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+The Project Gutenberg EBook History of the United Netherlands, 1586
+#45 in our series by John Lothrop Motley
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+Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1586
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+Author: John Lothrop Motley
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4845]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 2, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1586 ***
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+This eBook was produced by David Widger
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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, Volume 45
+
+History United Netherlands, Volume 45, 1586
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII., Part 2.
+
+     Leicester's Letters to his Friends--Paltry Conduct of the Earl to
+     Davison--He excuses himself at Davison's Expense--His Letter to
+     Burghley--Effect of the Queen's Letters to the States--Suspicion and
+     Discontent in Holland--States excuse their Conduct to the Queen--
+     Leicester discredited in Holland--Evil Consequences to Holland and
+     England--Magic: Effect of a Letter from Leicester--The Queen
+     appeased--Her Letters to the States and the Earl--She permits the
+     granted Authority----Unhappy Results of the Queen's Course--Her
+     variable Moods--She attempts to deceive Walsingham--Her Injustice to
+     Heneage--His Perplexity and Distress--Humiliating Position of
+     Leicester--His melancholy Letters to the Queen--He receives a little
+     Consolation--And writes more cheerfully--The Queen is more
+     benignant--The States less contented than the Earl--His Quarrels
+     with them begin.
+
+While these storms were blowing and "overblowing" in England, Leicester
+remained greatly embarrassed and anxious in Holland.  He had sown the
+wind more extensively than he had dreamed of when accepting the
+government, and he was now awaiting, with much trepidation, the usual
+harvest: And we have seen that it was rapidly ripening.  Meantime, the
+good which he had really effected in the Provinces by the course he had
+taken was likely to be neutralized by the sinister rumours as to his
+impending disgrace, while the enemy was proportionally encouraged.
+"I understand credibly," he said, "that the Prince of Parma feels himself
+in great jollity that her Majesty doth rather mislike than allow of our
+doings here, which; if it be true, let her be sure her own sweet self
+shall first smart."
+
+Moreover; the English troops were, as we have seen, mere shoeless,
+shivering, starving vagabonds.  The Earl had generously advanced very
+large sums of money from his own pocket to relieve their necessity.  The
+States, on the other hand, had voluntarily increased the monthly
+contribution of 200,000 florins, to which their contract with Elizabeth
+obliged them, and were more disposed than ever they had been since the
+death of Orange to proceed vigorously and harmoniously against the common
+enemy of Christendom.  Under such circumstances it may well be imagined
+that there was cause on Leicester's part for deep mortification at the
+tragical turn which the Queen's temper seemed to be taking.
+
+"I know not," he said, "how her Majesty doth mean to dispose of me.
+It hath grieved me more than I can express that for faithful and good
+service she should so deeply conceive against me.  God knows with what
+mind I have served her Highness, and perhaps some others might have
+failed.  Yet she is neither tied one jot by covenant or promise by me in
+any way, nor at one groat the more charges, but myself two or three
+thousand pounds sterling more than now is like to be well spent.  I will
+desire no partial speech in my favour.  If my doings be ill for her
+Majesty and the realm, let me feel the smart of it.  The cause is now
+well forward; let not her majesty suffer it to quail.  If you will have
+it proceed to good effect, send away Sir William Pelham with all the
+haste you can.  I mean not to complain, but with so weighty a cause as
+this is, few men have been so weakly assisted.  Her Majesty hath far
+better choice for my place, and with any that may succeed me let Sir
+William Pelham be first that may come.  I speak from my soul for her
+Majesty's service.  I am for myself upon an hour's warning to obey her
+good pleasure."
+
+Thus far the Earl had maintained his dignity.  He had yielded to the
+solicitations of the States, and had thereby exceeded his commission, and
+gratified his ambition, but he had in no wise forfeited his self-respect.
+But--so soon as the first unquestionable intelligence of the passion to
+which the Queen had given way at his misdoings reached him--he began to
+whimper, The straightforward tone which Davison had adopted in his
+interviews with Elizabeth, and the firmness with which he had defended
+the cause of his absent friend, at a moment when he had plunged himself
+into disgrace, was worthy of applause.  He deserved at least a word of
+honest thanks.
+
+Ignoble however was the demeanor of the Earl towards the man--for whom
+he had but recently been unable to invent eulogies sufficiently warm--
+so soon as he conceived the possibility of sacrificing his friend as the
+scape-goat for his own fault.  An honest schoolboy would have scorned to
+leave thus in the lurch a comrade who had been fighting his battles so
+honestly.
+
+"How earnest I was," he wrote to the lords of the council, 9th March,
+1586, "not only to acquaint her Majesty, but immediately upon the first
+motion made by the States, to send Mr. Davison over to her with letters,
+I doubt not but he will truly affirm for me; yea, and how far against my
+will it was, notwithstanding any reasons delivered me, that he and others
+persisted in, to have me accept first of this place .  .  .  .  .  The
+extremity of the case, and my being persuaded that Mr. Davison might have
+better satisfied her Majesty, than I perceive he can, caused, me-neither
+arrogantly nor contemptuously, but even merely and faithfully--to do her
+Majesty the best service."
+
+He acknowledged, certainly, that Davison had been influenced by honest
+motives, although his importunities had been the real cause of the Earl's
+neglect of his own obligations.  But he protested that he had himself,
+only erred through an excessive pliancy to the will of others.  "My
+yielding was my own fault," he admitted, "whatsoever his persuasions;
+but far from a contemptuous heart, or else God pluck out both heart and
+bowels with utter shame."
+
+So soon as Sir Thomas Heneage had presented himself, and revealed the
+full extent of the Queen's wrath, the Earl's disposition to cast the
+whole crime on the shoulders of Davison became quite undisguised.
+
+"I thank you for your letters," wrote Leicester to Walsingham, "though
+you can send me no comfort.  Her Majesty doth deal hardly to believe so
+ill of me.  It is true I faulted, but she doth not consider what
+commodities she hath withal, and herself no way engaged for it, as Mr.
+Davison might have better declared it, if it had pleased him.  And I
+must thank him only for my blame, and so he will confess to you, for,
+I protest before God, no necessity here could have made me leave her
+Majesty unacquainted with the cause before I would have accepted of it,
+but only his so earnest pressing me with his faithfid assured promise to
+discharge me, however her Majesty should take it.  For you all see there
+she had no other cause to be offended but this, and, by the Lord, he was
+the only cause; albeit it is no sufficient allegation, being as I am .  .
+.  .  .  He had, I think, saved all to have told her, as he promised me.
+But now it is laid upon me, God send the cause to take no harm, my grief
+must be the less.
+
+"How far Mr. Heneage's commission shall deface me I know not.  He is wary
+to observe his commission, and I consent withal.  I know the time will be
+her Majesty will be sorry for it.  In the meantime I am too, too weary of
+the high dignity.  I would that any that could serve her Majesty were
+placed in it, and I to sit down with all my losses."
+
+In more manful strain he then alluded to the sufferings of his army.
+"Whatsoever become of me," he said, "give me leave to speak for the poor
+soldiers.  If they be not better maintained, being in this strange
+country, there will be neither good service done, nor be without great
+dishonour to her Majesty .  .  .  .  .  Well, you see the wants, and it
+is one cause that will glad me to be rid of this heavy high calling, and
+wish me at my poor cottage again, if any I shall find.  But let her
+Majesty pay them well, and appoint such a man as Sir William Pelham to
+govern them, and she never wan more honour than these men here will do,
+I am persuaded."
+
+That the Earl was warmly urged by all most conversant with Netherland
+politics to assume the government was a fact admitted by all.  That he
+manifested rather eagerness than reluctance on the subject, and that his
+only hesitation arose from the proposed restraints upon the power, not
+from scruples about accepting the power, are facts upon record.  There
+is nothing save his own assertion to show any backwardness on his part
+to snatch the coveted prize; and that assertion was flatly denied by
+Davison, and was indeed refuted by every circumstance in the case.  It
+is certain that he had concealed from Davison the previous prohibitions
+of the Queen.  He could anticipate much better than could Davison,
+therefore, the probable indignation of the Queen.  It is strange then
+that he should have shut his eyes to it so wilfully, and stranger still
+that he should have relied on the envoy's eloquence instead of his own to
+mitigate that emotion.  Had he placed his defence simply upon its true
+basis, the necessity of the case, and the impossibility of carrying out
+the Queen's intentions in any other way, it would be difficult to censure
+him; but that he should seek to screen himself by laying the whole blame
+on a subordinate, was enough to make any honest man who heard him hang
+his head.  "I meant not to do it, but Davison told me to do it, please
+your Majesty, and if there was naughtiness in it, he said he would make
+it all right with your Majesty."  Such, reduced to its simplest
+expression, was the defence of the magnificent Earl of Leicester.
+
+And as he had gone cringing and whining to his royal mistress, so it was
+natural that he should be brutal and blustering to his friend.
