all equal to the magnificent procrastination in the council-chambers of
Bruges and Ghent, Medina Sidonia might already have been in the Thames.

But although little ostensible business was performed, there was one
man who had always an eye to his work. The same servant in plain livery,
who had accompanied Secretary Garnier, on his first visit to the English
commissioners at Ostend, had now come thither again, accompanied by a
fellow-lackey. While the complimentary dinner, offered in the name of
the absent Farnese to the Queen's representatives, was going forward, the
two menials strayed off together to the downs, for the purpose of rabbit-
shooting. The one of them was the same engineer who had already, on the
former occasion, taken a complete survey of the fortifications of Ostend;
the other was no less a personage than the Duke of Parma himself. The
pair now made a thorough examination of the town and its neighbourhood,
and, having finished their reconnoitring, made the best of their way back
to Bruges. As it was then one of Alexander's favourite objects to reduce
the city of Ostend, at the earliest possible moment, it must be allowed
that this preliminary conference was not so barren to himself as it was
to the commissioners. Philip, when informed of this manoeuvre, was
naturally gratified at such masterly duplicity, while he gently rebuked
his nephew for exposing his valuable life; and certainly it would have
been an inglorious termination to the Duke's splendid career; had he been
hanged as a spy within the trenches of Ostend. With the other details
of this first diplomatic colloquy Philip was delighted. "I see you
understand me thoroughly," he said. "Keep the negotiation alive till
my Armada appears, and then carry out my determination, and replant
the Catholic religion on the soil of England."

The Queen was not in such high spirits. She was losing her temper very
fast, as she became more and more convinced that she had been trifled