, gazing in dreamy stupor--like
+one fascinated at the destruction awaiting him.
+
+At last, one memorable May morning, a traveller alighted outside the gate
+of Saint Martin, and proceeded on foot through the streets of Paris.  He
+was wrapped in a large cloak, which he held carefully over his face.
+When he had got as far as the street of Saint Denis, a young gentleman
+among the passers by, a good Leaguer, accosted the stranger, and with
+coarse pleasantry, plucked the cloak from his face, and the hat from his
+head.  Looking at the handsome, swarthy features, marked with a deep
+scar, and the dark, dangerous eyes which were then revealed, the
+practical jester at once recognized in the simple traveller the terrible
+Balafre, and kissed the hem of his garments with submissive rapture.
+Shouts of "Vive Guise" rent the air from all the bystanders, as the Duke,
+no longer affecting concealment, proceeded with a slow and stately step
+toward the residence of Catharine de' Medici.'  That queen of compromises
+and of magic had been holding many a conference with the leaders of both
+parties; had been increasing her son's stupefaction by her enigmatical
+counsels; had been anxiously consulting her talisman of goat's and human
+blood, mixed with metals melted under the influence of the star of her
+nativity, and had been daily visiting the wizard Ruggieri, in whose magic
+circle--peopled with a thousand fantastic heads--she had held high
+converse with the world of spirits, and derived much sound advice as to
+the true course of action to be pursued between her son and Philip, and
+between the politicians and the League.  But, in spite of these various
+sources of instruction, Catharine--was somewhat perplexed, now that
+decisive action seemed necessary--a dethronement and a new massacre
+impending, and judicious compromise difficult.  So after a hurried
+conversation with Mucio, who insisted on an interview with the King, she
+set forth for the Louvre, the Duke lounging calmly by the aide of her,
+sedan chair, on foot, receiving the homage of the populace, as men,
+women, and children together, they swarmed around him as he walked,
+kissing his garments, and rending the air with their shouts.  For that
+wolfish mob of Paris, which had once lapped the blood of ten thousand
+Huguenots in a single night, and was again rabid with thirst, was most
+docile and fawning to the great Balafre.  It grovelled before him, it
+hung upon his look, it licked his hand, and, at the lifting of his
+finger, or the glance of his eye, would have sprung at the throat of King
+or Queen-Mother, minister, or minion, and devoured them all before his
+eyes.  It was longing for the sign, for, much as Paris adored and was
+besotted with Guise and the League, even more, if possible, did it hate
+those godless politicians, who had grown fat on extortions from the poor,
+and who had converted their substance into the daily bread of luxury.
+
+Nevertheless the city was full of armed men, Swiss and German
+mercenaries, and burgher guards, sworn to fidelity to the throne.  The
+place might have been swept clean, at that moment, of rebels who were not
+yet armed or fortified in their positions.  The Lord had delivered Guise
+into Henry's hands.  "Oh, the madman!"--cried Sixtus V., when he heard
+that the Duke had gone to Paris, "thus to put himself into the clutches
+of the King whom he had so deeply offended!"  And, "Oh, the wretched
+coward, the imbecile?"  he added, when he heard how the King had dealt
+with his great enemy.
+
+For the monarch was in his cabinet that May morning, irresolutely
+awaiting the announced visit of the Duke.  By his aide stood Alphonse
+Corse, attached as a mastiff to his master, and fearing not Guise nor
+Leaguer, man nor devil.
+
+"Sire, is the Duke of Guise your friend or enemy?"  said Alphonse.  The
+King answered by an expressive shrug.
+
+"Say the word, Sire," continued Alphonse, "and I pledge myself to bring
+his head this instant, and lay it at your feet."
+
+And he would have done it.  Even at the side of Catharine's sedan chair,
+and in the very teeth of the worshipping mob, the Corsican would have had
+the Balafre's life, even though he laid down his own.
+
+But Henry--irresolute and fascinated--said it was not yet time for such a
+blow.
+
+Soon afterward; the Duke was announced.  The chief of the League and the
+last of the Valois met, face to face; but not for the last time.  The
+interview--was coldly respectful on the part of Mucio, anxious and
+embarrassed on that of the King.  When the visit, which was merely one
+of ceremony, was over, the Duke departed as he came, receiving the
+renewed homage of the populace as he walked to his hotel.
+
+That night precautions were taken.  All the guards were doubled around
+the palace and through the streets.  The Hotel de Ville and the Place de
+la Greve were made secure, and the whole city was filled with troops.
+But the Place Maubert was left unguarded, and a rabble rout--all night
+long--was collecting in that distant spot.  Four companies of burgher-
+guards went over to the League at three o'clock in the morning.  The rest
+stood firm in the cemetery of the Innocents, awaiting the orders of the
+King.  At day-break on the 11th the town was still quiet.  There was an
+awful pause of expectation.  The shops remained closed all the morning,
+the royal troops were drawn up in battle-array, upon the Greve and around
+the Hotel de Ville, but they stood motionless as statues, until the
+populace began taunting them with cowardice, and then laughing them to
+scorn.  For their sovereign lord and master still sat paralyzed in his
+palace.
+
+The mob had been surging through all the streets and lanes, until,
+as by a single impulse, chains were stretched across the streets, and
+barricades thrown up in all the principal thoroughfares.  About noon the
+Duke of Guise, who had been sitting quietly in his hotel, with a very few
+armed followers, came out into the street of the Hotel Montmorency, and
+walked calmly up and down, arm-in-aim with the Archbishop of Lyons,
+between a double hedge-row of spectators and admirers, three or four
+ranks thick.  He was dressed in a white slashed doublet and hose, and
+wore a very large hat.  Shouts of triumph resounded from a thousand
+brazen throats, as he moved calmly about, receiving, at every instant,
+expresses from the great gathering in the Place Maubert.
+
+"Enough, too much, my good friends," he said, taking off the great hat--
+("I don't know whether he was laughing in it," observed one who was
+looking on that day)--"Enough of 'Long live Guise!' Cry 'Long live the
+King!'"
+
+There was no response, as might be expected, and the people shouted more
+hoarsely than ever for Madam League and the Balafre.  The Duke's face was
+full of gaiety; there was not a shadow of anxiety upon it in that
+perilous and eventful moment.  He saw that the day was his own.
+
+For now, the people, ripe, ready; mustered, armed, barricaded; awaited
+but a signal to assault the King's mercenaries, before rushing to the
+palace: On every house-top missiles were provided to hurl upon their
+heads.  There seemed no escape for Henry or his Germans from impending
+doom, when Guise, thoroughly triumphant, vouchsafed them their lives.
+
+"You must give me these soldiers as a present, my friends," said he to
+the populace.
+
+And so the armed Swiss, French, and German troopers and infantry,
+submitted to be led out of Paris, following with docility the aide-de-
+camp of Guise, Captain St. Paul, who walked quietly before them, with his
+sword in its scabbard, and directing their movements with a cane.  Sixty
+of them were slain by the mob, who could not, even at the command of
+their beloved chieftain, quite forego their expected banquet.  But this
+was all the blood shed on the memorable day of Barricades, when another
+Bartholomew massacre had been, expected.
+
+Meantime; while Guise was making his promenade through the city,
+exchanging embraces with the rabble; and listening to the coarse
+congratulations and obscene jests of the porters and fishwomen, the poor
+King sat crying all day long in the Louvre.  The Queen-Mother was with
+him, reproaching him bitterly with his irresolution and want of
+confidences in her, and scolding him for his tears.  But the unlucky
+Henry only wept the more as he cowered in a corner.
+
+"These are idle tears," said Catherine.  "This is no time for crying.
+And for myself, though women weep so easily; I feel my heart too deeply
+wrung for tears.  If they came to my eyes they would be tears of blood."
+
+Next day the last Valois walked-out, of the Louvre; as if for a promenade
+in, the Tuileries, and proceeded straightway to the stalls, where his
+horse stood saddled.  Du Halde, his equerry, buckled his master's spurs
+on upside down.  "No; matter;" said Henry; "I am not riding to see my
+mistress.  I have a longer journey before me."
+
+And so, followed by a rabble rout of courtiers, without boots or cloaks;
+and mounted on, sorry hacks--the King-of France rode forth from his
+capital post-haste, and turning as he left the gates, hurled back
+impotent imprecations upon Paris and its mob.  Thenceforth, for a long
+interval, there: was no king in that country.  Mucio had done his work,
+and earned his wages, and Philip II. reigned in Paris.  The commands
+of the League were now complied with.  Heretics were doomed to
+extermination.  The edict of 19th July, 1588, was published with the most
+exclusive and stringent provisions that the most bitter Romanist could
+imagine, and, as a fair beginning; two young girls, daughters of Jacques
+Forcade, once 'procureur au parlement,' were burned in Paris, for the
+crime, of Protestantism.  The Duke of Guise was named Generalissimo of
+the Kingdom (26th August, 1588).  Henry gave in his submission to
+the Council of Trent, the edicts, the Inquisition, and the rest of
+the League's infernal machinery, and was formally reconciled.
+to Guise, with how much sincerity time was soon to show.
+
+     [The King bound himself by oath to extirpate heresy, to remove all
+     persons suspected of that crime from office, and never to lay down
+     arms so long as a single, heretic remained.  By secret articles,'two
+     armies against the Huguenots were agreed upon, one under the Duke of
+     Mayenne, the other under some general to be appointed by the grog.
+     The Council of Trent was forthwith to be proclaimed, and by a
+     refinement of malice the League stipulated that all officers
+     appointed in Paris by the Duke of Guise on the day after the
+     barricades should resign their powers, and be immediately re-
+     appointed by the King himself (DeThou, x.1.  86, pp. 324-325.)]
+
+Meantime Philip, for whom and at whose expense all this work had been
+done by he hands of the faithful Mucio, was constantly assuring his royal
+brother of France, through envoy Longlee, at Madrid, of his most
+affectionate friendship, and utterly repudiating all knowledge of these
+troublesome and dangerous plots.  Yet they had been especially organized
+--as we have seen--by himself and the Balafre, in order that France might
+be kept a prey to civil war, and thus rendered incapable of offering any
+obstruction to his great enterprise against England.  Any complicity of
+Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in Paris, or, of the Duke of Parma, who
+were important agents in all these proceedings, with the Duke of Guise,
+was strenuously--and circumstantially--denied; and the Balafre, on the
+day of the barricades, sent Brissac to Elizabeth's envoy, Sir Edward
+Stafford, to assure him as to his personal safety; and as to the deep
+affection with which England and its Queen were regarded by himself and
+all his friends.  Stafford had also been advised to accept a guard for
+his house of embassy.  His reply was noble.
+
+"I represent the majesty of England," he said, "and can take no safeguard
+from a subject of the sovereign to whom I am accredited."
+
+To the threat of being invaded, and to the advice to close his gates, he
+answered, "Do you see these two doors? now, then, if I am attacked, I am
+determined to defend myself to the last drop of my blood, to serve as an
+example to the universe of the law of nations, violated in my person.  Do
+not imagine that I shall follow your advice.  The gates of an ambassador
+shall be open to all the world."
+
+Brissac returned with this answer to Guise, who saw that it was hopeless
+to attempt making a display in the eyes of Queen Elizabeth, but gave
+private orders that the ambassador should not be molested.
+
+Such were the consequences of the day of the barricades--and thus the
+path of Philip was cleared of all obstructions on, the part of France.
+His Mucio was now, generalissimo.  Henry was virtually deposed.  Henry of
+Navarre, poor and good-humoured as ever, was scarcely so formidable at
+that moment as he might one day become.  When the news of the day of
+barricades was brought at night to that cheerful monarch, he started from
+his couch.  "Ha," he exclaimed with a laugh, "but they havn't yet caught
+the Bearnese!"
+
+And it might be long before the League would catch the Bearnese; but,
+meantime, he could render slight assistance to Queen Elizabeth.
+
+In England there had been much fruitless negotiation between the
+government of that country and the commissioners from the States-General.
+There was perpetual altercation on the subject of Utrecht, Leyden, Sonoy,
+and the other causes of contention; the Queen--as usual--being imperious
+and choleric, and the envoys, in her opinion, very insolent.  But the
+principal topic of discussion was the peace-negotiations, which the
+States-General, both at home and through their delegation in England, had
+been doing their best to prevent; steadily refusing her Majesty's demand
+that commissioners, on their part, should be appointed to participate in
+the conferences at Ostend.  Elizabeth promised that there should be as
+strict regard paid to the interests of Holland as to those of England,
+in case of a pacification, and that she would never forget her duty to
+them, to herself, and to the world, as the protectress of the reformed
+religion.  The deputies, on the other hand, warned her that peace with
+Spain was impossible; that the intention of the Spanish court was to
+deceive her, while preparing her destruction and theirs; that it was
+hopeless to attempt the concession of any freedom of conscience from
+Philip II.; and that any stipulations which might be made upon that, or
+any other subject, by the Spanish commissioners, would be tossed to the
+wind.  In reply to the Queen's loud complaints that the States had been
+trifling with her, and undutiful to her, and that they had kept her
+waiting seven months long for an answer to her summons to participate in
+the negotiations, they replied, that up to the 15th October of the
+previous year, although there had been flying rumours of an intention on
+the part of her Majesty's government to open those communications with
+the enemy, it had, "nevertheless been earnestly and expressly, and with
+high words and oaths, denied that there was any truth in those rumours."
+Since that time the States had not once only, but many times, in private
+letters, in public documents, and in conversations with Lord Leicester
+and other eminent personages, deprecated any communications whatever with
+Spain, asserting uniformly their conviction that such proceedings would
+bring ruin on their country, and imploring her Majesty not to give ear to
+any propositions whatever.
+
+And not only were the envoys, regularly appointed by the States-General,
+most active in England, in their, attempts to prevent the negotiations,
+but delegates from the Netherland churches were also sent to the Queen,
+to reason with her on the subject, and to utter solemn warnings that the
+cause of the reformed religion would be lost for ever, in case of a
+treaty on her part with Spain.  When these clerical envoys reached
+England the Queen was already beginning to wake from her delusion;
+although her commissioners were still--as we have seen--hard at work,
+pouring sand through their sieves at Ostend, and although the steady
+protestations, of the Duke of Parma, and the industrious circulation of
+falsehoods by Spanish emissaries, had even caused her wisest statesmen,
+for a time, to participate in that delusion.
+
+For it is not so great an impeachment on the sagacity of the great Queen
+of England, as it would now appear to those who judge by the light of
+subsequent facts, that she still doubted whether the armaments,
+notoriously preparing in Spain and Flanders, were intended against
+herself; and that even if such were the case--she still believed in the
+possibility of averting the danger by negotiation.
+
+So late as the beginning of May, even the far-seeing and anxious
+Walsingham could say, that in England "they were doing nothing but
+honouring St. George, of whom the Spanish Armada seemed to be afraid.
+We hear," he added, "that they will not be ready to set forward before
+the midst of May, but I trust that it will be May come twelve months.
+The King of Spain is too old and too sickly to fall to conquer kingdoms.
+If he be well counselled, his best course will be to settle his own
+kingdoms in his own hands."
+
+And even much later, in the middle of July--when the mask was hardly,
+maintained--even then there was no certainty as to the movements of the
+Armada; and Walsingham believed, just ten days before the famous fleet
+was to appear off Plymouth, that it had dispersed and returned to Spain,
+never to re-appear.  As to Parma's intentions, they were thought to lie
+rather in the direction: of Ostend than of England; and Elizabeth; on the
+20th July, was more anxious for that city than for her own kingdom.
+"Mr. Ned, I am persuaded," she wrote to Morris, "that if a Spanish fleet
+break, the Prince of Parma's enterprise for England will fall to the
+ground, and then are you to look to Ostend.  Haste your works."
+
+All through the spring and early summer, Stafford, in Paris, was kept in
+a state of much perplexity as to the designs of Spain--so contradictory
+were the stories circulated--and so bewildering the actions of men known
+to be hostile to England.  In, the last days of April he intimated it as
+a common opinion in Paris, that these naval preparations of Philip were
+an elaborate farce; "that the great elephant would bring forth but a
+mouse--that the great processions, prayers, and pardons, at Rome, for the
+prosperous success of the Armada against England; would be of no effect;
+that the King of Spain was laughing in his sleeve at the Pope, that he
+could make such a fool of him; and that such an enterprise was a thing
+the King never durst think of in deed, but only in show to feed the
+world."
+
+Thus, although furnished with minute details as to these, armaments, and
+as to the exact designs of Spain against his country, by the ostentatious
+statements of the; Spanish ambassador in Paris himself, the English,
+envoy was still inclined to believe that these statements were a figment,
+expressly intended to deceive.  Yet he was aware that Lord Westmoreland,
+Lord Paget, Sir Charles Paget, Morgan, and other English refugees, were
+constantly meeting with Mendoza, that they were told to get themselves in
+readiness, and to go down--as well appointed as might be--to the Duke of
+Parma; that they had been "sending for their tailor to make them apparel,
+and to put themselves in equipage;" that, in particular, Westmoreland had
+been assured of being restored by Philip to his native country in better
+condition than before.  The Catholic and Spanish party in Paris were
+however much dissatisfied with the news from Scotland, and were getting
+more and more afraid that King James would object to the Spaniards
+getting a foot-hold in his country, and that "the Scots would soon be
+playing them a Scottish trick."
+
+Stafford was plunged still more inextricably into doubt by the accounts
+from Longlee in Madrid.  The diplomatist, who had been completely
+convinced by Philip as to his innocence of any participation in the
+criminal enterprise of Guise against Henry III., was now almost staggered
+by the unscrupulous mendacity of that monarch with regard to any supposed
+designs against England.  Although the Armada was to be ready by the 15th
+May, Longlee was of opinion--notwithstanding many bold announcements of
+an attack upon Elizabeth--that the real object of the expedition was
+America.  There had recently been discovered, it was said, "a new
+country, more rich in gold and silver than any yet found, but so full of
+stout people that they could not master them."  To reduce these stout
+people beyond the Atlantic, therefore, and to get possession of new gold
+mines, was the real object at which Philip was driving, and Longlee and
+Stafford were both very doubtful whether it were worth the Queen's while
+to exhaust her finances in order to protect herself against an imaginary
+invasion.  Even so late as the middle of July, six to one was offered on
+the Paris exchange that the Spanish fleet would never be seen in the
+English seas, and those that offered the bets were known to be well-
+wishers to the Spanish party.
+
+Thus sharp diplomatists and statesmen like Longlee, Stafford, and
+Walsingham, were beginning to lose their fear of the great bugbear by
+which England had so long been haunted.  It was, therefore no deep stain
+on the Queen's sagacity that she, too, was willing to place credence in
+the plighted honour of Alexander Farnese, the great prince who prided
+himself on his sincerity, and who, next to the King his master, adored
+the virgin Queen of England.
+
+The deputies of the Netherland churches had come, with the permission of
+Count Maurice and of the States General; but they represented more
+strongly than any other envoys could do, the English and the monarchical
+party.  They were instructed especially to implore the Queen to accept
+the sovereignty of their country; to assure her that the restoration of
+Philip--who had been a wolf instead of a shepherd to his flock--was an
+impossibility, that he had been solemnly and for ever deposed, that
+under her sceptre only could the Provinces ever recover their ancient
+prosperity; that ancient and modern history alike made it manifest
+that a free republic could never maintain itself, but that it must,
+of necessity, run its course through sedition, bloodshed, and anarchy,
+until liberty was at last crushed by an absolute despotism; that equality
+of condition, the basis of democratic institutions, could never be made
+firm; and that a fortunate exception, like that of Switzerland, whose
+historical and political circumstances were peculiar, could never serve
+as a model to the Netherlands, accustomed as those Provinces had ever
+been to a monarchical form of government; and that the antagonism of
+aristocratic and democratic elements in the States had already produced
+discord, and was threatening destruction to the whole country.  To avert
+such dangers the splendour of royal authority was necessary, according to
+the venerable commands of Holy Writ; and therefore the Netherland
+churches acknowledged themselves the foster-children of England, and
+begged that in political matters also the inhabitants of the Provinces
+might be accepted as the subjects of her Majesty.  They also implored the
+Queen to break off these accursed negotiations with Spain, and to provide
+that henceforth in the Netherlands the reformed religion might be freely
+exercised, to the exclusion of any other.
+
+Thus it was very evident that these clerical envoys, although they were
+sent by permission of the States, did not come as the representatives of
+the dominant party.  For that 'Beelzebub,' Barneveld, had different
+notions from theirs as to the possibility of a republic, and as to the
+propriety of tolerating other forms of worship than his own.  But it was
+for such pernicious doctrines, on religious matters in particular, that
+he was called Beelzebub, Pope John, a papist in disguise, and an atheist;
+and denounced, as leading young Maurice and the whole country to
+destruction.
+
+On the basis of these instructions, the deputies drew up a memorial of
+pitiless length, filled with astounding parallels between their own
+position and that of the Hebrews, Assyrians, and other distinguished
+nations of antiquity.  They brought it to Walsingham on the 12th July,
+1588, and the much enduring man heard it read from beginning to end.
+He expressed his approbation of its sentiments, but said it was too long.
+It must be put on one sheet of paper, he said, if her Majesty was
+expected to read it.
+
+"Moreover," said the Secretary of State, "although your arguments are
+full of piety, and your examples from Holy Writ very apt, I must tell you
+the plain truth.  Great princes are not always so zealous in religious
+matters as they might be.  Political transactions move them more deeply,
+and they depend too much on worldly things.  However there is no longer
+much danger, for our envoys will return from Flanders in a few days."
+
+"But," asked a deputy, "if the Spanish fleet does not succeed in its
+enterprise, will the peace-negotiations be renewed?"
+
+"By no means," said Walsingham; "the Queen can never do that,
+consistently with her honour.  They have scattered infamous libels
+against her--so scandalous, that you would be astounded should you read
+them.  Arguments drawn from honour are more valid with princes than any
+other."
+
+He alluded to the point in their memorial touching the free exercise of
+the reformed religion in the Provinces.
+
+"'Tis well and piously said," he observed; "but princes and great lords
+are not always very earnest in such matters.  I think that her Majesty's
+envoys will not press for the free exercise of the religion so very much;
+not more than for two or three years.  By that time--should our
+negotiations succeed--the foreign troops will have evacuated the
+Netherlands on condition that the States-General shall settle the
+religious question."
+
+"But," said Daniel de Dieu, one of the deputies, "the majority of the
+States is Popish."
+
+"Be it so," replied Sir Francis; "nevertheless they will sooner permit
+the exercise of the reformed religion than take up arms and begin the war
+anew."
+
+He then alluded to the proposition of the deputies to exclude all
+religious worship but that of the reformed church--all false religion--
+as they expressed themselves.
+
+"Her Majesty," said he, "is well disposed to permit some exercise of
+their religion to the Papists.  So far as regards my own feelings, if we
+were now in the beginning, of the reformation, and the papacy were still
+entire, I should willingly concede such exercise; but now that the Papacy
+has been overthrown, I think it would not be safe to give such
+permission.  When we were disputing, at the time of the pacification of
+Ghent, whether the Popish religion should be partially permitted, the
+Prince of Orange was of the affirmative opinion; but I, who was then at
+Antwerp, entertained the contrary conviction."
+
+"But," said one of the deputies--pleased to find that Walsingham was more
+of their way of thinking on religious toleration than the great Prince
+of Orange had been, or than Maurice and Barneveld then were--"but her
+Majesty will, we hope, follow the advice of her good and faithful
+counsellors."
+
+"To tell you the truth," answered Sir Francis, "great princes are not
+always inspired with a sincere and upright zeal;"--it was the third
+time he had made this observation"--although, so far as regards the
+maintenance of the religion in the Netherlands, that is a matter of
+necessity.  Of that there is no fear, since otherwise all the pious would
+depart, and none would remain but Papists, and, what is more, enemies of
+England.  Therefore the Queen is aware that the religion must be
+maintained."
+
+He then advised the deputies to hand in the memorial to her Majesty,
+without any long speeches, for which there was then no time or
+opportunity; and it was subsequently arranged that they should be
+presented to the Queen as she would be mounting her horse at St. James's
+to ride to Richmond.
+
+Accordingly on the 15th July, as her Majesty came forth at the gate, with
+a throng of nobles and ladies--some about to accompany her and some
+bidding her adieu--the deputies fell on their knees before her.
+Notwithstanding the advice of Walsingham, Daniel de Dieu was bent upon an
+oration.
+
+"Oh illustrious Queen!"  he began, "the churches of the United
+Netherlands----"
+
+He had got no further, when the Queen, interrupting, exclaimed, "Oh!  I
+beg you--at another time--I cannot now listen to a speech.  Let me see
+the memorial."
+
+Daniel de Dieu then humbly presented that document, which her Majesty
+graciously received, and then, getting on horseback, rode off to
+Richmond.'
+
+The memorial was in the nature of an exhortation to sustain the religion,
+and to keep clear of all negotiations with idolaters and unbelievers;
+and the memorialists supported themselves by copious references to
+Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Isaiah, Timothy, and Psalms, relying mainly on the
+case of Jehosaphat, who came to disgrace and disaster through his treaty
+with the idolatrous King Ahab.  With regard to any composition with
+Spain, they observed, in homely language, that a burnt cat fears the
+fire; and they assured the Queen that, by following their advice, she
+would gain a glorious and immortal name, like those of David, Ezekiel,
+Josiah, and others, whose fragrant memory, even as precious incense from
+the apothecary's, endureth to the end of the world.
+
+It was not surprising that Elizabeth, getting on horseback on the 15th
+July, 1588, with her head full of Tilbury Fort and Medina Sidonia, should
+have as little relish for the affairs of Ahab and Jehosophat, as for
+those melting speeches of Diomede and of Turnus, to which Dr. Valentine
+Dale on his part was at that moment invoking her attention.
+
+On the 20th July, the deputies were informed by Leicester that her
+Majesty would grant them an interview, July 20, and that they must
+come into his quarter of the palace and await her arrival.
+
+Between six and seven in the evening she came into the throne-room, and
+the deputies again fell on their knees before her.
+
+She then seated herself--the deputies remaining on their knees on her
+right side and the Earl of Leicester standing at her left--and proceeded
+to make many remarks touching her earnestness in the pending negotiations
+to provide for their religious freedom.  It seemed that she must have
+received a hint from Walsingham on the subject.
+
+"I shall provide," she said, "for the maintenance of the reformed
+worship."
+
+De Dieu--"The enemy will never concede it."
+
+The Queen.--"I think differently."
+
+De Dieu.--"There is no place within his dominions where he has permitted
+the exercise of the pure religion.  He has never done so."
+
+The Queen.--"He conceded it in the pacification of Ghent."
+
+De Dieu.--"But he did not keep his agreement.  Don John had concluded
+with the States, but said he was not held to his promise, in case he
+should repent; and the King wrote afterwards to our States, and said that
+he was no longer bound to his pledge."
+
+The Queen.--"That is quite another thing."
+
+De Dieu.--"He has very often broken his faith."
+
+The Queen.--"He shall no longer be allowed to do so.  If he does not keep
+his word, that is my affair, not yours.  It is my business to find the
+remedy.  Men would say, see in what a desolation the Queen of England has
+brought this poor people.  As to the freedom of worship, I should have
+proposed three or four years' interval--leaving it afterwards to the
+decision of the States."
+
+De Dieu.--"But the majority of the States is Popish."
+
+The Queen.--"I mean the States-General, not the States of any particular
+Province."
+
+De Dieu.--"The greater part of the States-General is Popish."
+
+The Queen.--"I mean the three estates--the clergy, the nobles, and the
+cities."  The Queen--as the deputies observed--here fell into an error.
+She thought that prelates of the reformed Church, as in England, had
+seats in the States-General.  Daniel de Dieu explained that they had no
+such position.
+
+The Queen.--"Then how were you sent hither?"
+
+De Dieu.--"We came with the consent of Count Maurice of Nassau."
+
+The Queen.--"And of the States?"
+
+De Dieu.--"We came with their knowledge."
+
+The Queen.--"Are you sent only from Holland and Zeeland?  Is there no
+envoy from Utrecht and the other Provinces?"
+
+Helmichius.--"We two," pointing to his colleague Sossingius, "are from
+Utrecht."
+
+The Queen.--"What?  Is this young man also a minister?"  She meant
+Helmichius, who had a very little beard, and looked young.
