did not love him, to Leicester, who loved him less: "He cometh every day
to the council, keeping no company with Count Hollock, nor with any of
them all, and never drinks himself full with any of them, as they do
every day among themselves."

Certainly the most profitable intercourse that Maurice could enjoy with
Hohenlo was upon the battle-field. In winter-quarters, that hard-
fighting, hard-drinking, and most turbulent chieftain, was not the best
Mentor for a youth whose destiny pointed him out as the leader of a free
commonwealth. After the campaigns were over--if they ever could be over-
-the Count and other nobles from the same country were too apt to indulge
in those mighty potations, which were rather characteristic of their
nation and the age.

"Since your Excellency's departure," wrote Leicester's secretary, "there
hath been among the Dutch Counts nothing but dancing and drinking, to the
grief of all this people; which foresee that there can come no good of
it. Specially Count Hollock, who hath been drunk almost a fortnight
together."

Leicester had rendered himself unpopular with the States-General, and
with all the leading politicians and generals; yet, at that moment, he
had deeply mortgaged his English estates in order to raise funds to
expend in the Netherland cause. Thirty thousand pounds sterling--
according to his own statement--he was already out of pocket, and, unless
the Queen would advance him the means to redeem his property; his broad
lands were to be brought to the hammer. But it was the Queen, not the
States-General, who owed the money; for the Earl had advanced these sums
as a portion of the royal contingent. Five hundred and sixty thousand
pounds sterling had been the cost of one year's war during the English