+
+"By your means," said he, "I have fallen into her Majesty's deep
+displeasure .  .  .  .  .  If you had delivered to her the truth of my
+dealing, her Highness never could have conceived, as I perceive she doth
+.  .  .  .  .  Nor doth her Majesty know how hardly I was drawn to accept
+this place before I had acquainted her--as to which you promised you
+would not only give her full satisfaction, but would, procure me great
+thanks. . . . . You did chiefly persuade me to take this charge upon me
+. . . . You can remember how many treaties you and others had with the
+States, before I agreed; for all yours and their persuasion to take it
+. . . . . You gave me assurance to satisfy her Majesty, but I see not
+that you have done anything . . . . I did not hide from you the doubt
+I had of her Majesty's ill taking it . . . . . You chiefly brought me
+into it . . . . and it could no way have been heavy to you, though you
+had told the uttermost of your own doing, as you faithfully promised you
+would . . . . . I did very unwillingly come into the matter, doubting
+that to fall out which is come to pass . . . . and it doth so fall out
+by your negligent carelessness, whereof I many hundred times told you
+that you would both mar the goodness of the matter, and breed me her
+Majesty's displeasure . . . . . Thus fare you well, and except your
+embassages have better success, I shall have no cause to commend them."
+
+And so was the unfortunate Davison ground into finest dust between the
+upper and lower millstones of royal wrath and loyal subserviency.
+
+Meantime the other special envoy had made his appearance in the
+Netherlands; the other go-between between the incensed Queen and the
+backsliding favourite.  It has already been made sufficiently obvious,
+by the sketch given of his instructions, that his mission was a delicate
+one.  In obedience to those instructions, Heneage accordingly made his
+appearance before the council, and, in Leicester's presence, delivered to
+them the severe and biting reprimand which Elizabeth had chosen to
+inflict upon the States and upon the governor.  The envoy performed his
+ungracious task as daintily, as he could, and after preliminary
+consultation with Leicester; but the proud Earl was deeply mortified."
+The fourteenth day of this month of March," said he, "Sir Thomas Heneage
+delivered a very sharp letter from her Majesty to the council of estate,
+besides his message--myself being, present, for so was her Majesty's
+pleasure, as he said, and I do think he did but as he was commanded.  How
+great a grief it must be to an honest heart and a true, faithful servant,
+before his own face, to a company of very wise and grave counsellors, who
+had conceived a marvellous opinion before of my credit with her Majesty,
+to be charged now with a manifest and wilful contempt!  Matter enough to
+have broken any man's heart, that looked rather for thanks, as God doth
+know I did when I first heard of Mr. Heneage's arrival--I must say to
+your Lordship, for discharge of my duty, I can be no fit man to serve
+here--my disgrace is too great--protesting to you that since that day I
+cannot find it in my heart to come into that place, where, by my own
+sufferings torn, I was made to be thought so lewd a person."
+
+He then comforted himself--as he had a right to do--with the reflection
+that this disgrace inflicted was more than he deserved, and that such
+would be the opinion of those by whom he was surrounded.
+
+"Albeit one thing," he said, "did greatly comfort me, that they all best
+knew the wrong was great I had, and that her Majesty was very wrongfully
+informed of the state of my cause.  I doubt not but they can and will
+discharge me, howsoever they shall satisfy her Majesty.  And as I would
+rather wish for death than justly to deserve her displeasure; so, good my
+Lord, this disgrace not coming for any ill service to her, pray procure
+me a speedy resolution, that I may go hide me and pray for her.  My heart
+is broken, though thus far I can quiet myself, that I know I have done
+her Majesty as faithful and good service in these countries as ever she
+had done her since she was Queen of England .  .  .  .  .  Under
+correction, my good Lord, I have had Halifax law--to be condemned first
+and inquired upon after.  I pray God that no man find this measure that I
+have done, and deserved no worse."
+
+He defended himself--as Davison had already defended him--upon the
+necessities of the case.
+
+"I, a poor gentleman," he said, "who have wholly depended upon herself
+alone--and now, being commanded to a service of the greatest importance
+that ever her Majesty employed any servant in, and finding the occasion
+so serving me, and the necessity of time such as would not permit such
+delays, flatly seeing that if that opportunity were lost, the like again
+for her service and the good of the realm was never, to be looked for,
+presuming upon the favour of my prince, as many servants have done,
+exceeding somewhat thereupon, rather than breaking any part of my
+commission, taking upon me a place whereby I found these whole countries
+could be held at her best devotion, without binding her Majesty to any
+such matter as she had forbidden to the States before finding, I say,
+both the time and opportunity to serve, and no lack but to trust to her
+gracious acceptation, I now feel that how good, how honourable, how
+profitable soever it be, it is turned to a worse part than if I had
+broken all her commissions and commandments, to the greatest harm, and
+dishonour, and danger, that may be imagined against her person, state,
+and dignity."
+
+He protested, not without a show of reason, that he was like to be worse
+punished "for well-doing than any man that had committed a most heinous
+or traitorous offence," and he maintained that if he had not accepted the
+government, as he had done, "the whole State had been gone and wholly
+lost."  All this--as we have seen--had already been stoutly urged by
+Davison, in the very face of the tempest, but with no result, except to
+gain the, enmity of both parties to the quarrel.  The ungrateful
+Leicester now expressed confidence that the second go-between would be
+more adroit than the first had proved.  "The causes why," said he, "Mr.
+Davison could have told--no man better--but Mr. Heneage can now tell, who
+hath sought to the uttermost the bottom of all things.  I will stand to
+his report, whether glory or vain desire of title caused me to step one
+foot forward in the matter.  My place was great enough and high enough
+before, with much less trouble than by this, besides the great
+indignation of her Majesty .  .  .  .  .  If I had overslipt the good
+occasion then in danger, I had been worthy to be hanged, and to be taken
+for a most lewd servant to her Majesty, and a dishonest wretch to my
+country."
+
+But diligently as Heneage had sought to the bottom of all things, he had
+not gained the approbation of Sidney.  Sir Philip thought that the new
+man had only ill botched a piece of work that had been most awkwardly
+contrived from the beginning.  "Sir Thomas Heneage," said he, "hath with
+as much honesty, in my opinion done as much hurt as any man this twelve-
+month hath done with naughtiness.  But I hope in God, when her Majesty
+finds the truth of things, her graciousness will not utterly, overthrow a
+cause so behooveful and costly unto her."
+
+He briefly warned the government that most disastrous effects were likely
+to ensue, if the Earl should be publicly disgraced, and the recent action
+of the States reversed.  The penny-wise economy, too, of the Queen, was
+rapidly proving a most ruinous extravagance.  "I only cry for Flushing;"
+said Sidney, "but, unless the monies be sent over, there will some
+terrible accident follow, particularly to the cautionary towns, if her
+Majesty mean to have them cautions."
+
+The effect produced by the first explosion of the Queen's wrath was
+indeed one of universal suspicion and distrust.  The greatest care had
+been taken, however, that the affair should be delicately handled, for
+Heneage, while, doing as much hurt by honesty as, others by naughtiness,
+had modified his course as much as he dared in deference to the opinions
+of the Earl himself, and that of his English counsellors.  The great
+culprit himself, assisted by his two lawyers, Clerk and Killigrew--had
+himself drawn the bill of his own indictment.  The letters of the Queen
+to the States, to the council, and to the Earl himself, were, of
+necessity, delivered, but the reprimand which Heneage had been instructed
+to fulminate was made as harmless as possible.  It was arranged that he
+should make a speech before the council; but abstain from a protocol.
+The oration was duly pronounced, and it was, of necessity, stinging.
+Otherwise the disobedience to the Queen, would have been flagrant.  But
+the pain inflicted was to disappear with the first castigation.  The
+humiliation was to be public and solemn, but it was not to be placed on
+perpetual record.
+
+"We thought best," said Leicester, Heneage, Clerk, and Killigrew--"In
+according to her Majesty's secret instructions--to take that course which
+might least endanger the weak estate of the Provinces--that is to say, to
+utter so much in words as we hoped might satisfy her excellent Majesty's
+expectation, and yet leave them nothing in writing to confirm that which
+was secretly spread in many places to the hindrance of the good course of
+settling these affairs.  Which speech, after Sir Thomas Heneage had
+devised, and we both perused and allowed, he, by our consent and advice,
+pronounced to the council of state. This we did think needful--especially
+because every one of the council that was present at the reading of her
+Majesty's first letters, was of the full mind, that if her Majesty should
+again show the least mislike of the present government, or should not by
+her next letters confirm it, they, were all undone--for that every man
+would cast with himself which way to make his peace."
+
+Thus adroitly had the "poor gentleman, who could not find it in his heart
+to come again into the place, where--by his own sufferings torn--he was
+made to appear so lewd a person"--provided that there should remain no
+trace of that lewdness and of his sovereign's displeasure, upon the
+record of the States.  It was not long, too, before the Earl was enabled
+to surmount his mortification; but the end was not yet.
+
+The universal suspicion, consequent on these proceedings, grew most
+painful.  It pointed to one invariable quarter.  It was believed by all
+that the Queen was privately treating for peace, and that the transaction
+was kept a secret not only from the States but from her own most trusted
+counsellors also.  It would be difficult to exaggerate the pernicious
+effects of this suspicion.  Whether it was a well-grounded one or not,
+will be shown in a subsequent chapter, but there is no doubt that the
+vigour of the enterprise was thus sapped at a most critical moment.  The
+Provinces had never been more heartily banded together since the fatal
+10th of July, 1584, than they were in the early spring of 1586.  They
+were rapidly organizing their own army, and, if the Queen had manifested
+more sympathy with her own starving troops, the united Englishmen and
+Hollanders would have been invincible even by Alexander Farnese.