+
+Sossingius.--"He is not so young as he looks."
+
+The Queen.--"Youths are sometimes as able as old men."
+
+De Dieu.--"I have heard our brother preach in France more than fourteen
+years ago."
+
+The Queen.--"He must have begun young.  How old were you when you first
+became a preacher?"
+
+Helmichius.--"Twenty-three or twenty-four years of age."
+
+The Queen.--"It was with us, at first, considered a scandal that a man so
+young as that should be admitted to the pulpit.  Our antagonists
+reproached us with it in a book called 'Scandale de l'Angleterre,' saying
+that we had none but school-boys for ministers.  I understand that you
+pray for me as warmly as if I were your sovereign princess.  I think I
+have done as much for the religion as if I were your Queen."
+
+Helmichius.--"We are far from thinking otherwise.  We acknowledge
+willingly your Majesty's benefits to our churches."
+
+The Queen.--"It would else be ingratitude on your part."
+
+Helmichius.--"But the King of Spain will never keep any promise about the
+religion."
+
+The Queen.--"He will never come so far: he does nothing but make a noise
+on all sides.  Item, I don't think he has much confidence in himself."
+
+De Dieu.--"Your Majesty has many enemies.  The Lord hath hitherto
+supported you, and we pray that he may continue to uphold your Majesty."
+
+The Queen.--"I have indeed many enemies; but I make no great account of
+them.  Is there anything else you seek?"
+
+De Dieu.--"There is a special point: it concerns our, or rather your
+Majesty's, city of Flushing.  We hope that Russelius--(so he called Sir
+William Russell)--may be continued in its government, although he wishes
+his discharge."
+
+"Aha!" said the Queen, laughing and rising from her seat, "I shall not
+answer you; I shall call some one else to answer you."
+
+She then summoned Russell's sister, Lady Warwick.
+
+"If you could speak French," said the Queen to that gentlewoman,
+"I should bid you reply to these gentlemen, who beg that your brother
+may remain in Flushing, so very agreeable has he made himself to them."
+
+The Queen was pleased to hear this good opinion of Sir William, and this
+request that he might continue to be governor of Flushing, because he had
+uniformly supported the Leicester party, and was at that moment in high
+quarrel with Count Maurice and the leading members of the States.
+
+As the deputies took their leave, they requested an answer to their
+memorial, which was graciously promised.
+
+Three days afterwards, Walsingham gave them a written answer to their
+memorial--conceived in the same sense as had been the expressions of her
+Majesty and her counsellors.  Support to the Netherlands and stipulations
+for the free exercise of their religion were promised; but it was
+impossible for these deputies of the churches to obtain a guarantee from
+England that the Popish religion should be excluded from the Provinces,
+in case of a successful issue to the Queen's negotiation with Spain.
+
+And thus during all those eventful days-the last weeks of July and the
+first weeks of August--the clerical deputation remained in England,
+indulging in voluminous protocols and lengthened conversations with the
+Queen and the principal members of her government.  It is astonishing, in
+that breathless interval of history, that so much time could be found for
+quill-driving and oratory.
+
+Nevertheless, both in Holland and England, there had been other work than
+protocolling.  One throb of patriotism moved the breast of both nations.
+A longing to grapple, once for all, with the great enemy of civil and
+religious liberty inspired both.  In Holland, the States-General and all
+the men to whom the people looked for guidance, had been long deprecating
+the peace-negotiations.  Extraordinary supplies--more than had ever been
+granted before--were voted for the expenses of the campaign; and Maurice
+of Nassau, fitly embodying the warlike tendencies of his country and
+race, had been most importunate with Queen Elizabeth that she would
+accept his services and his advice.  Armed vessels of every size, from
+the gun-boat to the galleon of 1200 tons--then the most imposing ship
+in those waters--swarmed in all the estuaries and rivers, and along the
+Dutch and Flemish coast, bidding defiance to Parma and his armaments;
+and offers of a large contingent from the fleets of Jooat de Moor and
+Justinua de Nassau, to serve under Seymour and Howard, were freely made
+to the States-General.
+
+It was decided early in July, by the board of admiralty, presided over by
+Prince Maurice, that the largest square-rigged vessels of Holland and
+Zeeland should cruise between England and the Flemish coast, outside the
+banks; that a squadron of lesser ships should be stationed within the
+banks; and that a fleet of sloops and fly-boats should hover close in
+shore, about Flushing and Rammekens.  All the war-vessels of the little
+republic were thus fully employed.  But, besides this arrangement,
+Maurice was empowered to lay an embargo--under what penalty he chose and
+during his pleasure--on all square-rigged vessels over 300 tons, in order
+that there might be an additional supply in case of need.  Ninety ships
+of war under Warmond, admiral, and Van der Does, vice-admiral of Holland;
+and Justinus de Nassau, admiral, and Joost de Moor, vice-admiral of
+Zeeland; together with fifty merchant-vessels of the best and strongest,
+equipped and armed for active service, composed a formidable fleet.
+
+The States-General, a month before, had sent twenty-five or thirty good
+ships, under Admiral Rosendael, to join Lord Henry Seymour, then cruising
+between Dover and Calais.  A tempest, drove them back, and their absence
+from Lord Henry's fleet being misinterpreted by the English, the States
+were censured for ingratitude and want of good faith.  But the injustice
+of the accusation was soon made manifest, for these vessels, reinforcing
+the great Dutch fleet outside the banks, did better service than they
+could have done; in the straits.  A squadron of strong well-armed
+vessels, having on board, in addition to their regular equipment,
+a picked force of twelve hundred musketeers, long accustomed to this
+peculiar kind of naval warfare, with crews of, grim Zeelanders, who had
+faced Alva, and Valdez in their day, now kept close watch over Farnese,
+determined that he should never thrust his face out of any haven or nook
+on the coast so long as they should be in existence to prevent him.
+
+And in England the protracted diplomacy at Ostend, ill-timed though
+it was, had not paralyzed the arm or chilled the heart of the nation.
+When the great Queen, arousing herself from the delusion in which the
+falsehoods of Farnese and of Philip had lulled her, should once more.
+represent--as no man or woman better than Elizabeth Tudor could represent
+--the defiance of England to foreign insolence; the resolve of a whole
+people to die rather than yield; there was a thrill of joy through the
+national heart.  When the enforced restraint was at last taken off, there
+was one bound towards the enemy.  Few more magnificent spectacles have
+been seen in history than the enthusiasm which pervaded the country as
+the great danger, so long deferred, was felt at last to be closely
+approaching.  The little nation of four millions, the merry England of
+the sixteenth century, went forward to the death-grapple with its
+gigantic antagonist as cheerfully as to a long-expected holiday.
+Spain was a vast empire, overshadowing the world; England, in comparison,
+but a province; yet nothing could surpass the steadiness with which the
+conflict was awaited.
+
+For, during all the months of suspense; the soldiers and sailors, and
+many statesman of England, had deprecated, even as the Hollanders had
+been doing, the dangerous delays of Ostend.  Elizabeth was not embodying
+the national instinct, when she talked of peace; and shrank penuriously
+from the expenses of war.  There was much disappointment, even
+indignation, at the slothfulness with which the preparations for defence
+went on, during the period when there was yet time to make them.  It was
+feared with justice that England, utterly unfortified as were its cities,
+and defended only by its little navy without, and by untaught enthusiasm
+within, might; after all, prove an easier conquest than Holland and
+Zeeland, every town, in whose territory bristled with fortifications.
+If the English ships--well-trained and swift sailors as they were--were
+unprovided with spare and cordage, beef and biscuit, powder and shot,
+and the militia-men, however enthusiastic, were neither drilled nor
+armed, was it so very certain, after all, that successful resistance
+would be made to the great Armada, and to the veteran pikemen and
+musketeers of Farnese, seasoned on a hundred, battlefields, and equipped
+as for a tournament?  There was generous confidence and chivalrous
+loyalty on the part of Elizabeth's naval and military commanders; but
+there had been deep regret and disappointment at her course.
+
+Hawkins was anxious, all through the winter and spring, to cruise with a
+small squadron off the coast of Spain.  With a dozen vessels he undertook
+to "distress anything that went through the seas."  The cost of such a
+squadron, with eighteen hundred men, to be relieved every four months, he
+estimated at two thousand seven hundred pounds sterling the month, or a
+shilling a day for each man; and it would be a very unlucky month, he
+said, in which they did not make captures to three times that amount; for
+they would see nothing that would not be presently their own.  "We might
+have peace, but not with God," said the pious old slave-trader; "but
+rather than serve Baal, let us die a thousand deaths.  Let us have open
+war with these Jesuits, and every man will contribute, fight, devise, or
+do, for the liberty of our country."
+
+And it was open war with the Jesuits for which those stouthearted sailors
+longed.  All were afraid of secret mischief.  The diplomatists--who were
+known to be flitting about France, Flanders, Scotland, and England--were
+birds of ill omen.  King James was beset by a thousand bribes and
+expostulations to avenge his mother's death; and although that mother had
+murdered his father, and done her best to disinherit himself, yet it was
+feared that Spanish ducats might induce him to be true to his mother's
+revenge, and false to the reformed religion.  Nothing of good was hoped
+for from France.  "For my part," said Lord Admiral Howard, "I have made
+of the French King, the Scottish King, and the King of Spain, a trinity
+that I mean never to trust to be saved by, and I would that others were
+of my opinion."
+
+The noble sailor, on whom so much responsibility rested, yet who was so
+trammelled and thwarted by the timid and parsimonious policy of Elizabeth
+and of Burghley, chafed and shook his chains like a captive.  "Since
+England was England," he exclaimed, "there was never such a stratagem
+and mask to deceive her as this treaty of peace.  I pray God that we do
+not curse for this a long grey beard with a white head witless, that will
+make all the world think us heartless.  You know whom I mean."  And it
+certainly was not difficult to understand the allusion to the pondering
+Lord-Treasurer."  'Opus est aliquo Daedalo,' to direct us out of the
+maze," said that much puzzled statesman; but he hardly seemed to be
+making himself wings with which to lift England and himself out of the
+labyrinth.  The ships were good ships, but there was intolerable delay in
+getting a sufficient number of them as ready for action as was the spirit
+of their commanders.
+
+"Our ships do show like gallants here," said Winter; "it would do a man's
+heart good to behold them.  Would to God the Prince of Parma were on the
+seas with all his forces, and we in sight of them.  You should hear that
+we would make his enterprise very unpleasant to him."
+
+And Howard, too, was delighted not only with his own little flag-ship the
+Ark-Royal--"the odd ship of the world for all conditions,"--but with all
+of his fleet that could be mustered.  Although wonders were reported, by
+every arrival from the south, of the coming Armada, the Lord-Admiral was
+not appalled.  He was perhaps rather imprudent in the defiance he flung
+to the enemy.  "Let me have the four great ships and twenty hoys, with
+but twenty men a-piece, and each with but two iron pieces, and her
+Majesty shall have a good account of the Spanish forces; and I will make
+the King wish his galleys home again.  Few as we are, if his forces be
+not hundreds, we will make good sport with them."
+
+But those four great ships of her Majesty, so much longed for by Howard,
+were not forthcoming.  He complained that the Queen was "keeping them to
+protect Chatham Church withal, when they should be serving their turn
+abroad."  The Spanish fleet was already reported as numbering from 210
+sail, with 36,000 men,' to 400 or 500 ships, and 80,000 soldiers and
+mariners; and yet Drake was not ready with his squadron.  "The fault is
+not in him," said Howard, "but I pray God her Majesty do not repent her
+slack dealing.  We must all lie together, for we shall be stirred very
+shortly with heave ho!  I fear ere long her Majesty will be sorry she
+hath believed some so much as she hath done."
+
+Howard had got to sea, and was cruising all the stormy month of March in
+the Channel with his little unprepared squadron; expecting at any moment
+--such was the profound darkness which, enveloped the world at that day--
+that the sails of the Armada might appear in the offing.  He made a visit
+to the Dutch coast, and was delighted with the enthusiasm with which he
+was received.  Five thousand people a day came on board his ships, full
+of congratulation and delight; and he informed the Queen that she was not
+more assured of the Isle of Sheppey than of Walcheren.
+
+Nevertheless time wore on, and both the army and navy of England were
+quite unprepared, and the Queen was more reluctant than ever to incur the
+expense necessary to the defence of her kingdom.  At least one of those
+galleys, which, as Howard bitterly complained, seemed destined to defend
+Chatham Church, was importunately demanded; but it was already Easter-Day
+(17th April), and she was demanded in vain.  "Lord! when should she
+serve," said the Admiral, "if not at such a time as this?  Either she is
+fit now to serve, or fit for the fire.  I hope never in my time to see so
+great a cause for her to be used.  I dare say her Majesty will look that
+men should fight for her, and I know they will at this time.  The King of
+Spain doth not keep any ship at home, either of his own or any other,
+that he can get for money.  Well, well, I must pray heartily for peace,"
+said Howard with increasing spleen, "for I see the support of an
+honourable, war will never appear.  Sparing and war have no affinity
+together."
+
+In truth Elizabeth's most faithful subjects were appalled at the ruin
+which she seemed by her mistaken policy to be rendering inevitable.  "I
+am sorry," said the Admiral, "that her Majesty is so careless of this
+most dangerous time.  I fear me much, and with grief I think it, that she
+relieth on a hope that will deceive her, and greatly endanger her, and
+then it will not be her money nor her jewels that will help; for as they
+will do good in time, so they will help nothing for the redeeming of
+time."
+
+The preparations on shore were even more dilatory than those on the sea.
+We have seen that the Duke of Parma, once landed, expected to march
+directly upon London; and it was notorious that there were no fortresses
+to oppose a march of the first general in Europe and his veterans upon
+that unprotected and wealthy metropolis.  An army had been enrolled--a
+force of 86,016 foot, and 13,831 cavalry; but it was an army on paper
+merely.  Even of the 86,000, only 48,000 were set down as trained;
+and it is certain that the training had been of the most meagre and
+unsatisfactory description.  Leicester was to be commander-in-chief; but
+we have already seen that nobleman measuring himself, not much to his
+advantage, with Alexander Farnese, in the Isle of Bommel, on the sands of
+Blankenburg, and at the gates of Sluys.  His army was to consist of
+27,000 infantry, and 2000 horse; yet at midsummer it had not reached half
+that number.  Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon was to protect the Queen's person
+with another army of 36,000; but this force, was purely an imaginary one;
+and the lord-lieutenant of each county was to do his best with the
+militia.  But men were perpetually escaping out of the general service,
+in order to make themselves retainers for private noblemen, and be kept
+at their expense.  "You shall hardly believe," said Leicester, "how many
+new liveries be gotten within these six weeks, and no man fears the
+penalty.  It would be better that every nobleman did as Lord Dacres, than
+to take away from the principal service such as are set down to serve."
+
+Of enthusiasm and courage, then, there was enough, while of drill and
+discipline, of powder and shot, there was a deficiency.  No braver or
+more competent soldier could be found than Sir Edward Stanley--the man
+whom we have seen in his yellow jerkin, helping himself into Fort Zutphen
+with the Spanish soldier's pike--and yet Sir Edward Stanley gave but a
+sorry account of the choicest soldiers of Chester and Lancashire, whom he
+had been sent to inspect.  "I find them not," he said, "according to your
+expectation, nor mine own liking.  They were appointed two years past to
+have been trained six days by the year or more, at the discretion of the
+muster-master, but, as yet, they have not been trained one day, so that
+they have benefited nothing, nor yet know their leaders.  There is now
+promise of amendment, which, I doubt, will be very slow, in respect to my
+Lord Derby's absence."
+
+My Lord Derby was at that moment, and for many months afterwards,
+assisting Valentine Dale in his classical prolusions on the sands of
+Bourbourg.  He had better have been mustering the trainbands of
+Lancashire.  There was a general indisposition in the rural districts to
+expend money and time in military business, until the necessity should
+become imperative.  Professional soldiers complained bitterly of the
+canker of a long peace.  "For our long quietness, which it hath pleased
+God to send us," said Stanley, "they think their money very ill bestowed
+which they expend on armour or weapon, for that they be in hope they
+shall never have occasion to use it, so they may pass muster, as they
+have done heretofore.  I want greatly powder, for there is little or none
+at all."
+
+The day was fast approaching when all the power in England would be too
+little for the demand.  But matters had not very much mended even at
+midsummer.  It is true that Leicester, who was apt to be sanguine-
+particularly in matters under his immediate control--spoke of the handful
+of recruits assembled at his camp in Essex, as "soldiers of a year's
+experience, rather than a month's camping; "but in this opinion he
+differed from many competent authorities, and was somewhat in
+contradiction to himself.  Nevertheless he was glad that the Queen had
+determined to visit him, and encourage his soldiers.
+
+"I have received in secret," he said, "those news that please me, that
+your Majesty doth intend to behold the poor and bare company that lie
+here in the field, most willingly to serve you, yea, most ready to die
+for you.  You shall, dear Lady, behold as goodly, loyal, and as able men
+as any prince Christian can show you, and yet but a handful of your own,
+in comparison of the rest you have.  What comfort not only these shall
+receive who shall be the happiest to behold yourself I cannot express;
+but assuredly it will give no small comfort to the rest, that shall be
+overshined with the beams of so gracious and princely a party, for what
+your royal Majesty shall do to these will be accepted as done to all.
+Good sweet Queen, alter not your purpose, if God give you health.  It
+will be your pain for the time, but your pleasure to behold such people.
+And surely the place must content you, being as fair a soil and as goodly
+a prospect as may be seen or found, as this extreme weather hath made
+trial, which doth us little annoyance, it is so firm and dry a ground.
+Your usher also liketh your lodging--a proper, secret, cleanly house.
+Your camp is a little mile off, and your person will be as sure as at St.
+James's, for my life."
+
+But notwithstanding this cheerful view of the position expressed by the
+commander-in-chief, the month of July had passed, and the early days of
+August had already arrived; and yet the camp was not formed, nor anything
+more than that mere handful of troops mustered about Tilbury, to defend
+the road from Dover to London.  The army at Tilbury never, exceeded
+sixteen or seventeen thousand men.
+
+The whole royal navy-numbering about thirty-four vessels in all--of
+different sizes, ranging from 1100 and 1000 tons to 30, had at last been
+got ready for sea.  Its aggregate tonnage was 11,820; not half so much as
+at the present moment--in the case of one marvellous merchant-steamer--
+floats upon a single keel.
+
+These vessels carried.  837 guns and 6279 men.  But the navy was
+reinforced by the patriotism and liberality of English merchants and
+private gentlemen.  The city of London having been requested to furnish
+15 ships of war and 5000 men, asked two days for deliberation, and then
+gave 30 ships and 10,000 men of which number 2710 were seamen.  Other
+cities, particularly Plymouth, came forward with proportionate
+liberality, and private individuals, nobles, merchants, and men of
+humblest rank, were enthusiastic in volunteering into the naval service,
+to risk property and life in defence of the country.  By midsummer there
+had been a total force of 197 vessels manned, and partially equipped,
+with an aggregate of 29,744 tons, and 15,785 seamen.  Of this fleet a
+very large number were mere coasters of less than 100 tons each; scarcely
+ten ships were above 500, and but one above 1000 tons--the Triumph,
+Captain Frobisher, of 1100 tons, 42 guns, and 500 sailors.
+
+Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High-Admiral of England, distinguished for
+his martial character, public spirit, and admirable temper, rather than
+for experience or skill as a seaman, took command of the whole fleet, in
+his "little odd ship for all conditions," the Ark-Royal, of 800 tons, 425
+sailors, and 55 guns.
+
+Next in rank was Vice-Admiral Drake, in the Revenge, of 500 tons, 250 men
+and 40 guns.  Lord Henry Seymour, in the Rainbow, of precisely the same
+size and strength, commanded the inner squadron, which cruised in the
+neighbourhood of the French and Flemish coast.
+
+The Hollanders and Zeelanders had undertaken to blockade the Duke of
+Parma still more closely, and pledged themselves that he should never
+venture to show himself upon the open sea at all.  The mouth of the
+Scheldt, and the dangerous shallows off the coast of Newport and Dunkirk,
+swarmed with their determined and well-seasoned craft, from the flybooter
+or filibuster of the rivers, to the larger armed vessels, built to
+confront every danger, and to deal with any adversary.
+
+Farnese, on his part, within that well-guarded territory, had, for months
+long, scarcely slackened in his preparations, day or night.  Whole
+forests had been felled in the land of Waas to furnish him with
+transports and gun-boats, and with such rapidity, that--according to his
+enthusiastic historiographer--each tree seemed by magic to metamorphose
+itself into a vessel at the word of command.  Shipbuilders, pilots, and
+seamen, were brought from the Baltic, from Hamburgh, from Genoa.  The
+whole surface of the obedient Netherlands, whence wholesome industry had
+long been banished, was now the scene of a prodigious baleful activity.
+Portable bridges for fording the rivers of England, stockades for
+entrenchments, rafts and oars, were provided in vast numbers, and
+Alexander dug canals and widened natural streams to facilitate his
+operations.  These wretched Provinces, crippled, impoverished,
+languishing for peace, were forced to contribute out of their poverty,
+and to find strength even in their exhaustion, to furnish the machinery
+for destroying their own countrymen, and for hurling to perdition their
+most healthful neighbour.
+
+And this approaching destruction of England--now generally believed in--
+was like the sound of a trumpet throughout Catholic Europe.  Scions of
+royal houses, grandees of azure blood, the bastard of Philip II., the
+bastard of Savoy, the bastard of Medici, the Margrave of Burghaut, the
+Archduke Charles, nephew of the Emperor, the Princes of Ascoli and of
+Melfi, the Prince of Morocco, and others of illustrious name, with many
+a noble English traitor, like Paget, and Westmoreland, and Stanley, all
+hurried to the camp of Farnese, as to some famous tournament, in which it
+was a disgrace to chivalry if their names were not enrolled.  The roads
+were trampled with levies of fresh troops from Spain, Naples, Corsica,
+the States of the Church, the Milanese, Germany, Burgundy.
+
+Blas Capizucca was sent in person to conduct reinforcements from the
+north of Italy.  The famous Terzio of Naples, under Carlos Pinelo,
+arrived 3500 strong--the most splendid regiment ever known in the history
+of war.  Every man had an engraved corslet and musket-barrel, and there
+were many who wore gilded armour, while their waving plumes and festive
+caparisons made them look like holiday-makers, rather than real
+campaigners, in the eyes of the inhabitants of the various cities through
+which their road led them to Flanders.  By the end of April the Duke of
+Parma saw himself at the head of 60,000 men, at a monthly expense of
+454,315 crowns or dollars.  Yet so rapid was the progress of disease--
+incident to northern climates--among those southern soldiers, that we
+shall find the number woefully diminished before they were likely to set
+foot upon the English shore.
+
+Thus great preparations, simultaneously with pompous negotiations, had
+been going forward month after month, in England, Holland, Flanders.
+Nevertheless, winter, spring, two-thirds of summer, had passed away, and
+on the 29th July, 1588, there remained the same sickening uncertainty,
+which was the atmosphere in which the nations had existed for a
+twelvemonth.
+
+Howard had cruised for a few weeks between England and Spain, without any
+results, and, on his return, had found it necessary to implore her
+Majesty, as late as July, to "trust no more to Judas' kisses, but to her
+sword, not her enemy's word."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A burnt cat fears the fire
+A free commonwealth--was thought an absurdity
+Baiting his hook a little to his appetite
+Canker of a long peace
+Englishmen and Hollanders preparing to cut each other's throats
+Faction has rarely worn a more mischievous aspect
+Hard at work, pouring sand through their sieves
+She relieth on a hope that will deceive her
+Sparing and war have no affinity together
+The worst were encouraged with their good success
+Trust her sword, not her enemy's word
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v56
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 57, 1588
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.  Part 1.
+
+     Philip Second in his Cabinet--His System of Work and Deception--His
+     vast but vague Schemes of Conquest--The Armada sails--Description of
+     the Fleet--The Junction with Parma unprovided for--The Gale off
+     Finisterre--Exploits of David Gwynn--First Engagements in the
+     English Channel--Considerable Losses of the Spaniards--General
+     Engagement near Portland--Superior Seamanship of the English
+
+It is now time to look in upon the elderly letter-writer in the Escorial,
+and see how he was playing his part in the drama.
+
+His counsellors were very few.  His chief advisers were rather like
+private secretaries than cabinet ministers; for Philip had been
+withdrawing more and more into seclusion and mystery as the webwork of
+his schemes multiplied and widened.  He liked to do his work, assisted by
+a very few confidential servants.  The Prince of Eboli, the famous Ruy
+Gomez, was dead.  So was Cardinal Granvelle.  So were Erasso and Delgado.
+His midnight council--junta de noche--for thus, from its original hour of
+assembling, and the all of secrecy in which it was enwrapped, it was
+habitually called--was a triumvirate.  Don Juan de Idiaquez was chief
+secretary of state and of war; the Count de Chinchon was minister for the
+household, for Italian affairs, and for the kingdom of Aragon; Don
+Cristoval de Moura, the monarch's chief favourite, was at the head of the
+finance department, and administered the affairs of Portugal and Castile!
+
+The president of the council of Italy, after Granvelle's death, was
+Quiroga, cardinal of Toledo, and inquisitor-general.  Enormously long
+letters, in the King's: name, were prepared chiefly by the two
+secretaries, Idiaquez and Moura.  In their hands was the vast
+correspondence with Mendoza and Parma, and Olivarez at Rome, and with
+Mucio; in which all the stratagems for the subjugation of Protestant
+Europe were slowly and artistically contrived.  Of the great conspiracy
+against human liberty, of which the Pope and Philip were the double head,
+this midnight triumvirate was the chief executive committee.
+
+These innumerable despatches, signed by Philip, were not the emanations
+of his own mind.  The King had a fixed purpose to subdue Protestantism
+and to conquer the world; but the plans for carrying the purpose into
+effect were developed by subtler and more comprehensive minds than his
+own.  It was enough for him to ponder wearily over schemes which he was
+supposed to dictate, and to give himself the appearance of supervising
+what he scarcely comprehended.  And his work of supervision was often
+confined to pettiest details.  The handwriting of Spain and Italy at that
+day was beautiful, and in our modern eyes seems neither antiquated nor
+ungraceful.  But Philip's scrawl was like that of 'a' clown just admitted
+to a writing-school, and the whole margin of a fairly penned despatch
+perhaps fifty pages long; laid before him for comment and signature by
+Idiaquez or Moura, would be sometimes covered with a few awkward
+sentences, which it was almost impossible to read, and which, when
+deciphered, were apt to reveal suggestions of astounding triviality.
+
+Thus a most important despatch--in which the King, with his own hand, was
+supposed to be conveying secret intelligence to Mendoza concerning the
+Armada, together with minute directions for the regulation of Guise's
+conduct at the memorable epoch of the barricades--contained but a single
+comment from the monarch's own pen.  "The Armada has been in Lisbon about
+a month--quassi un mes"--wrote the secretary.  "There is but one s in
+quasi," said Philip.
+
+Again, a despatch of Mendoza to the King contained the intelligence that
+Queen Elizabeth was, at the date of the letter, residing at St. James's.
+Philip, who had no objection to display his knowledge of English affairs
+--as became the man who had already been almost sovereign of England, and
+meant to be entirely so--supplied a piece of information in an apostille
+to this despatch.  "St. James is a house of recreation," he said, "which
+was once a monastery.  There is a park between it, and the palace which
+is called Huytal; but why it is called Huytal, I am sure I don't know."
+His researches in the English language had not enabled him to recognize
+the adjective and substantive out of which the abstruse compound White-
+Hall (Huyt-al), was formed.
+
+On another occasion, a letter from England containing important
+intelligence concerning the number of soldiers enrolled in that country
+to resist the Spanish invasion, the quantity of gunpowder and various
+munitions collected, with other details of like nature, furnished besides
+a bit of information of less vital interest.  "In the windows of the
+Queen's presence-chamber they have discovered a great quantity of lice,
+all clustered together," said the writer.
+
+Such a minute piece of statistics could not escape the microscopic eye
+of Philip.  So, disregarding the soldiers and the gunpowder, he commented
+only on this last-mentioned clause of the letter; and he did it
+cautiously too, as a King surnamed the Prudent should:--
+
+"But perhaps they were fleas," wrote Philip.
