have no wish to deceive each other, and no fear of eaves-droppers not to
be born till centuries afterwards. These conversations have revealed to
us that the Lord Treasurer and three of his colleagues had been secretly
doing their best to cripple Leicester, to stop the supplies for the
Netherlands, and to patch up a hurried and unsatisfactory, if not a
disgraceful peace; and this, with the concurrence of her Majesty. After
their plots had been discovered by the vigilant Secretary of State, there
was a disposition to discredit the humbler instruments in the cabal.
Elizabeth was not desirous of peace. Far from it. She was qualmish at
the very suggestion. Dire was her wrath against Bodman, De Loo,
Graafigni, and the rest, at their misrepresentations on the subject. But
she would "lend her ear." And that royal ear was lent, and almost fatal
was the distilment poured into its porches. The pith and marrow of the
great Netherland enterprise was sapped by the slow poison of the ill-
timed negotiation. The fruit of Drake's splendid triumphs in America
was blighted by it. The stout heart of the vainglorious but courageous
Leicester was sickened by it, while, meantime, the maturing of the
great armada-scheme, by which the destruction of England was to be
accomplished, was furthered, through the unlimited procrastination
so precious to the heart of Philip.

Fortunately the subtle Walsingham was there upon the watch to administer
the remedy before it was quite too late; and to him England and the
Netherlands were under lasting obligations. While Alexander and Philip
suspected a purpose on the part of the English government to deceive
them, they could not help observing that the Earl of Leicester was both
deserted and deceived. Yet it had been impossible for the peace-party in
the government wholly to conceal their designs, when such prating fellows
as Grafigni and De Loo were employed in what was intended to be a secret
negotiation. In vain did the friends of Leicester in the Netherlands