+
+Moreover, they had sent out nine war-vessels to cruise off the Cape Verd
+Islands for the homeward-bound Spanish treasure fleet from America, with
+orders, if they missed it, to proceed to the West Indies; so that, said
+Leicester, "the King of Spain will have enough to do between these men
+and Drake."  All parties had united in conferring a generous amount of
+power upon the Earl, who was, in truth, stadholder-general, under grant
+from the States--and both Leicester and the Provinces themselves were
+eager and earnest for the war.  In war alone lay the salvation of England
+and Holland.  Peace was an impossibility.  It seemed to the most
+experienced statesmen of both countries even an absurdity.  It may well
+be imagined, therefore, that the idea of an underhand negotiation by
+Elizabeth would cause a frenzy in the Netherlands.  In Leicester's
+opinion, nothing short of a general massacre of the English would be the
+probable consequence.  "No doubt," said he, "the very way it is to put us
+all to the sword here.  For mine own part it would be happiest for me,
+though I wish and trust to lose my life in better sort."
+
+Champagny, however, was giving out mysterious hints that the King of
+Spain could have peace with England when he wished for it.  Sir Thomas
+Cecil, son of Lord Burghley, on whose countenance the States especially
+relied, was returning on sick-leave from his government of the Brill,
+and this sudden departure of so eminent a personage, joined with the
+public disavowal of the recent transaction between Leicester and the
+Provinces, was producing a general and most sickening apprehension as to
+the Queen's good faith.  The Earl did not fail to urge these matters most
+warmly on the consideration of the English council, setting forth that
+the States were stanch for the war, but that they would be beforehand
+with her if she attempted by underhand means to compass a peace.  "If
+these men once smell any such matter," wrote Leicester to Burghley, "be
+you sure they will soon come before you, to the utter overthrow of her
+Majesty and state for ever."
+
+The Earl was suspecting the "false boys," by whom he was surrounded,
+although it was impossible for him to perceive, as we have been enabled
+to do, the wide-spread and intricate meshes by which he was enveloped.
+"Your Papists in England," said he, "have sent over word to some in this
+company, that all that they ever hoped for is come to pass; that my Lord
+of Leicester shall be called away in greatest indignation with her
+Majesty, and to confirm this of Champagny, I have myself seen a letter
+that her Majesty is in hand with a secret peace.  God forbid! for if it
+be so, her Majesty, her realm, and we, are all undone."
+
+The feeling in the Provinces was still sincerely loyal towards England.
+"These men," said Leicester, "yet honour and most dearly love her
+Majesty, and hardly, I know, will be brought to believe ill of her any
+way."  Nevertheless these rumours, to the discredit of her good faith,
+were doing infinite harm; while the Earl, although keeping his eyes and
+ears wide open, was anxious not to compromise himself any further with
+his sovereign, by appearing himself to suspect her of duplicity.  "Good,
+my Lord," he besought Burghley, "do not let her Majesty know of this
+concerning Champagny as coming from me, for she will think it is done
+for my own cause, which, by the Lord God, it is not, but even on the
+necessity of the case for her own safety, and the realm, and us all.
+Good my Lord, as you will do any good in the matter, let not her Majesty
+understand any piece of it to come from me."
+
+The States-General, on the 25th March, N.S., addressed a respectful
+letter to the Queen, in reply to her vehement chidings.  They expressed
+their deep regret that her Majesty should be so offended with the
+election of the Earl of Leicester as absolute governor.
+
+They confessed that she had just cause of displeasure, but hoped that
+when she should be informed of the whole matter she would rest better
+satisfied with their proceedings.  They stated that the authority was the
+same which had been previously bestowed upon governors-general; observing
+that by the word "absolute," which had been used in designation of that
+authority, nothing more had been intended than to give to the Earl full
+power to execute his commission, while the sovereignty of the country was
+reserved to the people.  This commission, they said, could not be without
+danger revoked.  And therefore they most humbly besought her Majesty to
+approve what had been done, and to remember its conformity with her own
+advice to them, that a multitude of heads, whereby confusion in the
+government is bred, should be avoided.
+
+Leicester, upon the same occasion, addressed a letter to Burghley and
+Walsingham, expressing himself as became a crushed and contrite man,
+never more to raise his drooping head again, but warmly and manfully
+urging upon the attention of the English government--for the honour and
+interest of the Queen herself--"the miserable state of the poor
+soldiers."  The necessity of immediate remittances in order to keep them
+from starving, was most imperious.  For himself, he was smothering his
+wretchedness until he should learn her Majesty's final decision, as to
+what was to become of him.  "Meantime," said he, "I carry my grief
+inward, and will proceed till her Majesty's full pleasure come with as
+little discouragement to the cause as I can.  I pray God her Majesty may
+do that may be best for herself.  For my own part my, heart is broken,
+but not by the enemy."
+
+There is no doubt that the public disgrace thus inflicted upon the
+broken-hearted governor, and the severe censure administered to the
+States by the Queen were both ill-timed and undeserved.  Whatever his
+disingenuousness towards Davison, whatever his disobedience to Elizabeth,
+however ambitious his own secret motives may, have been, there is no
+doubt at all that thus far he had borne himself well in his great office.
+
+Richard Cavendish--than whom few had better opportunities of judging--
+spoke in strong language on the subject.  "It is a thing almost
+incredible," said he, "that the care and diligence of any, one man living
+could, in so small time; have so much repaired so disjointed and loose an
+estate as my Lord found this country, in.  But lest he should swell in
+pride of that his good success, your Lordship knoweth that God hath so
+tempered the cause with the construction thereof, as may well hold him in
+good consideration of human things."  He alluded with bitterness--as did
+all men in the Netherlands who were not open or disguised Papists--to the
+fatal rumours concerning the peace-negotiation in connection with the
+recall of Leicester.  "There be here advertisements of most fearful
+instance," he said, "namely, that Champagny doth not spare most liberally
+to bruit abroad that he hath in his hands the conditions of peace offered
+by her Majesty unto the King his master, and that it is in his power to
+conclude at pleasure--which fearful and mischievous plot, if in time it
+be not met withal by some notable encounter, it cannot but prove the root
+of great ruin."
+
+The "false boys" about Leicester were indefatigable in spreading these
+rumours, and in taking advantage--with the assistance of the Papists in
+the obedient Provinces and in England--of the disgraced condition in
+which the Queen had placed the favourite.  Most galling to the haughty
+Earl--most damaging to the cause of England, Holland, and, liberty--were
+the tales to his discredit, which circulated on the Bourse at Antwerp,
+Middelburg, Amsterdam, and in all the other commercial centres.  The most
+influential bankers and merchants, were assured--by a thousand chattering
+--but as it were invisible--tongues, that the Queen had for a long time
+disliked Leicester; that he was a man of no account among the statesmen
+of England; that he was a beggar and a bankrupt; that, if he had waited
+two months longer, he would have made his appearance in the Provinces
+with one man and one boy for his followers; that the Queen had sent him
+thither to be rid of him; that she never intended him to have more
+authority than Sir John Norris had; that she could not abide the
+bestowing the title of Excellency upon him, and that she had not
+disguised her fury at his elevation to the post of governor-general.
+
+All who attempted a refutation of these statements were asked, with a
+sneer, whether her Majesty had ever written a line to him, or in
+commendation of him, since his arrival.  Minute inquiries were made by
+the Dutch merchants of their commercial correspondents, both in their own
+country and in England, as to Leicester's real condition and character.
+at home.  What was his rank, they asked, what his ability, what: his
+influence at court?  Why, if he were really of so high quality as had
+been reported, was he thus neglected, and at last disgraced?  Had he any
+landed property in England?  Had he really ever held any other office but
+that of master of the horse?  "And then," asked one particular busy body,
+who made himself very unpleasant on the Amsterdam Exchange, "why has her
+Majesty forbidden all noblemen and gentlemen from coming hither, as was
+the case at the beginning?  Is it because she is hearkening to a peace?
+And if it be so, quoth he, we are well handled; for if her Majesty
+hath sent a disgraced man to amuse us, while she is secretly working
+a peace for herself, when we--on the contrary--had broken off all our
+negotiations, upon confidence of her Majesty's goodness; such conduct
+will be remembered to the end of the world, and the Hollanders will
+never abide the name of England again."
+
+On such a bed of nettles there was small chance of repose for the
+governor.  Some of the rumours were even more stinging.  So
+incomprehensible did it seem that the proud sovereign of England should
+send over her subjects to starve or beg in the streets of Flushing and
+Ostend, that it was darkly intimated that Leicester had embezzled the
+funds, which, no doubt, had been remitted for the poor soldiers.  This
+was the most cruel blow of all.  The Earl had been put to enormous
+charges.  His household at the Hague cost him a thousand pounds a month.
+He had been paying and furnishing five hundred and fifty men out of his
+own purse.  He had also a choice regiment of cavalry, numbering seven
+hundred and fifty horse; three hundred and fifty of which number were
+over and above those allowed for by the Queen, and were entirely at his
+expense.  He was most liberal in making presents of money to every
+gentleman in his employment.  He had deeply mortgaged his estates in
+order to provide for these heavy demands upon him, and professed his
+willingness "to spend more, if he might have got any more money for his
+land that was left;" and in the face of such unquestionable facts--much
+to the credit certainly of his generosity--he was accused of swindling
+a Queen whom neither Jew nor Gentile had ever yet been sharp enough to
+swindle; while he was in reality plunging forward in a course of reckless
+extravagance in order to obviate the fatal effects of her penuriousness.