+
+Such examples--and many more might be given--sufficiently indicate the
+nature of the man on whom such enormous responsibilities rested, and who
+had been, by the adulation of his fellow-creatures, elevated into a god.
+And we may cast a glance upon him as he sits in his cabinet-buried among
+those piles of despatches--and receiving methodically, at stated hours,
+Idiaquez, or Moura, or Chincon, to settle the affairs of so many millions
+of the human race; and we may watch exactly the progress of that scheme,
+concerning which so many contradictory rumours were circulating in
+Europe.  In the month of April a Walsingham could doubt, even in August
+an ingenuous comptroller could disbelieve, the reality of the great
+project, and the Pope himself, even while pledging himself to assistance,
+had been systematically deceived.  He had supposed the whole scheme
+rendered futile by the exploit of Drake at Cadiz, and had declared that
+"the Queen of England's distaff was worth more than Philip's sword, that
+the King was a poor creature, that he would never be able to come to a
+resolution, and that even if he should do so, it would be too late;" and
+he had subsequently been doing his best, through his nuncio in France, to
+persuade the Queen to embrace the Catholic religion, and thus save
+herself from the impending danger.  Henry III. had even been urged by the
+Pope to send a special ambassador to her for this purpose--as if the
+persuasions of the wretched Valois were likely to be effective with
+Elizabeth Tudor--and Burghley had, by means of spies in Rome, who
+pretended to be Catholics, given out intimations that the Queen was
+seriously contemplating such a step.  Thus the Pope, notwithstanding
+Cardinal Allan, the famous million, and the bull, was thought by Mendoza
+to be growing lukewarm in the Spanish cause, and to be urging upon the
+"Englishwoman" the propriety of converting herself, even at the late hour
+of May, 1588.
+
+But Philip, for years, had been maturing his scheme, while reposing
+entire confidence--beyond his own cabinet doors--upon none but Alexander
+Farnese; and the Duke--alone of all men--was perfectly certain that the
+invasion would, this year, be attempted.
+
+The captain-general of the expedition was the Marquis of Santa Cruz, a
+man of considerable naval experience, and of constant good fortune, who,
+in thirty years, had never sustained a defeat.  He had however shown no
+desire to risk one when Drake had offered him the memorable challenge in
+the year 1587, and perhaps his reputation of the invincible captain had
+been obtained by the same adroitness on previous occasions.  He was no
+friend to Alexander Farnese, and was much disgusted when informed of
+the share allotted to the Duke in the great undertaking.  A course of
+reproach and perpetual reprimand was the treatment to which he was, in
+consequence, subjected, which was not more conducive to the advancement
+of the expedition than it was to the health of the captain-general.
+Early in January the Cardinal Archduke was sent to Lisbon to lecture him,
+with instructions to turn a deaf ear to all his remonstrances, to deal
+with him peremptorily, to forbid his writing letters on the subject to
+his Majesty, and to order him to accept his post or to decline it without
+conditions, in which latter contingency he was to be informed that his
+successor was already decided upon.
+
+This was not the most eligible way perhaps for bringing the captain-
+general into a cheerful mood; particularly as he was expected to be
+ready in January to sail to the Flemish coast.  Nevertheless the Marquis
+expressed a hope to accomplish his sovereign's wishes; and great had
+been the bustle in all the dockyards of Naples, Sicily, and Spain;
+particularly in the provinces of Guipuzcoa, Biscay, and Andalusia,
+and in the four great cities of the coast.  War-ships of all dimensions,
+tenders, transports, soldiers, sailors, sutlers, munitions of war,
+provisions, were all rapidly concentrating in Lisbon as the great place
+of rendezvous; and Philip confidently believed, and as confidently
+informed the Duke of Parma, that he, might be expecting the Armada at any
+time after the end of January.
+
+Perhaps in the history of mankind there has never been a vast project of
+conquest conceived and matured in so protracted and yet so desultory a
+manner, as was this famous Spanish invasion.  There was something almost
+puerile in the whims rather than schemes of Philip for carrying out his
+purpose.  It was probable that some resistance would be offered, at least
+by the navy of England, to the subjugation of that country, and the King
+had enjoyed an opportunity, the preceding summer, of seeing the way in
+which English sailors did their work.  He had also appeared to understand
+the necessity of covering the passage of Farnese from the Flemish ports
+into the Thames, by means of the great Spanish fleet from Lisbon.
+Nevertheless he never seemed to be aware that Farnese could not invade
+England quite by himself, and was perpetually expecting to hear that he
+had done so.
+
+"Holland and Zeeland," wrote Alexander to Philip, "have been arming with
+their accustomed promptness; England has made great preparations.  I have
+done my best to make the impossible possible; but your letter told me to
+wait for Santa Cruz, and to expect him very shortly.  If, on the
+contrary, you had told me to make the passage without him, I would have
+made the attempt, although we had every one of us perished.  Four ships
+of war could sink every one of my boats.  Nevertheless I beg to be
+informed of your Majesty's final order.  If I am seriously expected to
+make the passage without Santa Cruz, I am ready to do it, although I
+should go all alone in a cock-boat."
+
+But Santa Cruz at least was not destined to assist in the conquest
+of England; for, worn out with fatigue and vexation, goaded by the
+reproaches and insults of Philip, Santa Cruz was dead.  He was replaced
+in the chief command of the fleet by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a
+grandee of vast wealth, but with little capacity and less experience.
+To the iron marquis it was said that a golden duke had succeeded;
+but the duke of gold did not find it easier to accomplish impossibilities
+than his predecessor had done.  Day after day, throughout the months of
+winter and spring, the King had been writing that the fleet was just on
+the point of sailing, and as frequently he had been renewing to Alexander
+Farnese the intimation that perhaps, after all, he might find an
+opportunity of crossing to England, without waiting for its arrival.
+And Alexander, with the same regularity, had been informing his master
+that the troops in the Netherlands had been daily dwindling from sickness
+and other causes, till at last, instead of the 30,000 effective infantry,
+with which it had been originally intended to make the enterprise, he had
+not more than 17,000 in the month of April.  The 6000 Spaniards, whom he
+was to receive from the fleet of Medina Sidonia, would therefore be the
+very mainspring of his army.  After leaving no more soldiers in the
+Netherlands than were absolutely necessary for the defence of the
+obedient Provinces against the rebels, he could only take with him to
+England 23,000 men, even after the reinforcements from Medina.  "When we
+talked of taking England by surprise," said Alexander, "we never thought
+of less than 30,000.  Now that she is alert and ready for us, and that it
+is certain we must fight by sea and by land, 50,000 would be few."  He
+almost ridiculed the King's suggestion that a feint might be made by way
+of besieging some few places in Holland or Zeeland.  The whole matter in
+hand, he said, had become as public as possible, and the only efficient
+blind was the peace-negotiation; for many believed, as the English
+deputies were now treating at Ostend, that peace would follow.
+
+At last, on the 28th, 29th, and 30th May, 1588, the fleet, which had been
+waiting at Lisbon more than a month for favourable weather, set sail from
+that port, after having been duly blessed by the Cardinal Archduke
+Albert, viceroy of Portugal.
+
+There were rather more than one hundred and thirty ships in all, divided
+into ten squadrons.  There was the squadron of Portugal, consisting of
+ten galleons, and commanded by the captain-general, Medina Sidonia.  In
+the squadron of Castile were fourteen ships of various sizes, under
+General Diego Flores de Valdez.  This officer was one of the most
+experienced naval officers in the Spanish service, and was subsequently
+ordered, in consequence, to sail with the generalissimo in his flag-ship.
+In the squadron of Andalusia were ten galleons and other vessels, under
+General Pedro de Valdez.  In the squadron of Biscay were ten galleons and
+lesser ships, under General Juan Martinet de Recalde, upper admiral of
+the fleet.  In the squadron of Guipuzcoa were ten galleons, under General
+Miguel de Oquendo.  In the squadron of Italy were ten ships, under
+General Martin de Bertendona.  In the squadron of Urcas, or store-ships,
+were twenty-three sail, under General Juan Gomez de Medina.  The squadron
+of tenders, caravels, and other vessels, numbered twenty-two sail, under
+General Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza.  The squadron of four galeasses was
+commanded by Don Hugo de Moncada.  The squadron of four galeras, or
+galleys, was in charge of Captain Diego de Medrado.
+
+Next in command to Medina Sidonia was Don Alonzo de Leyva, captain-
+general of the light horse of Milan.  Don Francisco de Bobadilla was
+marshal-general of the camp.  Don Diego de Pimentel was marshal of the
+camp to the famous Terzio or legion of Sicily.
+
+The total tonnage of the fleet was 59,120: the number of guns was 3165.
+Of Spanish troops there were 19,295 on board: there were 8252 sailors
+and 2088 galley-slaves.  Besides these, there was a force of noble
+volunteers, belonging to the most illustrious houses of Spain, with their
+attendants amounting to nearly 2000 in all.  There was also Don Martin
+Alaccon, administrator and vicar-general of the Holy Inquisition, at the
+head of some 290 monks of the mendicant orders, priests and familiars.
+The grand total of those embarked was about 30,000.  The daily expense of
+the fleet was estimated by Don Diego de Pimentel at 12,000 ducats a-day,
+and the daily cost of the combined naval and military force under Farnese
+and Medina Sidonia was stated at 30,000 ducats.
+
+The size of the ships ranged from 1200 tons to 300.  The galleons, of
+which there were about sixty, were huge round-stemmed clumsy vessels,
+with bulwarks three or four feet thick, and built up at stem and stern,
+like castles.  The galeasses of which there were four--were a third
+larger than the ordinary galley, and were rowed each by three hundred
+galley-slaves.  They consisted of an enormous towering fortress at the
+stern; a castellated structure almost equally massive in front, with
+seats for the rowers amidships.  At stem and stern and between each of
+the slaves' benches were heavy cannon.  These galeasses were floating
+edifices, very wonderful to contemplate.  They were gorgeously decorated.
+There were splendid state-apartments, cabins, chapels, and pulpits in
+each, and they were amply provided with awnings, cushions, streamers,
+standards, gilded saints, and bands of music.  To take part in an
+ostentatious pageant, nothing could be better devised.  To fulfil the
+great objects of a war-vessel--to sail and to fight--they were the worst
+machines ever launched upon the ocean.  The four galleys were similar to
+the galeasses in every respect except that of size, in which they were by
+one-third inferior.
+
+All the ships of the fleet--galeasses, galleys, galleons, and hulks--were
+so encumbered with top-hamper, so overweighted in proportion to their
+draught of water, that they could bear but little canvas, even with
+smooth seas and light and favourable winds.  In violent tempests,
+therefore, they seemed likely to suffer.  To the eyes of the 16th century
+these vessels seemed enormous.  A ship of 1300 tons was then a monster
+rarely seen, and a fleet, numbering from 130 to 150 sail, with an
+aggregate tonnage of 60,000, seemed sufficient to conquer the world, and
+to justify the arrogant title, by which it had baptized itself, of the
+Invincible.
+
+Such was the machinery which Philip had at last set afloat, for the
+purpose of dethroning Elizabeth and establishing the inquisition in
+England.  One hundred and forty ships, eleven thousand Spanish veterans,
+as many more recruits, partly Spanish, partly Portuguese, 2000 grandees,
+as many galley-slaves, and three hundred barefooted friars and
+inquisitors.
+
+The plan was simple.  Medina Sidonia was to proceed straight from Lisbon
+to Calais roads: there he was to wait: for the Duke of Parma, who was to
+come forth from Newport, Sluys, and Dunkerk, bringing with him his 17,000
+veterans, and to assume the chief command of the whole expedition.  They
+were then to cross the channel to Dover, land the army of Parma,
+reinforced with 6000 Spaniards from the fleet, and with these 23,000 men
+Alexander was to march at once upon London.  Medina Sidonia was to seize
+and fortify the Isle of Wight, guard the entrance of the harbours against
+any interference from the Dutch and English fleets, and--so soon as the
+conquest of England had been effected--he was to proceed to Ireland.
+It had been the wish of Sir William Stanley that Ireland should be
+subjugated first, as a basis of operations against England; but this had
+been overruled.  The intrigues of Mendoza and Farnese, too, with the
+Catholic nobles of Scotland, had proved, after all, unsuccessful.  King
+James had yielded to superior offers of money and advancement held out to
+him by Elizabeth, and was now, in Alexander's words, a confirmed heretic.
+
+There was no course left, therefore, but to conquer England at once.
+A strange omission had however been made in the plan from first to last.
+The commander of the whole expedition was the Duke of Parma: on his head
+was the whole responsibility.  Not a gun was to be fired--if it could be
+avoided--until be had come forth with his veterans to make his junction
+with the Invincible Armada off Calais.  Yet there was no arrangement
+whatever to enable him to come forth--not the slightest provision to
+effect that junction.  It would almost seem that the letter-writer of the
+Escorial had been quite ignorant of the existence of the Dutch fleets off
+Dunkerk, Newport, and Flushing, although he had certainly received
+information enough of this formidable obstacle to his plan.
+
+"Most joyful I shall be," said Farnese-writing on one of the days when
+he had seemed most convinced by Valentine Dale's arguments, and driven
+to despair by his postulates--"to see myself with these soldiers on
+English ground, where, with God's help, I hope to accomplish your
+Majesty's demands."  He was much troubled however to find doubts
+entertained at the last moment as to his 6000 Spaniards; and certainly
+it hardly needed an argument to prove that the invasion of England with
+but 17,000 soldiers was a somewhat hazardous scheme.  Yet the pilot
+Moresini had brought him letters from Medina Sidonia, in which the Duke
+expressed hesitation about parting with these 6000 veterans; unless the
+English fleet should have been previously destroyed, and had also again
+expressed his hope that Parma would be punctual to the rendezvous.
+Alexander immediately combated these views in letters to Medina and to
+the King.  He avowed that he would not depart one tittle from the plan
+originally laid down.  The 6000 men, and more if possible, were to be
+furnished him, and the Spanish Armada was to protect his own flotilla,
+and to keep the channel clear of enemies.  No other scheme was possible,
+he said, for it was clear that his collection of small flat-bottomed
+river-boats and hoys could not even make the passage, except in smooth
+weather.  They could not contend with a storm, much less with the enemy's
+ships, which would destroy them utterly in case of a meeting, without his
+being able to avail himself of his soldiers--who would be so closely
+packed as to be hardly moveable--or of any human help.  The preposterous
+notion that he should come out with his flotilla to make a junction with
+Medina off Calais, was over and over again denounced by Alexander with
+vehemence and bitterness, and most boding expressions were used by him as
+to the probable result, were such a delusion persisted in.
+
+Every possible precaution therefore but one had been taken.  The King of
+France--almost at the same instant in which Guise had been receiving his
+latest instructions from the Escorial for dethroning and destroying that
+monarch--had been assured by Philip of his inalienable affection; had
+been informed of the object of this great naval expedition--which was not
+by any means, as Mendoza had stated to Henry, an enterprise against
+France or England, but only a determined attempt to clear the sea, once
+for all, of these English pirates who had done so much damage for years
+past on the high seas--and had been requested, in case any Spanish ship
+should be driven by stress of weather into French ports, to afford them
+that comfort and protection to which the vessels of so close and friendly
+an ally were entitled.
+
+Thus there was bread, beef, and powder enough--there were monks and
+priests enough--standards, galley-slaves, and inquisitors enough; but
+there were no light vessels in the Armada, and no heavy vessels in
+Parma's fleet.  Medina could not go to Farnese, nor could Farnese come to
+Medina.  The junction was likely to be difficult, and yet it had never
+once entered the heads of Philip or his counsellors to provide for that
+difficulty.  The King never seemed to imagine that Farnese, with 40,000
+or 50,000 soldiers in the Netherlands, a fleet of 300 transports, and
+power to dispose of very large funds for one great purpose, could be kept
+in prison by a fleet of Dutch skippers and corsairs.
+
+With as much sluggishness as might have been expected from their clumsy
+architecture, the ships of the Armada consumed nearly three weeks in
+sailing from Lisbon to the neighbourhood of Cape Finisterre.  Here they
+were overtaken by a tempest, and were scattered hither and thither,
+almost at the mercy of the winds and waves; for those unwieldy hulks were
+ill adapted to a tempest in the Bay of Biscay.  There were those in the
+Armada, however, to whom the storm was a blessing.  David Gwynn, a Welsh
+mariner, had sat in the Spanish hulks a wretched galley-slave--as
+prisoner of war for more than eleven years, hoping, year after year,
+for a chance of escape from bondage.  He sat now among the rowers of the
+great galley, the Trasana, one of the humblest instruments by which the
+subjugation of his native land to Spain and Rome was to be effected.
+
+Very naturally, among the ships which suffered most in the gale were the
+four huge unwieldy galleys--a squadron of four under Don Diego de
+Medrado--with their enormous turrets at stem and stern, and their low and
+open waists.  The chapels, pulpits, and gilded Madonnas proved of little
+avail in a hurricane.  The Diana, largest of the four, went down with all
+hands; the Princess was labouring severely in the trough of the sea, and
+the Trasana was likewise in imminent danger.  So the master of this
+galley asked the Welsh slave, who had far more experience and seamanship
+than he possessed himself, if it were possible to save the vessel.  Gwynn
+saw an opportunity for which he had been waiting eleven years.  He was
+ready to improve it.  He pointed out to the captain the hopelessness of
+attempting to overtake the Armada.  They should go down, he said, as the
+Diana had already done, and as the Princess was like at any moment to do,
+unless they took in every rag of sail, and did their best with their oars
+to gain the nearest port.  But in order that the rowers might exert
+themselves to the utmost, it was necessary that the soldiers, who were a
+useless incumbrance on deck, should go below.  Thus only could the ship
+be properly handled.  The captain, anxious to save his ship and his life,
+consented.  Most of the soldiers were sent beneath the hatches: a few
+were ordered to sit on the benches among the slaves.  Now there had been
+a secret understanding for many days among these unfortunate men, nor
+were they wholly without weapons.  They had been accustomed to make
+toothpicks and other trifling articles for sale out of broken sword-
+blades and other refuse bits of steel.  There was not a man among them
+who had not thus provided himself with a secret stiletto.
+
+At first Gwynn occupied himself with arrangements for weathering the
+gale.  So soon however as the ship had been made comparatively easy, he
+looked around him, suddenly threw down his cap, and raised his hand to
+the rigging.  It was a preconcerted signal.  The next instant he stabbed
+the captain to the heart, while each one of the galley-slaves killed the
+soldier nearest him; then, rushing below, they surprised and overpowered
+the rest of the troops, and put them all to death.
+
+Coming again upon deck, David Gwynn descried the fourth galley of the
+squadron, called the Royal, commanded by Commodore Medrado in person,
+bearing down upon them, before the wind.  It was obvious that the Vasana
+was already an object of suspicion.
+
+"Comrades," said Gwynn, "God has given us liberty, and by our courage we
+must prove ourselves worthy of the boon."
+
+As he spoke there came a broadside from the galley Royal which killed
+nine of his crew.  David, nothing daunted; laid his ship close alongside
+of the Royal, with such a shock that the timbers quivered again.  Then at
+the head of his liberated slaves, now thoroughly armed, he dashed on
+board the galley, and, after a furious conflict, in which he was assisted
+by the slaves of the Royal, succeeded in mastering the vessel, and
+putting all the Spanish soldiers to death.  This done, the combined
+rowers, welcoming Gwynn as their deliverer from an abject slavery which
+seemed their lot for life, willingly accepted his orders.  The gale had
+meantime abated, and the two galleys, well conducted by the experienced
+and intrepid Welshman, made their way to the coast of France, and landed
+at Bayonne on the 31st, dividing among them the property found on board
+the two galleys.  Thence, by land, the fugitives, four hundred and sixty-
+six in number--Frenchmen, Spaniards, Englishmen, Turks, and Moors, made
+their way to Rochelle.  Gwynn had an interview with Henry of Navarre, and
+received from that chivalrous king a handsome present.  Afterwards he
+found his way to England, and was well commended by the Queen.  The rest
+of the liberated slaves dispersed in various directions.
+
+This was the first adventure of the invincible Armada.  Of the squadron
+of galleys, one was already sunk in the sea, and two of the others had
+been conquered by their own slaves.  The fourth rode out the gale with
+difficulty, and joined the rest of the fleet, which ultimately re-
+assembled at Coruna; the ships having, in distress, put in at first at
+Vivera, Ribadeo, Gijon, and other northern ports of Spain.  At the
+Groyne--as the English of that day were accustomed to call Coruna--they
+remained a month, repairing damages and recruiting; and on the 22nd of
+July 3 (N.S.) the Armada set sail: Six days later, the Spaniards took
+soundings, thirty leagues from the Scilly Islands, and on--Friday, the
+29th of July, off the Lizard, they had the first glimpse of the land of
+promise presented them by Sixtus V., of which they had at last come to
+take possession.
+
+     [The dates in the narrative will be always given according to the
+     New Style, then already adopted by Spain, Holland, and France,
+     although not by England.  The dates thus given are, of course, ten
+     days later than they appear in contemporary English records.]
+
+On the same day and night the blaze and smoke of ten thousand beacon-
+fires from the Land's End to Margate, and from the Isle of Wight to
+Cumberland, gave warning to every Englishman that the enemy was at last
+upon them.  Almost at that very instant intelligence had been brought
+from the court to the Lord-Admiral at Plymouth, that the Armada,
+dispersed and shattered by the gales of June, was not likely to make its
+appearance that year; and orders had consequently been given to disarm
+the four largest ships, and send them into dock.  Even Walsingham, as
+already stated, had participated in this strange delusion.
+
+Before Howard had time to act upon this ill-timed suggestion--even had he
+been disposed to do so--he received authentic intelligence that the great
+fleet was off the Lizard.  Neither he nor Francis Drake were the men to
+lose time in such an emergency, and before that Friday, night was spent,
+sixty of the best English ships had been warped out of Plymouth harbour.
+
+On Saturday, 30th July, the wind was very light at southwest, with a mist
+and drizzling rain, but by three in the afternoon the two fleets could
+descry and count each other through the haze.
+
+By nine o'clock, 31st July, about two miles from Looe, on the Cornish
+coast, the fleets had their first meeting.  There were 136 sail of the
+Spaniards, of which ninety were large ships, and sixty-seven of the
+English.  It was a solemn moment.  The long-expected Armada presented a
+pompous, almost a theatrical appearance.  The ships seemed arranged for a
+pageant, in honour of a victory already won.  Disposed in form of a
+crescent, the horns of which were seven miles asunder, those gilded,
+towered, floating castles, with their gaudy standards and their martial
+music, moved slowly along the channel, with an air of indolent pomp.
+Their captain-general, the golden Duke, stood in his private shot-proof
+fortress, on the--deck of his great galleon the Saint Martin, surrounded
+by generals of infantry, and colonels of cavalry, who knew as little as
+he did himself of naval matters.  The English vessels, on the other
+hand--with a few exceptions, light, swift, and easily handled--could sail
+round and round those unwieldy galleons, hulks, and galleys rowed by
+fettered slave-gangs.  The superior seamanship of free Englishmen,
+commanded by such experienced captains as Drake, Frobisher, and Hawkins--
+from infancy at home on blue water--was manifest in the very, first
+encounter.  They obtained the weather-gage at once, and cannonaded the
+enemy at intervals with considerable effect, easily escaping at will out
+of range of the sluggish Armada, which was incapable of bearing sail in
+pursuit, although provided with an armament which could sink all its
+enemies at close quarters.  "We had some small fight with them that
+Sunday afternoon," said Hawkins.
+
+Medina Sidonia hoisted the royal standard at the fore, and the whole
+fleet did its utmost, which was little, to offer general battle.  It was
+in vain.  The English, following at the heels of the enemy, refused all
+such invitations, and attacked only the rear-guard of the Armada, where
+Recalde commanded.  That admiral, steadily maintaining his post, faced
+his nimble antagonists, who continued to teaze, to maltreat, and to elude
+him, while the rest of the fleet proceeded slowly up the Channel closely,
+followed by the enemy.  And thus the running fight continued along the
+coast, in full view of Plymouth, whence boats with reinforcements and
+volunteers were perpetually arriving to the English ships, until the
+battle had drifted quite out of reach of the town.
+
+Already in this first "small fight" the Spaniards had learned a lesson,
+and might even entertain a doubt of their invincibility.  But before the
+sun set there were more serious disasters.  Much powder and shot had been
+expended by the Spaniards to very little purpose, and so a master-gunner
+on board Admiral Oquendo's flag-ship was reprimanded for careless ball-
+practice.  The gunner, who was a Fleming, enraged with his captain, laid
+a train to the powder-magazine, fired it, and threw himself into the sea.
+Two decks blew up.  The into the clouds, carrying with it the paymaster-
+general of the fleet, a large portion of treasure, and nearly two hundred
+men.'  The ship was a wreck, but it was possible to save the rest of the
+crew.  So Medina Sidonia sent light vessels to remove them, and wore with
+his flag-ship, to defend Oquendo, who had already been fastened upon by
+his English pursuers.  But the Spaniards, not being so light in hand as
+their enemies, involved themselves in much embarrassment by this
+manoeuvre; and there was much falling foul of each other, entanglement of
+rigging, and carrying away of yards.  Oquendo's men, however, were
+ultimately saved, and taken to other ships.
+
+Meantime Don Pedro de Valdez, commander of the Andalusian squadron,
+having got his galleon into collision with two or three Spanish ships
+successively, had at last carried away his fore-mast close to the deck,
+and the wreck had fallen against his main-mast.  He lay crippled and
+helpless, the Armada was slowly deserting him, night was coming on, the
+sea was running high, and the English, ever hovering near, were ready
+to grapple with him.  In vain did Don Pedro fire signals of distress.
+The captain-general, even as though the unlucky galleon had not been
+connected with the Catholic fleet--calmly fired a gun to collect his
+scattered ships, and abandoned Valdez to his fate.  "He left me
+comfortless in sight of the whole fleet," said poor Pedro, "and greater
+inhumanity and unthankfulness I think was never heard of among men."
+
+Yet the Spaniard comported himself most gallantly.  Frobisher, in the
+largest ship of the English fleet, the Triumph, of 1100 tons, and Hawkins
+in the Victory, of 800, cannonaded him at a distance, but, night coming
+on, he was able to resist; and it was not till the following morning that
+he surrendered to the Revenge.
+
+Drake then received the gallant prisoner on board his flagship--much to
+the disgust and indignation of Frobisher and Hawkins, thus disappointed
+of their prize and ransom-money--treated him with much courtesy, and gave
+his word of honour that he and his men should be treated fairly like good
+prisoners of war.  This pledge was redeemed, for it was not the English,
+as it was the Spanish custom, to convert captives into slaves, but only
+to hold them for ransom.  Valdez responded to Drake's politeness by
+kissing his hand, embracing him, and overpowering him with magnificent
+compliments.  He was then sent on board the Lord-Admiral, who received
+him with similar urbanity, and expressed his regret that so distinguished
+a personage should have been so coolly deserted by the Duke of Medina.
+Don Pedro then returned to the Revenge, where, as the guest of Drake, he
+was a witness to all subsequent events up to the 10th of August, on which
+day he was sent to London with some other officers, Sir Francis claiming
+his ransom as his lawful due.
+
+Here certainly was no very triumphant beginning for the Invincible
+Armada.  On the very first day of their being in presence of the English
+fleet--then but sixty-seven in number, and vastly their inferior in size
+and weight of metal--they had lost the flag ships of the Guipuzcoan and
+of the Andalusian squadrons, with a general-admiral, 450 officers and,
+men, and some 100,000 ducats of treasure.  They had been out-manoeuvred,
+out-sailed, and thoroughly maltreated by their antagonists, and they had
+been unable to inflict a single blow in return.  Thus the "small fight"
+had been a cheerful one for the opponents of the Inquisition, and the
+English were proportionably encouraged.
