the excess, but from the insufficiency of the powers conferred upon the
Earl, and she complained, accordingly, that they had given him shadow
rather than substance.

Simultaneously with this royal communication, came a joint letter to
Leicester, from Burghley, Walsingham; and Hatton, depicting the long and
strenuous conflict which they had maintained in his behalf with the
rapidly varying inclinations of the Queen. They expressed a warm
sympathy with the difficulties of his position, and spoke in strong terms
of the necessity that the Netherlands and England should work heartily
together. For otherwise, they said, "the cause will fall, the enemy will
rise, and we must stagger." Notwithstanding the secret negotiations with
the enemy, which Leicester and Walsingham suspected, and which will be
more fully examined in a subsequent chapter, they held a language on that
subject, which in the Secretary's mouth at least was sincere.
"Whatsoever speeches be blown abroad of parleys of peace," they said,
"all will be but smoke, yea fire will follow."

They excused themselves for their previous and enforced silence by the
fact that they had been unable to communicate any tidings but messages of
distress, but they now congratulated the Earl that her Majesty, as he
would see by her letter to the council, was firmly resolved, not only to
countenance his governorship, but to sustain him in the most thorough
manner. It would be therefore quite out of the question for them to
listen to his earnest propositions to be recalled.

Moreover, the Lord Treasurer had already apprized Leicester that Heneage
had safely arrived in England, that he, had made his report to the Queen,
and that her Majesty was "very well contented with him and his mission."
It may be easily believed that the Earl would feel a sensation of relief,