+
+Yet these sinister reports were beginning to have a poisonous effect.
+Already an alteration of mien was perceptible in the States-General.
+"Some buzzing there is amongst them," said Leicester, "whatsoever it be.
+They begin to deal very strangely within these few days."  Moreover the
+industry of the Poleys, Blunts, and Pagets, had turned these unfavourable
+circumstances to such good account that a mutiny had been near breaking
+out among the English troops.  "And, before the Lord I speak it," said
+the Earl, "I am sure some of these good towns had been gone ere this, but
+for my money.  As for the States, I warrant you, they see day at a little
+hole.  God doth know what a forward and a joyful country here was within
+a month.  God send her Majesty to recover it so again, and to take care
+of it, on the condition she send me after Sir Francis Drake to the
+Indies, my service here being no more acceptable."
+
+Such was the aspect of affairs in the Provinces after the first explosion
+of the Queen's anger had become known.  Meanwhile the court-weather was
+very changeable in England, being sometimes serene, sometimes cloudy,--
+always treacherous.
+
+Mr. Vavasour, sent by the Earl with despatches to her Majesty and the
+council, had met with a sufficiently benignant reception.  She accepted
+the letters, which, however, owing to a bad cold with a defluxion in the
+eyes, she was unable at once to read; but she talked ambiguously with the
+messenger.  Yavasour took pains to show the immediate necessity of
+sending supplies, so that the armies in the Netherlands might take the
+field at the, earliest possible moment.  "And what," said she, "if a
+peace should come in the mean time?"
+
+"If your Majesty desireth a convenient peace," replied Vavasour, "to take
+the field is the readiest way to obtain it; for as yet the King of Spain
+hath had no reason to fear you.  He is daily expecting that your own
+slackness may give your Majesty an overthrow.  Moreover, the Spaniards
+are soldiers, and are not to be moved by-shadows."
+
+But the Queen had no ears for these remonstrances, and no disposition to
+open her coffers.  A warrant for twenty-four thousand pounds had been
+signed by her at the end of the month of March, and was about to be sent,
+when Vavasour arrived; but it was not possible for him, although assisted
+by the eloquence of Walsingham and Burghley, to obtain an enlargement of
+the pittance.  "The storms are overblown," said Walsingham, "but I fear
+your Lordship shall receive very scarce measure from hence.  You will not
+believe how the sparing humour doth increase upon us."
+
+Nor were the storms so thoroughly overblown but that there were not daily
+indications of returning foul weather.  Accordingly--after a conference
+with Vavasour--Burghley, and Walsingham had an interview with the Queen,
+in which the Lord Treasurer used bold and strong language.  He protested
+to her that he was bound, both by his duty to himself and his oath as her
+councillor, to declare that the course she was holding to Lord Leicester
+was most dangerous to her own honour, interest and safety.  If she
+intended to continue in this line of conduct, he begged to resign his
+office of Lord Treasurer; wishing; before God and man, to wash his bands
+of the shame and peril which he saw could not be avoided.  The Queen,
+astonished at the audacity of Burghley's attitude and language, hardly
+knew whether to chide him for his presumption or to listen to his
+arguments.  She did both.  She taxed him with insolence in daring to
+address her so roundly, and then finding he was speaking even in
+'amaritudine animae' and out of a clear conscience, she became calm
+again, and intimated a disposition to qualify her anger against the
+absent Earl.
+
+Next day, to their sorrow, the two councillors found that the Queen had
+again changed her mind--"as one that had been by some adverse counsel
+seduced."  She expressed the opinion that affairs would do well enough in
+the Netherlands, even though Leicester were displaced.  A conference
+followed between Walsingham, Hatton, and Burghley, and then the three
+went again to her Majesty.  They assured her that if she did not take
+immediate steps to satisfy the States and the people of the Provinces,
+she would lose those countries and her own honour at the same time; and
+that then they would prove a source of danger to her instead of
+protection and glory.  At this she was greatly troubled, and agreed to do
+anything they might advise consistently with her honour.  It was then
+agreed that Leicester should be continued in the government which he had
+accepted until the matter should be further considered, and letters to
+that effect were at once written.  Then came messenger from Sir Thomas
+Heneage, bringing despatchesfrom that envoy, and a second and most secret
+one from the Earl himself.  Burghley took the precious letter which the
+favourite had addressed to his royal mistress, and had occasion to
+observe its magical effect.  Walsingham and the Lord Treasurer had been
+right in so earnestly remonstrating with him on his previous silence.
+
+"She read your letter," said Burghley, "and, in very truth, I found her
+princely heart touched with favourable interpretation of your actions;
+affirming them to be only offensive to her, in that she was not made
+privy to them; not now misliking that you had the authority."
+
+Such, at fifty-three, was Elizabeth Tudor.  A gentle whisper of idolatry
+from the lips of the man she loved, and she was wax in his hands.  Where
+now were the vehement protestations of horror that her public declaration
+of principles and motives had been set at nought?  Where now were her
+vociferous denunciations of the States, her shrill invectives against
+Leicester, her big oaths, and all the 'hysterica passio,' which had sent
+poor Lord Burghley to bed with the gout, and inspired the soul of
+Walsingham with dismal forebodings?  Her anger had dissolved into a
+shower of tenderness, and if her parsimony still remained it was because
+that could only vanish when she too should cease to be.
+
+And thus, for a moment, the grave diplomatic difference between the
+crown of England and their high mightinesses the United States--upon the
+solution of which the fate of Christendom was hanging--seemed to shrink
+to the dimensions of a lovers' quarrel.  Was it not strange that the
+letter had been so long delayed?
+
+Davison had exhausted argument in defence of the acceptance by the Earl
+of the authority conferred by the States and had gained nothing by his
+eloquence, save abuse from the Queen, and acrimonious censure from the
+Earl.  He had deeply offended both by pleading the cause of the erring
+favourite, when the favourite should have spoken for himself.  "Poor Mr.
+Davison," said Walsingham, "doth take it very grievously that your
+Lordship should conceive so hardly of him as you do.  I find the conceit
+of your Lordship's disfavour hath greatly dejected him.  But at such time
+as he arrived her Majesty was so incensed, as all the arguments and
+orators in the world could not have wrought any satisfaction."
+
+But now a little billet-doux had done what all the orators in the world
+could not do.  The arguments remained the same, but the Queen no longer
+"misliked that Leicester should have the authority."  It was natural that
+the Lord Treasurer should express his satisfaction at this auspicious
+result.
+
+"I did commend her princely nature," he said, "in allowing your good
+intention, and excusing you of any spot of evil meaning; and I thought
+good to hasten her resolution, which you must now take to come from a
+favourable good mistress.  You must strive with your nature to throw over
+your shoulder that which is past."
+
+Sir Walter Raleigh, too, who had been "falsely and pestilently"
+represented to the Earl as an enemy, rather than what he really was,
+a most ardent favourer of the Netherland cause, wrote at once to
+congratulate him on the change in her Majesty's demeanour.  "The Queen is
+in very good terms with you now," he said, "and, thanks be to God, well
+pacified, and you are again her 'sweet Robin.'"
+
+Sir Walter wished to be himself the bearer of the comforting despatches
+to Leicester, on the ground that he had been represented as an "ill
+instrument against him," and in order that he might justify himself
+against the charge, with his own lips.  The Queen, however, while
+professing to make use of Shirley as the messenger, bade Walsingham
+declare to the Earl, upon her honour, that Raleigh had done good offices
+for him, and that, in the time of her anger, he had been as earnest in
+his defence as the best friend could be.  It would have been--singular,
+indeed, had it been otherwise.  "Your Lordship," said Sir Walter, "doth
+well understand my affection toward Spain, and how I have consumed the
+best part of my fortune, hating the tyrannous prosperity of that state.
+It were strange and monstrous that I should now become an enemy to my
+country and conscience.  All that I have desired at your Lordship's
+hands is that you will evermore deal directly with me in all matters
+--of suspect doubleness, and so ever esteem me as you shall find me
+deserving good or bad.  In the mean time, let no poetical scribe work
+your Lordship by any device to doubt that I am a hollow or cold servant
+to the action."
+
+It was now agreed that letters should be drawn, up authorizing Leicester
+to continue in the office which he held, until the state-council should
+devise some modification in his commission.  As it seemed, however, very
+improbable that the board would devise anything of the kind, Burghley
+expressed the belief that the country was like to continue in the Earl's
+government without any change whatever.  The Lord Treasurer was also of
+opinion that the Queen's letters to Leicester would convey as much
+comfort as he had received discomfort; although he admitted that there
+was a great difference: The former letters he knew had deeply wounded his
+heart, while the new ones could not suddenly sink so low as the wound.
+
+The despatch to the States-General was benignant, elaborate, slightly
+diffuse.  The Queen's letter to 'sweet Robin' was caressing, but
+argumentative.
+
+"It is always thought," said she, "in the opinion of the world, a hard
+bargain when both parties are losers, and so doth fall out in the case
+between us two.  You, as we hear, are greatly grieved in respect of the
+great displeasure you find we have conceived against you.  We are no less
+grieved that a subject of ours of that quality that you are, a creature
+of our own, and one that hath always received an extraordinary portion of
+our favour above all our subjects, even from the beginning of our reign,
+should deal so carelessly, not to say contemptuously, as to give the
+world just cause to think that we are had in contempt by him that ought
+most to respect and reverence us, which, we do assure you, hath wrought
+as great grief in us as anyone thing that ever happened unto us.