+
+On Monday, 1st of August, Medina Sidonia placed the rear-guard-consisting
+of the galeasses, the galleons St. Matthew, St. Luke, St. James, and the
+Florence and other ships, forty-three in all--under command of Don
+Antonio de Leyva.  He was instructed to entertain the enemy--
+so constantly hanging on the rear--to accept every chance of battle, and
+to come to close quarters whenever it should be possible.  The Spaniards
+felt confident of sinking every ship in the English navy, if they could
+but once come to grappling; but it was growing more obvious every hour
+that the giving or withholding battle was entirely in the hands of their
+foes.  Meantime--while the rear was thus protected by Leyva's division--
+the vanguard and main body of the Armada, led by the captain-general,
+would steadily pursue its way, according to the royal instructions, until
+it arrived at its appointed meeting-place with the Duke of Parma.
+Moreover, the Duke of Medina--dissatisfied with the want of discipline
+and of good seamanship hitherto displayed in his fleet--now took occasion
+to send a serjeant-major, with written sailing directions, on board each
+ship in the Armada, with express orders to hang every captain, without
+appeal or consultation, who should leave the position assigned him; and
+the hangmen were sent with the sergeant-majors to ensure immediate
+attention to these arrangements.  Juan Gil was at the name time sent off
+in a sloop to the Duke of Parma, to carry the news of the movements of
+the Armada, to request information as to the exact spot and moment of the
+junction, and to beg for pilots acquainted with the French and Flemish
+coasts.  "In case of the slightest gale in the world," said Medina, "I
+don't know how or where to shelter such large ships as ours."
+
+Disposed in this manner; the Spaniards sailed leisurely along the English
+coast with light westerly breezes, watched closely by the Queen's fleet,
+which hovered at a moderate distance to windward, without offering, that
+day, any obstruction to their course.
+
+By five o'clock on Tuesday morning, 2nd of August, the Armada lay between
+Portland Bill and St. Albans' Head, when the wind shifted to the north-
+east, and gave the Spaniards the weather-gage.  The English did their
+beat to get to windward, but the Duke, standing close into the land with
+the whole Armada, maintained his advantage.  The English then went about,
+making a tack seaward, and were soon afterwards assaulted by the
+Spaniards.  A long and spirited action ensued.  Howard in his little Ark-
+Royal--"the odd ship of the world for all conditions"--was engaged at
+different times with Bertendona, of the Italian squadron, with Alonzo de
+Leyva in the Batta, and with other large vessels.  He was hard pressed
+for a time, but was gallantly supported by the Nonpareil, Captain Tanner;
+and after a long and confused combat, in which the St. Mark, the St.
+Luke, the St. Matthew, the St. Philip, the St. John, the St. James, the
+St. John Baptist, the St. Martin, and many other great galleons, with
+saintly and apostolic names, fought pellmell with the Lion, the Bear, the
+Bull, the Tiger, the Dreadnought, the Revenge, the Victory, the Triumph,
+and other of the more profanely-baptized English ships, the Spaniards
+were again baffled in all their attempts to close with, and to board,
+their ever-attacking, ever-flying adversaries.  The cannonading was
+incessant.  "We had a sharp and a long fight," said Hawkins.  Boat-loads
+of men and munitions were perpetually arriving to the English, and many,
+high-born volunteers--like Cumberland, Oxford, Northumberland, Raleigh,
+Brooke, Dudley, Willoughby, Noel, William Hatton, Thomas Cecil, and
+others--could no longer restrain their impatience, as the roar of battle
+sounded along the coasts of Dorset, but flocked merrily on board the
+ships of Drake,--Hawkins, Howard, and Frobisher, or came in small vessels
+which they had chartered for themselves, in order to have their share in
+the delights of the long-expected struggle.
+
+The action, irregular, desultory, but lively, continued nearly all day,
+and until the English had fired away most of their powder and shot.  The
+Spaniards, too, notwithstanding their years of preparation, were already
+sort of light metal, and Medina Sidonia had been daily sending to Parma
+for a Supply of four, six, and ten pound balls.  So much lead and
+gunpowder had never before been wasted in a single day; for there was no
+great damage inflicted on either side.  The artillery-practice was
+certainly not much to the credit of either nation.
+
+"If her Majesty's ships had been manned with a full supply of good
+gunners," said honest William Thomas, an old artilleryman, "it would have
+been the woefullest time ever the Spaniard took in hand, and the most
+noble victory ever heard of would have been her Majesty's.  But our sins
+were the cause that so much powder and shot were spent, so long time in
+fight, and in comparison so little harm done.  It were greatly to be
+wished that her Majesty were no longer deceived in this way."
+
+Yet the English, at any rate, had succeeded in displaying their
+seamanship, if not their gunnery, to advantage.  In vain the unwieldly
+hulks and galleons had attempted to grapple with their light-winged foes,
+who pelted them, braved them, damaged their sails and gearing; and then
+danced lightly off into the distance; until at last, as night fell, the
+wind came out from the west again, and the English regained and kept the
+weather-gage.
+
+The Queen's fleet, now divided into four squadrons, under Howard, Drake,
+Hawkins, and Frobisher, amounted to near one hundred sail, exclusive of
+Lord Henry Seymour's division, which was cruising in the Straits of
+Dover.  But few of all this number were ships of war however, and the
+merchant vessels; although zealous and active enough, were not thought
+very effective.  "If you had seen the simple service done by the
+merchants and coast ships," said Winter, "you would have said we had been
+little holpen by them, otherwise than that they did make a show."
+
+All night the Spaniards, holding their course towards Calais, after the
+long but indecisive conflict had terminated, were closely pursued by
+their wary antagonists.  On Wednesday, 3rd of August, there was some
+slight cannonading, with but slender results; and on Thursday, the 4th,
+both fleets were off Dunnose, on the Isle of Wight.  The great hulk
+Santana and a galleon of Portugal having been somewhat damaged the
+previous day, were lagging behind the rest of the Armada, and were
+vigorously attacked by the Triumph, and a few other vessels.  Don Antonio
+de Leyva, with some of the galeasses and large galleons, came to the
+rescue, and Frobisher, although in much peril, maintained an unequal
+conflict, within close range, with great spirit.
+
+Seeing his danger, the Lord Admiral in the Ark-Royal, accompanied by
+the Golden Lion; the White Bear, the Elizabeth, the Victory, and the
+Leicester, bore boldly down into the very midst of the Spanish fleet,
+and laid himself within three or four hundred yards of Medina's flag
+ship, the St. Martin, while his comrades were at equally close quarters
+with Vice-Admiral Recalde and the galleons of Oquendo, Mexia, and
+Almanza.  It was the hottest conflict which had yet taken place.  Here at
+last was thorough English work.  The two, great fleets, which were there
+to subjugate and to defend the realm of Elizabeth, were nearly yard-arm
+and yard-arm together--all England on the lee.  Broadside after broadside
+of great guns, volley after volley of arquebusry from maintop and
+rigging, were warmly exchanged, and much damage was inflicted on the
+Spaniards, whose gigantic ships, were so easy a mark to aim at, while
+from their turreted heights they themselves fired for the most part
+harmlessly over the heads of their adversaries.  The leaders of the
+Armada, however, were encouraged, for they expected at last to come to
+even closer quarters, and there were some among the English who were mad
+enough to wish to board.
+
+But so soon as Frobisher, who was the hero of the day, had extricated
+himself from his difficulty, the Lord-Admiral--having no intention of
+risking the existence of his fleet, and with it perhaps of the English
+crown, upon the hazard of a single battle, and having been himself
+somewhat damaged in the fight--gave the signal for retreat, and caused
+the Ark-Royal to be towed out of action.  Thus the Spaniards were
+frustrated of their hopes, and the English; having inflicted much.
+punishment at comparatively small loss to themselves, again stood off to
+windward; and the Armada continued its indolent course along the cliffs
+of Freshwater and Blackgang.
+
+On Friday; 5th August, the English, having received men and munitions
+from shore, pursued their antagonists at a moderate distance; and the
+Lord-Admiral; profiting by the pause--for, it was almost a flat calm--
+sent for Martin Frobisher, John Hawkins, Roger Townsend, Lord Thomas
+Howard, son of the Duke of Norfolk, and Lord Edmund Sheffield; and on the
+deck of the Royal Ark conferred the honour of knighthood on each for his
+gallantry in the action of the previous day.  Medina Sidonia, on his
+part, was again despatching messenger after messenger to the Duke of
+Parma, asking for small shot, pilots, and forty fly-boats, with which to
+pursue the teasing English clippers.  The Catholic Armada, he said, being
+so large and heavy, was quite in the power of its adversaries, who could
+assault, retreat, fight, or leave off fighting, while he had nothing for
+it but to proceed, as expeditiously as might be; to his rendezvous in
+Calais roads.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Inquisitors enough; but there were no light vessels in The Armada
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v57
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 58, 1588
+
+
+     Both Fleets off Calais--A Night of Anxiety--Project of Howard and
+     Winter--Impatience of the Spaniards--Fire-Ships sent against the
+     Armada--A great Galeasse disabled--Attacked and captured by English
+     Boats--General Engagement of both Fleets--Loss of several Spanish
+     Ships--Armada flies, followed by the English--English insufficiently
+     provided--Are obliged to relinquish the Chase--A great Storm
+     disperses the Armada--Great Energy of Parma Made fruitless by
+     Philip's Dulness--England readier at Sea than on Shore--The
+     Lieutenant--General's Complaints--His Quarrels with Norris and
+     Williams--Harsh Statements as to the English Troops--Want of
+     Organization in England--Royal Parsimony and Delay--Quarrels of
+     English Admirals--England's narrow Escape from great Peril--Various
+     Rumours as to the Armada's Fate--Philip for a long Time in Doubt--He
+     believes himself victorious--Is tranquil when undeceived.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.  Part 2.
+
+
+And in Calais roads the great fleet--sailing slowly all next day in
+company with the English, without a shot being fired on either side--at
+last dropped anchor on Saturday afternoon, August 6th.
+
+Here then the Invincible Armada had arrived at its appointed resting-
+place.  Here the great junction--of Medina Sidonia with the Duke of Parma
+was to be effected; and now at last the curtain was to rise upon the last
+act of the great drama so slowly and elaborately prepared.
+
+That Saturday afternoon, Lord Henry Seymour and his squadron of sixteen
+lay between Dungeness and Folkestone; waiting the approach of the two
+fleets.  He spoke several-coasting vessels coming from the west; but they
+could give him no information--strange to say--either of the Spaniards
+or, of his own countrymen,--Seymour; having hardly three days' provision
+in his fleet, thought that there might be time to take in supplies; and
+so bore into the Downs.  Hardly had he been there half an hour; when a
+pinnace arrived from the Lord-Admiral; with orders for Lord Henry's
+squadron to hold itself in readiness.  There was no longer time for
+victualling, and very soon afterwards the order was given to make sail
+and bear for the French coast.  The wind was however so light; that the
+whole day was spent before Seymour with his ships could cross the
+channel.  At last, towards seven in the evening; he saw the great Spanish
+Armada, drawn up in a half-moon, and riding at anchor--the ships very
+near each other--a little to the eastward of Calais, and very near the
+shore.  The English, under Howard Drake, Frobisher, and Hawkins, were
+slowly following, and--so soon as Lord Henry, arriving from the opposite
+shore; had made his junction with them--the whole combined fleet dropped
+anchor likewise very near Calais, and within one mile and a half of the
+Spaniards.  That invincible force had at last almost reached its
+destination.  It was now to receive the cooperation of the great Farnese,
+at the head of an army of veterans, disciplined on a hundred battle-
+fields, confident from countless victories, and arrayed, as they had been
+with ostentatious splendour, to follow the most brilliant general in
+Christendom on his triumphal march into the capital of England.  The
+long-threatened invasion was no longer an idle figment of politicians,
+maliciously spread abroad to poison men's minds as to the intentions of
+a long-enduring but magnanimous, and on the whole friendly sovereign.
+The mask had been at last thrown down, and the mild accents of Philip's
+diplomatists and their English dupes, interchanging protocols so
+decorously month after month on the sands of Bourbourg, had been drowned
+by the peremptory voice of English and Spanish artillery, suddenly
+breaking in upon their placid conferences.  It had now become
+supererogatory to ask for Alexander's word of honour whether he had,
+ever heard of Cardinal Allan's pamphlet, or whether his master
+contemplated hostilities against Queen Elizabeth.
+
+Never, since England was England, had such a sight been seen as now
+revealed itself in those narrow straits between Dover and Calais.  Along
+that long, low, sandy shore, and quite within the range of the Calais
+fortifications, one hundred and thirty Spanish ships--the greater number
+of them the largest and most heavily armed in the world lay face to face,
+and scarcely out of cannon-shot, with one hundred and fifty English
+sloops and frigates, the strongest and swiftest that the island could
+furnish, and commanded by men whose exploits had rung through the world.
+
+Farther along the coast, invisible, but known to be performing a post
+perilous and vital service, was a squadron of Dutch vessels of all sizes,
+lining both the inner and outer edges of the sandbanks off the Flemish
+coasts, and swarming in all the estuaries and inlets of that intricate
+and dangerous cruising-ground between Dunkerk and Walcheren.  Those
+fleets of Holland and Zeeland, numbering some one hundred and fifty
+galleons, sloops, and fly-boats, under Warmond, Nassau, Van der Does, de
+Moor, and Rosendael, lay patiently blockading every possible egress from
+Newport, or Gravelines; or Sluys, or Flushing, or Dunkerk, and longing to
+grapple with the Duke of Parma, so soon as his fleet of gunboats and
+hoys, packed with his Spanish and Italian veterans, should venture to set
+forth upon the sea for their long-prepared exploit.
+
+It was a pompous spectacle, that midsummer night, upon those narrow seas.
+The moon, which was at the full, was rising calmly upon a scene of
+anxious expectation.  Would she not be looking, by the morrow's night,
+upon a subjugated England, a re-enslaved Holland--upon the downfall of
+civil and religious liberty?  Those ships of Spain, which lay there with
+their banners waving in the moonlight, discharging salvoes of anticipated
+triumph and filling the air with strains of insolent music; would they
+not, by daybreak, be moving straight to their purpose, bearing the
+conquerors of the world to the scene of their cherished hopes?
+
+That English fleet, too, which rode there at anchor, so anxiously on the
+watch--would that swarm of, nimble, lightly-handled, but slender
+vessels,--which had held their own hitherto in hurried and desultory
+skirmishes--be able to cope with their great antagonist now that the
+moment had arrived for the death grapple?  Would not Howard, Drake,
+Frobisher, Seymour, Winter, and Hawkins, be swept out of the straits at
+last, yielding an open passage to Medina, Oquendo, Recalde, and Farnese?
+Would those Hollanders and Zeelanders, cruising so vigilantly among their
+treacherous shallows, dare to maintain their post, now that the terrible
+'Holofernese,' with his invincible legions, was resolved to come forth?
+
+So soon as he had cast anchor, Howard despatched a pinnace to the
+Vanguard, with a message to Winter to come on board the flag-ship.  When
+Sir William reached the Ark, it was already nine in the evening.  He was
+anxiously consulted by the Lord-Admiral as to the course now to be taken.
+Hitherto the English had been teasing and perplexing an enemy, on the
+retreat, as it were, by the nature of his instructions.  Although anxious
+to give battle, the Spaniard was forbidden to descend upon the coast
+until after his junction with Parma.  So the English had played a
+comparatively easy game, hanging upon their enemy's skirts, maltreating
+him as they doubled about him, cannonading him from a distance, and
+slipping out of his reach at their pleasure.  But he was now to be met
+face to face, and the fate of the two free commonwealths of the world was
+upon the issue of the struggle, which could no longer be deferred.
+
+Winter, standing side by aide with the Lord-Admiral on the deck of the
+little Ark-Royal, gazed for the first time on those enormous galleons and
+galleys with which his companion, was already sufficiently familiar.
+
+"Considering their hugeness," said he, "twill not be possible to remove
+them but by a device."
+
+Then remembering, in a lucky moment, something that he had heard four
+years before of the fire ships sent by the Antwerpers against Parma's
+bridge--the inventor of which, the Italian Gianibelli, was at that very
+moment constructing fortifications on the Thames to assist the English
+against his old enemy Farnese--Winter suggested that some stratagem of
+the same kind should be attempted against the Invincible Armada.  There
+was no time nor opportunity to prepare such submarine volcanoes as had
+been employed on that memorable occasion; but burning ships at least
+might be sent among the fleet.  Some damage would doubtless be thus
+inflicted by the fire, and perhaps a panic, suggested by the memories of
+Antwerp and by the knowledge that the famous Mantuan wizard was then a
+resident of England, would be still more effective.  In Winter's opinion,
+the Armada might at least be compelled to slip its cables, and be thrown
+into some confusion if the project were fairly carried out.
+
+Howard approved of the device, and determined to hold, next morning, a
+council of war for arranging the details of its execution.
+
+While the two sat in the cabin, conversing thus earnestly, there had well
+nigh been a serious misfortune.  The ship, White Bear, of 1000 tons
+burthen, and three others of the English fleet, all tangled together,
+came drifting with the tide against the Ark.  There were many yards
+carried away; much tackle spoiled, and for a time there was great danger;
+in the opinion of Winter, that some of the very best ships in the fleet
+would be crippled and quite destroyed on the eve of a general engagement.
+By alacrity and good handling, however, the ships were separated, and the
+ill-consequences of an accident--such as had already proved fatal to
+several Spanish vessels--were fortunately averted.
+
+Next day, Sunday, 7th August, the two great fleets were still lying but a
+mile and a half apart, calmly gazing at each other, and rising and
+falling at their anchors as idly as if some vast summer regatta were the
+only purpose of that great assemblage of shipping.  Nothing as yet was
+heard of Farnese.  Thus far, at least, the Hollanders had held him at
+bay, and there was still breathing-time before the catastrophe.  So
+Howard hung out his signal for council early in the morning, and very
+soon after Drake and Hawkins, Seymour, Winter, and the rest, were gravely
+consulting in his cabin.
+
+It was decided that Winter's suggestion should be acted upon, and Sir
+Henry Palmer was immediately despatched in a pinnace to Dover, to bring
+off a number of old vessels fit to be fired, together with a supply of
+light wood, tar, rosin, sulphur, and other combustibles, most adapted to
+the purpose.'  But as time wore away, it became obviously impossible for
+Palmer to return that night, and it was determined to make the most of
+what could be collected in the fleet itself.  Otherwise it was to be
+feared that the opportunity might be for ever lost.  Parma, crushing all
+opposition, might suddenly appear at any moment upon the channel; and the
+whole Spanish Armada, placing itself between him and his enemies, would
+engage the English and Dutch fleets, and cover his passage to Dover.  It
+would then be too late to think of the burning ships.
+
+On the other hand, upon the decks of the Armada, there was an impatience
+that night which increased every hour.  The governor of Calais; M. de
+Gourdon, had sent his nephew on board the flag-ship of Medina Sidonia,
+with courteous salutations, professions of friendship, and bountiful
+refreshments.  There was no fear--now that Mucio was for the time in the
+ascendency--that the schemes of Philip would be interfered with by
+France.  The governor, had, however, sent serious warning of--the
+dangerous position in which the Armada had placed itself.  He was quite
+right.  Calais roads were no safe anchorage for huge vessels like those
+of Spain and Portugal; for the tides and cross-currents to which they
+were exposed were most treacherous.  It was calm enough at the moment,
+but a westerly gale might, in a few hours, drive the whole fleet
+hopelessly among the sand-banks of the dangerous Flemish coast.
+Moreover, the Duke, although tolerably well furnished with charts and
+pilots for the English coast, was comparatively unprovided against the
+dangers which might beset him off Dunkerk, Newport, and Flushing.  He had
+sent messengers, day after day, to Farnese, begging for assistance of
+various kinds, but, above all, imploring his instant presence on the
+field of action.  It was the time and, place for Alexander to assume the
+chief command.  The Armada was ready to make front against the English
+fleet on the left, while on the right, the Duke, thus protected, might
+proceed across the channel and take possession of England.
+
+And the impatience of the soldiers and sailors on board the fleet was
+equal to that of their commanders.  There was London almost before their
+eyes--a huge mass of treasure, richer and more accessible than those
+mines beyond the Atlantic which had so often rewarded Spanish chivalry
+with fabulous wealth.  And there were men in those galleons who
+remembered the sack of Antwerp, eleven years before--men who could tell,
+from personal experience, how helpless was a great commercial city, when
+once in the clutch of disciplined brigands--men who, in that dread 'fury
+of Antwerp,' had enriched themselves in an hour with the accumulations of
+a merchant's life-time, and who had slain fathers and mothers, sons and
+daughters, brides and bridegrooms, before each others' eyes, until the
+number of inhabitants butchered in the blazing streets rose to many
+thousands; and the plunder from palaces and warehouses was counted by
+millions; before the sun had set on the 'great fury.'  Those Spaniards,
+and Italians, and Walloons, were now thirsting for more gold, for more
+blood; and as the capital of England was even more wealthy and far more
+defenceless than the commercial metropolis of the Netherlands had been,
+so it was resolved that the London 'fury' should be more thorough and
+more productive than the 'fury' of Antwerp, at the memory--of which the
+world still shuddered.  And these professional soldiers had been taught
+to consider the English as a pacific, delicate, effeminate race,
+dependent on good living, without experience of war, quickly fatigued and
+discouraged, and even more easily to be plundered and butchered than were
+the excellent burghers of Antwerp.
+
+And so these southern conquerors looked down from their great galleons
+and galeasses upon the English vessels.  More than three quarters of them
+were merchantmen.  There was no comparison whatever between the relative
+strength of the fleets.  In number they were about equal being each from
+one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty strong--but the Spaniards
+had twice the tonnage of the English, four times the artillery, and
+nearly three times the number of men.
+
+Where was Farnese?  Most impatiently the Golden Duke paced the deck of
+the Saint Martin.  Most eagerly were thousands of eyes strained towards
+the eastern horizon to catch the first glimpse of Parma's flotilla.  But
+the day wore on to its close, and still the same inexplicable and
+mysterious silence prevailed.  There was utter solitude on the waters in
+the direction of Gravelines and Dunkerk--not a sail upon the sea in the
+quarter where bustle and activity had been most expected.  The mystery
+was profound, for it had never entered the head of any man in the Armada
+that Alexander could not come out when he chose.
+
+And now to impatience succeeded suspicion and indignation; and there were
+curses upon sluggishness and upon treachery.  For in the horrible
+atmosphere of duplicity, in which all Spaniards and Italians of that
+epoch lived, every man: suspected his brother, and already Medina Sidonia
+suspected Farnese of playing him false.  There were whispers of collusion
+between the Duke and the English commissioners at Bourbourg.  There were
+hints that Alexander was playing his own game, that he meant to divide
+the sovereignty of the Netherlands with the heretic Elizabeth, to desert
+his great trust, and to effect, if possible, the destruction of his
+master's Armada, and the downfall of his master's sovereignty in the
+north.  Men told each other, too, of a vague rumour, concerning which
+Alexander might have received information, and in which many believed,
+that Medina Sidonia was the bearer of secret orders to throw Farnese into
+bondage, so soon as he should appear, to send him a disgraced captive
+back to Spain for punishment, and to place the baton of command in the
+hand of the Duke of Pastrana, Philip's bastard by the Eboli.  Thus, in
+the absence of Alexander, all was suspense and suspicion.  It seemed
+possible that disaster instead of triumph was in store for them through
+the treachery of the commander-in-chief.  Four and twenty hours and more,
+they had been lying in that dangerous roadstead, and although the weather
+had been calm and the sea tranquil, there seemed something brooding in
+the atmosphere.
+
+As the twilight deepened, the moon became totally obscured, dark cloud-
+masses spread over the heavens, the sea grew black, distant thunder
+rolled, and the sob of an approaching tempest became distinctly audible.
+Such indications of a westerly gale, were not encouraging to those
+cumbrous vessels, with the treacherous quicksands of Flanders under their
+lee.
+
+At an hour past midnight, it was so dark that it was difficult for the
+most practiced eye to pierce far into the gloom.  But a faint drip of
+oars now struck the ears of the Spaniards as they watched from the decks.
+A few moments afterwards the sea became, suddenly luminous, and six
+flaming vessels appeared at a slight distance, bearing steadily down upon
+them before the wind and tide.
+
+There were men in the Armada who had been at the siege of Antwerp only
+three years before.  They remembered with horror the devil-ships of
+Gianibelli, those floating volcanoes, which had seemed to rend earth and
+ocean, whose explosion had laid so many thousands of soldiers dead at a
+blow, and which had shattered the bridge and floating forts of Farnese,
+as though they had been toys of glass.  They knew, too, that the famous
+engineer was at that moment in England.
+
+In a moment one of those horrible panics, which spread with such
+contagious rapidity among large bodies of men, seized upon the Spaniards.
+There was a yell throughout the fleet--"the fire-ships of Antwerp, the
+fire-ships of Antwerp!" and in an instant every cable was cut, and
+frantic attempts were made by each galleon and galeasse to escape what
+seemed imminent destruction.  The confusion was beyond description.  Four
+or five of the largest ships became entangled with each other.  Two
+others were set on fire by the flaming--vessels, and were consumed.
+Medina Sidonia, who had been warned, even, before his departure from
+Spain, that some such artifice would probably be attempted, and who had
+even, early that morning, sent out a party of sailors in a pinnace to
+search for indications of the scheme, was not surprised or dismayed.
+He gave orders--as well as might be that every ship, after the danger
+should be passed, was to return to its post, and, await his further
+orders.  But it was useless, in that moment of unreasonable panic to
+issue commands.  The despised Mantuan, who had met with so many rebuffs
+at Philip's court, and who--owing to official incredulity had been but
+partially successful in his magnificent enterprise at Antwerp, had now;
+by the mere terror of his name, inflicted more damage on Philip's Armada
+than had hitherto been accomplished by Howard and Drake, Hawkins and
+Frobisher, combined.
+
+So long as night and darkness lasted, the confusion and uproar continued.
+When the Monday morning dawned, several of the Spanish vessels lay
+disabled, while the rest of the fleet was seen at a distance of two
+leagues from Calais, driving towards the Flemish coast.  The threatened
+gale had not yet begun to blow, but there were fresh squalls from the
+W.S.W., which, to such awkward sailers as the Spanish vessels; were
+difficult to contend with.  On the other hand, the English fleet were all
+astir; and ready to pursue the Spaniards, now rapidly drifting into the
+North Sea.  In the immediate neighbourhood of Calais, the flagship of the
+squadron of galeasses, commanded by Don Hugo de Moncada, was discovered
+using her foresail and oars, and endeavouring to enter the harbour.
+She had been damaged by collision with the St. John of Sicily and other
+ships, during the night's panic, and had her rudder quite torn away. She
+was the largest and most splendid vessel in the Armada--the show-ship of
+the fleet,--"the very glory and stay of the Spanish navy," and during the
+previous two days she had been visited and admired by great numbers of
+Frenchmen from the shore.
+
+Lord Admiral Howard bore dawn upon her at once, but as she was already in
+shallow water, and was rowing steadily towards the town, he saw that the
+Ark could not follow with safety.  So he sent his long-boat to cut her
+out, manned with fifty or sixty volunteers, most of them "as valiant in
+courage as gentle in birth"--as a partaker in the adventure declared.
+The Margaret and Joan of London, also following in pursuit, ran herself
+aground, but the master despatched his pinnace with a body of musketeers,
+to aid in the capture of the galeasse.
+
+That huge vessel failed to enter the harbour, and stuck fast upon the
+bar.  There was much dismay on board, but Don Hugo prepared resolutely to
+defend himself.  The quays of Calais and the line of the French shore
+were lined with thousands of eager spectators, as the two boats-rowing
+steadily toward a galeasse, which carried forty brass pieces of
+artillery, and was manned with three hundred soldiers and four hundred
+and fifty slaves--seemed rushing upon their own destruction.  Of these
+daring Englishmen, patricians and plebeians together, in two open
+pinnaces, there were not more than one hundred in number, all told.
+They soon laid themselves close to the Capitana, far below her lofty
+sides, and called on Don Hugo to surrender.  The answer was, a smile of
+derision from the haughty Spaniard, as he looked down upon them from what
+seemed an inaccessible height.  Then one Wilton, coxswain of the Delight;
+of Winter's squadron, clambered up to the enemy's deck and fell dead
+the same instant.  Then the English volunteers opened a volley upon the
+Spaniards; "They seemed safely ensconced in their ships," said bold Dick
+Tomson, of the Margaret and Joan, "while we in our open pinnaces, and far
+under them, had nothing to shroud and cover us."  Moreover the numbers
+were, seven hundred and fifty to one hundred.  But, the Spaniards, still
+quite disconcerted by the events of the preceding night, seemed under a
+spell.  Otherwise it would have been an easy matter for the great
+galeasse to annihilate such puny antagonists in a very short space of
+time.
