History of the United Netherlands, 1587c | Page 7

him to enter the Spanish service,
and to take the field against the Turks.
"My sword," replied the doughty Welshman, "belongs to her royal
Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, above and before all the world. When her
Highness has no farther use for it, it is at the service of the King of
Navarre." Considering himself sufficiently answered, the Duke then
requested Sir Roger to point out Captain Baskerville--very conspicuous
by a greater plume of feathers than even that of the Welshman
himself--and embraced that officer; when presented to him, before all
his staff. "There serves no prince in Europe a braver man than this
Englishman," cried Alexander, who well knew how to appreciate high
military qualities, whether in his own army or in that of his foes.
The garrison then retired, Sluy's became Spanish, and a capacious
harbour, just opposite the English coast, was in Parma's hands. Sir

Roger Williams was despatched by Leicester to bear the melancholy
tidings to his government, and the Queen was requested to cherish the
honest Welshman, and at least to set him on horseback; for he was of
himself not rich enough to buy even a saddle. It is painful to say that
the captain did not succeed in getting the horse.
The Earl was furious in his invectives against Hohenlo, against
Maurice, against the States, uniformly ascribing the loss of Sluy's to
negligence and faction. As for Sir John Norris, he protested that his
misdeeds in regard to this business would, in King Henry VIII.'s time,
have "cost him his pate."
The loss of Sluys was the beginning and foreshadowed the inevitable
end of Leicester's second administration. The inaction of the States was
one of the causes of its loss. Distrust of Leicester was the cause of the
inaction. Sir William Russell, Lord Willoughby, Sir William Pelham,
and other English officers, united in statements exonerating the Earl
from all blame for the great failure to relieve the place. At the same
time, it could hardly be maintained that his expedition to Blanckenburg
and his precipitate retreat on the first appearance of the enemy were
proofs of consummate generalship. He took no blame to himself for the
disaster; but he and his partisans were very liberal in their
denunciations of the Hollanders, and Leicester was even ungrateful
enough to censure Roger Williams, whose life had been passed, as it
were, at push of pike with the Spaniards, and who was one of his own
most devoted adherents.
The Queen was much exasperated when informed of the fall of the city.
She severely denounced the Netherlanders, and even went so far as to
express dissatisfaction with the great Leicester himself. Meantime,
Farnese was well satisfied with his triumph, for he had been informed
that "all England was about to charge upon him," in order to relieve the
place. All England, however, had been but feebly represented by three
thousand raw recruits with a paltry sum of L15,000 to help pay a long
bill of arrears.
Wilkes and Norris had taken their departure from the Netherlands
before the termination of the siege, and immediately after the return of
Leicester. They did not think it expedient to wait upon the governor
before leaving the country, for they had very good reason to believe
that such an opportunity of personal vengeance would be turned to

account by the Earl. Wilkes had already avowed his intention of
making his escape without being dandled with leave-takings, and no
doubt he was right. The Earl was indignant when he found that they
had given him the slip, and denounced them with fresh acrimony to the
Queen, imploring her to wreak full measure of wrath upon their heads;
and he well knew that his entreaties would meet with the royal
attention.
Buckhurst had a parting interview with the governor-general, at which
Killigrew and Beale, the new English counsellors who had replaced
Wilkes and Clerk, were present. The conversation was marked by
insolence on the part of Leicester, and by much bitterness on that of
Buckhurst. The parting envoy refused to lay before the Earl a full
statement of the grievances between the States-General and the
governor, on the ground that Leicester had no right to be judge in his
own cause. The matter, he said, should be laid before the Queen in
council, and by her august decision he was willing to abide. On every
other subject he was ready to give any information in his power. The
interview lasted a whole forenoon and afternoon. Buckhurst, according
to his own statement, answered, freely all questions put to him by
Leicester and his counsellors; while, if the report of those personages is
to be trusted, he passionately refused to make any satisfactory
communication. Under the circumstances, however, it may well be
believed that no satisfactory communication