liberty, their all, were at stake, they said, and would go down in one
universal shipwreck, if peace should be concluded; and they implored her
Majesty to avert the proposed intercession of the Danish King. Wilkes
wrote to Walsingham denouncing that monarch and his ministers as
stipendiaries of Spain, while, on the other hand, the Duke of Parma,
after courteously thanking the King for his offer of mediation, described
him to Philip as such a dogged heretic, that no good was to be derived
from him, except by meeting his fraudulent offers with an equally
fraudulent response. There will be nothing lost, said Alexander, by
affecting to listen to his proposals, and meantime your Majesty must
proceed with the preparations against England. This was in the first
week of the year 1587.

In February, and almost on the very day when Parma was writing those
affectionate letters to Elizabeth, breathing nothing but peace, he was
carefully conning Philip's directions in regard to the all-important
business of the invasion. He was informed by his master, that one
hundred vessels, forty of them of largest size, were quite ready,
together with 12,000 Spanish infantry, including 3000 of the old legion,
and that there were volunteers more than enough. Philip had also taken
note, he said, of Alexander's advice as to choosing the season when the
crops in England had just been got in, as the harvest of so fertile a
country would easily support an invading force; but he advised
nevertheless that the army should be thoroughly victualled at starting.
Finding that Alexander did not quite approve of the Irish part of the
plan, he would reconsider the point, and think more of the Isle of Wight;
but perhaps still some other place might be discovered, a descent upon
which might inspire that enemy with still greater terror and confusion.
It would be difficult for him, he said, to grant the 6000 men asked for
by the Scotch malcontents, without seriously weakening his armada; but