+
+The English pelted the Spaniards quite cheerfully, however, with arquebus
+shot, whenever they showed themselves above the bulwarks, picked off a
+considerable number, and sustained a rather severe loss themselves,
+Lieutenant Preston of the Ark-Royal, among others, being dangerously
+wounded.   "We had a pretty skirmish for half-an-hour," said Tomson.
+At last Don Hugo de Moncada, furious at the inefficiency of his men, and
+leading them forward in person, fell back on his deck with a bullet
+through both eyes.  The panic was instantaneous, for, meantime, several
+other English boats--some with eight, ten; or twelve men on board--were
+seen pulling--towards the galeasse; while the dismayed soldiers at once
+leaped overboard on the land side, and attempted to escape by swimming
+and wading to the shore. Some of them succeeded, but the greater number
+were drowned.  The few who remained--not more, than twenty in all--
+hoisted two handkerchiefs upon two rapiers as a signal of truce.  The
+English, accepting it as a signal of defeat; scrambled with great
+difficulty up the lofty sides of the Capitana, and, for an hour and a
+half, occupied themselves most agreeably in plundering the ship and in
+liberating the slaves.
+
+It was their intention, with the flood-tide, to get the vessel off, as
+she was but slightly damaged, and of very great value.  But a serious
+obstacle arose to this arrangement.  For presently a boat came along-
+side, with young M. de Gourdon and another French captain, and hailed the
+galeasse.  There was nobody on board who could speak French but Richard
+Tomson.  So Richard returned the hail, and asked their business.  They
+said they came from the governor.
+
+"And what is the--governor's pleasure?"  asked Tomson, when they had come
+up the side.
+
+"The governor has stood and beheld your fight, and rejoiced in your
+victory," was the reply; "and he says that for your prowess and manhood
+you well deserve the pillage of the galeasse.  He requires and commands
+you, however, not to attempt carrying off either the ship or its
+ordnance; for she lies a-ground under the battery of his castle, and
+within his jurisdiction, and does of right appertain to him."
+
+This seemed hard upon the hundred volunteers, who, in their two open
+boats, had so manfully carried a ship of 1200 tons, 40 guns, and 750 men;
+but Richard answered diplomatically.
+
+"We thank M. de Gourdon," said he, "for granting the pillage to mariners
+and soldiers who had fought for it, and we acknowledge that without his
+good-will we cannot carry away anything we have got, for the ship lies on
+ground directly under his batteries and bulwarks.  Concerning the ship
+and ordnance, we pray that he would send a pinnace to my Lord Admiral
+Howard, who is here in person hard by, from whom he will have an
+honourable and friendly answer, which we shall all-obey."
+
+With this--the French officers, being apparently content, were about to
+depart, and it is not impossible that the soft answer might have obtained
+the galeasse and the ordnance, notwithstanding the arrangement which
+Philip II. had made with his excellent friend Henry III. for aid and
+comfort to Spanish vessels in French ports.  Unluckily, however, the
+inclination for plunder being rife that morning, some of the Englishmen
+hustled their French visitors, plundered them of their rings and jewels,
+as if they had been enemies, and then permitted them to depart.  They
+rowed off to the shore, vowing vengeance, and within a few minutes after
+their return the battery of the fort was opened upon the English, and
+they were compelled to make their escape as they could with the plunder
+already secured, leaving the galeasse in the possession of M. de Gourdon.
+
+This adventure being terminated, and the pinnaces having returned to the
+fleet, the Lord-Admiral, who had been lying off and on, now bore away
+with all his force in pursuit of the Spaniards.  The Invincible Armada,
+already sorely crippled, was standing N.N.E. directly before a fresh
+topsail-breeze from the S.S.W.   The English came up with them soon after
+nine o'clock A.M. off Gravelines, and found them sailing in a half-moon,
+the admiral and vice-admiral in the centre, and the flanks protected by
+the three remaining galeasses and by the great galleons of Portugal.
+
+Seeing the enemy approaching, Medina Sidonia ordered his whole fleet to
+luff to the wind, and prepare for action.  The wind shifting a few
+points, was now at W.N.W., so that the English had both the weather-gage
+and the tide in their favour.  A general combat began at about ten, and
+it was soon obvious to the Spaniards that their adversaries were
+intending warm work.  Sir Francis Drake in the Revenge, followed by,
+Frobisher in the Triumph, Hawkins in the Victory, and some smaller
+vessels, made the first attack upon the Spanish flagships.  Lord Henry in
+the Rainbow, Sir Henry Palmer in the Antelope, and others, engaged with
+three of the largest galleons of the Armada, while Sir William Winter in
+the Vanguard, supported by most of his squadron, charged the starboard
+wing.
+
+The portion of the fleet thus assaulted fell back into the main body.
+Four of the ships ran foul of each other, and Winter, driving into their
+centre, found himself within musket-shot of many of their most
+formidable' ships.
+
+"I tell you, on the credit of a poor gentleman," he said, "that there
+were five hundred discharges of demi-cannon, culverin, and demi-culverin,
+from the Vanguard; and when I was farthest off in firing my pieces, I was
+not out of shot of their harquebus, and most time within speech, one of
+another."
+
+The battle lasted six hours long, hot and furious; for now there was no
+excuse for retreat on the part of the Spaniards, but, on the contrary, it
+was the intention of the Captain-General to return to his station off
+Calais, if it were within his power.  Nevertheless the English still
+partially maintained the tactics which had proved so successful, and
+resolutely refused the fierce attempts of the Spaniards to lay themselves
+along-side.  Keeping within musket-range, the well-disciplined English
+mariners poured broadside after broadside against the towering ships of
+the Armada, which afforded so easy a mark; while the Spaniards, on their
+part, found it impossible, while wasting incredible quantities of powder
+and shot, to inflict any severe damage on their enemies.  Throughout the
+action, not an English ship was destroyed, and not a hundred men were
+killed.  On the other hand, all the best ships of the Spaniards were
+riddled through and through, and with masts and yards shattered, sails
+and rigging torn to shreds, and a north-went wind still drifting them
+towards the fatal sand-batiks of Holland, they, laboured heavily in a
+chopping sea, firing wildly, and receiving tremendous punishment at the
+hands of Howard Drake, Seymour, Winter, and their followers.  Not even
+master-gunner Thomas could complain that day of "blind exercise" on the
+part of the English, with "little harm done" to the enemy.  There was
+scarcely a ship in the Armada that did not suffer severely; for nearly
+all were engaged in that memorable action off the sands of Gravelines.
+The Captain-General himself, Admiral Recalde, Alonzo de Leyva, Oquendo,
+Diego Flores de Valdez, Bertendona, Don Francisco de Toledo, Don Diego de
+Pimentel, Telles Enriquez, Alonzo de Luzon, Garibay, with most of the
+great galleons and galeasses, were in the thickest of the fight, and one
+after the other each of those huge ships was disabled.  Three sank before
+the fight was over, many others were soon drifting helpless wrecks
+towards a hostile shore, and, before five o'clock, in the afternoon, at
+least sixteen of their best ships had been sacrificed, and from four to
+five thousand soldiers killed.
+
+     ["God hath mightily preserved her Majesty's forces with the least
+     losses that ever hath been heard of, being within the compass of so
+     great volleys of shot, both small and great.  I verily believe there
+     is not threescore men lost of her Majesty's forces."  Captain J.
+     Fenner to Walsingham, 4/14 Aug. 1588.  (S. P. Office MS.)]
+
+Nearly all the largest vessels of the Armada, therefore, having, been
+disabled or damaged--according to a Spanish eye-witness--and all their
+small shot exhausted,  Medina Sidonia reluctantly gave orders to retreat.
+The Captain-General was a bad sailor; but he was, a chivalrous Spaniard
+of ancient Gothic blood, and he felt deep mortification at the plight of
+his invincible fleet, together with undisguised: resentment against
+Alexander Farnese, through whose treachery and incapacity, he considered.
+the great Catholic cause to have been, so foully sacrificed.  Crippled,
+maltreated, and diminished in number, as were his ships; he would have
+still faced, the enemy, but the winds and currents were fast driving him
+on, a lee-shore, and the pilots, one and all, assured him that it would
+be inevitable destruction to remain.  After a slight and very ineffectual
+attempt to rescue Don Diego de Pimentel in the St. Matthew--who refused
+to leave his disabled ship--and Don Francisco de Toledo; whose great
+galleon, the St. Philip, was fast driving, a helpless wreck, towards
+Zeeland, the Armada bore away N.N.E. into the open sea, leaving those,
+who could not follow, to their fate.
+
+The St. Matthew, in a sinking condition, hailed a Dutch fisherman, who
+was offered a gold chain to pilot her into Newport.  But the fisherman,
+being a patriot; steered her close to the Holland fleet, where she was
+immediately assaulted by Admiral Van der Does, to whom, after a two
+hours' bloody fight, she struck her flag.  Don Diego, marshal of the camp
+to the famous legion of Sicily, brother, of the Marquis of Tavera, nephew
+of the Viceroy of Sicily, uncle to the Viceroy of Naples, and numbering
+as many titles, dignities; and high affinities as could be expected of a
+grandee of the first class, was taken, with his officers, to the Hague.
+"I was the means," said Captain Borlase, "that the best sort were saved,
+and the rest were cast overboard and slain at our entry.  He, fought with
+us two hours; and hurt divers of our men, but at, last yielded."
+
+John Van der Does, his captor; presented the banner; of the Saint Matthew
+to the great church of Leyden, where--such was its prodigious length--it
+hung; from floor to ceiling without being entirely unrolled; and there
+hung, from generation to generation; a worthy companion to the Spanish
+flags which had been left behind when Valdez abandoned the siege of that
+heroic city fifteen years before.
+
+The galleon St. Philip, one of the four largest ships in the Armada,
+dismasted and foundering; drifted towards Newport, where camp-marshal Don
+Francisco de Toledo hoped in, vain for succour.  La Motte made a feeble
+attempt at rescue, but some vessels from the Holland fleet, being much
+more active, seized the unfortunate galleon, and carried her into
+Flushing.  The captors found forty-eight brass cannon and other things of
+value on board, but there were some casks of Ribadavia wine which was
+more fatal to her enemies than those pieces of artillery had proved.  For
+while the rebels were refreshing themselves, after the fatigues of the
+capture, with large draughts of that famous vintage, the St. Philip,
+which had been bored through and through with English shot, and had been
+rapidly filling with water, gave a sudden lurch, and went down in a
+moment, carrying with her to the bottom three hundred of those convivial
+Hollanders.
+
+A large Biscay galleon, too, of Recalde's squadron, much disabled in
+action, and now, like many others, unable to follow the Armada, was
+summoned by Captain Cross of the Hope, 48 guns, to surrender.  Although
+foundering, she resisted, and refused to strike her flag.  One of her
+officers attempted to haul down her colours, and was run through the body
+by the captain, who, in his turn, was struck dead by a brother of the
+officer thus slain.  In the midst of this quarrel the ship went down with
+all her crew.
+
+Six hours and more, from ten till nearly five, the fight had lasted--
+a most cruel battle, as the Spaniard declared.  There were men in the
+Armada who had served in the action of Lepanto, and who declared that
+famous encounter to have been far surpassed in severity and spirit by
+this fight off Gravelines.  "Surely every man in our fleet did well,"
+said Winter, "and the slaughter the enemy received was great." Nor
+would the Spaniards have escaped even worse punishment, had not, most
+unfortunately, the penurious policy of the Queen's government rendered
+her ships useless at last, even in this supreme moment.  They never
+ceased cannonading the discomfited enemy until the ammunition was
+exhausted.  "When the cartridges were all spent," said Winter, "and the
+munitions in some vessels gone altogether, we ceased fighting, but
+followed the enemy, who still kept away."  And the enemy--although still
+numerous, and seeming strong enough, if properly handled, to destroy the
+whole English fleet--fled before them.  There remained more than fifty
+Spanish vessels, above six hundred tons in size, besides sixty hulks and
+other vessels of less account; while in the whole English navy were but
+thirteen ships of or above that burthen.  "Their force is wonderful great
+and strong," said Howard, "but we pluck their feathers by little and
+little."
+
+For Medina Sidonia had now satisfied himself that he should never succeed
+in boarding those hard-fighting and swift-sailing craft, while, meantime,
+the horrible panic of Sunday night and the succession of fights
+throughout the following day, had completely disorganized his followers.
+Crippled, riddled, shorn, but still numerous, and by no means entirely
+vanquished, the Armada was flying with a gentle breeze before an enemy
+who, to save his existence; could not have fired a broadside.
+
+"Though our powder and shot was well nigh spent," said the Lord-Admiral,
+"we put on a brag countenance and gave them chase, as though we had
+wanted nothing."  And the brag countenance was successful, for that "one
+day's service had much appalled the enemy" as Drake observed; and still
+the Spaniards fled with a freshening gale all through the Monday night.
+"A thing greatly to be regarded," said Fenner, of the Nonpariel, "is
+that that the Almighty had stricken them with a wonderful fear.  I have
+hardly, seen any of their companies succoured of the extremities which
+befell them after their fights, but they have been left, at utter ruin,
+while they bear as much sail as ever they possibly can."
+
+On Tuesday morning, 9th August, the English ships were off the isle of
+Walcheren, at a safe distance from the shore.  "The wind is hanging
+westerly," said Richard Tomson, of the Margaret and Joan, "and we drive
+our enemies apace, much marvelling in what port they will direct
+themselves.  Those that are left alive are so weak and heartless that
+they could be well content to lose all charges and to be at home, both
+rich and poor."
+
+"In my, conscience," said Sir William Winter, "I think the Duke would
+give his dukedom to be in Spain again."
+
+The English ships, one-hundred and four in number, being that morning
+half-a-league to windward, the Duke gave orders for the whole Armada to
+lay to and, await their approach.  But the English had no disposition to
+engage, for at, that moment the instantaneous destruction of their
+enemies seemed inevitable.  Ill-managed, panic-struck, staggering before
+their foes, the Spanish fleet was now close upon the fatal sands of
+Zeeland.  Already there were but six and a-half fathoms of water, rapidly
+shoaling under their keels, and the pilots told Medina that all were
+irretrievably lost, for the freshening north-welter was driving them
+steadily upon the banks.  The English, easily escaping the danger, hauled
+their wind, and paused to see the ruin of the proud Armada accomplished
+before their eyes.  Nothing but a change of wind at the instant could
+save them from perdition.  There was a breathless shudder of suspense,
+and then there came the change.  Just as the foremost ships were about to
+ground on the Ooster Zand, the wind suddenly veered to the south-west,
+and the Spanish ships quickly squaring their sails to the new impulse,
+stood out once more into the open sea.
+
+All that day the galleons and galeasses, under all the canvas which they
+dared to spread, continued their flight before the south-westerly breeze,
+and still the Lord-Admiral, maintaining the brag countenance, followed,
+at an easy distance, the retreating foe.  At 4 p. m., Howard fired a
+signal gun, and ran up a flag of council.  Winter could not go, for he
+had been wounded in action, but Seymour and Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher,
+and the rest were present, and it was decided that Lord Henry should
+return, accompanied by Winter and the rest of the inner, squadron, to
+guard the Thames mouth against any attempt of the Duke of Parma, while
+the Lord Admiral and the rest of the navy should continue the pursuit of
+the Armada.
+
+Very wroth was Lord Henry at being deprived of his share in the chase.
+"The Lord-Admiral was altogether desirous to have me strengthen him,"
+said he, "and having done so to the utmost of my good-will and the
+venture of my life, and to the distressing of the Spaniards, which was
+thoroughly done on the Monday last, I now find his Lordship jealous and
+loath to take part of the honour which is to come.  So he has used his
+authority to command me to look to our English coast, threatened by the
+Duke of Parma.  I pray God my Lord Admiral do not find the lack of the
+Rainbow and her companions, for I protest before God I vowed I would be
+as near or nearer with my little ship to encounter our enemies as any of
+the greatest ships in both armies."
+
+There was no insubordination, however, and Seymour's squadron; at
+twilight of Tuesday evening, August 9th--according to orders, so that
+the enemy might not see their departure--bore away for Margate.  But
+although Winter and Seymour were much disappointed at their enforced
+return, there was less enthusiasm among the sailors of the fleet.
+Pursuing the Spaniards without powder or fire, and without beef and
+bread to eat, was not thought amusing by the English crews.  Howard had
+not three days' supply of food in his lockers, and Seymour and his
+squadron had not food for one day.  Accordingly, when Seymour and Winter
+took their departure, "they had much ado," so Winter said; "with the
+staying of many ships that would have returned with them, besides their
+own company."  Had the Spaniards; instead of being panic-struck, but
+turned on their pursuers, what might have been the result of a conflict
+with starving and unarmed men?
+
+Howard, Drake, and Frobisher, with the rest of the fleet, followed the
+Armada through the North Sea from Tuesday night (9th August) till Friday
+(the 12th), and still, the strong southwester swept the Spaniards before
+them, uncertain whether to seek refuge, food, water, and room to repair
+damages, in the realms of the treacherous King of Scots, or on the iron-
+bound coasts of Norway.  Medina Sidonia had however quite abandoned his
+intention of returning to England, and was only anxious for a safe
+return: to Spain.  So much did he dread that northern passage; unpiloted,
+around the grim Hebrides, that he would probably have surrendered, had
+the English overtaken him and once more offered battle.  He was on the
+point of hanging out a white flag as they approached him for the last
+time--but yielded to the expostulations of the ecclesiastics on board
+the Saint Martin, who thought, no doubt, that they had more to fear
+from England than from the sea, should they be carried captive to that
+country, and who persuaded him that it would be a sin and a disgrace
+to surrender before they had been once more attacked.
+
+On the other hand, the Devonshire skipper, Vice-Admiral Drake, now
+thoroughly in his element, could not restrain his hilarity, as he saw the
+Invincible Armada of the man whose beard he had so often singed, rolling
+through the German Ocean, in full flight from the country which was to
+have been made, that week, a Spanish province.  Unprovided as were his
+ships, he was for risking another battle, and it is quite possible that
+the brag countenance might have proved even more successful than Howard
+thought.
+
+"We have the army of Spain before us," wrote Drake, from the Revenge,
+"and hope with the grace of God to wrestle a pull with him.  There never
+was any thing pleased me better than seeing the enemy flying with a
+southerly wind to the northward.  God grant you have a good eye to the
+Duke of Parma, for with the grace of God, if we live, I doubt not so to
+handle the matter with the Duke of Sidonia as he shall wish himself at
+St. Mary's Port among his orange trees."
+
+But Howard decided to wrestle no further pull.  Having followed the
+Spaniards till Friday, 12th of August, as far as the latitude of 56d. 17'
+the Lord Admiral called a council.  It was then decided, in order to save
+English lives and ships, to put into the Firth of Forth for water and
+provisions, leaving two "pinnaces to dog, the fleet until it should be
+past the Isles of Scotland."  But the next day, as the wind shifted to
+the north-west, another council decided to take advantage of the change,
+and bear away for the North Foreland, in order to obtain a supply of
+powder, shot, and provisions.
+
+Up to this period, the weather, though occasionally threatening, had been
+moderate.  During the week which succeeded the eventful night off.
+Calais, neither the 'Armada nor the English ships had been much impeded
+in their manoeuvres by storms of heavy seas.  But on the following
+Sunday, 14th of August, there was a change.  The wind shifted again to
+the south-west, and, during the whole of that day and the Monday, blew
+a tremendous gale.  "'Twas a more violent storm," said Howard, "than was
+ever seen before at this time of the year."  The retreating English fleet
+was, scattered, many ships were in peril, "among the ill-favoured sands
+off Norfolk," but within four or five days all arrived safely in Margate
+roads.
+
+Far different was the fate of the Spaniards.  Over their Invincible
+Armada, last seen by the departing English midway between the coasts of
+Scotland and Denmark, the blackness of night seemed suddenly to descend.
+A mystery hung for a long time over their fate.  Damaged, leaking,
+without pilots, without a competent commander, the great fleet entered
+that furious storm, and was whirled along the iron crags of Norway and
+between the savage rocks of Faroe and the Hebrides.  In those regions of
+tempest the insulted North wreaked its full vengeance on the insolent
+Spaniards.  Disaster after disaster marked their perilous track; gale
+after gale swept them hither and thither, tossing them on sandbanks or
+shattering them against granite cliffs.  The coasts of Norway, Scotland,
+Ireland, were strewn with the wrecks of that pompous fleet, which claimed
+the dominion of the seas with the bones of those invincible legions which
+were to have sacked London and made England a Spanish vice-royalty.
+
+Through the remainder of the month of August there, was a succession of
+storms.  On the 2nd September a fierce southwester drove Admiral Oquendo
+in his galleon, together with one of the great galeasses, two large
+Venetian ships, the Ratty and the Balauzara, and thirty-six other
+vessels, upon the Irish coast, where nearly every soul on board perished,
+while the few who escaped to the shore--notwithstanding their religious
+affinity with the inhabitants--were either butchered in cold blood, or
+sent coupled in halters from village to village, in order to be shipped
+to England.  A few ships were driven on the English coast; others went
+ashore near Rochelle.
+
+Of the four galeasses and four galleys, one of each returned to Spain.
+Of the ninety-one great galleons and hulks, fifty-eight were lost and
+thirty-three returned.  Of the tenders and zabras, seventeen were lost.
+and eighteen returned.  Of one hundred and, thirty-four vessels, which
+sailed from Corona in July, but fifty-three, great and small, made their
+escape to Spain, and these were so damaged as to be, utterly worthless.
+The invincible Armada had not only been vanquished but annihilated.
+
+Of the 30,000 men who sailed in the fleet; it is probable that not more
+than 10,000 ever saw their native land again.  Most of the leaders of the
+expedition lost their lives.  Medina Sidonia reached Santander in
+October, and, as Philip for a moment believed, "with the greater part of
+the Armada," although the King soon discovered his mistake.  Recalde,
+Diego Flores de Valdez, Oquendo, Maldonado, Bobadilla, Manriquez, either
+perished at sea, or died of exhaustion immediately after their return.
+Pedro de Valdez, Vasco de Silva, Alonzo de Sayas, Piemontel, Toledo, with
+many other nobles, were prisoners in England and Holland.  There was
+hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning, so that,
+to relieve the universal gloom, an edict was published, forbidding the
+wearing of mourning at all.  On the other hand, a merchant of Lisbon, not
+yet reconciled to the Spanish conquest of his country, permitted himself
+some tokens of hilarity at the defeat of the Armada, and was immediately
+hanged by express command of Philip.  Thus--as men said--one could
+neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions.
+
+This was the result of the invasion, so many years preparing, and at an
+expense almost incalculable.  In the year 1588 alone, the cost of
+Philip's armaments for the subjugation of England could not have been
+less than six millions of ducats, and there was at least as large a sum
+on board the Armada itself, although the Pope refused to pay his promised
+million.  And with all this outlay, and with the sacrifice of so many
+thousand lives, nothing had been accomplished, and Spain, in a moment,
+instead of seeming terrible to all the world, had become ridiculous.
+
+"Beaten and shuffled together from the Lizard to Calais, from Calais
+driven with squibs from their anchors, and chased out of sight of England
+about Scotland and Ireland," as the Devonshire skipper expressed himself,
+it must be confessed that the Spaniards presented a sorry sight.  "Their
+invincible and dreadful navy," said Drake, "with all its great and
+terrible ostentation, did not in all their sailing about England so much
+as sink or take one ship, bark, pinnace, or cock-boat of ours, or even
+burn so much as one sheep-tote on this land."
+
+Meanwhile Farnese sat chafing under the unjust reproaches heaped upon
+him, as if he, and not his master, had been responsible for the gigantic
+blunders of the invasion.
+
+"As for the Prince of Parma," said Drake, "I take him to be as a bear
+robbed of her whelps."  The Admiral was quite right.  Alexander was
+beside himself with rage.  Day after day, he had been repeating to Medina
+Sidonia and to Philip that his flotilla and transports could scarcely
+live in any but the smoothest sea, while the supposition that they could
+serve a warlike purpose he pronounced absolutely ludicrous.  He had
+always counselled the seizing of a place like Flushing, as a basis of
+operations against England, but had been overruled; and he had at least
+reckoned upon the Invincible Armada to clear the way for him, before he
+should be expected to take the sea.
+
+With prodigious energy and at great expense he had constructed or
+improved internal water-communications from Ghent to Sluy's, Newport, and
+Dunkerk.  He had, thus transported all his hoys, barges, and munitions
+for the invasion, from all points of the obedient Netherlands to the sea-
+coast, without coming within reach of the Hollanders and Zeelanders, who
+were keeping close watch on the outside.  But those Hollanders and
+Zeelanders, guarding every outlet to the ocean, occupying every hole and
+cranny of the coast, laughed the invaders of England to scorn, braving
+them, jeering them, daring them to come forth, while the Walloons and
+Spaniards shrank before such amphibious assailants, to whom a combat on
+the water was as natural as upon dry land.  Alexander, upon one occasion,
+transported with rage, selected a band of one thousand musketeers, partly
+Spanish, partly Irish, and ordered an assault upon those insolent
+boatmen.  With his own hand--so it was related--he struck dead more than
+one of his own officers who remonstrated against these commands; and then
+the attack was made by his thousand musketeers upon the Hollanders, and
+every man of the thousand was slain.
+
+He had been reproached for not being ready, for not having embarked his
+men; but he had been ready for a month, and his men could be embarked in
+a single day.  "But it was impossible," he said, "to keep them long
+packed up on board vessels, so small that there was no room to turn about
+in the people would sicken, would rot, would die."  So soon as he had
+received information of the arrival of the fleet before Calais--which was
+on the 8th August--he had proceeded the same night to Newport and
+embarked 16,000 men, and before dawn he was at Dunkerk, where the troops
+stationed in that port were as rapidly placed on board the transports.
+Sir William Stanley, with his 700 Irish kernes, were among the first
+shipped for the enterprise.  Two-days long these regiments lay heaped.
+together, like sacks of corn, in the boats--as one of their officers
+described it--and they lay cheerfully hoping that the Dutch fleet would
+be swept out of the sea by the Invincible Armada, and patiently expecting
+the signal for setting sail to England.  Then came the Prince of Ascoli,
+who had gone ashore from the Spanish fleet at Calais, accompanied by
+serjeant-major Gallinato and other messengers from Medina Sidonia,
+bringing the news of the fire-ships and the dispersion and flight of the
+Armada.
+
+"God knows," said Alexander, "the distress in which this event has
+plunged me, at the very moment when I expected to be sending your Majesty
+my congratulations on the success of the great undertaking.  But these
+are the works of the Lord, who can recompense your Majesty by giving you
+many victories, and the fulfilment of your Majesty's desires, when He
+thinks the proper time arrived.  Meantime let Him be praised for all, and
+let your Majesty take great care of your health, which is the most
+important thing of all."
+
+Evidently the Lord did not think the proper time yet arrived for
+fulfilling his Majesty's desires for the subjugation of England,
+and meanwhile the King might find what comfort he could in pious
+commonplaces and in attention to his health.
+
+But it is very certain that, of all the high parties concerned, Alexander
+Farnese was the least reprehensible for the over-throw of Philips hopes.
+No man could have been more judicious--as it has been sufficiently made
+evident in the course of this narrative--in arranging all the details of
+the great enterprise, in pointing out all the obstacles, in providing for
+all emergencies.  No man could have been more minutely faithful to his
+master, more treacherous to all the world beside.  Energetic, inventive,
+patient, courageous; and stupendously false, he had covered Flanders with
+canals and bridges, had constructed flotillas, and equipped a splendid
+army, as thoroughly as he had puzzled Comptroller Croft.  And not only
+had that diplomatist and his wiser colleagues been hoodwinked, but
+Elizabeth and Burghley, and, for a moment, even Walsingham, were in the,
+dark, while Henry III. had been his passive victim, and the magnificent
+Balafre a blind instrument in his hands.  Nothing could equal Alexander's
+fidelity, but his perfidy.  Nothing could surpass his ability to command
+but his obedience.  And it is very possible that had Philip followed his
+nephew's large designs, instead of imposing upon him his own most puerile
+schemes; the result far England, Holland, and, all Christendom might have
+been very different from the actual one.  The blunder against which
+Farnese had in vain warned his master, was the stolid ignorance in which
+the King and all his counsellors chose to remain of the Holland and
+Zeeland fleet.  For them Warmond and Nassau, and Van der Does and Joost
+de Moor; did not exist, and it was precisely these gallant sailors, with
+their intrepid crews, who held the key to the whole situation.
