Meantime, the Earl of Leicester was at the Hague. Why was he there?
What was his work? Why had Elizabeth done such violence to her affection
as to part with her favourite-in-chief; and so far overcome her thrift,
as to furnish forth, rather meagrely to be sure, that little army of
Englishmen? Why had the flower of England's chivalry set foot upon that
dark and bloody ground where there seemed so much disaster to encounter,
and so little glory to reap? Why had England thrown herself so
heroically into the breach, just as the last bulwarks were falling
which protected Holland from the overwhelming onslaught of Spain?
It was because Holland was the threshold of England; because the two
countries were one by danger and by destiny; because the naval expedition
from Spain against England was already secretly preparing; because the
deposed tyrant of Spain intended the Provinces, when again subjugated,
as a steppingstone to the conquest of England; because the naval and
military forces of Holland--her numerous ships, her hardy mariners, her
vast wealth, her commodious sea-ports, close to the English coast--if
made Spanish property would render Philip invincible by sea and land; and
because the downfall of Holland and of Protestantism would be death to
Elizabeth, and annihilation to England.

There was little doubt on the subject in the minds of those engaged in
this expedition. All felt most keenly the importance of the game, in
which the Queen was staking her crown, and England its national
existence.

"I pray God," said Wilford, an officer much in Walsingham's confidence,
"that I live not to see this enterprise quail, and with it the utter
subversion of religion throughout all Christendom. It may be I may be
judged to be afraid of my own shadow. God grant it be so. But if her
Majesty had not taken the helm in hand, and my Lord of Leicester sent