subject? "Surely, my Lord," wrote Richard Cavendish to Burghley, "if you
saw the wealth, the strength, the shipping, and abundance of mariners,
whereof these countries stand furnished, your heart would quake to think
that so hateful an enemy as Spain should again be furnished with such
instruments; and the Spaniards themselves do nothing doubt upon the hope
of the consequence hereof, to assure themselves of the certain ruin of
her Majesty and the whole estate."

And yet at the very outset of Leicester's administration, there was a
whisper of peace-overtures to Spain, secretly made by Elizabeth in her
own behalf, and in that of the Provinces. We shall have soon occasion to
examine into the truth of these rumours, which, whether originating in
truth or falsehood, were most pernicious in their effects. The
Hollanders were determined never to return to slavery again, so long as
they could fire a shot in their own defence. They earnestly wished
English cooperation, but it was the cooperation of English matchlocks and
English cutlasses, not English protecols and apostilles. It was
military, not diplomatic machinery that they required. If they could
make up their minds to submit to Philip and the Inquisition again, Philip
and the Holy office were but too ready to receive the erring penitents to
their embrace without a go-between.

It was war, not peace, therefore, that Holland meant by the English
alliance. It was war, not peace, that Philip intended. It was war, not
peace, that Elizabeth's most trusty counsellors knew to be inevitable.
There was also, as we have shown, no doubt whatever as to the good
disposition, and the great power of the republic to bear its share in the
common cause. The enthusiasm of the Hollanders was excessive. "There
was such a noise, both in Delft, Rotterdam, and Dort," said Leicester,
"in crying 'God save the Queen!' as if she had been in Cheapside." Her