+
+To the Queen's glorious naval-commanders, to the dauntless mariners of
+England, with their well-handled vessels; their admirable seamanship,
+their tact and their courage, belonged the joys of the contest, the
+triumph, and the glorious pursuit; but to the patient Hollanders and
+Zeelanders, who, with their hundred vessels held Farneae, the chief of
+the great enterprise, at bay, a close prisoner with his whole army in
+his own ports, daring him to the issue, and ready--to the last plank of
+their fleet and to the last drop of their blood--to confront both him
+and the Duke of Medina Sidona, an equal share of honour is due.  The
+safety of the two free commonwealths of the world in that terrible
+contest was achieved by the people and the mariners of the two states
+combined.
+
+Great was the enthusiasm certainly of the English people as the
+volunteers marched through London to the place of rendezvous, and
+tremendous were the cheers when the brave Queen rode on horseback along
+the lines of Tilbury.  Glowing pictures are revealed to us of merry
+little England, arising in its strength, and dancing forth to encounter
+the Spaniards, as if to a great holiday.  "It was a pleasant sight," says
+that enthusiastic merchant-tailor John Stowe, "to behold the cheerful
+countenances, courageous words, and gestures, of the soldiers, as they
+marched to Tilbury, dancing, leaping wherever they came, as joyful at the
+news of the foe's approach as if lusty giants were to run a race.  And
+Bellona-like did the Queen infuse a second spirit of loyalty, love, and
+resolution, into every soldier of her army, who, ravished with their
+sovereign's sight, prayed heartily that the Spaniards might land quickly,
+and when they heard they were fled, began to lament."
+
+But if the Spaniards had not fled, if there had been no English navy in
+the Channel, no squibs at Calais, no Dutchmen off Dunkerk, there might
+have been a different picture to paint.  No man who has, studied the
+history of those times, can doubt the universal and enthusiastic
+determination of the English nation to repel the invaders.  Catholics
+and Protestants felt alike on the great subject.  Philip did not flatter,
+himself with assistance from any English Papists, save exiles and
+renegades like Westmoreland, Paget, Throgmorton, Morgan, Stanley,
+and the rest.  The bulk of the Catholics, who may have constituted half
+the population of England, although malcontent, were not rebellious; and
+notwithstanding the precautionary measures taken by government against
+them, Elizabeth proudly acknowledged their loyalty.
+
+But loyalty, courage, and enthusiasm, might not have sufficed to supply
+the want of numbers and discipline.  According to the generally accepted
+statement of contemporary chroniclers, there were some 75,000 men under
+arms: 20,000 along the southern coast, 23,000 under Leicester, and 33,000
+under Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon, for the special defence of the Queen's
+person.
+
+But it would have been very difficult, in the moment of danger, to bring
+anything like these numbers into the field.  A drilled and disciplined
+army--whether of regulars or of militia-men--had no existence whatever.
+If the merchant vessels, which had been joined to the royal fleet, were
+thought by old naval commanders to be only good to make a show, the
+volunteers on land were likely to be even less effective than the marine
+militia, so much more accustomed than they to hard work.  Magnificent was
+the spirit of the great feudal lords as they rallied round their Queen.
+The Earl of Pembroke offered to serve at the head of three hundred horse
+and five hundred footmen, armed at his own cost, and all ready to "hazard
+the blood of their hearts" in defence of her person.  "Accept hereof most
+excellent sovereign," said the Earl, "from a person desirous to live no
+longer than he may see your Highness enjoy your blessed estate, maugre
+the beards of all confederated leaguers."
+
+The Earl of Shrewsbury, too, was ready to serve at the head of his
+retainers, to the last drop of his blood.  "Though I be old," he said,
+"yet shall your quarrel make me young again.  Though lame in body, yet
+lusty in heart to lend your greatest enemy one blow, and to stand near
+your defence, every way wherein your Highness shall employ me."
+
+But there was perhaps too much of this feudal spirit.  The lieutenant-
+general complained bitterly that there was a most mischievous tendency
+among all the militia-men to escape from the Queen's colours, in order to
+enrol themselves as retainers to the great lords.  This spirit was not
+favourable to efficient organization of a national army.  Even, had the
+commander-in-chief been a man, of genius and experience it would have
+been difficult for him, under such circumstances, to resist a splendid
+army, once landed, and led by Alexander Farnese, but even Leicester's
+most determined flatterers hardly ventured to compare him in-military
+ability with that first general of his age.  The best soldier in England
+was un-questionably Sir John Norris, and Sir John was now marshal of the
+camp to Leicester.  The ancient quarrel between the two had been smoothed
+over, and--as might be expected--the Earl hated Norris more bitterly than
+before, and was perpetually vituperating him, as he had often done in the
+Netherlands.  Roger William, too, was entrusted with the important duties
+of master of the horse, under the lieutenant-general, and Leicester
+continued to bear the grudge towards that honest Welshman, which had
+begun in Holland.  These were not promising conditions in a camp, when
+an invading army was every day expected; nor was the completeness or
+readiness of the forces sufficient to render harmless the quarrels of
+the commanders.
+
+The Armada had arrived in Calais roads on Saturday afternoon; the 6th
+August.  If it had been joined on that day, or the next--as Philip and
+Medina Sidonia fully expected--by the Duke of Parma's flotilla, the
+invasion would have been made at once.  If a Spanish army had ever landed
+in England at all, that event would have occurred on the 7th August.  The
+weather was not unfavourable; the sea was smooth, and the circumstances
+under which the catastrophe of the great drama was that night
+accomplished, were a profound mystery to every soul in England.  For
+aught that Leicester, or Burghley, or Queen Elizabeth, knew at the time,
+the army of Farnese might, on Monday, have been marching upon London.
+Now, on that Monday morning, the army of Lord Hunsdon was not assembled
+at all, and Leicester with but four thousand men, under his command, was
+just commencing his camp at Tilbury.  The.  "Bellona-like" appearance of
+the Queen on her white palfrey,--with truncheon in hand, addressing her
+troops, in that magnificent burst of eloquence which has so often been
+repeated, was not till eleven days afterwards; not till the great Armada,
+shattered and tempest-tossed, had been, a week long, dashing itself
+against the cliffs of Norway and the Faroes, on, its forlorn retreat to
+Spain.
+
+Leicester, courageous, self-confident, and sanguine as ever; could not
+restrain his indignation at the parsimony with which his own impatient
+spirit had to contend.  "Be you assured," said he, on the 3rd August,
+when the Armada was off the Isle of Wight, "if the Spanish fleet arrive
+safely in the narrow seas, the Duke of Parma will join presently with all
+his forces, and lose no time in invading this realm.  Therefore I beseech
+you, my good Lords, let no man, by hope or other abuse; prevent your
+speedy providing defence against, this mighty enemy now knocking at our
+gate."
+
+For even at this supreme moment doubts were entertained at court as to
+the intentions of the Spaniards:
+
+Next day he informed Walsingham that his four thousand men had arrived.
+"They be as forward men and willing to meet the enemy as I ever saw,"
+said he.  He could not say as much in, praise of the commissariat: "Some
+want the captains showed," he observed, "for these men arrived without
+one meal of victuals so that on their-arrival, they had not one barrel
+of beer nor loaf of bread--enough after twenty miles' march to have
+discouraged them, and brought them to mutiny.  I see many causes to
+increase my former opinion of the dilatory wants you shall find upon all
+sudden hurley burleys.  In no former time was ever so great a cause, and
+albeit her Majesty hath appointed an army to resist her enemies if they
+land, yet how hard a matter it will be to gather men together, I find it
+now. If it will be five days to gather these countrymen, judge what it
+will be to look in short space for those that dwell forty, fifty, sixty
+miles off."
+
+He had immense difficulty in feeding even this slender force.
+"I made proclamation," said he, "two days ago, in all market towns,
+that victuallers should come to the camp and receive money for their
+provisions, but there is not one victualler come in to this hour.  I have
+sent to all the justices of peace about it from place to place.  I speak
+it that timely consideration be had of these things, and that they be not
+deferred till the worst come.  Let her Majesty not defer the time, upon
+any supposed hope, to assemble a convenient force of horse and foot about
+her.  Her Majesty cannot be strong enough too soon, and if her navy had
+not been strong and abroad as it is, what care had herself and her whole
+realm been in by this time!  And what care she will be in if her forces
+be not only assembled, but an army presently dressed to withstand the
+mighty enemy that is to approach her gates."
+
+"God doth know, I speak it not to bring her to charges.  I would she had
+less cause to spend than ever she had, and her coffers fuller than ever
+they were; but I will prefer her life and safety, and the defence of the
+realm, before all sparing of charges in the present danger."
+
+Thus, on the 5th August, no army had been assembled--not even the body-
+guard of the Queen--and Leicester, with four thousand men, unprovided
+with a barrel of beer or a loaf of bread, was about commencing his
+entrenched camp at Tilbury.  On the 6th August the Armada was in Calais
+roads, expecting Alexander Farnese to lead his troops upon London!
+
+Norris and Williams, on the news of Medina Sidonia's approach, had rushed
+to Dover, much to the indignation of Leicester, just as the Earl was
+beginning his entrenchments at Tilbury.  "I assure you I am angry with
+Sir John Norris and Sir Roger Williams," he said.  "I am here cook,
+caterer, and huntsman.  I am left with no one to supply Sir John's place
+as marshal, but, for a day or two, am willing to work the harder myself.
+I ordered them both to return this day early, which they faithfully
+promised.  Yet, on arriving this morning, I hear nothing of either, and
+have nobody to marshal the camp either for horse or foot.  This manner of
+dealing doth much mislike me in them both.  I am ill-used. 'Tis now four
+o'clock, but here's not one of them.  If they come not this night, I
+assure you I will not receive them into office, nor bear such loose
+careless dealing at their hands.  If you saw how weakly I am assisted you
+would be sorry to think that we here, should be the front against the
+enemy that is so mighty, if he should land here.  And seeing her Majesty
+hath appointed me her lieutenant-general, I look that respect be used
+towards me, such as is due to my place."
+
+Thus the ancient grudge--between Leicester and the Earl of Sussex's son
+was ever breaking forth, and was not likely to prove beneficial at this
+eventful season.
+
+Next day the Welshman arrived, and Sir John promised to come back in the
+evening.  Sir Roger brought word from the coast that Lord Henry Seymour's
+fleet was in want both of men and powder.  "Good Lord!"  exclaimed
+Leicester, "how is this come to pass, that both he and, my Lord-Admiral
+are so weakened of men.  I hear they be running away.  I beseech you,
+assemble your forces, and play not away this kingdom by delays.  Hasten
+our horsemen hither and footmen: .  .  .  .  If the Spanish fleet come to
+the narrow seas the, Prince of Parma will play another part than is
+looked for."
+
+As the Armada approached Calais, Leicester was informed that the soldiers
+at Dover began to leave the coast.  It seemed that they were dissatisfied
+with the penuriousness of the government.  Our soldiers do break away at
+Dover, or are not pleased.  I assure you, without wages, the people will
+not tarry, and contributions go hard with them.  Surely I find that her
+Majesty must needs deal liberally, and be at charges to entertain her
+subjects that have chargeably, and liberally used, themselves to serve
+her."  The lieutenant-general even thought it might be necessary for him
+to proceed to Dover in person, in order to remonstrate with these
+discontented troops; for it was possible that those ill-paid,
+undisciplined, and very meagre forces, would find much difficulty in
+opposing Alexander's march, to London, if he should once succeed in
+landing.  Leicester had a very indifferent opinion too of the train-bands
+of the metropolis.  "For your Londoners," he said, "I see their service
+will be little, except they have their own captains, and having them, I
+look for none at all by them, when we shall meet the enemy.  This was not
+complimentary, certainly, to the training of the famous Artillery Garden,
+and furnished a still stronger motive for defending the road over which
+the capital was to be approached.  But there was much jealousy, both
+among citizens and nobles, of any authority entrusted to professional
+soldiers.  "I know what burghers be, well enough," said the Earl, "as
+brave and well-entertained as ever the Londoners were.  If they should
+go forth from the city they should have good leaders.  You know the
+imperfections of the time, how few-leaders you have, and the gentlemen
+of the counties are very loth to have any captains placed with them.  So
+that the beating out of our best captains is like to be cause of great
+danger."'
+
+Sir John Smith, a soldier of experience, employed to drill and organize
+some of the levies, expressed still more disparaging opinions than those
+of Leicester concerning the probable efficiency in the field of these
+English armies.  The Earl was very angry with the knight, however, and
+considered, him incompetent, insolent, and ridiculous.  Sir John seemed,
+indeed, more disposed to keep himself out of harm's way, than to render
+service to the Queen by leading awkward recruits against Alexander
+Farnese.  He thought it better to nurse himself.
+
+"You would laugh to see how Sir John Smith has dealt since my coming,"
+said Leicester.  "He came to me, and told me that his disease so grew
+upon him as he must needs go to the baths.  I told him I would not be
+against his health, but he saw what the time was, and what pains he had
+taken with his countrymen, and that I had provided a good place for him.
+Next day he came again, saying little to my offer then, and seemed
+desirous, for his health, to be gone.  I told him what place I did
+appoint, which was a regiment of a great part of his countrymen.
+He said his health was dear to him, and he desired to take leave of me,
+which I yielded unto.  Yesterday, being our muster-day, he came again to
+me to dinner; but such foolish and vain-glorious paradoxes he burst
+withal, without any cause offered, as made all that knew anything smile
+and answer little, but in sort rather to satisfy men present than to
+argue with him."
+
+And the knight went that day to review Leicester's choice troops--the
+four thousand men of Essex--but was not much more deeply impressed with
+their proficiency than he had been with that of his own regiment.  He
+became very censorious.
+
+"After the muster," said the lieutenant-general, "he entered again into
+such strange cries for ordering of men, and for the fight with the
+weapon, as made me think he was not well.  God forbid he should have
+charge of men that knoweth so little, as I dare pronounce that he doth."
+
+Yet the critical knight was a professional--campaigner, whose opinions
+were entitled to respect; and the more so, it would seem, because they
+did not materially vary from those which Leicester himself was in the
+habit of expressing.  And these interior scenes of discord, tumult,
+parsimony, want of organization, and unsatisfactory mustering of troops,
+were occurring on the very Saturday and Sunday when the Armada lay in
+sight of Dover cliffs, and when the approach of the Spaniards on the
+Dover road might at any moment be expected.
+
+Leicester's jealous and overbearing temper itself was also proving a
+formidable obstacle to a wholesome system of defence.  He was already
+displeased with the amount of authority entrusted to Lord Hunsdon,
+disposed to think his own rights invaded; and desirous that the Lord
+Chamberlain should accept office under himself.  He wished saving clauses
+as to his own authority inserted in Hunsdon's patent.  "Either it must be
+so, or I shall have wrong," said he, "if he absolutely command where my
+patent doth give me power.  You may easily conceive what absurd dealings
+are likely to fall out, if you allow two absolute commanders."
+
+Looking at these pictures of commander-in-chief, officers, and rank and
+file--as painted by themselves--we feel an inexpressible satisfaction
+that in this great crisis of England's destiny, there were such men as
+Howard, Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, Seymour, Winter, Fenner, and their
+gallant brethren, cruising that week in the Channel, and that Nassau and
+Warmond; De Moor and Van der Does, were blockading the Flemish coast.
+
+There was but little preparation to resist the enemy once landed.  There
+were no fortresses, no regular army, no population trained to any weapon.
+There were patriotism, loyalty, courage, and enthusiasm, in abundance;
+but the commander-in-chief was a queen's favourite, odious to the people,
+with very moderate abilities, and eternally quarrelling with officers
+more competent than himself; and all the arrangements were so hopelessly
+behind-hand, that although great disasters might have been avenged, they
+could scarcely have been avoided.
+
+Remembering that the Invincible Armada was lying in Calais roads on the
+6th of August, hoping to cross to Dover the next morning, let us ponder
+the words addressed on that very day to Queen Elizabeth by the
+Lieutenant-General of England.
+
+"My most dear and gracious Lady," said the Earl, "it is most true that
+those enemies that approach your kingdom and person are your undeserved
+foes, and being so, and hating you for a righteous cause, there is the
+less fear to be had of their malice or their forces; for there is a most
+just God that beholdeth the innocence of that heart.  The cause you are
+assailed for is His and His Church's, and He never failed any that
+faithfully do put their chief trust in His goodness.  He hath, to comfort
+you withal, given you great and mighty means to defend yourself, which
+means I doubt not but your Majesty will timely and princely use them,
+and your good God that ruleth all will assist you and bless you with
+victory."
+
+He then proceeded to give his opinion on two points concerning which the
+Queen had just consulted him--the propriety of assembling her army, and
+her desire to place herself at the head of it in person.
+
+On the first point one would have thought discussion superfluous on the
+6th of August.  "For your army, it is more than time it were gathered and
+about you," said Leicester, "or so near you as you may have the use of it
+at a few hours' warning.  The reason is that your mighty enemies are at
+hand, and if God suffers them to pass by your fleet, you are sure they
+will attempt their purpose of landing with all expedition.  And albeit
+your navy be very strong, but, as we have always heard, the other is not
+only far greater, but their forces of men much beyond yours.  No doubt if
+the Prince of Parma come forth, their forces by sea shall not only be
+greatly, augmented, but his power to land shall the easier take effect
+whensoever he shall attempt it.  Therefore it is most requisite that your
+Majesty at all events have as great a force every way as you can devise;
+for there is no dalliance at such a time, nor with such an enemy. You
+shall otherwise hazard your own honour, besides your person and country,
+and must offend your gracious God that gave you these forces and power,
+though you will not use them when you should."
+
+It seems strange enough that such phrases should be necessary when the
+enemy was knocking at the gate; but it is only too, true that the land-
+forces were never organized until the hour, of danger had, most
+fortunately and unexpectedly, passed by.  Suggestions at this late moment
+were now given for the defence of the throne, the capital, the kingdom,
+and the life of the great Queen, which would not have seemed premature
+had they been made six months before, but which, when offered in August,
+excite unbounded amazement.  Alexander would have had time to, march from
+Dover to Duxham before these directions, now leisurely stated with all
+the air of novelty, could be carried into effect.
+
+"Now for the placing of your army," says the lieutenant-general on the
+memorable Saturday, 6th of August, "no doubt but I think about London
+the, meetest, and I suppose that others will be of the same mind.  And
+your Majesty should forthwith give the charge thereof to some special
+nobleman about you, and likewise place all your chief officers that every
+man may know what he shall do, and gather as many good horse above all
+things as you can, and the oldest, best, and assuredest captains to lead;
+for therein will consist the greatest hope of good success under God.
+And so soon as your army is assembled, let them by and by be exercised,
+every man to know his weapon, and that there be all other things prepared
+in readiness, for your army, as if they should march upon a day's
+warning, especially carriages, and a commissary of victuals, and a master
+of ordnance."
+
+Certainly, with Alexander of Parma on his way to London, at the head of
+his Italian pikemen, his Spanish musketeers, his famous veteran legion--
+"that nursing mother of great soldiers"--it was indeed more than time.
+that every man should know what he should do, that an army of Englishmen
+should be-assembled, and that every man should know his weapon.  "By and
+by" was easily said, and yet, on the 6th of August it was by and by that
+an army, not yet mustered, not yet officered, not yet provided with a
+general, a commissary of victuals, or a master of ordinance, was to be
+exercised, "every man to know his weapon."
+
+English courage might ultimately triumph over, the mistakes of those who
+governed the country, and over those disciplined brigands by whom it was
+to be invaded.  But meantime every man of those invaders had already
+learned on a hundred battle-fields to know his weapon.
+
+It was a magnificent determination on the part of Elizabeth to place
+herself at the head of her troops; and the enthusiasm which her attitude
+inspired, when she had at last emancipated herself from the delusions of
+diplomacy and the seductions of thrift, was some recompense at least for
+the perils caused by her procrastination.  But Leicester could not
+approve of this hazardous though heroic resolution.
+
+The danger passed away.  The Invincible Armada was driven out of the
+Channel by the courage; the splendid seamanship, and the enthusiasm of
+English sailors and volunteers.  The Duke of Parma was kept a close
+prisoner by the fleets of Holland and Zeeland; and the great storm of the
+14th and 15th of August at last completed the overthrow of the Spaniards.
+
+It was, however, supposed for a long time that they would come back, for
+the disasters which had befallen them in the north were but tardily known
+in England.  The sailors, by whom England had been thus defended in her
+utmost need, were dying by hundreds, and even thousands, of ship-fever,
+in the latter days of August.  Men sickened one day, and died the next,
+so that it seemed probable that the ten thousand sailors by whom the
+English ships of war were manned, would have almost wholly disappeared,
+at a moment when their services might be imperatively required.  Nor had
+there been the least precaution taken for cherishing and saving these
+brave defenders of their country.  They rotted in their ships, or died in
+the streets of the naval ports, because there were no hospitals to
+receive them.
+
+"'Tis a most pitiful sight," said the Lord-Admiral, "to see here at
+Margate how the men, having no place where they can be received, die in,
+the streets.  I am driven of force myself to come on land to see them
+bestowed in some lodgings; and the best I can get is barns and such
+outhouses, and the relief is small that I can provide for them here.  It
+would grieve any man's heart to see men that have served so valiantly die
+so miserably."
+
+The survivors, too, were greatly discontented; for, after having been
+eight months at sea, and enduring great privations, they could not get
+their wages.  "Finding it to come thus scantily," said Howard, "it breeds
+a marvellous alteration among them."
+
+But more dangerous than the pestilence or the discontent was the
+misunderstanding which existed at the moment between the leading admirals
+of the English fleet.  Not only was Seymour angry with Howard, but
+Hawkins and Frobisher were at daggers drawn with Drake; and Sir Martin--
+if contemporary, affidavits can be trusted--did not scruple to heap the
+most virulent abuse upon Sir Francis, calling him, in language better
+fitted for the forecastle than the quarter-deck, a thief and a coward,
+for appropriating the ransom for Don Pedro Valdez in which both Frobisher
+and Hawkins claimed at least an equal share with himself.
+
+And anxious enough was the Lord-Admiral with his sailors perishing by
+pestilence, with many of his ships so weakly manned that as Lord Henry
+Seymour declared there were not mariners enough to weigh the anchors,
+and with the great naval heroes, on whose efforts the safety of the realm
+depended, wrangling like fisherwomen among themselves, when rumours came,
+as they did almost daily, of the return of the Spanish Armada, and of new
+demonstrations on the part of Farnese.  He was naturally unwilling that
+the fruits of English valour on the seas should now be sacrificed by the
+false economy of the government.  He felt that, after all that had been
+endured and accomplished, the Queen and her counsellors were still
+capable of leaving England at the mercy of a renewed attempt, "I know not
+what you think at the court," said he; "but I think, and so do all here,
+that there cannot be too great forces maintained for the next five or six
+weeks.  God knoweth whether the Spanish fleet will not, after refreshing
+themselves in Norway; Denmark, and the Orkneys, return.  I think they
+dare not go back to Sprain with this, dishonour, to their King and
+overthrow of the Pope's credit.  Sir, sure bind, sure find.  A kingdom
+is a grand wager.  Security is dangerous; and, if God had not been our
+best friend; we should have found it so."
+
+     [Howard to Walsingham, Aug.8/18 1588. (S. P. Office MS.)]
+
+     ["Some haply may say that winter cometh on apace," said Drake, "but
+     my poor opinion is that I dare not advise her Majesty to hazard a
+     kingdom with the saving of a little charge."  (Drake to Walsingham,
+     Aug. 8/18 1588.)]
+
+Nothing could be more replete, with sound common sense than this simple
+advice, given as it was in utter ignorance of the fate of the Armada;
+after it had been lost sight of by the English vessels off the Firth of
+Forth, and of the cold refreshment which: it had found in Norway and the
+Orkneys.  But, Burghley had a store of pithy apophthegms, for which--he
+knew he could always find sympathy in the Queen's breast, and with which
+he could answer these demands of admirals and generals.  "To spend in
+time convenient is wisdom;" he observed--"to continue charges without
+needful cause bringeth, repentance;"--"to hold on charges without
+knowledge of the certainty thereof and of means how to support them, is
+lack of wisdom;" and so on.
+
+Yet the Spanish fleet might have returned into the Channel for ought the
+Lord-Treasurer on the 22nd August knew--or the Dutch fleet might have
+relaxed, in its vigilant watching of Farnese's movements.  It might have
+then seemed a most plentiful lack of wisdom to allow English sailors to
+die of plague in the streets for want of hospitals; and to grow mutinous
+for default of pay.  To have saved under such circumstances would,
+perhaps have brought repentance.
+
+The invasion of England by Spain had been most portentous.  That the
+danger was at last averted is to be ascribed to the enthusiasm of the
+English, nation--both patricians and plebeians--to the heroism of the
+little English fleet, to the spirit of the naval commanders and
+volunteers, to the stanch, and effective support of the Hollanders; and
+to the hand of God shattering the Armada at last; but very little credit
+can be conscientiously awarded to the diplomatic or the military efforts
+of the Queen's government.  Miracles alone, in the opinion of Roger
+Williams, had saved England on this occasion from perdition.
+
+Towards the end of August, Admiral de Nassau paid a visit to Dover with
+forty ships, "well appointed and furnished."  He dined and conferred with
+Seymour, Palmer, and other officers--Winter being still laid up with his
+wound--and expressed the opinion that Medina Sidonia would hardly return
+to the Channel, after the banquet he had received from her Majesty's navy
+between Calais and Gravelines.  He also gave the information that the
+States had sent fifty Dutch vessels in pursuit of the Spaniards, and had
+compelled all the herring-fishermen for the time to serve in the ships of
+war, although the prosperity of the country depended on that industry.
+"I find the man very wise, subtle, and cunning," said Seymour of the
+Dutch Admiral, "and therefore do I trust him."
+
+Nassau represented the Duke of Parma as evidently discouraged, as having
+already disembarked his troops, and as very little disposed to hazard
+any further enterprise against England.  "I have left twenty-five
+Kromstevens," said he, "to prevent his egress from Sluys, and I am
+immediately returning thither myself.  The tide will not allow his
+vessels at present to leave Dunkerk, and I shall not fail--before the
+next full moon--to place myself before that place, to prevent their
+coming out, or to have a brush with them if they venture to put to sea."
+
+But after the scenes on which the last full moon had looked down in those
+waters, there could be no further pretence on the part of Farnese to
+issue from Sluys and Dunkerk, and England and Holland were thenceforth
+saved from all naval enterprises on the part of Spain.
+
+Meantime, the same uncertainty which prevailed in England as to the
+condition and the intentions of the Armada was still more remarkable
+elsewhere.  There was a systematic deception practised not only upon
+other governments; but upon the King of Spain as well.  Philip, as he
+sat at his writing-desk, was regarding himself as the monarch of England,
+long after his Armada had been hopelessly dispersed.
+
+In Paris, rumours were circulated during the first ten days of August
+that England was vanquished, and that the Queen was already on her way to
+Rome as a prisoner, where she was to make expiation, barefoot, before his
+Holiness.  Mendoza, now more magnificent than ever--stalked into Notre
+Dame with his drawn sword in his hand, crying out with a loud voice,
+"Victory, victory!" and on the 10th of August ordered bonfires to be made
+before his house; but afterwards thought better of that scheme.  He had
+been deceived by a variety of reports sent to him day after day by agents
+on the coast; and the King of France--better informed by Stafford, but
+not unwilling thus to feed his spite against the insolent ambassador--
+affected to believe his fables.  He even confirmed them by intelligence,
+which he pretended to have himself received from other sources, of the
+landing of the Spaniards in England without opposition, and of the entire
+subjugation of that country without the striking of a blow.