+
+"We are persuaded that you, that have so long known us, cannot think that
+ever we could have been drawn to have taken so hard a course therein had
+we not been provoked by an extraordinary cause.  But for that your
+grieved and wounded mind hath more need of comfort than reproof, who, we
+are persuaded, though the act of contempt can no ways be excused, had no
+other meaning and intent than to advance our service, we think meet to
+forbear to dwell upon a matter wherein we ourselves do find so little
+comfort, assuring you that whosoever professeth to love you best taketh
+not more comfort of your well doing, or discomfort of your evil doing
+than ourself."
+
+After this affectionate preface she proceeded to intimate her desire that
+the Earl should take the matter as nearly as possible into his own hands.
+It was her wish that he should retain the authority of absolute governor,
+but--if it could be so arranged--that he should dispense with the title,
+retaining only that of her lieutenant-general.  It was not her intention
+however, to create any confusion or trouble in the Provinces, and she was
+therefore willing that the government should remain upon precisely the
+same footing as that on which it then stood, until circumstances should
+permit the change of title which she suggested.  And the whole matter was
+referred to the wisdom of Leicester, who was to advise with Heneage and
+such others as he liked to consult, although it was expressly stated that
+the present arrangement was to be considered a provisional and not a
+final one.
+
+Until this soothing intelligence could arrive in the Netherlands the
+suspicions concerning the underhand negotiations with Spain grew daily
+more rife, and the discredit cast upon the Earl more embarrassing.  The
+private letters which passed between the Earl's enemies in Holland and in
+England contained matter more damaging to himself and to the cause which
+he had at heart than the more public reports of modern days can
+disseminate, which, being patent to all, can be more easily contradicted.
+Leicester incessantly warned his colleagues of her Majesty's council
+against the malignant manufacturers of intelligence.  "I pray you, my
+Lords, as you are wise," said he, "beware of them all.  You shall find
+them here to be shrewd pick-thinks, and hardly worth the hearkening
+unto."
+
+He complained bitterly of the disgrace that was heaped upon him, both
+publicly and privately, and of the evil consequences which were sure to
+follow from the course pursued.  "Never was man so villanously handled by
+letters out of England as I have been," said he, "not only advertising
+her Majesty's great dislike with me before this my coming over, but that
+I was an odious man in England, and so long as I tarried here that no
+help was to be looked for, that her Majesty would send no more men or
+money, and that I was used here but for a time till a peace were
+concluded between her Majesty and the Prince of Parma.  What the
+continuance of a man's discredit thus will turn out is to be thought of,
+for better I were a thousand times displaced than that her Majesty's
+great advantage of so notable Provinces should be hindered."
+
+As to the peace-negotiations--which, however cunningly managed, could not
+remain entirely concealed--the Earl declared them to be as idle as they
+were disingenuous.  "I will boldly pronounce that all the peace you can
+make in the world, leaving these countries," said he to Burghley, "will
+never prove other than a fair spring for a few days, to be all over
+blasted with a hard storm after."  Two days later her Majesty's
+comforting letters arrived, and the Earl began to raise his drooping
+head.  Heneage, too, was much relieved, but he was, at the same time, not
+a little perplexed.  It was not so easy to undo all the mischief created
+by the Queen's petulance.  The "scorpion's sting"--as her Majesty
+expressed herself--might be balsamed, but the poison had spread far
+beyond the original wound.
+
+"The letters just brought in," wrote Heneage to Burghley, "have well
+relieved a most noble and sufficient servant, but I fear they will not
+restore the much-repaired wrecks of these far-decayed noble countries
+into the same state I found them in.  A loose, disordered, and unknit
+state needs no shaking, but propping.  A subtle and fearful kind of
+people--should not be made more distrustful, but assured."  He then
+expressed annoyance at the fault already found with him, and surely if
+ever man had cause to complain of reproof administered him, in quick
+succession; for not obeying contradictory directions following upon each
+other as quickly, that man was Sir Thomas Heneage.  He had been, as he
+thought, over cautious in administering the rebuke to the Earl's
+arrogance, which he had been expressly sent over to administer but
+scarcely had he accomplished his task, with as much delicacy as he could
+devise, when he found himself censured;--not for dilatoriness, but for
+haste.  "Fault I perceive," said he to Burghley, "is found in me, not by
+your Lordship, but by some other, that I did not stay proceeding if I
+found the public cause might take hurt.  It is true I had good warrant
+for the manner, the, place, and the persons, but, for the matter none,
+for done it must be.  Her Majesty's offence must be declared.  Yet if I
+did not all I possibly could to uphold the cause, and to keep the
+tottering cause upon the wheels, I deserve no thanks, but reproof."
+
+Certainly, when the blasts of royal rage are remembered, by which the
+envoy had been, as it were, blown out of England into Holland, it is
+astonishing to find his actions censured for undue precipitancy.  But
+it was not the, first, nor was it likely to be the last time, for
+comparatively subordinate agents in Elizabeth's government to be,
+distressed by, contradictory commands, when the sovereign did not know
+or did not chose to make known, her own mind on important occasions.
+"Well, my Lord," said plaintive Sir Thomas, "wiser men may serve more
+pleasingly and happily, but never shall any serve her Majesty more,
+faithfully and heartily.  And so I cannot be persuaded her Majesty
+thinketh; for from herself I find nothing but most sweet and--gracious,
+favour, though by others' censures I may gather otherwise of her
+judgment; which I confess, doth cumber me."
+
+He was destined to be cumbered more than once before these negotiations
+should be concluded; but meantime; there was a brief gleam of sunshine.
+The English friends of Leicester in the Netherlands were enchanted with
+the sudden change in the Queen's humour; and to Lord Burghley, who was
+not, in reality, the most stanch of the absent Earl's defenders, they
+poured themselves out in profuse and somewhat superfluous gratitude.
+
+Cavendish, in strains exultant, was sure that Burghley's children, grand-
+children, and remotest posterity, would rejoice that their great
+ancestor, in such a time of need had been "found and felt to be indeed a
+'pater patria,' a good-father to a happy land."  And, although unwilling
+to "stir up the old Adam" in his Lordship's soul, he yet took the liberty
+of comparing the Lord Treasurer, in his old and declining years with Mary
+Magdalen; assuring him, that for ever after; when the tale of the
+preservation of the Church of God, of her Majesty; and of the Netherland
+cause; which were all one, should be told; his name and well-doing would
+be held in memory also.
+
+And truly there was much of honest and generous enthusiasm, even if
+couched in language somewhat startling to the ears of a colder and more
+material age; in the hearts of these noble volunteers.  They were
+fighting the cause of England, of the Netherland republic, and of human
+liberty; with a valour worthy the best days of English' chivalry, against
+manifold obstacles, and they were certainly; not too often cheered by the
+beams of royal favour.
+
+It was a pity that a dark cloud was so soon again to sweep over the
+scene: For the temper of Elizabeth at this important juncture seemed as
+capricious: as the: April weather in which the scenes were enacting.  We
+have seen the genial warmth of her letters and messages to Leicester, to
+Heneage,--to the States-General; on the first of the month.  Nevertheless
+it was hardly three weeks after they had been despatched when Walsingham
+and Burghley found, her Majesty one morning a towering passion, because,
+the Earl had not already laid down the government.  The Lord Treasurer
+ventured to remonstrate, but was bid to bold his tongue.  Ever variable
+and mutable as woman, Elizabeth was perplexing and baffling to her
+counsellors, at this epoch, beyond all divination.  The "sparing humour"
+was increasing fearfully, and she thought it would be easier for her to
+slip out of the whole expensive enterprise, provided Leicester were
+merely her lieutenant-general, and not stadholder for the Provinces.
+Moreover the secret negotiations for peace were producing a deleterious
+effect upon her mind.  Upon this subject, the Queen and Burghley,
+notwithstanding his resemblance to Mary Magdalen, were better informed
+than the Secretary, whom, however, it had been impossible wholly to
+deceive.  The man who could read secrets so far removed as the Vatican,
+was not to be blinded to intrigues going on before his face.  The Queen,
+without revealing more than she could help, had been obliged to admit
+that informal transactions were pending, but had authorised the Secretary
+to assure the United States that no treaty would be made without their
+knowledge and full concurrence.  "She doth think," wrote Walsingham to
+Leicester," that you should, if you shall see no cause to the contrary,
+acquaint the council of state there that certain overtures of peace are
+daily made unto her, but that she meaneth not to proceed therein without
+their good liking and privity, being persuaded that there can no peace be
+made profitable or sure for her that shall not also stand with their
+safety; and she doth acknowledge hers to be so linked with theirs as
+nothing can fall out to their prejudice, but she must be partaker of
+their harm."
+
+This communication was dated on the 21st April, exactly three weeks after
+the Queen's letter to Heneage, in which she had spoken of the "malicious
+bruits" concerning the pretended peace-negotiations; and the Secretary
+was now confirming, by her order, what she had then stated under her own
+hand, that she would "do nothing that might concern them without their
+own knowledge and good liking."
+
+And surely nothing could be more reasonable.  Even if the strict letter
+of the August treaty between the Queen and the States did not provide
+against any separate negotiations by the one party without the knowledge
+of the other, there could be no doubt at all that its spirit absolutely
+forbade the clandestine conclusion of a peace with Spain by England
+alone, or by the Netherlands alone, and that such an arrangement would be
+disingenuous, if not positively dishonourable.
