advisers to take a more decisive part in the struggle. In the following
June envoys from the States arrived in London, and were received with
great honour, and a treaty between the two countries was agreed upon.
Three months later the queen published a declaration to her people and
to Europe at large, setting forth the terrible persecutions and
cruelties to which "our next neighbours, the people of the Low
Countries," the special allies and friends of England, had been
exposed, and stating her determination to aid them to recover their
liberty. The proclamation concluded: "We mean not hereby to make
particular profit to ourself and our people, only desiring to obtain,
by God's favour, for the Countries, a deliverance of them from war by
the Spaniards and foreigners, with a restitution of their ancient
liberties and government."

Sir Thomas Cecil was sent out at once as governor of Brill, and Sir
Philip Sidney as governor of Flushing, these towns being handed over to
England as guarantees by the Dutch. These two officers, with bodies of
troops to serve as garrisons, took charge of their respective
fortresses in November. Orders were issued for the raising of an army
for service in the Low Countries, and Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was
appointed by the queen to its command. The decision of the queen was
received with enthusiasm in England as well as in Holland, and although
the Earl of Leicester was not personally popular, volunteers flocked to
his standard.

Breakfast at Hedingham Rectory had been set at an earlier hour than
usual on the 6th of December, 1585. There was an unusual stir and
excitement in the village, for young Mr. Francis Vere, cousin of the
Earl of Oxford, lord of Hedingham and of all the surrounding country,
was to start that morning to ride to Colchester, there to join the Earl