+
+Hereupon, on the night of August 10th, the envoy--"like a wise man," as
+Stafford observed--sent off four couriers, one after another, with the
+great news to Spain, that his master's heart might be rejoiced, and
+caused a pamphlet on the subject to be printed and distributed over
+Paris!  "I will not waste a large sheet of paper to express the joy
+which we must all feel," he wrote to Idiaquez, "at this good news.  God
+be praised for all, who gives us small chastisements to make us better,
+and then, like a merciful Father, sends us infinite rewards."  And in the
+same strain he wrote; day after day, to Moura and Idiaquez, and to Philip
+himself.
+
+Stafford, on his side, was anxious to be informed by his government of
+the exact truth, whatever it were, in order that these figments of
+Mendoza might be contradicted.  "That which cometh from me," he said,
+"Will be believed; for I have not been used to tell lies, and in very
+truth I have not the face to do it."
+
+And the news of the Calais squibs, of the fight off Gravelines, and
+the retreat of the Armada towards the north; could not be very long
+concealed.  So soon, therefore, as authentic intelligence reached, the
+English envoy of those events--which was not however for nearly ten days
+after their--occurrence--Stafford in his turn wrote a pamphlet, in answer
+to that of Mendoza, and decidedly the more successful one of the two.
+It cost him but five crowns, he said, to print 'four hundred copies of
+it; but those in whose name it was published got one hundred crowns by
+its sale.  The English ambassador was unwilling to be known as the
+author--although "desirous of touching up the impudence of the Spaniard"
+--but the King had no doubt of its origin.  Poor Henry, still smarting
+under the insults of Mendoza and 'Mucio,--was delighted with this blow
+to Philip's presumption; was loud in his praises of Queen Elizabeth's
+valour, prudence, and marvellous fortune, and declared that what she had
+just done could be compared to the greatest: exploits of the most
+illustrious men in history.
+
+"So soon as ever he saw the pamphlet," said Stafford; "he offered to lay
+a wager it was my doing; and laughed at it heartily."  And there were
+malicious pages about the French; court; who also found much amusement in
+writing to the ambassador, begging his interest with the Duke of Parma
+that they might obtain from that conqueror some odd-refuse town or so in:
+England, such as York, Canterbury, London, or the like--till the luckless
+Don Bernardino was ashamed to show his face.
+
+A letter, from Farnese, however, of 10th August, apprized Philip before
+the end of August of the Calais disasters and caused him great
+uneasiness, without driving him to despair.  "At the very moment," wrote
+the King to Medina Sidonia; "when I was expecting news of the effect
+hoped for from my Armada, I have learned the retreat from before Calais,
+to which it was compelled by the weather; [!] and I have received a
+very great shock which keeps, me in anxiety not to be exaggerated.
+Nevertheless I hope in our Lord that he will have provided a remedy;
+and that if it was possible for you to return upon the enemy to come
+back to the appointed posts and to watch an opportunity for the great
+stroke; you will have done as the case required; and so I am expecting
+with solicitude, to hear what has happened, and please God it may be that
+which is so suitable for his service."
+
+His Spanish children the sacking of London, and the butchering of the
+English nation-rewards and befits similar to those which they bad
+formerly enjoyed in the Netherlands.
+
+And in the same strain, melancholy yet hopeful, were other letters
+despatched on that day to the Duke of Parma.  "The satisfaction caused by
+your advices on the 8th August of the arrival of the Armada near Calais,
+and of your preparations to embark your troops, was changed into a
+sentiment which you can imagine, by your letter of the 10th.  The anxiety
+thus occasioned it would be impossible to exaggerate, although the cause
+being such as it is--there is no ground for distrust.  Perhaps the
+Armada, keeping together, has returned upon the enemy, and given a good
+account of itself, with the help of the Lord.  So I still promise myself
+that you will have performed your part in the enterprise in such wise as
+that the service intended to the Lord may have been executed, and repairs
+made to the reputation of all; which has been so much compromised."
+
+And the King's drooping spirits were revived by fresh accounts which
+reached him in September, by way of France.  He now learned that the
+Armada had taken captive four Dutch men-of-war and many English ships;
+that, after the Spaniards had been followed from Calais roads by the
+enemy's fleet, there had been an action, which the English had attempted
+in vain to avoid; off Newcastle; that Medina Sidonia had charged upon
+them so vigorously, as to sink twenty of their ships, and to capture
+twenty-six others, good and sound; that the others, to escape perdition,
+had fled, after suffering great damage, and had then gone to pieces, all
+hands perishing; that the Armada had taken a port in Scotland, where it
+was very comfortably established; that the flag-ship of Lord-admiral
+Howard, of Drake; and of that "distinguished mariner Hawkins," had all
+been sunk in action, and that no soul had been saved except Drake, who
+had escaped in a cock-boat.  "This is good news," added the writer;
+"and it is most certain."
+
+The King pondered seriously over these conflicting accounts, and remained
+very much in the dark.  Half, the month of September went by, and he had
+heard nothing--official since the news of the Calais catastrophe.  It may
+be easily understood that Medina Sidonia, while flying round the Orkneys
+had not much opportunity for despatching couriers to Spain, and as
+Farnese had not written since the 10th August, Philip was quite at a loss
+whether to consider himself triumphant or defeated.  From the reports by
+way of Calais, Dunkerk, and Rouen, he supposed that the Armada, had
+inflicted much damage on the enemy.  He suggested accordingly, on the 3rd
+September, to the Duke of Parma, that he might now make the passage to
+England, while the English fleet, if anything was left of it was
+repairing its damages.  "'Twill be easy enough to conquer the country,"
+said Philip,"  so soon as you set foot on the soil.  Then perhaps our
+Armada can come back and station itself in the Thames to support you."
+
+Nothing could be simpler.  Nevertheless the King felt a pang of doubt
+lest affairs, after all, might not be going on so swimmingly; so he
+dipped his pen in the inkstand again, and observed with much pathos,
+"But if this hope must be given up, you must take the Isle of Walcheren:
+something must be done to console me."
+
+And on the 15th September he was still no wiser.  "This business of the
+Armada leaves me no repose," he said; "I can think of nothing else.  I
+don't content myself with what I have written, but write again and again,
+although in great want of light.  I hear that the Armada has sunk and
+captured many English ships, and is refitting in a Scotch pert.  If this
+is in the territory, of Lord Huntley, I hope he will stir up the
+Catholics of that country."
+
+And so, in letter after letter, Philip clung to the delusion that
+Alexander could yet, cross to England, and that the Armada might sail up
+the Thames.  The Duke was directed to make immediate arrangements to that
+effect with Medina Sidonia, at the very moment when that tempest-tossed
+grandee was painfully-creeping back towards the Bay of Biscay, with what
+remained of his invincible fleet.
+
+Sanguine and pertinacious, the King refused to believe in, the downfall
+of his long-cherished scheme; and even when the light was at last dawning
+upon him, he was like a child, crying for a fresh toy, when the one which
+had long amused him had been broken.  If the Armada were really very much
+damaged, it was easy enough, he thought, for the Duke of Parma to make
+him a new one, while the old, one was repairing.  "In case the Armada is
+too much shattered to come out," said Philip, "and winter compels it to
+stay in that port, you must cause another Armada to be constructed at
+Emden and the adjacent towns, at my expense, and, with the two together,
+you will certainly be able to conquer England."
+
+And he wrote to Medina Sidonia in similar terms.  That naval commander
+was instructed to enter the Thames at once, if strong enough.  If not, he
+was to winter in the Scotch port which he was supposed to have captured.
+Meantime Farnese would build a new fleet at Emden, and in the spring the
+two dukes would proceed to accomplish the great purpose.
+
+But at last the arrival of Medina Sidonia at Santander dispelled these
+visions, and now the King appeared in another attitude.  A messenger,
+coming post-haste from the captain-general, arrived in the early days of
+October at the Escorial.  Entering the palace he found Idiaquez and Moura
+pacing up and down the corridor, before the door of Philip's cabinet,
+and was immediately interrogated by those counsellors, most anxious,
+of course, to receive authentic intelligence at last as to the fate,
+of the Armada.  The entire overthrow of the great project was now, for
+the first time, fully revealed in Spain; the fabulous victories over the
+English, and the annihilation of Howard and all his ships, were dispersed
+in air.  Broken, ruined, forlorn, the invincible Armada--so far as it
+still existed--had reached a Spanish port.  Great was the consternation
+of Idiaquez and Moura, as they listened to the tale, and very desirous
+was each of the two secretaries that the other should, discharge the
+unwelcome duty of communicating the fatal intelligence to the King.
+
+At last Moura consented to undertake the task, and entering the cabinet,
+he found Philip seated at his desk.  Of course he was writing letters.
+Being informed of the arrival of a messenger from the north, he laid down
+his pen, and inquired the news.  The secretary replied that the accounts,
+concerning the Armada were by no means so favourable as, could be wished.
+The courier was then introduced, and made his dismal report.  The King
+did not change countenance.  "Great thanks," he observed, "do I render to
+Almighty God, by whose generous hand I am gifted with such power, that I
+could easily, if I chose, place another fleet upon the seas.  Nor is it
+of very great importance that a running stream should be sometimes
+intercepted, so long as the fountain from which it flows remains
+inexhaustible."
+
+So saying he resumed his pen, and serenely proceeded with his letters.
+Christopher Moura stared with unaffected amazement at his sovereign,
+thus tranquil while a shattered world was falling on his head, and then
+retired to confer with his colleague.
+
+"And how did his Majesty receive the blow?"  asked Idiaquez.
+
+"His Majesty thinks nothing of the blow," answered Moura, "nor do I,
+consequently, make more of this great calamity than does his Majesty."
+
+So the King--as fortune flew away from him, wrapped himself in his
+virtue; and his counsellors, imitating their sovereign, arrayed
+themselves in the same garment.  Thus draped, they were all prepared
+to bide the pelting of the storm which was only beating figuratively on
+their heads, while it had been dashing the King's mighty galleons on the
+rocks, and drowning by thousands the wretched victims of his ambition.
+Soon afterwards, when the particulars of the great disaster were
+thoroughly known, Philip ordered a letter to be addressed in his name to
+all the bishops of Spain, ordering a solemn thanksgiving to the Almighty
+for the safety of that portion of the invincible Armada which it had
+pleased Him to preserve.
+
+And thus, with the sound of mourning throughout Spain--for there was
+scarce a household of which some beloved member had not perished in the
+great catastrophe--and with the peals of merry bells over all England
+and Holland, and with a solemn 'Te Deum' resounding in every church,
+the curtain fell upon the great tragedy of the Armada.
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Forbidding the wearing of mourning at all
+Hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning
+Invincible Armada had not only been vanquished but annihilated
+Nothing could equal Alexander's fidelity, but his perfidy
+One could neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions
+Security is dangerous
+Sixteen of their best ships had been sacrificed
+Sure bind, sure find
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v58
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
+From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 59, 1588-1589
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     Alexander besieges Bergen-op-Zoom--Pallavicini's Attempt to seduce
+     Parma--Alexander's Fury--He is forced to raise the Siege, of Bergen
+     --Gertruydenberg betrayed to Parma--Indignation of the States--
+     Exploits, of Schenk--His Attack on Nymegen--He is defeated and
+     drowned--English-Dutch Expedition to Spain--Its meagre Results--
+     Death of Guise and of the Queen--Mother--Combinations after the
+     Murder of Henry III.--Tandem fit Surculus Arbor.
+
+The fever of the past two years was followed by comparative languor.
+The deadly crisis was past, the freedom of Europe was saved, Holland and
+England breathed again; but tension now gave place to exhaustion.  The
+events in the remainder of the year 1588, with those of 1589--although
+important in themselves--were the immediate results of that history which
+has been so minutely detailed in these volumes, and can be indicated in a
+very few pages.
+
+The Duke of Parma, melancholy, disappointed, angry stung to the soul by
+calumnies as stupid as they were venomous, and already afflicted with a
+painful and lingering disease, which his friends attributed to poison
+administered by command of the master whom he had so faithfully served--
+determined, if possible, to afford the consolation which that master was
+so plaintively demanding at his hands.
+
+So Alexander led the splendid army which had been packed in, and unpacked
+from, the flat boats of Newport and Dunkerk, against Bergen-op-Zoom, and
+besieged that city in form.  Once of great commercial importance,
+although somewhat fallen away from its original prosperity, Bergen was
+well situate on a little stream which connected it with the tide-waters
+of the Scheldt, and was the only place in Brabant, except Willemstad,
+still remaining to the States.  Opposite lay the Isle of Tholen from
+which it was easily to be supplied and reinforced.  The Vosmeer, a branch
+of the Scheldt, separated the island from the main, and there was a path
+along the bed of that estuary, which, at dead low-water, was practicable
+for wading.  Alexander, accordingly, sent a party of eight hundred
+pikemen, under Montigny, Marquis of Renty, and Ottavio Mansfeld,
+supported on the dyke by three thousand musketeers, across; the dangerous
+ford, at ebb-tide, in order to seize this important island.  It was an
+adventure similar to those, which, in the days of the grand commander,
+and under the guidance of Mondragon; had been on two occasions so
+brilliantly successful.  But the Isle of Tholen was now defended by Count
+Solms and a garrison of fierce amphibious Zeelanders--of those determined
+bands which had just been holding Farnese and his fleet in prison, and
+daring him to the issue--and the invading party, after fortunately
+accomplishing their night journey along the bottom of the Vosmeer, were
+unable to effect a landing, were driven with considerable loss into the
+waves again, and compelled to find their way back as best they could,
+along their dangerous path, and with a rapidly rising tide.  It was a
+blind and desperate venture, and the Vosmeer soon swallowed four hundred
+of the Spaniards.  The rest, half-drowned or smothered, succeeded in
+reaching the shore--the chiefs of the expedition, Renty and Mansfeld,
+having been with difficulty rescued by their followers, when nearly
+sinking in the tide.
+
+The Duke continued the siege, but the place was well defended by an
+English and Dutch garrison, to the number of five thousand, and commanded
+by Colonel Morgan, that bold and much experienced Welshman, so well known
+in the Netherland wars.  Willoughby and Maurice of Nassau, and Olden-
+Barneveld were, at different times, within the walls; for the Duke
+had been unable to invest the place so closely as to prevent all
+communications from without; and, while Maurice was present, there were
+almost daily sorties from the town, with many a spirited skirmish, to
+give pleasure to the martial young Prince.  The English, officers, Vere
+and Baskerville, and two Netherland colonels, the brothers Bax, most
+distinguished themselves on these occasions.  The siege was not going on
+with the good fortune which had usually attended the Spanish leaguer.  of
+Dutch cities, while, on the 29th September, a personal incident came to
+increase Alexander's dissatisfaction and melancholy.
+
+On that day the Duke was sitting in his tent, brooding, as he was apt to
+do, over the unjust accusations which had been heaped upon him in regard
+to the failure of the Armada, when a stranger was announced.  His name,
+he said, was Giacomo Morone, and he was the bearer of a letter from Sir
+Horace Pallavicini, a Genoese gentleman long established in London; and
+known to be on confidential terms with the English government.  Alexander
+took the letter, and glancing at the bottom of the last page, saw that it
+was not signed.
+
+"How dare you bring me a dispatch without a signature?"  he exclaimed.
+The messenger, who was himself a Genoese, assured the Duke that the
+letter was most certainly written by Pallavicini--who had himself placed
+it, sealed, in his hands--and that he had supposed it signed, although he
+had of course, not seen the inside.
+
+Alexander began to read the note, which was not a very long one, and his
+brow instantly darkened.  He read a line or two more, when, with an
+exclamation of fury, he drew his dagger, and, seizing the astonished
+Genoese by the throat, was about to strike him dead.  Suddenly mastering
+his rage, however, by a strong effort, and remembering that the man might
+be a useful witness; he flung Morone from him.
+
+"If I had Pallavicini here," he said, "I would treat, him as I have just
+refrained from using you.  And if I had any suspicion that you were aware
+of the contents of this letter, I would send you this instant to be
+hanged."
+
+The unlucky despatch-bearer protested his innocence of all complicity
+with Pallavicini, and his ignorance of the tenor of the communication by
+which the Duke's wrath had been so much excited.  He was then searched
+and cross-examined most carefully by Richardot and other counsellors,
+and his innocence being made apparent-he was ultimately discharged.
+
+The letter of Pallavicini was simply an attempt to sound Farnese as to
+his sentiments in regard to a secret scheme, which could afterwards be
+arranged in form, and according, to which he was to assume the
+sovereignty of the Netherlands himself, to the exclusion of his King, to
+guarantee to England the possession of the cautionary towns, until her
+advances to the States should be refunded, and to receive the support and
+perpetual alliance of the Queen in his new and rebellious position.
+
+Here was additional evidence, if any were wanting, of the universal
+belief in his disloyalty; and Alexander, faithful, if man ever were to
+his master--was cut to the heart, and irritated almost to madness, by
+such insolent propositions.  There is neither proof nor probability that
+the Queen's government was implicated in this intrigue of Pallavicini,
+who appears to have been inspired by the ambition of achieving a bit of
+Machiavellian policy, quite on his own account.  Nothing came of the
+proposition, and the Duke; having transmitted to the King a minute
+narrative of, the affair, together with indignant protestations of the
+fidelity, which all the world seemed determined to dispute, received
+most affectionate replies from that monarch, breathing nothing but
+unbounded confidence in his nephew's innocence and devotion.
+
+Such assurances from any other man in the world might have disarmed
+suspicion, but Alexander knew his master too well to repose upon his
+word, and remembered too bitterly the last hours of Don John of Austria
+--whose dying pillow he had soothed, and whose death had been hastened,
+as he knew, either by actual poison or by the hardly less fatal venom
+of slander--to regain tranquillity as to his own position.
+
+The King was desirous that Pallavicini should be invited over to
+Flanders, in order that Alexander, under pretence of listening to his
+propositions, might draw from the Genoese all the particulars of his
+scheme, and then, at leisure, inflict the punishment which he had
+deserved.  But insuperable obstacles presented themselves, nor was
+Alexander desirous of affording still further pretexts for his
+slanderers.
+
+Very soon after this incident--most important as showing the real
+situation of various parties, although without any immediate result--
+Alexander received a visit in his tent from another stranger.  This time
+the visitor was an Englishman, one Lieutenant Grimstone, and the object
+of his interview with the Duke was not political, but had, a direct
+reference to the siege of Bergen.  He was accompanied by a countryman
+of his own, Redhead by name, a camp-suttler by profession.  The two
+represented themselves as deserters from the besieged city, and offered,
+for a handsome reward, to conduct a force of Spaniards, by a secret path,
+into one of the gates.  The Duke questioned them narrowly, and being
+satisfied with their intelligence and coolness, caused them to take an
+oath on the Evangelists, that they were not playing him false.  He then
+selected a band of one hundred musketeers, partly Spaniards, partly
+Walloons--to be followed at a distance by a much, more considerable
+force; two thousand in number, under Sancho de Leyva: and the Marquis of
+Renti--and appointed the following night for an enterprise against the
+city, under the guidance of Grimstone.
+
+It was a wild autumnal night, moonless, pitch-dark, with a storm of
+wind and rain.  The waters were out--for the dykes had been cut in all
+'directions by the defenders of the city--and, with exception of some
+elevated points occupied by Parma's forces, the whole country was
+overflowed.  Before the party set forth on their daring expedition,
+the two Englishmen were tightly bound with cords, and led, each by two
+soldiers, instructed to put them to instant death if their conduct should
+give cause for suspicion.  But both Grimstone and Redhead preserved a
+cheerful countenance, and inspired a strong confidence in their honest
+intention to betray their countrymen.  And thus the band of bold
+adventurers plunged at once into the darkness, and soon found themselves
+contending with the tempest, and wading breast high in the black waters
+of the Scheldt.
+
+After a long and perilous struggle, they at length reached the appointed
+gate, The external portcullis was raised and the fifteen foremost of the
+band rushed into tho town.  At the next moment, Lord Willoughby, who had
+been privy to the whole scheme, cut with his own hand the cords which,
+held the portcullis, and entrapped the leaders of the expedition, who
+were all, at once put to the sword, while their followers were thundering
+at the gate.  The lieutenant and suttler who had thus overreached that
+great master of dissimulation; Alexander Farnese; were at the same time
+unbound by their comrades, and rescued from the fate intended for them.
+
+Notwithstanding the probability--when the portcullis fell--that the whole
+party, had been deceived by an artifice of war the adventurers, who had
+come so far, refused to abandon the enterprise, and continued an
+impatient battery upon the gate.  At last it was swung wide open, and
+a furious onslaught was made by the garrison upon the Spaniards.  There
+was--a fierce brief struggle, and then the assailants were utterly
+routed.  Some were killed under the walls, while the rest were hunted
+into the waves.  Nearly every one of the, expedition (a thousand in
+number) perished.
+
+It had now become obvious to the Duke that his siege must be raised.
+The days were gone when the walls of Dutch towns seemed to melt before
+the first scornful glance of the Spanish invader; and when a summons
+meant a surrender, and a surrender a massacre.  Now, strong in the
+feeling of independence, and supported by the courage and endurance of
+their English allies, the Hollanders had learned to humble the pride of
+Spain as it had never been humbled before.  The hero of a hundred battle-
+fields, the inventive and brilliant conqueror of Antwerp, seemed in the
+deplorable issue of the English invasion to have lost all his genius, all
+his fortune.  A cloud had fallen upon his fame, and he now saw himself;
+at the head of the best army in Europe, compelled to retire, defeated and
+humiliated, from the walls of Bergen.  Winter was coming on apace; the
+country was flooded; the storms in that-bleak region and inclement season
+were incessant; and he was obliged to retreat before his army should be
+drowned.
+
+On the night of 12-13 November he set fire to his camp; and took his
+departure.  By daybreak he was descried in full retreat, and was hotly
+pursued by the English and Dutch from the city, who drove the great
+Alexander and his legions before them in ignominious flight. Lord
+Willoughby, in full view of the retiring enemy, indulged the allied
+forces with a chivalrous spectacle.  Calling a halt, after it had become
+obviously useless, with their small force of cavalry; to follow any
+longer, through a flooded country, an enemy who had abandoned his design,
+he solemnly conferred the honour of knighthood, in the name of Queen
+Elizabeth, on the officers who had most distinguished themselves during
+the siege, Francis Vere, Baskerville, Powell, Parker, Knowles, and on the
+two Netherland brothers, Paul and Marcellus Bax.
+
+The Duke of Parma then went into winter quarters in Brabant, and, before
+the spring, that obedient Province had been eaten as bare as Flanders had
+already been by the friendly Spaniards.
+
+An excellent understanding between England and Holland had been the
+result of their united and splendid exertions against the Invincible
+Armada.  Late in the year 1588 Sir John Norris had been sent by the Queen
+to offer her congratulations and earnest thanks to the States for their
+valuable assistance in preserving her throne, and to solicit their
+cooperation in some new designs against the common foe.  Unfortunately,
+however, the epoch of good feeling was but of brief duration.  Bitterness
+and dissension seemed the inevitable conditions of the English-Dutch
+alliance.  It will be, remembered, that, on the departure of Leicester,
+several cities had refused to acknowledge the authority of Count Maurice
+and the States; and that civil war in the scarcely-born commonwealth had
+been the result.  Medenblik, Naarden, and the other contumacious cities,
+had however been reduced to obedience after the reception of the Earl's
+resignation, but the important city of Gertruydenberg had remained in a
+chronic state of mutiny.  This rebellion had been partially appeased
+during the year 1588 by the efforts of Willoughby, who had strengthened,
+the garrison by reinforcements of English troops under command of his
+brother-in-law, Sir John Wingfield.  Early in 1589 however, the whole
+garrison became rebellious, disarmed and maltreated the burghers, and
+demanded immediate payment of the heavy arrearages still due to the
+troops.  Willoughby, who--much disgusted with his career in the
+Netherlands--was about leaving for England, complaining that the States
+had not only left him without remuneration for his services, but had not
+repaid his own advances, nor even given him a complimentary dinner, tried
+in vain to pacify them.  A rumour became very current, moreover, that the
+garrison had opened negotiations with Alexander Farnese, and accordingly
+Maurice of Nassau--of whose patrimonial property the city of
+Gertruydenberg made a considerable proportion, to the amount of eight
+thousand pounds sterling a years--after summoning the garrison, in his
+own name and that of the States, to surrender, laid siege to the place
+in form.  It would have been cheaper, no doubt, to pay the demands of the
+garrison in full, and allow them to depart.  But Maurice considered his
+honour at stake.  His letters of summons, in which he spoke of the
+rebellious commandant and his garrison as self-seeking foreigners and
+mercenaries, were taken in very ill part.  Wingfield resented the
+statement in very insolent language, and offered to prove its falsehood
+with his sword against any man and in any place whatever.  Willoughby
+wrote to his brother-in-law, from Flushing, when about to embark,
+disapproving of his conduct and of his language; and to Maurice,
+deprecating hostile measures against a city under the protection of Queen
+Elizabeth.  At any rate, he claimed that Sir John Wingfield and his wife,
+the Countess of Kent, with their newly-born child, should be allowed to
+depart from the place.  But Wingfield expressed great scorn at any
+suggestion of retreat, and vowed that he would rather surrender the city
+to the Spaniards than tolerate the presumption of Maurice and the States.
+The young Prince accordingly, opened his batteries, but before an
+entrance could be effected into the town, was obliged to retire at the
+approach of Count Mansfield with a much superior force.  Gertruydenberg
+was now surrendered to the Spaniards in accordance with a secret
+negotiation which had been proceeding all the spring, and had been
+brought to a conclusion at last.  The garrison received twelve months'
+pay in full and a gratuity of five months in addition, and the city was
+then reduced into obedience to Spain and Rome on the terms which had been
+usual during the government of Farnese.
+
+The loss of this city was most severe to the republic, for the enemy had
+thus gained an entrance into the very heart of Holland.  It was a more
+important acquisition to Alexander than even Bergen-op-Zoom would have
+been, and it was a bitter reflection that to the treachery of
+Netherlanders and of their English allies this great disaster was owing.
+All the wrath aroused a year before by the famous treason of York and
+Stanley, and which had been successfully extinguished, now flamed forth
+afresh.  The States published a placard denouncing the men who had thus
+betrayed the cause of freedom, and surrendered the city of Gertruydenberg
+to the Spaniards, as perjured traitors whom it was made lawful to hang,
+whenever or wherever caught, without trial or sentence, and offering
+fifty florins a-head for every private soldier and one hundred florins
+for any officer of the garrison.  A list of these Englishmen and
+Netherlanders, so far as known, was appended to the placard, and the
+catalogue was headed by the name of Sir John Wingfield.
+
+Thus the consequences of the fatal event were even more deplorable than
+the loss of the city itself.  The fury of Olden-Barneveld at the treason
+was excessive, and the great Advocate governed the policy of the
+republic, at this period, almost like a dictator.  The States, easily
+acknowledging the sway of the imperious orator, became bitter--and
+wrathful with the English, side by side with whom they had lately been
+so cordially standing.
+
+Willoughby, on his part, now at the English court, was furious with the
+States, and persuaded the leading counsellors of the Queen as well as her
+Majesty herself, to adopt his view of the transaction.  Wingfield, it was
+asserted, was quite innocent in the matter; he was entirely ignorant of
+the French language, and therefore was unable to read a word of the
+letters addressed to him by Maurice and the replies which had been signed
+by himself.  Whether this strange excuse ought to be accepted or not, it
+is quite certain that he was no traitor like York and Stanley, and no
+friend to Spain; for he had stipulated for himself the right to return
+to England, and had neither received nor desired any reward.  He hated
+Maurice and he hated the States, but he asserted that he had been held
+in durance, that the garrison was mutinous, and that he was no more
+responsible for the loss of the city than Sir Francis Vere had been, who
+had also been present, and whose name had been subsequently withdrawn, in
+honourable fashion from the list of traitors, by authority of the States.
+His position--so far as he was personally concerned--seemed defensible,
+and the Queen was thoroughly convinced of his innocence.  Willoughby
+complained that the republic was utterly in the hands of Barneveld, that
+no man ventured to lift his voice or his eyes in presence of the terrible
+Advocate who ruled every Netherlander with a rod of iron, and that his
+violent and threatening language to Wingfield and himself at the dinner-
+table in Bergen-op-Zoom on the subject of the mutiny (when one hundred of
+the Gertruydenberg garrison were within sound of his voice) had been the
+chief cause of the rebellion.  Inspired by these remonstrances, the Queen
+once more emptied the vials of her wrath upon the United Netherlands.