+
+Nevertheless it would almost seem that Elizabeth had been taking
+advantage of the day when she was writing her letter to Heneage on the
+1st of April.  Never was painstaking envoy more elaborately trifled with.
+On the 26th of the month--and only five days after the communication by
+Walsingham just noticed--the Queen was furious that any admission should
+have been made to the States of their right to participate with her in
+peace-negotiations.
+
+"We find that Sir Thomas Heneage," said she to Leicester, "hath gone
+further--in assuring the States that we would make no peace without their
+privity and assent--than he had commission; for that our direction was--
+if our meaning had been well set down, and not mistaken by our Secretary
+--that they should have been only let understand that in any treaty that
+might pass between us and Spain, they might be well assured we would have
+no less care of their safety than of our own."  Secretary Walsingham was
+not likely to mistake her Majesty's directions in this or any other
+important affair of state.  Moreover, it so happened that the Queen had,
+in her own letter to Heneage, made the same statement which she now
+chose to disavow.  She had often a convenient way of making herself
+misunderstood, when she thought it desirable to shift responsibility from
+her own shoulders upon those of others; but upon this occasion she had
+been sufficiently explicit.  Nevertheless,  a scape-goat was necessary,
+and unhappy the subordinate who happened to be within her Majesty's reach
+when a vicarious sacrifice was to be made.  Sir Francis Walsingham was
+not a man to be brow-beaten or hood-winked, but Heneage was doomed to
+absorb a fearful amount of royal wrath.
+
+"What phlegmatical reasons soever were made you," wrote the Queen, who
+but three weeks before had been so gentle and affectionate to her,
+ambassador, "how happeneth it that you will not remember, that when a man
+hath faulted and committed by abettors thereto, neither the one nor the
+other will willingly make their own retreat.  Jesus! what availeth wit,
+when it fails the owner at greatest need?  Do that you are bidden, and
+leave your considerations for your own affairs.  For in some things you
+had clear commandment, which you did not, and in others none, and did.
+We princes be wary enough of our bargains.  Think you I will be bound
+by your own speech to make no peace for mine own matters without their
+consent?  It is enough that I injure not their country nor themselves
+in making peace for them without their consent.  I am assured of your
+dutiful thoughts, but I am utterly at squares with this childish
+dealing."
+
+Blasted by this thunderbolt falling upon his head out of serenest sky,
+the sad.  Sir. Thomas remained, for a time, in a state of political
+annihilation.  'Sweet Robin' meanwhile, though stunned, was unscathed--
+thanks to the convenient conductor at his side.  For, in Elizabeth's
+court, mediocrity was not always golden, nor was it usually the loftiest
+mountains that the lightnings smote.  The Earl was deceived by his royal
+mistress, kept in the dark as to important transactions, left to provide
+for his famishing' soldiers as he best might; but the, Queen at that
+moment, though angry, was not disposed, to trample upon him.  Now that
+his heart was known to be broken, and his sole object in life to be
+retirement to remote regions--India or elsewhere--there to languish out
+the brief remainder of his days in prayers for Elizabeth's happiness,
+Elizabeth was not inclined very bitterly to upbraid him.  She had too
+recently been employing herself in binding up his broken heart, and
+pouring balm into the "scorpion's sting," to be willing so soon to
+deprive him of those alleviations.
+
+Her tone--was however no longer benignant, and her directions were
+extremely peremptory.  On the 1st of April she had congratulated
+Leicester, Heneage, the States, and all the world, that her secret
+commands had been staid, and that the ruin which would have followed,
+had, those decrees been executed according to her first violent wish, was
+fortunately averted.  Heneage was even censured, not by herself, but by
+courtiers in her confidence, and with her concurrence, for being over
+hasty in going before the state-council, as he had done, with her
+messages and commands.  On the 26th of April she expressed astonishment
+that Heneage had dared to be so dilatory, and that the title of governor
+had not been laid down by Leicester "out of hand."  She marvelled
+greatly, and found it very strange that "ministers in matters of moment
+should presume to do things of their own head without direction."  She
+accordingly gave orders that there should be no more dallying, but that
+the Earl should immediately hold a conference with the state-council in
+order to arrange a modification in his commission.  It was her pleasure
+that he should retain all the authority granted to him by the States, but
+as already intimated by her, that he should abandon the title of
+"absolute governor," and retain only that of her lieutenant-general.
+
+Was it strange that Heneage, placed in so responsible a situation, and
+with the fate of England, of Holland, and perhaps of all Christendom,
+hanging in great measure upon this delicate negotiation, should be amazed
+at such contradictory orders, and grieved by such inconsistent censures?
+
+"To tell you my griefs and my lacks," said he to Walsingham, "would
+little please you or help me.  Therefore I will say nothing, but think
+there was never man in so great a service received so little comfort and
+so contrarious directions.  But 'Dominus est adjutor in tribulationibus.'
+If it be possible, let me receive some certain direction, in following
+which I shall not offend her Majesty, what good or hurt soever I do
+besides."
+
+This certainly seemed a loyal and reasonable request, yet it was not one
+likely to be granted.  Sir Thomas, perplexed, puzzled, blindfolded, and
+brow-beaten, always endeavoring to obey orders, when he could comprehend
+them, and always hectored and lectured whether he obeyed them or not--
+ruined in purse by the expenses, of a mission on which he had been sent
+without adequate salary--appalled at the disaffection waging more
+formidable every hour in Provinces which were recently so loyal to her
+Majesty, but which were now pervaded by a suspicion that there was
+double-dealing upon her part became quite sick of his life.  He fell
+seriously ill, and was disappointed, when, after a time, the physicians
+declared him convalescent.  For when when he rose from his sick-bed, it
+was only to plunge once more, without a clue, into the labyrinth where he
+seemed to be losing his reason.  "It is not long," said he to Walsingham,
+"since I looked to have written you no more letters, my extremity was so
+great.  .  .  But God's will is best, otherwise I could have liked better
+to have cumbered the earth no longer, where I find myself contemned, and
+which I find no reason to see will be the better in the wearing .  .  .
+It were better for her Majesty's service that the directions which come
+were not contrarious one to another, and that those you would have serve
+might know what is meant, else they cannot but much deceive you, as well
+as displease you."
+
+Public opinion concerning the political morality of the English court
+was not gratifying, nor was it rendered more favourable by these recent
+transactions.  "I fear," said Heneage, "that the world will judge what
+Champagny wrote in one of his letters out of England (which I have lately
+seen) to be over true.  His words be these, 'Et de vray, c'est le plus
+fascheux et le plus incertain negocier de ceste court, que je pense soit
+au monde.'"  And so "basting," as he said, "with a weak body and a
+willing mind; to do, he feared, no good work," he set forth from
+Middelburgh to rejoin Leicester at Arnheim, in order to obey, as well as
+he could, the Queen's latest directions.
+
+But before he could set to work there came more "contrarious" orders.
+The last instructions, both to Leicester and himself, were that the Earl
+should resign the post of governor absolute "out of hand," and the Queen
+had been vehement in denouncing any delay on such an occasion.  He was
+now informed, that, after consulting with Leicester and with the
+state-council, he was to return to England with the result of such
+deliberations.  It could afterwards be decided how the Earl could retain
+all the authority of governor absolute, while bearing only the title of
+the Queen's lieutenant general.  "For her meaning is not," said
+Walsingham, "that his Lord ship should presently give it over, for she
+foreseeth in her princely judgment that his giving over the government
+upon a sudden, and leaving those countries without a head or director,
+cannot but breed a most dangerous alteration there."  The secretary
+therefore stated the royal wish at present to be that the "renunciation
+of the title" should be delayed till Heneage could visit England, and
+subsequently return to Holland with her Majesty's further directions.
+Even the astute Walsingham was himself puzzled, however, while conveying
+these ambiguous orders; and he confessed that he was doubtful whether he
+had rightly comprehended the Queen's intentions.  Burghley, however, was
+better at guessing riddles than he was, and so Heneage was advised to
+rely chiefly upon Burghley.
+
+But Heneage had now ceased to be interested in any enigmas that might be
+propounded by the English court, nor could he find comfort, as Walsingham
+had recommended he should do, in railing.  "I wish I could follow your
+counsel," he said, "but sure the uttering of my choler doth little ease
+my grief or help my case."
+
+He rebuked, however, the inconsistency and the tergiversations of the
+government with a good deal of dignity.  "This certainly shall I tell her
+Majesty," he said, "if I live to see her, that except a more constant
+course be taken with this inconstant people, it is not the blaming of her
+ministers will advance her Highness's service, or better the state of
+things.  And shall I tell you what they now say here of us--I fear not
+without some cause--even as Lipsius wrote of the French, 'De Gallis
+quidem enigmata veniunt, non veniunt, volunt, holunt, audent, timent,
+omnia, ancipiti metu, suspensa et suspecta.'  God grant better, and ever
+keep you and help me."
+
+He announced to Burghley that he was about to attend a meeting of the
+state-council the next day, for the purpose of a conference on these
+matters at Arnheim, and that he would then set forth for England to
+report proceedings to her Majesty.  He supposed, on the whole, that this
+was what was expected of him, but acknowledged it hopeless to fathom.
