individual, living in Spain, he would, out of the love he bore the
provinces, have rushed to their defence had their safety been endangered.
He felt therefore deeply wounded that malevolent persons should thus
insinuate that he had even wished to injure the country, or to exercise
tyranny over its citizens. The tenth penny, he continued, was necessary
to the defence of the land, and was much preferable to quotas. It was
highly improper that every man in the rabble should know how much was
contributed, because each individual, learning the gross amount, would
imagine that he, had paid it all himself. In conclusion, he observed
that, broken in health and stricken in years as he felt himself, he was
now most anxious to return, and was daily looking with eagerness for the
arrival of the Duke of Medina Coeli.

During the course of this same year, the Prince of Orange had been
continuing his preparations. He had sent his agents to every place where
a hope was held out to him of obtaining support. Money was what he was
naturally most anxious to obtain from individuals; open and warlike
assistance what he demanded from governments. His funds, little by
little, were increasing, owing to the generosity of many obscure persons,
and to the daring exploits of the beggars of the sea. His mission,
however, to the northern courts had failed. His envoys had been received
in Sweden and Denmark with barren courtesy. The Duke of Alva, on the
other hand, never alluded to the Prince but with contempt; knowing not
that the ruined outlaw was slowly undermining the very ground beneath the
monarch's feet; dreaming not that the feeble strokes which he despised
were the opening blows of a century's conflict; foreseeing not that long
before its close the chastised province was to expand into a great
republic, and that the name of the outlaw was to become almost divine.

Granvelle had already recommended that the young Count de Buren should be