+The criminations and recriminations seemed endless, and it was most
+fortunate that Spain had been weakened, that Alexander, a prey to
+melancholy and to lingering disease, had gone to the baths of Spa to
+recruit his shattered health, and that his attention and the schemes of
+Philip for the year 1589 and the following period were to be directed
+towards France.  Otherwise the commonwealth could hardly have escaped
+still more severe disasters than those already experienced in this
+unfortunate condition of its affairs, and this almost hopeless
+misunderstanding with its most important and vigorous friend.
+
+While these events had been occurring in the heart of the republic,
+Martin Schenk, that restless freebooter, had been pursuing a bustling and
+most lucrative career on its outskirts.  All the episcopate of Cologne--
+that debatable land of the two rival paupers, Bavarian Ernest and Gebhard
+Truchsess--trembled before him.  Mothers scared their children into
+quiet with the terrible name of Schenk, and farmers and land-younkers
+throughout the electorate and the land of Berg, Cleves, and Juliers, paid
+their black-mail, as if it were a constitutional impost, to escape the
+levying process of the redoubtable partisan.
+
+But Martin was no longer seconded, as he should have been, by the States,
+to whom he had been ever faithful since he forsook the banner of Spain
+for their own; and he had even gone to England and complained to the
+Queen of the short-comings of those who owed him so much.  His ingenious
+and daring exploit--the capture of Bonn--has already been narrated, but
+the States had neglected the proper precautions to secure that important
+city.  It had consequently, after a six months' siege, been surrendered
+to the Spaniards under Prince Chimay, on the 19th of September; while, in
+December following, the city of Wachtendonk, between the Rhine and Meuse,
+had fallen into Mansfeld's hands.  Rheinberg, the only city of the
+episcopate which remained to the deposed Truchsess, was soon afterwards
+invested by the troops of Parma, and Schenk in vain summoned the States-
+General to take proper measures for its defence.  But with the enemy now
+eating his way towards the heart of Holland, and with so many dangers
+threatening them on every side, it was thought imprudent to go so far
+away to seek the enemy.  So Gebhard retired in despair into Germany,
+and Martin did what he could to protect Rheinberg, and to fill his own
+coffers at the expense of the whole country side.
+
+He had built a fort, which then and long afterwards bore his name-
+Schenken Schans, or Schenk's Sconce--at that important point where the
+Rhine, opening its two arms to enclose the "good meadow" island of
+Batavia, becomes on the left the Waal, while on the right it retains its
+ancient name; and here, on the outermost edge of the republic, and
+looking straight from his fastness into the fruitful fields of Munster,
+Westphalia, and the electorate, the industrious Martin devoted himself
+with advantage to his favourite pursuits.
+
+On the 7th of August, on the heath of Lippe, he had attacked a body of
+Spanish musketeers, more than a thousand strong, who were protecting a
+convoy of provisions, treasure, and furniture, sent by Farnese to
+Verdugo, royal governor of Friesland.  Schenk, without the loss of a
+single man, had put the greater part of these Spaniards and Walloons to
+the sword, and routed the rest.  The leader of the expedition, Colonel
+Aristotle Patton, who had once played him so foul a trick in the
+surrender of Gelder, had soon taken to flight, when he found his ancient
+enemy upon him, and, dashing into the Lippe, had succeeded, by the
+strength and speed of his horse, in gaining the opposite bank, and
+effecting his escape.  Had he waited many minutes longer it is probable
+that the treacherous Aristotle would have passed a comfortless half-hour
+with his former comrade.  Treasure to the amount of seven thousand crowns
+in gold, five hundred horses, with jewels, plate, and other articles of
+value, were the fruit of this adventure, and Schenk returned with his
+followers, highly delighted, to Schenkenschans, and sent the captured
+Spanish colours to her Majesty of England as a token.
+
+A few miles below his fortress was Nymegen, and towards that ancient and
+wealthy city Schenk had often cast longing eyes.  It still held for the
+King, although on the very confines of Batavia; but while acknowledging
+the supremacy of Philip, it claimed the privileges of the empire.  From
+earliest times it had held its head very high among imperial towns, had
+been one of the three chief residences of the Emperor.  Charlemagne, and
+still paid the annual tribute of a glove full of pepper to the German
+empire.
+
+On the evening of the 10th of August, 1589, there was a wedding feast in
+one of the splendid mansions of the stately city.  The festivities were
+prolonged until deep in the midsummer's night, and harp and viol were
+still inspiring the feet of the dancers, when on a sudden, in the midst
+of the holiday-groups, appeared the grim visage of Martin Schenk, the man
+who never smiled.  Clad in no wedding-garment, but in armour of proof,
+with morion on head, and sword in hand, the great freebooter strode
+heavily through the ball-room, followed by a party of those terrible
+musketeers who never gave or asked for quarter, while the affrighted
+revellers fluttered away before them.
+
+Taking advantage of a dark night, he had just dropped down the river from
+his castle, with five-and-twenty barges, had landed with his most trusted
+soldiers in the foremost vessels, had battered down the gate of St.
+Anthony, and surprised and slain the guard.  Without waiting for the rest
+of his boats, he had then stolen with his comrades through the silent
+streets, and torn away the lattice-work, and other slight defences on the
+rear of the house which they had now entered, and through which they
+intended to possess themselves of the market-place.  Martin had long
+since selected this mansion as a proper position for his enterprise, but
+he had not been bidden to the wedding, and was somewhat disconcerted when
+he found himself on the festive scene which he had so grimly interrupted.
+Some of the merry-makers escaped from the house, and proceeded to alarm
+the town; while Schenk hastily fortified his position; and took
+possession of the square.  But the burghers and garrison were soon on
+foot, and he was driven back into the house.  Three times he recovered
+the square by main strength of his own arm, seconded by the handful of
+men whom he had brought with him, and three times he was beaten back by
+overwhelming numbers into the wedding mansion.  The arrival of the
+greater part of his followers, with whose assistance he could easily have
+mastered the city in the first moments of surprise, was mysteriously
+delayed.  He could not account for their prolonged, absence, and was
+meanwhile supported only by those who had arrived with him in the
+foremost barges.
+
+The truth--of which he was ignorant--was, that the remainder of the
+flotilla, borne along by the strong and deep current of the Waal, then in
+a state of freshet, had shot past the landing-place, and had ever since
+been vainly struggling against wind and tide to force their way back to
+the necessary point.  Meantime Schenk and his followers fought
+desperately in the market-place, and desperately in the house which he
+had seized.  But a whole garrison, and a town full of citizens in arms
+proved too much for him, and he was now hotly besieged in the mansion,
+and at last driven forth into the streets.
+
+By this time day was dawning, the whole population, soldiers and
+burghers, men, women, and children, were thronging about the little band
+of marauders, and assailing them with every weapon and every missile to
+be found.  Schenk fought with his usual ferocity, but at last the
+musketeers, in spite of his indignant commands, began rapidly to retreat
+towards the quay.  In vain Martin stormed and cursed, in vain with his
+own hand he struck more than one of his soldiers dead.  He was swept
+along with the panic-stricken band, and when, shouting and gnashing his
+teeth with frenzy, he reached the quay at last, he saw at a glance why
+his great enterprise had failed.  The few empty barges of his own party
+were moored at the steps; the rest were half a mile off, contending
+hopelessly against the swollen and rapid Waal.  Schenk, desperately
+wounded, was left almost alone upon the wharf, for his routed followers
+had plunged helter skelter into the boats, several of which, overladen in
+the panic, sank at once, leaving the soldiers to drown or struggle with
+the waves.  The game was lost.  Nothing was left the freebooter but
+retreat.  Reluctantly turning his back on his enemies, now in full cry
+close behind him, Schenk sprang into the last remaining boat just pushing
+from the quay.  Already overladen, it foundered with his additional
+weight, and Martin Schenk, encumbered with his heavy armour, sank at once
+to the bottom of the Waal.
+
+Some of the fugitives succeeded in swimming down the stream, and were
+picked up by their comrades in the barges below the town, and so made
+their escape.  Many were drowned with their captain.  A few days
+afterwards, the inhabitants of Nymegen fished up the body of the famous
+partisan.  He was easily recognized by his armour, and by his truculent
+face, still wearing the scowl with which he had last rebuked his
+followers.  His head was taken off at once, and placed on one of the
+turrets of the town, and his body, divided in four, was made to adorn
+other portions of the battlements; so that the burghers were enabled to
+feast their eyes on the remnants of the man at whose name the whole
+country had so often trembled.
+
+This was the end of Sir Martin Schenk of Niddegem, knight, colonel, and
+brigand; save that ultimately his dissevered limbs were packed in a
+chest, and kept in a church tower, until Maurice of Nassau, in course of
+time becoming master of Nymegen, honoured the valiant and on the whole
+faithful freebooter with a Christian and military burial.
+
+A few months later (October, 1589) another man who had been playing an
+important part in the Netherlands' drama lost his life.  Count Moeurs and
+Niewenaar, stadholder of Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overysael, while
+inspecting some newly-invented fireworks, was suddenly killed by their
+accidental ignition and explosion.  His death left vacant three great
+stadholderates, which before long were to be conferred upon a youth whose
+power henceforth was rapidly to grow greater.
+
+The misunderstanding between Holland and England continuing, Olden-
+Barneveld, Aerssens, and Buys, refusing to see that they had done wrong
+in denouncing the Dutch and English traitors who had sold Gertruydenberg
+to the enemy, and the Queen and her counsellors persisting in their anger
+at so insolent a proceeding, it may easily be supposed that there was no
+great heartiness in the joint expedition against Spain, which had been
+projected in the autumn of 1588, and was accomplished in the spring and
+summer of 1589.
+
+Nor was this well-known enterprise fruitful of any remarkable result.
+It had been decided to carry the war into Spain itself, and Don Antonio,
+prior of Crato, bastard of Portugal, and pretender to its crown, had
+persuaded himself and the English government that his name would be
+potent to conjure with in that kingdom, hardly yet content with the
+Spanish yoke.  Supported by a determined force of English and Dutch
+adventurers, he boasted that he should excite a revolution by the magic
+of his presence, and cause Philip's throne to tremble, in return for the
+audacious enterprise of that monarch against England.
+
+If a foray were to be made into Spain, no general and no admiral could be
+found in the world so competent to the adventure as Sir John Norris and
+Sir Francis Drake.  They were accompanied, too, by Sir Edward Norris, and
+another of those 'chickens of Mars,' Henry Norris; by the indomitable and
+ubiquitous Welshman, Roger Williams, and by the young Earl of Essex, whom
+the Queen in vain commanded to remain at home, and who, somewhat to the
+annoyance of the leaders of the expedition, concealed himself from her
+Majesty's pursuit, and at last embarked in a vessel which he had
+equipped, in order not to be cheated of his share in the hazard and
+the booty.  "If I speed well," said the spendthrift but valiant youth;
+"I will adventure to be rich; if not, I will never live, to see the end
+of my poverty."
+
+But no great riches were to be gathered in the expedition.  With some
+fourteen thousand men, and one hundred and sixty vessels--of which six
+were the Queen's ships of war, including the famous Revenge and the
+Dreadnought, and the rest armed merchantmen, English, and forty
+Hollanders--and with a contingent of fifteen hundred Dutchmen under
+Nicolas van Meetkerke and Van Laen, the adventurers set sail from
+Plymouth on the 18th of April, 1589.
+
+They landed at Coruna--at which place they certainly could not expect to
+create a Portuguese revolution, which was the first object of the
+expedition--destroyed some shipping in the harbour, captured and sacked
+the lower town, and were repulsed in the upper; marched with six thousand
+men to Burgos, crossed the bridge at push of pike, and routed ten
+thousand Spaniards under Andrada and Altamira--Edward Norris receiving a
+desperate blow on the head at the passage' of the bridge, and being
+rescued from death by his brother John--took sail for the south after
+this action, in which they had killed a thousand Spaniards, and had lost
+but two men of their own; were joined off Cape Finisterre by Essex;
+landed a force at Peniche, the castle of which place surrendered to them,
+and acknowledged the authority of Don Antonio; and thence marched with
+the main body of the troops, under Sir John Norris, forty-eight miles to
+Lisbon, while Drake, with the fleet, was to sail up the Tagus.
+
+Nothing like a revolution had been effected in Portugal.  No one seemed
+to care for the Pretender, or even to be aware that he had ever existed,
+except the governor of Peniche Castle, a few ragged and bare-footed
+peasants, who, once upon the road, shouted "Viva Don Antonio," and one
+old gentleman by the way side, who brought him a plate of plums.  His
+hopes of a crown faded rapidly, and when the army reached Lisbon it had
+dwindled to not much more than four thousand effective men--the rest
+being dead of dysentery, or on the sick-list from imprudence in eating
+and drinking--while they found that they had made an unfortunate omission
+in their machinery for assailing the capital, having not a single
+fieldpiece in the whole army.  Moreover, as Drake was prevented by bad
+weather and head-winds from sailing up the Tagus, it seemed a difficult
+matter to carry the city.  A few cannon, and the co-operation of the
+fleet, were hardly to be dispensed with on such an occasion.
+Nevertheless it would perhaps have proved an easier task than it
+appeared--for so great was the panic within the place that a large number
+of the inhabitants had fled, the Cardinal Viceroy Archduke Albert had but
+a very insufficient guard, and there were many gentlemen of high station
+who were anxious to further the entrance of the English, and who were
+afterwards hanged or garotted for their hostile sentiments to the Spanish
+government.
+
+While the leaders were deliberating what course to take, they were
+informed that Count Fuentes and Henriquez de Guzman, with six thousand
+men, lay at a distance of two miles from Lisbon, and that they had been
+proclaiming by sound of trumpet that the English had been signally
+defeated before Lisbon, and that they were in full retreat.
+
+Fired at this bravado, Norris sent a trumpet to Fuentes and Guzman,
+with a letter signed and sealed, giving them the lie in plainest terms,
+appointing the next day for a meeting of the two forces, and assuring
+them that when the next encounter should take place, it should be seen
+whether a Spaniard or an Englishman would be first to fly; while Essex,
+on his part, sent a note, defying either or both those boastful generals
+to single combat.  Next day the English army took the field, but the
+Spaniards retired before them; and nothing came of this exchange of
+cartels, save a threat on the part of Fuentes to hang the trumpeter who
+had brought the messages.  From the execution of this menace he
+refrained, however, on being assured that the deed would be avenged by
+the death of the Spanish prisoner of highest rank then in English hands,
+and thus the trumpeter escaped.
+
+Soon afterwards the fleet set sail from the Tagus, landed, and burned
+Vigo on their way homeward, and returned to Plymouth about the middle of
+July.
+
+Of the thirteen thousand came home six thousand, the rest having perished
+of dysentery and other disorders.  They had braved and insulted Spain,
+humbled her generals, defied her power, burned some defenceless villages,
+frightened the peasantry, set fire to some shipping, destroyed wine, oil,
+and other merchandize, and had divided among the survivors of the
+expedition, after landing in England, five shillings a head prize-money;
+but they had not effected a revolution in Portugal.  Don Antonio had been
+offered nothing by his faithful subjects but a dish of plums--so that he
+retired into obscurity from that time forward--and all this was scarcely
+a magnificent result for the death of six or seven thousand good English
+and Dutch soldiers, and the outlay of considerable treasure.
+
+As a free-booting foray--and it was nothing else--it could hardly be
+thought successful; although it was a splendid triumph compared with the
+result of the long and loudly heralded Invincible Armada.
+
+In France, great events during the remainder of 1588 and the following
+year, and which are well known even to the most superficial student of
+history, had much changed the aspect of European affairs.  It was
+fortunate for the two commonwealths of Holland and England, engaged in
+the great struggle for civil and religious liberty, and national
+independence, that the attention of Philip became more and more absorbed-
+as time wore on--with the affairs of France.  It seemed necessary for him
+firmly to establish his dominion in that country before attempting once
+more the conquest of England, or the recovery of the Netherlands.  For
+France had been brought more nearly to anarchy and utter decomposition
+than ever.  Henry III., after his fatal forgiveness of the deadly offence
+of Guise, felt day by day more keenly that he had transferred his
+sceptre--such as it was--to that dangerous intriguer.  Bitterly did the
+King regret having refused the prompt offer of Alphonse Corse on the day
+of the barricades; for now, so long as the new generalissimo should live,
+the luckless Henry felt himself a superfluity in his own realm.  The
+halcyon days were for ever past, when, protected by the swords of Joyeuse
+and of Epernon, the monarch of France could pass his life playing at cup
+and ball, or snipping images out of pasteboard, or teaching his parrots-
+to talk, or his lap-dogs to dance.  His royal occupations were gone, and
+murder now became a necessary preliminary to any future tranquillity or
+enjoyment.  Discrowned as he felt himself already, he knew that life or
+liberty was only held by him now at the will of Guise.  The assassination
+of the Duke in December was the necessary result of the barricades in
+May; and accordingly that assassination was arranged with an artistic
+precision of which the world had hardly suspected the Valois to be
+capable, and which Philip himself might have envied.
+
+The story of the murders of Blois--the destruction of Guise and his
+brother the Cardinal, and the subsequent imprisonment of the Archbishop
+of Lyons, the Cardinal Bourbon, and the Prince de Joinville, now, through
+the death of his father, become the young Duke of Guise--all these events
+are too familiar in the realms of history, song, romance, and painting,
+to require more than this slight allusion here.
+
+Never had an assassination been more technically successful; yet its
+results were not commensurate with the monarch's hopes.  The deed which
+he had thought premature in May was already too late in December.  His
+mother denounced his cruelty now, as she had, six months before,
+execrated his cowardice.  And the old Queen, seeing that her game was
+played out--that the cards had all gone against her--that her son was
+doomed, and her own influence dissolved in air, felt that there was
+nothing left for her but to die.  In a week she was dead, and men spoke
+no more of Catharine de' Medici, and thought no more of her than if--in
+the words of a splenetic contemporary--"she had been a dead she-goat."
+Paris howled with rage when it learned the murders of Blois, and the
+sixteen quarters became more furious than ever against the Valois.  Some
+wild talk there was of democracy and republicanism after the manner of
+Switzerland, and of dividing France into cantons--and there was an
+earnest desire on the part of every grandee, every general, every soldier
+of fortune, to carve out a portion of French territory with his sword,
+and to appropriate it for himself and his heirs.  Disintegration was
+making rapid progress, and the epoch of the last Valois seemed mare dark
+and barbarous than the times of the degenerate Carlovingians had been.
+The letter-writer of the Escorial, who had earnestly warned his faithful
+Mucio, week after week, that dangers were impending over him, and that
+"some trick would be played upon him," should he venture into the royal
+presence, now acquiesced in his assassination, and placidly busied
+himself with fresh combinations and newer tools.
+
+Baked, hunted, scorned by all beside, the luckless Henry now threw
+himself into the arms of the Bearnese--the man who could and would have
+protected him long before, had the King been capable of understanding
+their relative positions and his own true interests.  Could the Valois
+have conceived the thought of religious toleration, his throne even then
+might have been safe.  But he preferred playing the game of the priests
+and bigots, who execrated his name and were bent upon his destruction.
+At last, at Plessis les Tours, the Bearnese, in his shabby old chamois
+jacket and his well-dinted cuirass took the silken Henry in his arms, and
+the two--the hero and the fribble--swearing eternal friendship, proceeded
+to besiege Paris.  A few weeks later, the dagger of Jacques Clement put
+an end for ever to, the line of Valois.  Luckless Henry III. slept with
+his forefathers, and Henry of Bourbon and Navarre proclaimed himself King
+of France.  Catharine and her four sons had all past away at last, and it
+would be a daring and a dexterous schemer who should now tear the crown,
+for which he had so long and so patiently waited, from the iron grasp of
+the Bearnese.  Philip had a more difficult game than ever to play in
+France.  It would be hard for him to make valid the claims of the Infanta
+and any husband he might select for her to the crown of her grandfather
+Henry II.  It seemed simple enough for him, while waiting the course of
+events, to set up a royal effigy before the world in the shape of an
+effete old Cardinal Bourbon, to pour oil upon its head and to baptize it
+Charles X.; but meantime the other Bourbon was no effigy, and he called
+himself Henry IV.
+
+It was easy enough for Paris, and Madam League, and Philip the Prudent,
+to cry wo upon the heretic; but the cheerful leader of the Huguenots was
+a philosopher, who in the days of St. Bartholomew had become orthodox to
+save his life, and who was already "instructing himself" anew in order to
+secure his crown.  Philip was used to deal with fanatics, and had often
+been opposed by a religious bigotry as fierce as his own; but he might
+perhaps be baffled by a good-humoured free-thinker, who was to teach him
+a lesson in political theology of which he had never dreamed.
+
+The Leaguers were not long in doubt as to the meaning of "instruction,"
+and they were thoroughly persuaded that--so soon as Henry IV. should
+reconcile himself with Rome--their game was likely to become desperate.
+
+Nevertheless prudent Philip sat in his elbow-chairs writing his
+apostilles, improving himself and his secretaries in orthography, but
+chiefly confining his attention to the affairs of France.  The departed
+Mucio's brother Mayenne was installed as chief stipendiary of Spain and
+lieutenant-general for the League in France, until Philip should
+determine within himself in what form to assume the sovereignty of that
+kingdom.  It might be questionable however whether that corpulent Duke,
+who spent more time in eating than Henry IV. did in sleeping, and was
+longer in reading a letter than Henry in winning a battle, were likely to
+prove a very dangerous rival even with all Spain at his back--to the
+lively Bearnese.  But time would necessarily be consumed before the end
+was reached, and time and Philip were two.  Henry of Navarre and France
+was ready to open his ears to instruction; but even he had declared,
+several years before, that "a religion was not to be changed like a
+shirt."  So while the fresh garment was airing for him at Rome, and while
+he was leisurely stripping off the old, he might perhaps be taken at
+a disadvantage.  Fanaticism on both sides, during this process of
+instruction, might be roused.  The Huguenots on their part might denounce
+the treason of their great chief, and the Papists, on theirs, howl at the
+hypocrisy of the pretended conversion.  But Henry IV. had philosophically
+prepared himself for the denunciations of the Protestants, while
+determined to protect them against the persecutions of the Romanism to
+which he meant to give his adhesion.  While accepting the title of
+renegade, together with an undisputed crown, he was not the man to
+rekindle those fires of religious bigotry which it was his task to
+quench, now that they had lighted his way to the throne.  The demands
+of his Catholic supporters for the exclusion from the kingdom of all
+religions but their own, were steadily refused.
+
+And thus the events of 1588 and 1589 indicated that the great game of
+despotism against freedom would be played, in the coming years, upon the
+soil of France.  Already Elizabeth had furnished the new King with
+L22,000 in gold--a larger sum; as he observed, than he had ever seen
+before in his life,  and the States of the Netherlands had provided him
+with as much more.  Willoughby too, and tough Roger Williams, and
+Baskerville, and Umpton, and Vere, with 4000 English pikemen at their
+back, had already made a brief but spirited campaign in France; and the
+Duke of Parma, after recruiting his health; so, far as it was possible;
+at Spa, was preparing himself to measure swords with that great captain
+of Huguenots; who now assumed the crown of his ancestors, upon the same
+ground.  It seemed probable that for the coming years England would be
+safe from Spanish invasion, and that Holland would have a better
+opportunity than it had ever enjoyed before of securing its liberty and
+perfecting its political organization.  While Parma, Philip; and Mayenne
+were fighting the Bearnese for the crown of France, there might be a
+fairer field for the new commonwealth of the United Netherlands.
+
+And thus many of the personages who have figured in these volumes have
+already passed away.  Leicester had died just after the defeat of the
+Armada, and the thrifty Queen, while dropping a tear upon the grave of
+'sweet Robin,' had sold his goods at auction to defray his debts to
+herself; and Moeurs, and Martin Schenk, and 'Mucio,' and Henry III., and
+Catharine de' Medici, were all dead.  But Philip the Prudent remained,
+and Elizabeth of England, and Henry of France and Navarre, and John of
+Olden-Barneveld; and there was still another personage, a very young man
+still, but a deep-thinking, hard-working student, fagging steadily at
+mathematics and deep in the works of Stevinus, who, before long, might
+play a conspicuous part in the world's great drama.  But, previously to
+1590, Maurice of Nassau seemed comparatively insignificant, and he could
+be spoken of by courtiers as a cipher, and as an unmannerly boy just let
+loose from school.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+I will never live, to see the end of my poverty
+Religion was not to be changed like a shirt
+Tension now gave place to exhaustion
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext History of United Netherlands, v59
+by John Lothrop Motley
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, ENTIRE 1586-89 UNITED NETHERLANDS:
+
+A burnt cat fears the fire
+A free commonwealth--was thought an absurdity
+Act of Uniformity required Papists to assist
+All business has been transacted with open doors
+And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight
+Are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope
+Arminianism
+As lieve see the Spanish as the Calvinistic inquisition
+As logical as men in their cups are prone to be
+Baiting his hook a little to his appetite
+Beacons in the upward path of mankind
+Been already crimination and recrimination more than enough
+Bungling diplomatists and credulous dotards
+Canker of a long peace
+Casting up the matter "as pinchingly as possibly might be"
+Defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station
+Disposed to throat-cutting by the ministers of the Gospel
+During this, whole war, we have never seen the like
+Elizabeth (had not) the faintest idea of religious freedom
+Englishmen and Hollanders preparing to cut each other's throats
+Even to grant it slowly is to deny it utterly
+Evil is coming, the sooner it arrives the better
+Faction has rarely worn a more mischievous aspect
+Fitter to obey than to command
+Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils
+Fool who useth not wit because he hath it not
+Forbidding the wearing of mourning at all
+Full of precedents and declamatory commonplaces
+God, whose cause it was, would be pleased to give good weather
+Guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith
+Hard at work, pouring sand through their sieves
+Hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning
+Heretics to the English Church were persecuted
+High officers were doing the work of private, soldiers
+I did never see any man behave himself as he did
+I am a king that will be ever known not to fear any but God
+I will never live, to see the end of my poverty
+Individuals walking in advance of their age
+Infamy of diplomacy, when diplomacy is unaccompanied by honesty
+Inquisitors enough; but there were no light vessels in The Armada
+Invincible Armada had not only been vanquished but annihilated
+Look for a sharp war, or a miserable peace
+Loving only the persons who flattered him
+Mendacity may always obtain over innocence and credulity
+Never peace well made, he observed, without a mighty war
+Never did statesmen know better how not to do
+Not many more than two hundred Catholics were executed
+Nothing could equal Alexander's fidelity, but his perfidy
+One could neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions
+Only citadel against a tyrant and a conqueror was distrust
+Pray here for satiety, (said Cecil) than ever think of variety
+Rebuked him for his obedience
+Religion was not to be changed like a shirt
+Respect for differences in religious opinions
+Sacrificed by the Queen for faithfully obeying her orders
+Security is dangerous
+She relieth on a hope that will deceive her
+Simple truth was highest skill
+Sixteen of their best ships had been sacrificed
+Sparing and war have no affinity together
+Stake or gallows (for) heretics to transubstantiation
+States were justified in their almost unlimited distrust
+Strength does a falsehood acquire in determined and skilful hand
+Succeeded so well, and had been requited so ill
+Sure bind, sure find
+Sword in hand is the best pen to write the conditions of peace
+Tension now gave place to exhaustion
+That crowned criminal, Philip the Second
+The worst were encouraged with their good success
+The blaze of a hundred and fifty burning vessels
+The sapling was to become the tree
+Their existence depended on war
+There is no man fitter for that purpose than myself
+They chose to compel no man's conscience
+Tolerating religious liberty had never entered his mind
+Torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and children
+Trust her sword, not her enemy's word
+Undue anxiety for impartiality
+Universal suffrage was not dreamed of at that day
+Waiting the pleasure of a capricious and despotic woman
+We were sold by their negligence who are now angry with us
+Wealthy Papists could obtain immunity by an enormous fine
+Who the "people" exactly were
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1586-89 ***
+
+************ This file should be named jm60v10.txt or jm60v10.zip ************
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