+the royal intentions.  Yet if he went wrong, he was always, sure to make
+mischief, and though innocent, to be held accountable for others'
+mistakes.  "Every prick I make," said he, "is made a gash; and to follow
+the words of my directions from England is not enough, except I likewise
+see into your minds.  And surely mine eyesight is not so good.  But I
+will pray to God for his help herein.  With all the wit I have, I will
+use all the care I can--first, to satisfy her Majesty, as God knoweth I
+have ever most desired; then, not to hurt this cause, but that I despair
+of."  Leicester, as maybe supposed, had been much discomfited and
+perplexed during the course of these contradictory and perverse
+directions.  There is no doubt whatever that his position bad been made
+discreditable and almost ridiculous, while he was really doing his best,
+and spending large sums out of his private fortune to advance the true
+interests of the Queen.  He had become a suspected man in the
+Netherlands, having been, in the beginning of the year, almost adored
+as a Messiah.  He had submitted to the humiliation which had been imposed
+upon him, of being himself the medium to convey to the council the severe
+expressions of the Queen's displeasure at the joint action of the States-
+General and himself.  He had been comforted by the affectionate
+expressions with which that explosion of feminine and royal wrath had
+been succeeded.  He was now again distressed by the peremptory command to
+do what was a disgrace to him, and an irreparable detriment to the cause,
+yet he was humble and submissive, and only begged to be allowed, as a
+remedy for all his anguish, to return to the sunlight of Elizabeth's
+presence.  He felt that her course; if persisted in, would lead to the
+destruction of the Netherland commonwealth, and eventually to the
+downfall of England; and that the Provinces, believing themselves
+deceived by the Queen; were ready to revolt against an authority to
+which, but a short time before, they were so devotedly loyal
+Nevertheless, he only wished to know what his sovereign's commands
+distinctly were, in order to set himself to their fulfilment.  He had
+come from the camp before Nymegen in order to attend the conference with
+the state-council at Arnheim, and he would then be ready and anxious to,
+despatch Heneage to England, to learn her Majesty's final determination.
+
+He protested to the Queen that he had come upon this arduous and perilous
+service only, because he, considered her throne in danger, and that this
+was the only means of preserving it; that, in accepting the absolute
+government, he had been free from all ambitious motives, but deeply
+impressed with the idea that only by so doing could he conduct the
+enterprise entrusted to him to the desired consummation; and he declared
+with great fervour that no advancement to high office could compensate
+him for this enforced absence from her.  To be sent back even in disgrace
+would still be a boon to him, for he should cease to be an exile from her
+sight.  He knew that his enemies had been busy in defaming him, while he
+had been no longer there to defend himself, but his conscience acquitted
+him of any thought which was not for her happiness and glory.  "Yet
+grievous it is to me," said he in, a tone of tender reproach, "that
+having left all--yea, all that may be imagined--for you, you have left
+me for very little, even to the uttermost of all hard fortune.  For what
+have I, unhappy man, to do here either with cause or country but for
+you?"
+
+He stated boldly that his services had not been ineffective, that the
+enemy had never been in worse plight than now, that he had lost at least
+five thousand men in divers overthrows, and that, on the other hand,
+the people and towns of the Seven Provinces had been safely preserved.
+"Since my arrival," he said, "God hath blessed the action which you have
+taken in hand, and committed to the charge of me your poor unhappy
+servant.  I have good cause to say somewhat for myself, for that I think
+I have as few friends to speak for me as any man."
+
+Nevertheless--as he warmly protested--his only wish was to return; for
+the country in which he had lost her favour, which was more precious than
+life, had become odious to him.
+
+The most lowly office in her presence was more to be coveted than the
+possession of unlimited power away from her.  It was by these tender
+and soft insinuations, as the Earl knew full well, that he was sure to
+obtain what he really coveted--her sanction for retaining the absolute
+government in the Provinces.  And most artfully did he strike the key.
+
+"Most dear and gracious Lady," he cried, "my care and service here do
+breed me nothing but grief and unhappiness.  I have never had your
+Majesty's good favour since I came into this charge--a matter that from
+my first beholding your eyes hath been most dear unto me above all
+earthly treasures.  Never shall I love that place or like that soil which
+shall cause the lack of it.  Most gracious Lady, consider my long, true,
+and faithful heart toward you.  Let not this unfortunate place here
+bereave me of that which, above all the world, I esteem there, which is
+your favodr and your presence.  I see my service is not acceptable, but
+rather more and more disliketh you.  Here I can do your Majesty no
+service; there I can do you some, at the least rub your horse's heels--
+a service which shall be much more welcome to me than this, with all that
+these men may give me.  I do, humbly and from my heart, prostrate at your
+feet, beg this grace at your sacred hands, that you will be pleased to
+let me return to my home-service, with your favour, let the revocation be
+used in what sort shall please and like you.  But if ever spark of favour
+was in your Majesty toward your old servant, let me obtain this my humble
+suit; protesting before the Majesty of all Majesties, that there was no
+cause under Heaven but his and yours, even for your own special and
+particular cause, I say, could have made me take this absent journey from
+you in hand.  If your Majesty shall refuse me this, I shall think all
+grace clean gone from me, and I know: my days will not be long."
+
+She must melt at this, thought 'sweet Robin' to himself; and meantime
+accompanied by Heneage; he proceeded with the conferences in the state-
+council-chamber touching the modification of the title and the
+confirmation of his authority.  This, so far as Walsingham could divine,
+and Burghley fathom, was the present intention of the Queen.  He averred
+that he had ever sought most painfully to conform his conduct to her
+instructions as fast as they were received, and that he should continue
+so to do.  On the whole it was decided by the conference to let matters
+stand as, they were for a little longer, and until: after Heneage should
+have time once more to go and come.  "The same manner of proceeding that
+was is now," said Leicester, "Your pleasure is declared to the council
+here as you have willed it. How it will fall out again in your Majesty's
+construction, the Lord knoweth."
+
+Leicester might be forgiven for referring to higher powers, for any
+possible interpretation of her Majesty's changing humour; but meantime;
+while Sir. Thomas was getting ready, for his expedition to England, the
+Earl's heart was somewhat gladdened by more gracious messages from the
+Queen.  The alternation of emotions would however prove too much for him,
+he feared, and he was reluctant to open his heart to so unwonted a tenant
+as joy.
+
+"But that my fear is such, most dear and gracious Lady," he said, "as my
+unfortunate destiny will hardly permit; whilst I remain here; any good-
+acceptation of so simple a service as, mine, I should, greatly rejoice
+and comfort myself with the hope of your Majesty's most prayed-for
+favour.  But of late, being by your own sacred hand lifted even up into
+Heaven with joy of your favour, I was bye and bye without any new desert
+or offence at all, cast down and down: again into the depth of all grief.
+God doth know, my dear and dread Sovereign, that after I first received
+your resolute pleasure by Sir Thomas Heneage, I made neither stop nor
+stay nor any excuse to be rid of this place, and to satisfy your command.
+. . . . . So much I mislike this place and fortune of mine; as I desire
+nothing in the world so much, as to be delivered, with your favours from
+all charge here, fearing still some new cross of your displeasure to fall
+upon me, trembling continually with the fear thereof, in such sort as
+till I may be fully confirmed in my new regeneration of your wonted
+favour I cannot receive that true comfort which doth appertain to so
+great a hope.  Yet I will not only acknowledge with all humbleness and
+dutiful thanks the exceeding joy these last blessed lines brought to my
+long-wearied heart, but will, with all true loyal affection, attend that
+further joy from your sweet self which may utterly, extinguish all
+consuming fear away."
+
+Poor Heneage--who likewise received a kind word or two after having been
+so capriciously and petulantly dealt with was less extravagant in his
+expressions of gratitude.  "The Queen hath sent me a paper-plaister which
+must please for a time," he said.  "God Almighty bless her Majesty ever,
+and best direct her."  He was on the point of starting for England, the
+bearer of the States' urgent entreaties that Leicester might retain the,
+government, and of despatches; announcing the recent success of the
+allies before Grave.  "God prospereth the action in these countries
+beyond all expectation," he said, "which all amongst you will not be over
+glad of, for somewhat I know."  The intrigues of Grafigni, Champagny, and
+Bodman, with Croft, Burghley, and the others were not so profound a
+secret as they could wish.
+
+The tone adopted by Leicester has been made manifest in his letters
+to the Queen.  He had held the same language of weariness and
+dissatisfaction in his communications to his friends.  He would not keep
+the office, he avowed, if they should give him "all Holland and Zeeland,
+with all their appurtenances," and he was ready to resign at any moment.
+He was not "ceremonious for reputation," he said, but he gave warning
+that the Netherlanders would grow desperate if they found her Majesty
+dealing weakly or carelessly with them.  As for himself he had already
+had enough of government.  "I am weary, Mr. Secretary," he plaintively
+exclaimed, "indeed I am weary; but neither of pains nor travail.  My ill
+hap that I can please her Majesty no better hath quite discouraged me."
+
+He had recently, however--as we have seen--received some comfort, and he
+was still further encouraged, upon the eve of Heneage's departure, by
+receiving another affectionate epistle from the Queen.  Amends seemed at
+last to be offered for her long and angry silence, and the Earl was
+deeply grateful.
+
+"If it hath not been, my most dear and gracious Lady," said he in reply,
+"no small comfort to your poor old servant to receive but one line of
+your blessed hand-writing in many months, for the relief of a most
+grieved, wounded heart, how far more exceeding joy must it be, in the
+midst of all sorrow, to receive from the same sacred hand so many
+comfortable lines as my good friend Mr. George hath at once brought me.
