History of the United Netherlands, Volume 46, 1586



CHAPTER VIII.

Forlorn Condition of Flanders--Parma's secret Negotiations with the
Queen--Grafigni and Bodman--Their Dealings with English Counsellors
--Duplicity of Farnese--Secret Offers of the English Peace-Party--
Letters and Intrigues of De Loo--Drake's Victories and their Effect
--Parma's Perplexity and Anxiety--He is relieved by the News from
England--Queen's secret Letters to Parma--His Letters and
Instructions to Bodman--Bodman's secret Transactions at Greenwich--
Walsingham detects and exposes the Plot--The Intriguers baffled--
Queen's Letter to Parma and his to the King--Unlucky Results of the
Peace--Intrigues--Unhandsome Treatment of Leicester--Indignation of
the Earl and Walsingham--Secret Letter of Parma to Philip--Invasion
of England recommended--Details of the Project.

Alexander Farnese and his heroic little army had been left by their
sovereign in as destitute a condition as that in which Lord Leicester and
his unfortunate "paddy persons" had found themselves since their arrival
in the Netherlands. These mortal men were but the weapons to be used and
broken in the hands of the two great sovereigns, already pitted against
each other in mortal combat. That the distant invisible potentate,
the work of whose life was to do his best to destroy all European
nationality, all civil and religious freedom, should be careless of
the instruments by which his purpose was to be effected, was but natural.
It is painful to reflect that the great champion of liberty and of
Protestantism was almost equally indifferent to the welfare of the human