History of the United Netherlands, 1588a | Page 8

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superseded by the invasion, before the production of the powers should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