his study, he was as little in fear of the garrison of Ostend as he was
of the Turk or the devil."

[And Doctor Rogers held very similar language: "The most dolorous
and heavy sights in this voyage to Ghent, by me weighed," he said;
"seeing the countries which, heretofore; by traffic of merchants, as
much as any other I have seen flourish, now partly drowned, and,
except certain great cities, wholly burned, ruined, and desolate,
possessed I say, with wolves, wild boars, and foxes--a great,
testimony of the wrath of God," &c. &c. Dr. Rogers to the Queen,-
April, 1588. (S. P. Office MS.)]

Three days after the departure of Garnier, Dr. Dale and his attendants
started upon their expedition from Ostend to Ghent--an hour's journey or
so in these modern times.--The English envoys, in the sixteenth century,
found it a more formidable undertaking. They were many hours traversing
the four miles to Oudenburg, their first halting-place; for the waters
were out, there having been a great breach of the sea-dyke of Ostend, a
disaster threatening destruction to town and country. At Oudenburg, a
"small and wretched hole," as Garnier had described it to be, there was,
however, a garrison of three thousand Spanish soldiers, under the Marquis
de Renti. From these a convoy of fifty troopers was appointed to protect
the English travellers to Bruges. Here they arrived at three o'clock,
were met outside the gates by the famous General La Motte, and by him
escorted to their lodgings in the "English house," and afterwards
handsomely entertained at supper in his own quarters.

The General's wife; Madame de la Motte, was, according to Cecil, "a fair
gentlewoman of discreet and modest behaviour, and yet not unwilling
sometimes to hear herself speak;" so that in her society, and in that of