+Pardon me, my sweet Lady, if they cause me to forget myself.  Only this I
+do say, with most humble dutiful thanks, that the scope of all my service
+hath ever been to content and please you; and if I may do that, then is
+all sacrifice, either of life or whatsoever, well offered for you."
+
+The matter of the government absolute having been so fully discussed
+during the preceding four months, and the last opinions of the state-
+council having been so lucidly expounded in the despatches to be carried
+by Heneage to England, the matter might be considered as exhausted.
+Leicester contented himself, therefore, with once more calling her
+Majesty's attention to the fact that if he had not himself accepted the
+office thus conferred upon him by the States, it would have been bestowed
+upon some other personage.  It would hardly have comported with her
+dignity, if Count Maurice of Nassau, or Count William, or Count Moeurs,
+had been appointed governor absolute, for in that case the Earl, as
+general of the auxiliary English force, would have been subject to the
+authority of the chieftain thus selected.  It was impossible, as the
+state-council had very plainly shown, for Leicester to exercise supreme
+authority, while merely holding the military office of her Majesty's
+lieutenant-general.  The authority of governor or stadholder could only
+be derived from the supreme power of the country.  If her Majesty had
+chosen to accept the sovereignty, as the States had ever desired, the
+requisite authority could then have been derived from her, as from the
+original fountain.  As she had resolutely refused that offer however, his
+authority was necessarily to be drawn from the States-General, or else
+the Queen must content herself with seeing him serve as an English
+military officer, only subject to the orders of the supreme power,
+wherever that power might reside.  In short, Elizabeth's wish that her
+general might be clothed with the privileges of her viceroy, while she
+declined herself to be the sovereign, was illogical, and could not be
+complied with.
+
+Very soon after inditing these last epistles to the Provinces, the Queen
+became more reasonable on the subject; and an elaborate communication was
+soon received by the state-council, in which the royal acquiescence was
+signified to the latest propositions of the States.  The various topics,
+suggested in previous despatches from Leicester and from the council,
+were reviewed, and the whole subject was suddenly placed in a somewhat
+different light from that in which it seemed to have been previously
+regarded by her Majesty.  She alluded to the excuse, offered by the
+state-council, which had been drawn from the necessity of the case, and
+from their "great liking for her cousin of Leicester," although in
+violation of the original contract.  "As you acknowledge, however," she
+said, "that therein you were justly to be blamed, and do crave pardon for
+the same, we cannot, upon this acknowledgment of your fault, but remove
+our former dislike."
+
+Nevertheless it would now seem that her "mistake" had proceeded, not from
+the excess, but from the insufficiency of the powers conferred upon the
+Earl, and she complained, accordingly, that they had given him shadow
+rather than substance.
+
+Simultaneously with this royal communication, came a joint letter to
+Leicester, from Burghley, Walsingham; and Hatton, depicting the long and
+strenuous conflict which they had maintained in his behalf with the
+rapidly varying inclinations of the Queen.  They expressed a warm
+sympathy with the difficulties of his position, and spoke in strong terms
+of the necessity that the Netherlands and England should work heartily
+together.  For otherwise, they said, "the cause will fall, the enemy will
+rise, and we must stagger."  Notwithstanding the secret negotiations with
+the enemy, which Leicester and Walsingham suspected, and which will be
+more fully examined in a subsequent chapter, they held a language on that
+subject, which in the Secretary's mouth at least was sincere.
+"Whatsoever speeches be blown abroad of parleys of peace," they said,
+"all will be but smoke, yea fire will follow."
+
+They excused themselves for their previous and enforced silence by the
+fact that they had been unable to communicate any tidings but messages of
+distress, but they now congratulated the Earl that her Majesty, as he
+would see by her letter to the council, was firmly resolved, not only to
+countenance his governorship, but to sustain him in the most thorough
+manner.  It would be therefore quite out of the question for them to
+listen to his earnest propositions to be recalled.
+
+Moreover, the Lord Treasurer had already apprized Leicester that Heneage
+had safely arrived in England, that he, had made his report to the Queen,
+and that her Majesty was "very well contented with him and his mission."
+It may be easily believed that the Earl would feel a sensation of relief,
+if not of triumph, at this termination to the embarrassments under which
+he had been labouring ever since, he listened to the oration of the wise
+Leoninus upon New Years' Day.  At last the Queen had formally acquiesced
+in the action of the States, and in his acceptance of their offer.  He
+now saw himself undisputed "governor absolute," having been six months
+long a suspected, discredited, almost disgraced man.  It was natural that
+he should express himself cheerfully.
+
+"My great comfort received, oh my most gracious Lady," he said, "by your
+most favourable lines written by your own sacred hand, I did most humbly
+acknowledge by my former letter; albeit I can no way make testimony of
+enough of the great joy I took thereby.  And seeing my wounded heart is
+by this means almost made whole, I do pray unto God that either I may
+never feel the like again from you, or not be suffered to live, rather
+than I should fall again into those torments of your displeasure.  Most
+gracious Queen, I beseech you, therefore, make perfect that which you
+have begun.  Let not the common danger, nor any ill, incident to the
+place I serve you in, be accompanied with greater troubles and fears
+indeed than all the horrors of death can bring me.  My strong hope doth
+now so assure me, as I have almost won the battle against despair, and I
+do arm myself with as many of those wonted comfortable conceits as may
+confirm my new revived spirits, reposing myself evermore under the shadow
+of those blessed beams that must yield the only nourishment to this
+disease."
+
+But however nourishing the shade of those blessed beams might prove to
+Leicester's disease, it was not so easy to bring about a very sunny
+condition in the Provinces.  It was easier for Elizabeth to mend the
+broken heart of the governor than to repair the damage which had been
+caused to the commonwealth by her caprice and her deceit.  The dispute
+concerning the government absolute had died away, but the authority of
+the Earl had got a "crack in it" which never could be handsomely made
+whole.  The States, during the long period of Leicester's discredit--
+feeling more and more doubtful as to the secret intentions of Elizabeth
+--disappointed in the condition of the auxiliary troops and in the amount
+of supplies furnished from England, and, above all, having had time to
+regret their delegation of a power which they began to find agreeable to
+exercise with their own hands, became indisposed to entrust the Earl with
+the administration and full inspection of their resources.  To the
+enthusiasm which had greeted the first arrival of Elizabeth's
+representative had succeeded a jealous, carping, suspicious sentiment.
+The two hundred thousand florins monthly were paid, according to the
+original agreement, but the four hundred thousand of extra service-money
+subsequently voted were withheld, and withheld expressly on account of
+Heneage's original mission to disgrace the governor."
+
+"The late return of Sir Thomas Heneage," said Lord North, "hath put such
+busses in their heads, as they march forward with leaden heels and
+doubtful hearts."
+
+In truth, through the discredit cast by the Queen upon the Earl in this
+important affair, the supreme authority was forced back into the hands
+of the States, at the very moment when they had most freely divested
+themselves of power.  After the Queen had become more reasonable, it was
+too late to induce them to part, a second time, so freely with the
+immediate control of their own affairs.  Leicester had become, to a
+certain extent, disgraced and disliked by the Estates.  He thought
+himself, by the necessity of the case, forced to appeal to the people
+against their legal representatives, and thus the foundation of a
+nominally democratic party, in opposition to the municipal one, was
+already laid.  Nothing could be more unfortunate at that juncture; for we
+shall, in future, find the Earl in perpetual opposition to the most
+distinguished statesmen in the Provinces; to the very men indeed who had
+been most influential in offering the sovereignty to England, and in
+placing him in the position which he had so much coveted.  No sooner
+therefore had he been confirmed by Elizabeth in that high office than his
+arrogance broke forth, and the quarrels between himself and the
+representative body became incessant.
+
+"I stand now in somewhat better terms than I did," said he; "I was not in
+case till of late to deal roundly with them as I have now done.  I have
+established a chamber of finances, against some of their wills, whereby I
+doubt not to procure great benefit to increase our ability for payments
+hereafter.  The people I find still best devoted to her Majesty, though
+of late many lewd practices have been used to withdraw their good wills.
+But it will not be; they still pray God that her Majesty may be their
+sovereign.  She should then see what a contribution they will all bring
+forth.  But to the States they will never return, which will breed some
+great mischief, there is such mislike of the States universally.  I would
+your Lordship had seen the case I had lived in among them these four
+months, especially after her Majesty's mislike was found.  You would then
+marvel to see how I have waded, as I have done, through no small
+obstacles, without help, counsel, or assistance."
+
+Thus the part which he felt at last called upon to enact was that of an
+aristocratic demagogue, in perpetual conflict with the burgher-
+representative body.
+
+It is now necessary to lift a corner of the curtain, by which some
+international--or rather interpalatial--intrigues were concealed, as much
+as possible, even from the piercing eyes of Walsingham.  The Secretary
+was, however, quite aware--despite the pains taken to deceive him--of the
+nature of the plots and of the somewhat ignoble character of the actors
+concerned in them.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A hard bargain when both parties are losers
+Condemned first and inquired upon after
+Disordered, and unknit state needs no shaking, but propping
+Upper and lower millstones of royal wrath and loyal subserviency
+Uttering of my choler doth little ease my grief or help my case
+
+
+
+
+
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