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+The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands, 1588
+#55 in our series by John Lothrop Motley
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+Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1588
+
+Author: John Lothrop Motley
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4855]
+[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, 1588 ***
+
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+This eBook was produced by David Widger
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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. 55
+
+History of the United Netherlands, 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 THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1588 ***
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