History of the United Netherlands, 1595-96 | Page 7

there is good likelihood of the king's
continuance of amity with her Majesty; only I fear lest his necessities
may inconsiderately draw him into some hazardous treaty with Spain,
which I hope confidently it is yet in the power of her Majesty to
prevent."
The king, while performing these apish tricks about the picture of a
lady with beady black eyes, a hooked nose, black teeth, and a red wig,
who was now in the sixty-fourth year of her age, knew very well that
the whole scene would be at once repeated to the fair object of his
passion by her faithful envoy; but what must have been the opinion
entertained of Elizabeth by contemporary sovereigns and statesmen
when such fantastic folly could be rehearsed and related every day in
the year!
And the king knew, after all, and was destined very soon to acquire

proof of it which there was no gainsaying, that the beautiful Elizabeth
had exactly as much affection for him as he had for her, and was as
capable of sacrificing his interests for her own, or of taking advantage
of his direct necessities as cynically and as remorselessly, as the King
of Spain, or the Duke of Mayenne, or the Pope had ever done.
Henry had made considerable progress in re-establishing his authority
over a large portion of the howling wilderness to which forty years of
civil war had reduced his hereditary kingdom. There was still great
danger, however, at its two opposite extremities. Calais, key to the
Norman gate of France, was feebly held; while Marseilles, seated in
such dangerous proximity to Spain on the one side, and to the Republic
of Genoa, that alert vassal of Spain, on the other, was still in the
possession of the League. A concerted action was undertaken by means
of John Andrew Doria, with a Spanish fleet from Genoa on the outside
and a well-organised conspiracy from within, to carry the city bodily
over to Philip. Had it succeeded, this great Mediterranean seaport
would have become as much a Spanish 'possession as Barcelona or
Naples, and infinite might have been the damage to Henry's future
prospects in consequence. But there was a man in Marseilles; Petrus
Libertas by name, whose ancestors had gained this wholesome family
appellation by a successful effort once made by them to rescue the little
town of Calvi, in Corsica, from the tyranny of Genoa. Peter Liberty
needed no prompting to vindicate, on a fitting occasion, his right to his
patronymic. In conjunction with men in Marseilles who hated
oppression, whether of kings, priests, or renegade republics, as much as
he did, and with a secret and well-arranged understanding with the
Duke of Guise, who was burning with ambition to render a signal
benefit to the cause which he had just espoused, this bold tribune of the
people succeeded in stirring the population to mutiny at exactly the
right moment, and in opening the gates of Marseilles to the Duke of
Guise and his forces before it was possible for the Leaguers to admit
the fleet of Doria into its harbour. Thus was the capital of
Mediterranean France lost and won. Guise gained great favour in
Henry's eyes; and with reason; for the son of the great Balafre, who was
himself the League, had now given the League the stroke of mercy.
Peter Liberty became consul of Marseilles, and received a patent of
nobility. It was difficult, however, for any diploma to confer anything

more noble upon him than the name which he hade inherited, and to
which he had so well established his right.
But while Henry's cause had thus been so well served in the south,
there was danger impending in the north. The king had been besieging,
since autumn, the town of La Fere, an important military and strategic
position, which had been Farnese's basis of operations during his
memorable campaigns in France, and which had ever since remained in
the hands of the League.
The cardinal had taken the field with an army of fifteen thousand foot
and three thousand horse, assembled at Valenciennes, and after
hesitating some time whether, or not he should attempt to relieve La
Fere, he decided instead on a diversion. In the second week of April;
De Rosne was detached at the head of four thousand men, and suddenly
appeared before Calais. The city had been long governed by De Gordan,
but this wary and experienced commander had unfortunately been for
two years dead. Still more unfortunately, it had been in his power to
bequeath, not only his fortune, which was very large, but the
government of Calais, considered the most valuable command in
France, to his nephew, De Vidosan. He had, however, not bequeathed
to him his administrative and military genius.
The fortress called the