History of the United Netherlands, 1587b | Page 6

soldiers--whose numbers the Queen had so
suddenly multiplied by three--unpaid and unfed. Those Englishmen
who, as individuals, had entered the States' service, had been--like all
the other troops regularly paid. This distinctly appeared from the
statements of her own counsellors and generals. On the other hand, the
Queen's contingent, now dwindled to about half their original number,
had been notoriously unpaid for nearly six months.
This has already been made sufficiently clear from the private letters of
most responsible persons. That these soldiers were starving, deserting;
and pillaging, was, alas! too true; but the envoys of the States hardly
expected to be censured by her Majesty, because she had neglected to
pay her own troops. It was one of the points concerning which they had
been especially enjoined to complain, that the English cavalry,
converted into highwaymen by want of pay, had been plundering the
peasantry, and we have seen that Thomas Wilkes had "pawned his
carcase" to provide for their temporary relief.
With regard to the insinuation that prominent personages in the country
had been tampered with by the enemy, the envoys were equally

astonished by such an attack. The great Deventer treason had not yet
been heard of in England for it had occurred only a week before this
first interview-- but something of the kind was already feared; for the
slippery dealings of York and Stanley with Tassis and Parma, had long
been causing painful anxiety, and had formed the subject of repeated
remonstrances on the part of the 'States' to Leicester and to the Queen.
The deputies were hardly, prepared therefore to defend their own
people against dealing privately with the King of Spain. The only man
suspected of such practices was Leicester's own favourite and financier,
Jacques Ringault, whom the Earl had persisted in employing against
the angry remonstrances of the States, who believed him to be a
Spanish spy; and the man was now in prison, and threatened with
capital punishment.
To suppose that Buys or Barneveld, Roorda, Meetkerk, or any other
leading statesman in the Netherlands, was contemplating a private
arrangement with Philip II., was as ludicrous a conception as to
imagine Walsingham a pensioner of the Pope, or Cecil in league with
the Duke of Guise. The end and aim of the States' party was war. In
war they not only saw the safety of the reformed religion, but the only
means of maintaining the commercial prosperity of the commonwealth.
The whole correspondence of the times shows that no politician in the
country dreamed of peace, either by public or secret negotiation. On the
other hand--as will be made still clearer than ever--the Queen was
longing for peace, and was treating for peace at that moment through
private agents, quite without the knowledge of the States, and in spite
of her indignant disavowals in her speech to the envoys.
Yet if Elizabeth could have had the privilege of entering--as we are
about to do--into the private cabinet of that excellent King of Spain,
with whom, she had once been such good friends, who had even sought
her hand in marriage, and with whom she saw no reason whatever why
she should not live at peace, she might have modified her expressions
an this subject. Certainly, if she could have looked through the piles of
papers--as we intend to do--which lay upon that library-table, far
beyond the seas and mountains, she would have perceived some
objections to the scheme of living at peace with that diligent
letter-writer.
Perhaps, had she known how the subtle Farnese was about to express

himself concerning the fast-approaching execution of Mary, and the as
inevitably impending destruction of "that Englishwoman" through the
schemes of his master and himself, she would have paid less heed to
the sentiments couched in most exquisite Italian which Alexander was
at the same time whispering in her ear, and would have taken less
offence at the blunt language of the States-General.
Nevertheless, for the present, Elizabeth would give no better answer
than the hot-tempered one which had already somewhat discomfited the
deputies.
Two days afterwards, the five envoys had an interview with several
members of her Majesty's council, in the private apartment of the Lord-
Treasurer in Greenwich Palace. Burghley, being indisposed, was lying
upon his bed. Leicester, Admiral Lord Howard, Lord Hunsden, Sir
Christopher Hatton, Lord Buckhurst, and Secretary Davison, were
present, and the Lord-Treasurer proposed that the conversation should
be in Latin, that being the common language most familiar to them all.
Then, turning over the leaves of the report, a copy of which lay on his
bed, he asked the envoys, whether, in case her Majesty had not sent
over the assistance which she had done under the Earl of Leicester,
their country would not have been utterly ruined.
"To all appearance,